"Where to buy in the US?" Topic

I've been eyeing flats for a while. Are there any good dealers in the US and what editors should I look for? I'd be most interested in TYW through 7YW, but my interests are all over the board, really.

When I bought some they were from Claudia Hofmann. If you want, e-mail me and I will send you the e-mail address.

It was a couple of years ago but there were TYW ones there.

The other option is to go to the Valley Forge MFCA show where there are several dealers and you can look at the stuff, the downside there is that it is in May and you just missed it.

There's a new US flats dealer: The Little Tin Soldier.
Seems like he's concentrating on 54mm to start out, but I e-mailed the owner Jack Muldoon about acquiring some particular 30mm and he seemed very willing to help out with it.

link

There's a few more. James Finn sells unpainted sets. But in my (admittedly limited) experience, he's slow to mail your stuff. Arquebus and Michigan Toy Soldier Company carry the "painted in China" ones.

Really though, in these days of convenient e-commerce, there's plenty of German dealers with shopping cart system and Paypal payment. Sure you'll pay postage but if you buy from a US dealer those costs will be rolled into the middle man's % in any case. My advice is to order direct so long as the editor at least has an e-mail account.

And of course, there's always eBay.

Steve

I should mention that I'm mainly interested in roughly 30mm and unpainted only.

Pictors, I emailed you, thanks.

Steve, I'll look up James Finn, thanks. Any particular German editors you would recommend for 30mm TYW or SYW? There seem to be a lot out there!

Try the Berlin Zinnfiguren store in Berlin. The Schultz family has been making wonderful 30mm flats for several generations.
zinnfigur.com

Jack Muldoon of The Little Tin Soldier is an accomplished painter who has branched out into the retail world with his extensive flats business. Jack carries all sizes and all eras of flats, and is more than willing to track down something unique that may be out there.

Jack is carrying on, modernizing and expanding the business of Carl Gruen, who marketed flats at figure shows on the East Coast for many years, including MFCA. Carl's connections in Germany (and elsewhere)have been of great assistance to Jack, who has been handling things since late 2005 IIRC.

At MFCA this year, there were more flats displays than I can remember in the past 13 years. The definitive book in English on flats painting is/was by the UK's Mike Taylor; it is out-of-print now, but copies occasionally pop up on eBay or the used book sites.

I have known Jack Muldoon for many years, and have purchased flats from him on a regular basis. He is a gentleman, and a strong supporter of our hobby, and I would heartily recommend him to anyone in North America who might be thinking about acquiring military or fantasy flats of any size.

Don

I'd like to second Little Tin Soldier – Jack actually carries much more than he shows on his website. If you are on the east coast of the US, he does appear at several shows. I've seen him at the Long Island show in Nov and the Valley Forge, PA (MFCA) show in May.

I bet he does the DC show around labor day and the Chicago show in October as well.

I haven't looked at any off the German flat sites in about a year, but at that time many ha crude shopping carts and some were not in english. They may be better now.

Here is a link to the Link Page of the British Flat Society with a list of online vendors:
link

Enjoy!
Martin

Thanks for the additional info about Jack Muldoon.

Yes, perhaps I overstated the case about the simplicity of ordering from Germany. You're right, a lot of the sites are in German. With some cut and paste to a translation program, it can be figured out, but it takes a little work.
Others like Go International have a website, but it's a disaster. Easy enough to just order from them by e-mail but the catch is you need the paper catalog or at least scans of it first.

However, it's still a lot better than the old days of mailing back and forth and paying with IMO's or bank transfers. A good example is Alexander Wilken. His site's in German but the ilustrated catalog is online. Bring up the order sheet, input the figure #'s and quantities, he e-mails you an invoice. Pay with Paypal, figures are shipped to me in California in less than a week.

link

Yeah, my post was prompted by my frustration with some of the German sites I had looked at. I know just enough German to navigate around and know what era I am looking at, but it was hard to find prices, scales, and shipping info. I emailed Mr Muldoon. If he carries the Berliner figures I'm going to pick up the Surrender of Breda vignette for sure!

"Try the Berlin Zinnfiguren store in Berlin. The Schultz family has been making wonderful 30mm flats for several generations.
zinnfigur.com"

Oy. Any my wife was just in Berlin.

Here's some info on Michael Taylor's book, "The Art of the Flat Tin Figure".

Published by Windrow and Greene, ISBN: 1-85915-070-5. My copy (bought new when it first came out was $29.95. this hardback is worth every penny if you want a single reference for getting into "Flats"! He lists several pages of "editors" in Appendix 1, but since the book was printed in 1995, can't be sure how accurate the listing remain, today.

Lavishly illustrated with color shots of painted flats and a "how to" section that discusses "How to Shade" as a topic, critical for (essentially) 2 dimentional figures.

Best,
Tom Dye
GFI

Well, the Berliner site is an easy one to order from. Make sure you tell them not to ship the catalogs though. Darned things are huge and you'll get reamed on the postage costs.

Steve

Check out Historical Miniatures magazine you should be able to find some shops that stock flats.