Sovereign Hobbies history
Sovereign Hobbies was created to continue the production of Colourcoats paint formally WEM Colourcoats of White Ensign Models. In late 2014, James discovered that his favoured paint range had just filed for liquidation. In desperation to grab some stock - specifically RN19 - Anti-Fouling Red - he contacted White Ensign Models to be referred to the liquidators. A few emails back and forth later we had acquired the rights and stock to Colourcoats model paint - formally known in the business as "WEM paints" despite always being named Colourcoats. White Ensign Models had a long history of producing paint, photo-etching and resin models with input from many well known and respected experts in the hobby including John Synder and Peter Hall.
When Colourcoats arrived at its new home in the North East of Scotland, we had a huge task ahead of us to firstly - unpack and stock check nearly 30,000 14ml tins! The second task came to learn how to run a small business, refine research techniques and decide where we would take Colourcoats from this point on.
Sovereign Hobbies is a small family venture, running alongside our main family business. This is the main reason for the web store format, which is intended to maximise our ability to re-invest and thus ensure the continued availability and development of Colourcoats. We are a small business which runs around our family and day jobs but we aim to respond to enquirers and orders as quickly as we can.
Through our model show attendance, we met our future henchman Stew who has become an integral part of Sovereign and can often be found spilling paint in our tinning factory or eagerly waiting to help you at model shows.
James is the research enthusiast who spends many hours delving into historical documents, research debates with experts and collating this into a useable paint range. Gillian remains the hidden stock girl, answering what emails she can and shipping orders between University and family duties. James and Stew both frequent modelling forums sharing their brilliant skills and witty quips whilst secretly advertising Colourcoats and brainwashing you all to love it too.
Sovereign Hobbies has expanded into select third-party products to fill in gaps within the UK market with products that are highly exceptional, of fantastic quality and of unique subjects.