UPDATE 6/20/17:
I have been contacted by the Alliance. Here is what they told me:
Hello, Shaun!
Unfortunately, not a single set of «Mammoth Hunters» have left at the moment, the entire edition of 30 copies was purchased by Russian collectors. Also, all future editions of new sets of the «Альянс Свободных» («Alliance of Free») are reserved. But we are thinking about releasing a special export edition in English language, circulation 30 copies. The cost without shipping will be $150 per set. This plan will be realized if you can find at least 15 collectors from Europe who are interested in purchasing our sets.
Each set will include:
- 5 unpainted plastic figures 54 mm high.
- artifact of the squad
- battle sheet the squad
- chronicle of the squad
- numbered certificate of authenticity
- 5 game coins.
Exactly the same proposal will receive American collectors who have recently contacted us. And if we manage to collect a total of 30 English-speaking collectors who want to buy our sets, we will produce an export version of sets by the « Альянс Свободных ».
A few days ago I received an anonymous email inviting me to check out the Alliance of the Free, a group of four very talented Russian artists who seem to have a serious passion for 54mm wargaming and creating their own sets of figures. I don't know for certain that the anonymous sender is formally connected with the Alliance, it could be anyone, but am hoping it is official and they are fine with me posting some of their pictures. If not, I will take the pictures down upon their request.
They appear to have created several five figure sets very much like Tehnolog's Fantasy Battles, only with even better detail. Some of their figures are flat out amazing. Most of the sets are fantasy figures with at least one set of post apocalypse mutants.
However, they are not in it for profit and they don't have a store or a regular process for buying the figures. I have not been able to learn much about their process because I would need to sign up for VK, a Russian social media network, in order to review all of the information on their site. To sign up for VK you either have to have a facebook account or provide a mobile phone number. I refuse to sign up for facebook, and I don't own a mobile phone. So, no VK for me. I have never regretted not owning a mobile phone, but that might change if I miss out on these figures because of it.
As far as I can tell, they ask people to let them know what sets they are interested in buying and then they only produce the figures when they have enough people ready to buy. The figures are probably fairly expensive if they are made in small batches, but I have no real idea because there is no information about pricing that I could access on their site. Here are the most useful tidbits I could find on their site. The translation seems to be a work in progress:
"Alliance of Free" makes gambling soldiers sets a scale of 54 mm. (Grotesque) for themselves and for those who are interested. You will not find our kits on sale, but you always have the opportunity to buy them.