Hello everyone!

You may have noticed that we’ve been a little quiet this week. We’re not all still suffering from over-indulgence at the holidays. Although the fact I’m still eating Xmas chocolate would go a long way to explain that…

It’s been a bit quiet this week due to the pandemic, unfortunately! So we’ve been taking stock and thought we’d update everyone on The Plan.

COVID IN CORNWALL

For our worldwide customers, you may not have heard about how the UK is fairing from COVID at the moment. In short: it’s not good! Vaccines are being rolled out, but the infection rate is at an all-time high.

Cornwall is one of the areas that’s seen the highest increase in cases and increase in R number as well.

Since the new year we’ve had three COVID scares in the warehouse. All of which have thankfully come back negative, but with the ridiculous rise in cases in the area we work, we’ve made the decision to get stricter with our social distancing measures.

NO NEW MODELS

Usually we have a break from new releases over the holiday period, with December and January not seeing any new releases. This is still the case this year as we gear up for 2021’s release schedule.

We’ve got loads of great miniatures on the way this year, many of which we’ve previewed in the advent calendar and WIP Wednesdays. So there’s plenty to look forward to!

In addition to this, the entire design team is currently working remotely. That makes new releases a bit trickier! We’ve got plenty to be getting on with, but you may notice a slightly slower response time to our emails and messages. Apologies if you’re waiting – we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

RESIN OFF SALE

Considering the massive rise in cases locally, we’re going to be taking this challenge as an opportunity to change some of our working conditions. More social distancing is now in place in the warehouse, with more people working from home than before. Manufacturing is obviously hit very hard by this, since remote working is impossible. Shifts have been split up, staff in each department are limited, and generally we aren’t able to keep producing things at the same rate.

You may remember that at the end of October last year we took a short break from selling MDF products. In that time we setup 12 new laser cutters, caught up on all our lock-down orders and managed to design and cut our famous White Box Bundles (which will be going off sale at the end of January by the way).

This time round we’ve decided to use the same circuit breaker idea for our resin department.

As of Friday 15th January, we are limiting resin sales on the TTCombat webstore.

With reduced staff and many stores and gaming clubs worldwide closed, we think this is the best time we have to tighten up our production.

In this time we’re going to be able to reorganise and optimise production schedules and timetables. In 2020 the company expanded quite a lot, and with any expansion, there’s always a bit of slack to pick up afterwards. Now we have a larger resin production department than ever before, and we’ll be using this time to make sure we’re running as best as we can, in the safest way possible. Taking a lot of resin kits off sale means that our reduced teams are able to meet the demand, and get everything under control.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR MODELS

Not everything is going off sale, though! We’re paring down our availability to match our reduced working conditions. With that in mind:

• All 2-Player Starter Boxes will be available
• All (mostly) plastic kits will be available
• All MDF products will be available

If you’re looking to pick up the new Escape From San Canciano box, or a UCM Starter Army, all of that will still be available to buy.

If you order any other resin products before they’re off sale tomorrow, we will endeavour to fulfil your order as normal, but expect a small delay.

As the weeks go on we’ll be using the time to change things up and slowly reintroduce more normal working conditions for all of the production team. As that happens, we’ll be able to supply more models. So as time goes on, we’ll be putting kits back into stock periodically, as and when we can handle the demand. We’ll be starting off with the best sellers, and moving down the list. We’re hoping for a steady increase in availability over the next few weeks, but will be reacting to the pandemic as best we can. Making sure all of the TTCombat staff are safe is our priority.

NEW MDF KITS

If all goes according to plan, the laser cutter team should be able to carry on as normal – having spent a chunk of time last year making sure the room runs properly in these trying times. Adding that many more laser cutters certainly helps with social distancing – there’s almost enough machines that we could have one per staff member in the whole company!

We’ve got loads of new MDF kits coming your way, which we’re hoping to start rolling out in February. Only a few weeks to go before you have new Industrial Hive, World War, Sci-Fi Gothic, City Streets, and plenty more!

THANK YOU!

Finally, as usual, a massive thank you to all you TTCombat fans. Your support over the last year has been monumental. While we’ve seen so many other companies fall, and had friends and loved ones made redundant, the massive encouragement we’ve had from all of you has meant that we can carry on making cool models and scenery all year.

It’s been a difficult year for everyone, and hopefully having new miniatures and MDF will help everyone out there in what we all hope is the darkest point before the dawn. And we hope that after the world starts to open up again, you’ve got plenty of painted models and scenery to game on! After all this time, there really is no excuse, right? (I type as a desk full of unpainted models and half-assembled MDF scenery stares back at me. Oops)

And finally, our thanks to everyone working so hard to keep people happy and healthy over the last year. NHS staff and key workers everywhere have put themselves forward to help everyone else. Emergency workers, teachers, shop workers, and everyone that goes to face the public each day, thank you all.

We’ll keep everyone updated as we have news. Stay safe everyone, and wear a mask!