This is a preview of a few things we are working on at the mpment. More details for follow:

15mm Marlburian, 28mm SF Marines, 28mm Sedan Chair, passengers, etc

We have 3 new Dvarg (Space Dwarves), plus a couple of conversions and the first six of a new line of Skeltal Marines to be added to our Mutants and Madmen SF range.

These will all be released at Warfare.

EMP902 Martian Watchdogs

This new pack is now available. The picture illustrates the size of the dogs next to an Imperial Martian.

I have known Bill and Elaine Lucas since we were all in our late teens and running amateur Roleplaying Games magazines. I have seen them grow Gladiator Games from humble beginnings into one of the best known and respected companies in UK wargaming.

Gladiator Miniatures has an excellent reputation for their figures, especially the extensive 15mm ancient ranges and Coat D’arms paints have an enviable reputation for quality and value for money.

I am looking forward to building on all the hard work that Bill and Elaine have put into Gladiator and to expanding the existing ranges, as well as adding new, complementary ones in the future.

Please bear with us as we finalise moving the assets and setting up the new workshop. I am hoping to keep disruption to a minimum, and to continue to offer the high levels of service that Bill and Elaine have provided over the years.

I will be reopening the Gladiator Games online shop as soon as I have the stock and equipment to be able to fulfill orders, and will also be moving our existing products into the same shop format.

The first show we will be attending with the new, very enlarged Black Hat Miniatures will be Colours on 9th/10th September in Newbury, where we will share our usual stand with Ian Marsh and Fighting15s. We will have the full paint range with us and hope to have most of the more popular figure ranges with us as well, but it is going to take a while to build up show stock; so pre-ordering is advisable.

Mike Lewis
Black Hat Miniatures

These are preview shots of three new additions to the Mutants and Madmen Superhero range sculpted by Mark Kay.

These are :

MM050 Cryotonian Leader
MM051 Cryotonian w/ Laser Rifle
MM052 Crytonian w/ Blaster

When I launched Black Hat Miniatures back in November 2004, Ian Marsh of Fighting15s was kind enough to offer to sell the Martian Empires range of just 11 packs through his online shop. This enabled Black Hat to gain a retail presence without much investment in time and effort on my behalf.

18 months on from that initial launch, the Martian Empires range now contains over 50 packs (and is still expanding) and we have our second range of Napoleon in Egypt figures out and growing.

It was always the intention that Black Hat would sell directly eventually, and now that the ranges are large enough to stand on their own, that is what I am going to do.

From April 24th (after the Salute convention), Black Hat Miniatures ranges will be available directly from the Black Hat website with options for payment by cheque or Credit Card through Paypal. Our ranges will still be available in North America through Scale Creep Miniatures and that arrangement will not change.

All orders up to Salute (including preorders for collection at Salute) should be made through Fighting15s.

From April 24th, Fighting15s will no longer sell Black Hat Miniatures but Ian and I will continue to attend shows together and run a joint operation with the Fighting15s stand. We will also still be working on Oozlum Games, our joint publishing arm, which will be producing the Martian Empires set of rules as a full-colour rulebook later this year.

Ian has provided an exemplary service over the last 18 months, as I’m sure that anyone who has ordered from Fighting15s will agree. Black Hat Miniatures is still a part time business for me, so I won’t be able to quite match Ian’s superhuman speed of response but hope to offer a good customer service and fast delivery times.

There are a lot of plans for both of Black Hat’s two ranges over the next year with new releases and some changes once the Martian Empires rulebook is released.

Mike Lewis
Black Hat Miniatures