Bye bye - JMD Miniatures + DUST to Battlefront

Oh no, not JMD!

JMD Miniatures from France, one of the sources of awesome and fresh miniature designs will close their business on August 31st this year. Dealers and customers can order one last time in July of this year. 

"Bonjour à tous, Nous vous informons que nous cessons notre activité le 31 Août 2013. Après cette date, il ne sera plus possible de passer commande des références JMD MINIATURES. Nous vous remercions pour votre fidélité durant ces 6 années. Merci à tous pour votre collaboration. Jean-Marie et Chrystelle"

"Hello everyone, we inform you that we stop our business August 31, 2013. After this date, it will not be possible to order JMD MINIATURES anymore. Thank you for your loyalty during the last six years. Thank you all for your cooperation. Jean-Marie and Chrystelle"

To be honest, this makes me very sad. I really lived their designs - especially the fantasy stuff. 

qq.

Well, I know that I will get some of their stuff - definitely want to paint Zenobe again. Need the Octopus... and and and... 

Let's order ton's of stuff and make them enjoy the last weeks of their business!

Thanks Jean-Marie and Chrystelle!

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Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Battlefront!

In other news, the successful Fantasy Flight TT-System 'Dust Tactics/Warfare' by Paolo Parente will change ownership on June 1st. 

"BATTLEFRONT MINIATURES TO TAKE OVER DISTRIBUTION OF DUST TACTICS

Dust Studio today announced that Battlefront Miniatures will become its publishing and distribution partner for the Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare miniatures game lines. Fantasy Flight Games, Dust Studio’s current publishing partner for those games, will transition sales and marketing activity to Battlefront Miniatures on June 1st, 2013.

“Dust has had a wonderful few years, during which we have seen the game’s community grow exponentially,” said Dust creator Paolo Parente. “Both Dust Studio and Fantasy Flight Games have evolved significantly during our relationship, and we now mutually feel that we are both better served by moving in new directions. Christian (CEO of Fantasy Flight Games) and I have known each other for many years, and I can say that this decision is a truly amicable one.”

Added John-Paul Brisigotti, CEO of Battlefront Group, “we are very excited by the Dust universe, and although it is a first for us to be distributing a product other than our own, the fit with our business model made this partnership something we could not resist. During the last few years, we have been moving into new avenues to expand the breadth of products the group offers, and we see DUST as another one of these ranges.”

“We’ve been fortunate to distribute Dust Tactics since its debut at GEN CON 2010, and we’re very proud of our development work on Dust Warfare,” said Christian T. Petersen, CEO of Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). “The last year, however, as FFG experienced phenomenal growth across many of our publishing categories, it became clear that Paolo and the Dust games would be better served by a partner who specializes in the unique business of miniature games. We’re confident that Paolo’s partner choice in Battlefront Miniatures is a strong one, and we wish nothing but the best to them, to Paolo, and to the fantastic Dust fan community.”

Starting June 1st, Battlefront Miniatures will begin soliciting and distributing all new products for Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare. FFG will ship all of its previously solicited new products prior to that date, and FFG will continue to exclusively sell all current Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare items while its inventories last. While FFG will support the Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare regionals events in May and June 2013, all future marketing and organized play for the games will be handled by Battlefront Miniatures, including the scheduled GEN CON 2013 tournaments." 

Dust, a Hong-Kong-based company, has a pretty neat gaming system. All miniatures come pre-assembled and unlike AT-43 in the good old days are of pretty good quality. I just recently bought the rules and expansion and like it quite a bit. Won't be starting the game, but I am sure I will buy a walker or two for painting.