Feeding Frenzy

Holiday time is over for now, so we’re back again, working through the order backlog that built up while we were away. Progress has been good, with a bit of luck it should mostly be cleared by the end of the week. We’ll resume putting our Salute releases onto the website tomorrow, a few photos need taking today.

There was however a slight hiccup to getting some orders out the door – and this is a good one, we couldn’t have invented this as an excuse if we tried.

Last year we switched to using biodegradable packing peanuts in our boxes – these are compostable and dissolve in water, rather than ending up in landfill (they’re made from corn starch or similar). We have a big bin of them in the workshop, ready for packing out boxes.

Unfortunately, while we were away some of the local farmyard mice got into the bin, found it to their taste and almost completely emptied it. But while they were eating their way through our packing supplies, the level in the bin gradually lowered until they found themselves trapped inside, unable to climb the smooth plastic walls. So this morning what was left was a sextet of frantic mice scampering around the last peanut remnants at the bottom of the bin with no way out. We’re not sure who was more surprised when we went to grab some packing for the first order of the day! Cue a quick emptying of the mice into the field bordering the yard, and a thorough disinfecting of the bin.

Anyway, the upshot is that there are 7-8 orders still at the workshop, all finished and ready to go, but unable to be packed until new supplies arrive (hopefully tomorrow). We will still be able to send out several smaller orders which are packed in bubble wrap, it’s just the larger boxes which are held up.

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Irian class Battleship

Our final spaceship release from Salute is the Indonesian Irian class battleship. Slightly smaller than the PacFed Rangatira, it still nevertheless packs a punch and supplements the Indonesian Borobadur battlecruisers.

SFS-1401 – Irian class Battleship – £8.00

Don’t forget that we’re on holiday until the 8th of May – you can still place orders, and we’ll deal with them on our return.

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Rangatira class Dreadnought

Moving halfway round the world from the two previous releases, the next model to be released is the Rangatira class Dreadnought. With its distinctive twin engine nacelles, the Rangatiras bring heavy firepower to the PacFed fleet.

SFS-700 – Rangatira class Dreadnought – £8.00

Don’t forget that we’re on holiday until the 8th of May – you can still place orders, and we’ll deal with them on our return.

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Bodensee class Carrier

The next Salute model is another German spaceship, the Bodensee class carrier. The Germans have lacked a heavy carrier class in their fleet, and they finally get one in the shape of this twin-hulled vessel.

SFS-310 – Bodensee class Carrier – £8.00

Don’t forget that we’re on holiday until the 8th of May – you can still place orders, and we’ll deal with them on our return.

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Munich class Battleship

Today we’re starting to add our new releases from Salute to the website. The first model, purely because it has the first SKU code, is the German Munich battleship. This fills the gap between the Pomerania dreadnought and the Thuringen battlecruiser. It has the same heavy gun mounts as the Pomerania fitted amidships, and a large stabilising fin.

SFS-304 – Munich class Battleship – £8.00

Don’t forget that we’re on holiday until the 8th of May – you can still place orders, and we’ll deal with them on our return.

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Holiday Time

After the rigours of Salute, we’re having a short break at Brigade to take advantage of the two upcoming bank holidays. We’ll be off next week (May 1st to 5th), returning on the 9th after the Coronation bank holiday. The website will remain open, but no orders will be processed until we get back. All orders up to April 23rd* have already been completed, and we’re pretty confident that we can finish anything else we currently have outstanding before we go.

*UPDATE – we’ve just finished the week with an empty order queue – all orders up to 3pm on Friday 28th April have either already been sent, or will be posted tomorrow. This includes EU orders – they’ve been sent to the shipping hub for distribution. We can safely go on holiday without leaving a backlog behind 🙂

We will be starting to add the new releases from Salute to the website next week – you’ll be able to order them immediately and we’ll deal with the orders after the holiday.

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Salute #6 – Riding the Monorail

This is the last one, just in the nick of time! We’re just about to load up the van and set off for the ExCel.

We’ve been working on a 15mm version of our 6mm monorail scenery set for a while, in particular looking for an affordable way to represent the track – and we think we’ve cracked it at last.

We’ve hit on the idea of using narrow plastic cable trunking – remove the top and you’re left with a ‘U’ shaped channel which is flexible, easy to paint and is self-adhesive, making it a doddle to stick to a base. We sprayed ours with grey primer, then silver spray and gave it a black wash – job done! It’s available in the UK from Screwfix, Wickes and also online from eBay and Amazon. And it’s very inexpensive – just a few pounds for a 2 metre length. We’re planning to bring a few lengths with us on Saturday, cut down to 1m long so they’re easier to carry home on the train afterwards! We’ll do a full write-up after the panic of the show is over.

So we’ve made four resin carriages that fit this track – an engine, passenger carriage, flat car and an independent armed scout car. We hope to put together some package deals as well although they aren’t yet finalised.

B15-1130 – Monorail Engine – £10.00
B15-1131 – Passenger Carriage – £10.00
B15-1133 – Flat Car – £9.00
B15-1137 – Scout Car – £12.00
B15-1101 – Track (1m length) – £2.50

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Salute #5 – Off to the Colonies

Our Imperial Skies South American project is nearing the end, with just three of the smaller nations left to be released. But besides the ten independent states on the continent, in the time of Imperial Skies there were three significant European colonies still in existence – Dutch Suriname, French Guiana and British Guyana. We thought it might be fun to create some specific models to represent the forces stationed in these far flung outposts.

For Salute we have British and French overseas territory fleets, representing older vessels which are no longer up to front line European service, but still can be useful flying the flag abroad.

The British get the Colony class battleship (top) and Commonwealth class battle cruiser. Escort is provided by a re-designed Rawalpindi cruiser plus three smaller vessels.

The French get the much larger but ungainly Ocean class battleship, along with the Arquebuse cruiser and smaller craft.

As you can see, these didn’t make it to the far end of the painting queue in time (excuse the rubbish photos), so they’ll have to be finished off after Salute to make them website ready. But the stock is all in place, which is what really matters.

VAN-108 – British Overseas Fleet – £23.00
VAN-406 – French Overseas Fleet – £23.00

VAN-131 – Colony class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-132 – Commonwealth class Battlecruiser – £8.00
VAN-104 – Rawalpindi Class Colonial Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-133 – Cairo class Destroyer – £2.25
VAN-134 – Tribal class Frigate – £1.00
VAN-135 – Natal class Corvette – £0.75

VAN-422 – Océan class Dreadnought – £8.50
VAN-423 – Arquebuse class Cruiser – £2.75
VAN-424 – Bisson class Destroyer – £2.25
VAN-425 – Laperouse class Frigate – £1.00
VAN-426 – Colonial Patrol Boats (x3) – £2.00

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Salute #4 – Back to the Moon

We drop down a scale to 6mm today, with some new buildings for our Moonbase set. There are four in total – a Hydroponics lab with overlapping framed glass domes; Nuclear Waste Storage silos; a Reactor building, and a simple radar base. All available individually, or there’s a new Moonbase pack containing all of these (three nuclear silos) and the Medical Centre.

BP300-602 – Moonbase Pack #2 – £15.00
B300-607 – Hydroponics Centre – £4.00
B300-608 – Nuclear Waste Silo – £2.00
B300-609 – Reactor Building – £1.50
B300-610 – Radar Dish – £1.25

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Salute #3 – More Spaceships

The next two additions to our Salute line-up this year are again spaceships. To accompany the Munich battleship, the Germans also get the Bodensee carrier, a large twin-hulled vessel.

Meanwhile, in the low orbits above the other side of the globe, the Pacific Federation have just started receiving the Rangatira class dreadnought to take on the new Indonesian Irians.

SFS-310 – Bodensee class Carrier – £8.00
SFS-700 – Rangatira class Dreadnought – 8.00

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