Big in Japan

Posted on May 10, 2024 by Tony

Time for probably the most eagerly anticipated of our Salute releases (at least by people who didn’t get to Salute !) – our new Japanese spaceship fleet. They had a very good reception at the show, so we’ve held them back a little in order to create some stock

This initial release has 8 vessels in with prominent ring structures and some wicked looking turrets on the two capital ships. The Iwari class Dreadnought is one of the largest spaceships we’ve produced – longer than the Argos space station !

SFSP-1501 – Japanese Heavy Fleet – £24.00
SFSP-1502 – Japanese Strike Fleet – £24.00
SFS-1500 – Iwari class Dreadnought – £12.00
SFS-1501 – Takao class Battlecruiser – £9.00
SFS-1520 – Kasuga class Heavy Cruiser – £4.00
SFS-1521 – Yubari class Light Cruiser – £3.00
SFS-1530 – Nadakaze class Destroyer – £2.00
SFS-1540 – Hinoki class Frigate – £1.50
SFS-1541 – Murakumo class Torpedo Frigate – £1.50
SFS-1550 – Ushio class Corvette – £1.00
SFS-7055 – Japanese Turrets (x12) – £1.50

Posted in New Releases, Spaceships | 1 Comment

The United Kingdoms

Posted on May 8, 2024 by Tony

Our Scandinavian Union fleet in the Imperial Skies background is based upon the historical union between Sweden and Norway in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the non-historical addition of Denmark. The original fleet came out back in 2012 and was one of our first dalliances with 3D printed masters- the hulls were 3D printed (albeit in a not-very-high resolution material with a rough finish) while the rest of the models from the deck up were hand-made. These new versions are full 3D designs with the two capital ships featuring resin hulls to make them lighter and easier to base. There are several extra models over the original lineup, including two extra cruisers and a new frigate, and we’ve restored the two patrol craft which have been out of production for a while.

VANFP-2301 – Scandinavian Union Fleet Pack – £24.00
VANFP-2311 – Scandinavian Union Torpedo Flotilla – £7.00
VAN-2301 – Oscar II class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-2302 – Lillehammer class Battlecruiser – £8.00
VAN-2304 – Frederiksborg class Heavy Cruiser – £4.00
VAN-2305 – Varg class Pursuit Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-2306 – Tapperheten class Light Cruiser – £2.75
VAN-2307 – Udbye class Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-2308 – Ringkobing class Frigate – £1.50
VAN-2309 – Scheele class Corvette – £1.75
VAN-2310 – Vanern class Torpedo Nef (x3) – £1.50
VAN-2311 – Glomma class Patrol Nef (x3) – £1.50

Posted in Imperial Skies, New Releases | 1 Comment

Hive Minds

Posted on May 1, 2024 by Tony

OK, so we’re back from a short break and to normality again. Tony has been working hard at clearing the orders that built up while he was away. Almost everything up to April 29th has shipped, so we’re pretty much back to normal.

Which means we can resume getting the Salute releases onto the website. Today it’s Germy’s 15mm Cimexian bugs, most of which we’ve restored and remoulded. For those that remember the original ones, these remastered versions now have single piece hulls rather than separate ‘feet’ and ‘bodies’. There are a couple of models left to do – the two flyers need slightly more complicated moulds so we’ll get to those over the summer.

BUG15-001 – Ixod Heavy Tank – £9.00
BUG15-002 – Coccid Medium Tank – £8.00
BUG15-003 – Isop Light Tank – £6.00
BUG15-004 – Prion APC – £7.00
BUG15-005 – Homon Brain Bug – £5.00
BUG15-006 – Apis Walker – 8.00
BUG15-009 – Lygan Artillery Bug – £10.00

Posted in 15mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

Allons! Allons!

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Tony

Today we have the Firedrake, our tribute to the late author of the Hammer’s Slammers stories. The prototype on which it is based appears in the last ever Slammers story, ‘Save What You Can’ from the Onward, Drake compendium.

The Firedrake is a massive 12-wheeled tank destroyer that utilises energy stored in a huge flywheel (don’t ask us how that works…) to fire its massive gun. We’ve given it a small twin point-defence turret to dissuade infantry from getting too close and also for knocking down incoming missiles. Overall we’ve given ita very Germanic look, hence the 3-colour ambush camouflage scheme.

And as an added bonus, £1 from each model sold will be donated to the Blackhorse Trust, the charity nominated on David Drake’s website.

You’ll find it listed in the website under the Republic of Bessarabia. And yes, we’re using the Blackhorse Cavalry logo for them until the background for the Bessies is further fleshed out.

HS15-5001 – M-22FW Firedrake – £12.00

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, New Releases | 1 Comment

Civilian Runabouts

Posted on April 21, 2024 by Tony

Next on the release pipeline are our two 15mm civilian vehicles, part of what we hope will grow to be an much larger range of civilian and paramilitary vehicles. The Avery Etesian is a small, 4-seater hovercar that uses a semi-rigid skirt to act as a plenum chamber, driven by three powerful fans. The interior of even basic models is fairly well-appointed, and it carries its passengers in air-conditioned comfort. Although designed as family runabout for more civilised worlds, its simplicity and ease of repair means many models, especially older ones, have ended up on the frontiers.

The Ilingi grav truck is derived from Durrant Automotive’s Dundas military load carrier. Stripped of much of its military-specific equipment and lightened by the removal of the Dundas’ reactive armour panels, it carries a much larger load than the original vehicle. Although billed as a grav vehicle, it’s only capable of minimal lift, little more than a ground-effect vehicle. Ilingas are incredibly robust and can take a tremendous amount of rough handling, as evidenced by the battered example shown below, although the two grav node clusters at the rear of each skirt need careful looking after.

SF15-9001 – Avery Etesian Hovercar – £2.50
SF15-9002 – Durrant Ilinga Grav Truck – £7.50

Posted in 15mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

It’s a Rough Galaxy

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Tony

It sure is a tough life, roaming the spacelanes in search of action, adventure, or maybe just your next meal. But we have just the people (creatures ?) to do it ! The first of our Salute releases to hit the website are four packs of Adventurers, ready for whatever the universe throws at them. They make ideal figures for games such as Stargrave, Five Parsecs from Home or the one that started it all, Traveller. Or perhaps they’d make great armed civilians for Hammer’s Slammers, or a rag-rag bunch of mercenaries for whatever game system you fancy.

There are four packs of six figures, each a random mix of humans and aliens (and some unknowns – who knows what’s under those helmets ?). There’s lots of blasters, the odd prosthetic limb, and even a force sword or two.

Adventurers Pack
4

SF15-017 – Adventurers Pack 1 – £3.50
SF15-018 – Adventurers Pack 2 – £3.50
SF15-019 – Adventurers Pack 3 – £3.50
SF15-020 – Adventurers Pack 4 – £3.50

In other news – we’ve caught up with orders, everything up to and including April 17th (except one order that needs a couple of 3D prints). The includes EU orders, a box of which went off to the shipping hub this morning.

Backgrounds by Jon Hodgson

Posted in 15mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

The Show’s Over

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Tony

So that’s it – Salute is over for another year. It’s a bit like Christmas in that we spend weeks preparing for it, then it’s all over in a day. We had a very busy time again, with the two of us plus special guest Jeremey (who always helps us out at Salute) working the card machine all day.

Due to a combination of Salute preparations, the rather badly timed outbreak of COVID and the Easter holiday (those two working days lost just before every Salute are such a pain), we’re a little behind on orders. So Tony has been banished back to the workshop again (where he spent much of last week) in order to clear the backlog – if all goes well, he should be able to get the order queue down to pretty much nothing by Friday. At which point he will then depart for a well-earned break next week, before presumably returning to a new pile of orders when he comes back !

We’ll start getting the Salute releases onto the website later this week. First up will be the 15mm releases spread over this week and next, with the other items coming later. We stagger the releases over several weeks to avoid getting swamped by loads of orders all at once – it helps spread the load a bit.

Still on the topic of Salute, the Maidstone Wargames Society display game (which Phil made pretty much on his own) came away with the prize for Most Innovative Game. So well done Phil, and the crew of MWS who spent the day guiding players through the skies of the Battle of Britain. You can see more about the game on the club website.

Posted in Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

Salute Round-up

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Tony

We’ve been quiet for a couple of days – Tony has been locked in the workshop and chained to the centrifuge all week, churning out stock and filling orders for Saturday. The good news is that all the orders are ready to be collected, and the stock drawers are as full as they’re going to get.

So it’s time for a round-up of the show releases, including a few bits and pieces we haven’t announced so far.

15mm Sci-fi

As well as the four sets of adventurer figures, the re-released Cimexians and the Firedrake tank destroyer, we have a few more bits. First up are two civilian vehicles – the Avery Etesian hover car, and the Durrant Ilinga grav truck.

We also have several reinforcements for the recently released Baffin’s Legion – the GD-719 Scorpion light tank and GD-834 logistics vehicle. There’s also an ambulance version of the command vehicle, and mortar and cargo versions of the GD-516 jeep. They weren’t originally on our Salute list, but the moulds are ready and we had time to make some stock, so we thought they’d make a good addition.

GD-719 Scorpion Light Tank

SF15-017 – Adventurers Pack #1 – £3.50
SF15-018 – Adventurers Pack #2 – £3.50
SF15-019 – Adventurers Pack #3 – £3.50
SF15-020 – Adventurers Pack #4 – £3.50
SF15-021 – Adventurers – All Four Packs – £12.50

SF15-9001 – Avery Etesian Hover Car – £2.50
SF15-9002 – Tarrant Ilinga – £6.00

HS15-4502 – GD-719 Light Tank – £8.00
HS15-4503d – GD-815 Ambulance – £8.00
HS15-4506a – GD-517M Mortar Jeep – £3.00
HS15-4506b – GD-517 Cargo Jeep – £2.75
HS15-4508 – GD-834 Logistics – £8.00

HS15-5001 – M-22FW Firedrake – £12.00

BUG15-001 – Ixod Heavy Tank – £9.00
BUG15-002 – Coccid Medium Tank – £8.00
BUG15-003 – Isop Light Tank – £6.00
BUG15-004 – Prion APC – £7.00
BUG15-005 – Homon Brain Bug – £5.00
BUG15-006 – Apis Walker – 8.00
BUG15-009 – Lygan Artillery Bug – £10.00

6mm WW2

As well as the models we mentioned at the weekend, we will have packs of Maxim machine guns and DBT light mortars.

WW2-1101 – T-15 Light Tank – £0.60
WW2-1102a – T-13 Type.I – £0.60
WW2-1102c – T-13 Type.III – £0.60
WW2-1103a – Vickers Tractor Type A – £0.50
WW2-1103b – Vickers Tractor Type B – £0.50
WW2-1160 – Belgian Riflemen (x50) – £6.00
WW2-1161 – Belgian HMG (x3) – £1.25
WW2-1162 – Belgian DBT Mortar (x3) – £1.50

Japanese Spaceships

As well as recapping the list of ships (which has changed slightly – we’ve reclassified the torpedo destroyer as a frigate), we thought we’d clarify the contents of the two fleet packs. The Heavy fleet has a dreadnought, two heavy cruisers, two destroyers and a torpedo frigate. The strike fleet has two battlecruisers, two light cruisers and two frigates.

SFSP-1501 – Japanese Heavy Fleet – £24.00
SFSP-1502 – Japanese Strike Fleet – £24.00
SFS-1500 – Iwari class Dreadnought – £12.00
SFS-1501 – Takao class Battlecruiser – £9.00
SFS-1520 – Kasuga class Heavy Cruiser – £4.00
SFS-1521 – Yubari class Light Cruiser – £3.00
SFS-1530 – Nadakaze class Destroyer – £2.00
SFS-1540 – Hinoki class Frigate – £1.50
SFS-1541 – Murakumo class Torpedo Frigate – £1.50
SFS-1550 – Ushio class Corvette – £1.00

Scandinavian Imperial Skies

Again, here’s a recap of the Scandinavian list. We’ve tweaked the fleet pack slightly – it now has one each of the two capitals, one light and one heavy cruiser, two destroyers and two frigates. The torpedo flotilla has two Scheele corvettes and six Vanern torpedo boats (and both packs include bases).

VANFP-2300 – Scandinavian Union Fleet Pack – £24.00
VANFP-2311 – Scandinavian Union Torpedo Flotilla – £6.00
VAN-2301 – Oscar II class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-2302 – Lillehammer class Battlecruiser – £8.00
VAN-2304 – Frederiksborg class Heavy Cruiser – £4.00
VAN-2305 – Varg class Pursuit Cruiser – £3.25
VAN-2306 – Tapperheten class Light Cruiser – £2.50
VAN-2307 – Udbye class Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-2308 – Ringkobing class Frigate – £1.50
VAN-2309 – Scheele class Corvette – £1.50
VAN-2310 – Vanern class Torpedo Nef (x3) – £1.50
VAN-2311 – Glomma class Patrol Nef (x3) – £1.50

And that’s it. We look forward to seeing many of you on Saturday in London.

Posted in 15mm SF, 6mm WW2, Aeronef, Hammer's Slammers, Imperial Skies, Previews, Salute 51 (2024), Spaceships | 1 Comment

Blazing the Stars

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Tony

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-7 – just a week left)

A few days ago we previewed a lone spaceship which was part of our Salute line-up. Today we can reveal the rest of it’s compatriots, our new Japanese space fleet. There are eight in total – the ship you’ve already seen is the Takao class Battlecruiser, which is a pretty big ship in its own right at just short of 4″ long, but even that is outdone by the Iwari class dreadnought, which measures 5½” from the tip of its sensor probes the the end of the engine vanes. These two are accompanied by two cruisers and four escort vessels, all with distinctive rings.

SFSP-1501 – Japanese Heavy Fleet – £24.00
SFSP-1502 – Japanese Strike Fleet – £24.00
SFS-1500 – Iwari class Dreadnought – £12.00
SFS-1501 – Takao class Battlecruiser – £9.00
SFS-1520 – Kasuga class Heavy Cruiser – £4.00
SFS-1521 – Yubari class Light Cruiser – £3.00
SFS-1530 – Nadakaze class Destroyer – £2.00
SFS-1531 – Murakumo class Torpedo Destroyer – £2.00
SFS-1540 – Hinoki class Frigate – £1.50
SFS-1550 – Ushio class Corvette – £1.00

Posted in Previews, Salute 51 (2024), Spaceships | 1 Comment

Pastures New

Posted on April 6, 2024 by Tony

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-7)

It’s not often that we launch a completely new range – the last one was probably Small Scale Scenery, which itself only started as an add-on set of terrain accessories for Land Ironclads.

But today, here’s something completely new and utterly unconnected to anything else we make – and it’s a historical range as well. The two of us first started gaming together in the mid-80s playing WW2 actions in 20mm. Phil had a reasonably large collection of late war German and US forces, while Tony concentrated on the early stages of the conflict with German, French, British and, possibly his favourites, a small contingent of Belgians. We’ve both still got them, probably 1000+ 20mm vehicles between us.

At our club, Maidstone Wargames Society, there are some 6mm WW2 gamers, so Tony wanted to recreate his Belgian force in that scale, but found a shortage of options. However, one of the best things about running a miniatures company is that you can make whatever you want so, just like Phil did when he created our WW1 Belgians, we decided to make our own. We commissioned Martin Baker, who created most of our 6mm sci-fi figures, to sculpt a set of infantry figures while Tony designed digital masters for the vehicles. As you can see from the photos below, Martin has done a magnificent job – just look at the expression on the squad leader’s face as he urges his men forwards. The figures are slightly smaller than our 6mm sci-fi figures, as we’ve designed them to fit in with the 1/300th WW2 ranges made by other popular UK manufacturers. The basic infantry pack has enough for a single rifle platoon – Belgian infantry platoons were relatively large at ~50 men. The exact composition of a rifle platoon does seem to be up for debate, we’ve found at least four different organisations so they may have differed between regiments. All being well, we should also have packs of Maxim heavy machine guns and DBT light mortars (there’s an HMG in the photo below).

The initial vehicle range starts out with the core of a Belgian armoured force – the T-15 light tank, early and late versions of the T-13 tank destroyer, plus the two versions of the Vickers Utility Tractor (infantry and cavalry). T-13s were organic to the infantry divisions, with a company per division, and they were also fielded by cavalry units. T-15s were restricted to cavalry units, plus a small number with the Chasseur Ardennais. The Vickers Utility Tractor comes in two versions, infantry and cavalry, also known as Type A and Type B (although which was which isn’t always clear – we’ve seen both designs referred to as Type B, with one website mixing the two up on the same page !). The vehicles are designed as best we can at 1/300th using scale plans and drawings, plus references to photos that Phil took at the Antwerp war museum,

Assuming these sell well, we will follow up later with more including some towed ordnance – artillery, heavy mortars, anti-tank guns – and maybe even the famous Chasseur Ardennais on their bicycles.

Posted in 6mm WW2, Previews, Salute 51 (2024) | 2 Comments