Acropolis Design Catalogue - 1991

 

Acropolis Design were a wonderfully imaginative little company that started in the late 80's. Paul Henni was the main sculptor with Colin Hamilton adding some (although I'm not sure where they split the work). Paul had earlier designed a bunch of Norwegian Dwarven for Citadel / Games Workshop (see Stunties for more detailed info; http://www.stunties.com/stunties/index.php?title=Citadel_-_The_Norwegian_Dwarves) before moving on to set up Acropolis (which were distributed by Bob Ferguson of Scotia Micromodels)... he's since left the world of sculpting after a short lived flurry as Zap Figures and, as Stunties states, has moved to pastures new as a Geoscience Information Manager... possibly an update needed by now of course! I think it was Paul that sent me this catalogue scan many year back and I just discovered it hiding in a folder so thought I'd share....

The Baggage Train still has most of the ranges up on their site although I'm not sure what the current arrangement is - I'd shoot them an email first to confirm as I think they were selling off ranges recently? Let me know if your hear please!

As usual, The Lost Minis WIKI has some information and images;

https://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Acropolis

Until next time!

David

Hinchliffe Models Ltd System 12 Napoleonics

 

Sometime around April 1975 Hinchliffe launched yet another new scale onto an unsuspecting public... 12mm. There were already well establied 1/285, 1/300, 5mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm and so on but it seems we needed another! The first mention I can find is from the ads in Military Modelling April and May of '75. Back in 2018 on TMP, SteveZodiac stated he'd heard from the owner (which one?) that the molds had been trashed. I do wonder, as always, if originals sculpts or masters exist in a drawer somewhere!

Edit 14th November 2025, ST18 added... should be STC as it's cavalry.

April '75 a glorious centrefold!

It was preceeded towards the front of the issue with a 'more usual' advert... including the pricing structure. Not sure what the designer was due to be recruited for...

May '75

Donald Featherstone discussed them in Wargamer's Newsletter 159 in June that year (remembering that copy was sent a while before publication back then...)

Followed by more detail in the ever useful 'Must List'

I have a few baggies, unfortunately multiples of no.13. Always open to trade!

The 1976 Hinchliffe Handbook (a veritable Bible!) gave a few illustrations. I can't find any actual detailed images of the range from the time.

May 1977 catalogue listings

In the '77 catalogue listing they also showed the imported Heritage 15mm.

I'm not sure when the range was pulled however I don't remember there being many major additions at the time (although I was primarily interested in fantasy at the time, I did follow the trends!). By the February 1983 catalogue listing the range was longer there although what apears to be their own 15mm was listed which included a number of scenics... did they repurpose the codes and hope to get away with the size difference or just use the System 12 listing as a guideline?

I have found some hedges up on eBay - if you live in Europe it would be a bargain, UK postage precludes me purchasing unfortunately... not my images, posted purely for research purposes.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154758822443

A few cavalry baggies via completed auctions, I don't know who the seller was.

Another addition to the '77  listing was the licened production of Heritage Models 'Fantasy Fantastics', totally up my street. I've still got loads of them that saw occassional action on the table.

If anyone has more information on the range please email me or leave a comment below!

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk