"Hinchliffe/Skytrex 20mm WW2 ranges under new ownership" Topic

Both Ian Clunie as owner of Shell Hole Scenic's and I, Paul Thompson owner of Early War Miniatures are very pleased to announce that today we jointly completed the purchase and transfer of ownership and all the masters and moulds for the former Skytrex/Hinchcliffe 20mm WW2 ranges. This includes the 20mm Spanish Civil War 1936 to 1939, 20mm German Assault Equipment , 20mm Accessories, 20mm WW2 Gun Packs , 20mm Stowage packs , 20mm Vehicles & Guns and all the 20mm Captured Equipment used by the Germans. It does not include the Skytrex ww2 figure ranges.

As you can imagine, 700+ moulds and their associated masters and models takes a long time to digest, catalogue and make ready again for the market. It has been a pleasure dealing with the gentlemen at Skytrex and we thank them for this opportunity we now have as the new joint owners of this range. One of our goals is to revive the fortunes of these wonderful models and miniatures, and bring them back a fresh, to the war gaming and model making markets.
Broadly our goals are to remould and re master where needed, and present them back to the gaming world in a new format and using new materials. We have some really cool ideas for these models. We believe these models will greatly benefit from re-moulding and remarketing. Our intention is to make them more available and that includes revising the pricing to make them cheaper and bring out the best aspects of these wonderful miniatures.
The old Skytrex ranges complement well both the Shell Hole and EWM ranges and fills some gaps we have for covering later aspects and different fronts in WW2. We hope to publish updates on a regular basis of the progress we are making and we respectfully ask existing customers and collectors of these ranges to bear with us as we work towards absorbing and re-launching them.
Personally, I used to collect some of the miniatures in my own collection but its not until you lay lots of them out on a table and spend time, more time than shows really allow, that you can truly appreciate just what a wonderful range this really is. As we have unpacked the miniatures, I have discovered models I did not know they even did, and there are many many gems in these ranges. I think it can happen when you have such a large range, such gems can be easily overlooked or forgotten.
Thanks for your interest and both Ian and I look forward to people comments and views on the subject of our purchase and our re-launching of the ranges.

Regards
Paul Thompson and Ian Clunie
earlywarminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=424&products_id=2252

Well done guys, I wish you both all the best with this endevour.

Knowing you both, I`m sure you`ll take these ranges and improve upon them.

Don`t forget – if its not French, don`t bother :-)

Good luck with this

Phil

Top hole chaps!

I hope this venture goes from strength to strength. Some great stuff in those ranges but you'll need to do them cheaper than the last Skytrex rates which were well over the top.

Good stuff.

Congratulations and I'm glad those classic moulds are in good hands.

"Our intention is to make them more available and that includes revising the pricing to make them cheaper and bring out the best aspects of these wonderful miniatures."

Excellent news-hopefully you'll stick with your current p&p rates and not switch to the Skytrex way!!!

Thanks all for the support and comments, really, very much appreciated.
Plans are to maintain P&P rates. We will post updates as we go,

Thanks again,
paul T@EWM

Gents, congratulations! As I am looking forward to eventually adding a number of things French and 1940 to my eternally expanding 1940 French Army, this bodes very well for me indeed, as I have a number of Skytrex models in my collection and would like to add a few more (especially a quartet of the sharply done Skytrex M1897 field gun with pneumatic tires!)…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Best of luck with it!

Great news for all of us 20mm enthusiast. Best of Luck.

Duane

Best of luck.

I look forward to seeing you at the uk shows. Is Fiasco in Leeds on the cards for you?

Regards.

Fantastic Paul,

They have a number of lovely kits that will continue to sell well with someone who understands the 20mm market.

All the best with your venture and look forward to dealing with you guys in the future

Cheers
Matt

Great news indeed . I have been worried for some time that this range may disappear for good. Thankfully now its in safe hands .I think you may need a new site however as Early War Miniatures doesn't sound right if you are looking for a King Tiger :)

Thank you all for your wonderful and supportive comments. Currently at the war and peace show but ian and I will be getting stuck into the work on this new additions to our business next week. I hope to get a regular update going on where we are with the transformation of these ranges and when they will be re-released.

Regards
Paul T@EWM

Good luck, and I hope the previous terrible pricing decisions at Skytrex havent destroyed your market before you get there……

Who is marketing the 20mm WW2 decal/transfer sheets btw?

The transfer decals have remained with Skytrex . One ponders at the future for these without the models that they were designed for.

Think the chances of getting decals are slim at the moment then……

The transfer decals have remained with Skytrex . One ponders at the future for these without the models that they were designed for.

Why? There are several companies whose sole products are decals!

Well, as Skytrex seem to have gone into administration…