A trip to Empress

One of the fun aspects of being an editor is being able to visit various companies and have a look around. I guess I must be a nosy person by nature! Earlier this week I took a visit to Empress Miniatures to take some pictures for the magazine and for the new Osprey Black Ops game I’m writing. I’ve kept quiet about the game as I didn’t want to say anything until I definitely knew it was going ahead. 

Black Ops is a modern skirmish game, set ‘five minutes from now’. The idea behind the game is to bring secret stealth missions to the wargames table - tactical espionage wargaming if you prefer. It also can be used as a standard shoot ‘em up wargame.

Paul at Empress was kind enough to place his miniature collection at my disposal, so we had a play and took a few shots. I also took the opportunity to take a few extra shots for a Spanish Civil War article I’ve got planned. 

While I was taking the shots, we discussed how Empress came about and some future plans (which I’d love to talk about but that’d be telling!) We also talked about the hobby in general - we both agreed the hobby is in a renaissance (as Richard Clarke said in a recent Up Front column). Sales are on the up and the hobby is reflecting the growth in the economy. The days of recession are slowly disappearing behind us. I also learnt more about his other hobby, the Sealed Knot. When Paul received a phonecall and started talking about numbers of cavlary and artillery I assumed he meant a wargame, not a full scale re-enactment!

 I’ll probably talk about my photography methods in future blogs, but suffice to say I take a LOT of pictures (maxim gun photography!) If you take enough shots, you’re going to hit something! All good stuff for future issues of WSS.