Action Castings,John Stengel JR. Update Bill Nevins was at the Freeport Show. He was there inawhile to see friends. One of the people he talked to was JohnStengel Jr. He also got the latest information on Action Casting.
Action Castings,John Stengel JR. Update News
I had a chance to talk to John Jr. at the Long Island show last Friday night. First off, John said the the family was well and that his Mom was okay.
We moved on to Action Castings and John had a lot to say.
He now had a dedicated production space and he has trained two employees in the casting and assembly process. He explained that he wanted to devote his time to sculpting and we discussed what was commng next from Action Castings.
First, there will be nothing forthcoming until Spring of 2018.
John said that he has several new sculpts finished and that he has the production molds already made.
ACW figures in marching poses are completed and will be released in the Spring. These are “add on” figures to his Gettysburg set.
He also has several Vikes/Normans/ Saxon sculpted and expects those to be available in the Spring.
John is sculpting a catapult set, that he has 80% finished.
I would expect that in the Winter 2018 releases.
We discussed where the business was headed and John was adament that he wanted to have the figures ready this time. He said that he was concerned about his reputation, with all the delays and problems that a new enterprise experiences.
By expanding into a new location and hiring 2 employees, he expects to run in the neighborhood of 300 sets before offering them for sale. He’s made four production molds per figure. Each production mold has a maximum life of about 50 runs. Unless the mold tears or rips or burns out which is what usually happens.
BY making extra molds he can continue making figures when one or two molds go down.
It appears that John has learned a lot from prior experiences with Action Castings.
I might be biased, but I’ve know him since he was about 7 or 8 years old. He seemed eager to talk about his plans and I can see the determination in his eyes. I believed him when he says he wants to take Action Castings to a higher level.
Look for new releases in the Spring of 2018.
I talked to him in October at the show in NJ, he told me some of the same things. He hoped to have figures next year. The medieval figures and he talked about fixing some WWII German Paratroops too. I am looking forward to the medieval figures.
where can you buy his figures directly
Henry, the only place I’ve been able to consistently purchase things from John Stengel Jr. is at the shows — Chicago, Gettysburg, Indianapolis, Ohio (Columbus & Cleveland), and The East Coast Toy Soldier Show in New Jersey. I think John does additional shows in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. I think he’s so busy with various projects he doesn’t have time to operate things on a mail-order basis.
I for one am really looking forward to the marching civil war figures. When TSSD were asking for ideas for sets (before the Vietnam figures) I did suggest ACW Marching. Some wanted them & some did not. I have to say all the major metal guys do lots of marching figures. So that’s a big thumbs up from me. I am also working on a resin 1700’s onwards farmhouse. will post when complete.
I’ve tried to order by mail but it’s not his business model. Would love to be able to make a show where he has some but the distances involved… Wish him the best, though. Hopefully, with enough success he might be able to expand one day.
I look forward to seeing what the Ancient/Medieval figures look like.
If they look anything like the ones he had at OTSN a few ago, they were nice. Then he had a Viking and a couple Normans and they were excellent I thought and I don’t even do ancients.
As I remember, they were matched very closely to Conte Vikings and Normans – even the color.
Any idea how much they might be?