Salute Stocklist

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Tony

We’ll have more Salute previews coming this week, as fast as things get painted! At least casting of the new models is well ahead of the painting, so stock shouldn’t be a problem.

In the meantime, here’s a comprehensive list of what ranges we will (and won’t) be bringing on Saturday so you can plan your spending.

  • Imperial Skies – full stock of fleet packs, flotilla pack and individual models
  • Celtos – full range of figures plus unit packs
  • Spaceships – full range of fleet packs and individual models
  • Hammer’s Slammers – selection of 15mm and 6mm detachment packs, full range of 15mm and 6mm models and figures
  • 15mm SF – full range of individual models and figures, selection of buildings and scenery
  • 6mm SF – army packs, selection of company packs, building packs, full range of individual models and buildings
  • Small Scale Scenery – full range
  • Squadron Commander – blister packs and individual models
  • Great War 28mm – full range including 3D printed vehicles
  • Magpie Miniatures – full range
  • 1/700 Coastal Forts – full range
  • 10mm SF Buildings – full range
  • Slug Industries Medieval Village Packs

We won’t be bringing anything from the Land Ironclads or Iron Stars ranges unless pre-ordered. Please also note that we no longer carry the Crom’s Anvil figures since their transfer to their new owners, CP Models.

Tomorrow is the absolute last chance to get an order in – we only have one casting day left before the show. Don’t forget that you can use the Collect in Person option on the website to make an order that way without being charged postage.

Posted in Salute 2023, Shows | 1 Comment

Salute #2 – Chinese Stragglers

Posted on April 13, 2023 by Tony

This is our second batch of releases for Salute – we’re a bit behind with the painting this year, so there could well be a last minute flurry of posts next week as things progress !

First though, we’ve had a couple of queries about placing orders for the show through the website. It’s straightforward enough – just go to the Shipping Destination page on our website and change the option to ‘Collect in Person’; the icon looks like this:

You can then add items to the shopping basket, checkout and pay as normal, but you won’t be charged any shipping costs (UK VAT will be charged at 20%). We need any orders as soon as possible, please – next Wednesday (the 19th) at the absolute latest.

When we released the new 15mm Han Chinese trucks recently, we mentioned that not everything originally planned for that release had made the cut. Well, everything is now ready to go so we thought we’d add them to our Salute 50 lineup.

The MV-701 truck is often used to tow a large 4-wheel trailer to increase its already generous load. This will be available as a set (truck plus trailer) or on its own if you fancied pairing it with a different towing vehicle.

Adding significant firepower to the Han Guard units is the Huolóng variant of the ZSL-95 8×8 APC. Equipped with the same hypersonic missiles as the PHL-18 truck-mounted system, it provides long-range anti-tank support to Han Guard units. The launcher is a flush, pop-up system that, when closed, gives the vehicle a similar profile to a regular APC.

And these are probably our favourites of today’s bunch; in the Hammer’s Slammers story The Warrior, Han officers are noted as riding around on “three-wheeled scooters”. We extrapolated this description a bit and turned them into some meatier vehicles, a bit like a Can-Am Spyder (two wheels at the front looks a lot cooler). They are available as a pack of four trikes with infantry crew in helmets, and there’s a separate officer figure in peaked cap.

HS15-502a – ZSL-95A Huolóng Missile APC – £8.00
HS15-504 – MV-701 truck plus Trailer – £10.00
HS15-504b – Trailer Only – £3.00
HS15-560 – Trikes plus Crew (x4) – £6.00
HS15-560a – Command Trike – £1.50

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, Salute 2023, Shows | 1 Comment

Salute 50

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Tony

This year’s Salute (Salute 50 to give it the correct title) is rapidly heaving into view – happening on Saturday April 22nd, it’s less than three weeks away as we write this. Held once again in the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands, it’s the largest show that we attend with something like 120+ traders and getting on for 100 games. You’ll find us on stand TE14, which is in pretty much the same place as we’ve been for the past few years. This is the fiftieth edition of the show and the Warlords are apparently planning some special events to mark the occasion.

As always, we’re planning to have a number of new releases on the day, and we’ll be previewing those between now and the day. We’re starting today with a pair of spaceships, the first of which is the German Munich class Battleship. This fills the gap between the Pomerania dreadnought and the Thuringen battlecruiser in the German heavy fleets.

The second of today’s models is the Indonesian Irian class Battleship. The Indonesians are a very popular fleet within our spaceship range, and we thought it was time they got some heavier firepower to back up the existing Borobadur battlecruisers.

Keep watching for more previews over the next three weeks.

Posted in Salute 2023, Shows, Spaceships | 2 Comments

Chinese Infantry

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Tony

It’s been an interesting week – the power went down at Brigade HQ on Monday afternoon in the middle of some casting and required the calling of an electrician (it was a site-wide problem, not just related to our workshop). In the end we were only able to resume work there again on Thursday. Fortunately the enforced layoff wasn’t wasted and was turned into some valuable prep time for Salute. You may also notice a change to the format of the blog – our ISP had recommended that we upgrade the version of PHP in use on the website, which promptly broke the blog theme ! We had to quickly introduce a new PHP-8 compatible one to keep it up and running. Anyway, on to business…

The obvious accompaniment to our recent 6mm Han Chinese vehicle releases is some new infantry – and here they are. We have a pack of 24 figures – 15 riflemen, three squad leaders, three missile launchers and three squad support weapons. Sculptor Martin Baker has done a great job of scaling down our 15mm figures, complete with their distinctive night-vision equipment.

Although listed under 6mm CDSU, they’ll also serve in several Hammer’s Slammers forces such as the Han Chinese, Hiroseke and Waldheim Dragoons amongst others. We’ll be replacing the figures in packs for those armies with these new ones.

This will be our final new release before Salute, which is coming up ever so rapidly (too rapidly…). For the next three weeks we’ll be concentrating on stocking up for the show, sorting out the stand and working on some new items to be released on the day – of which more very soon.

SF300-570 – CDSU Infantry (x24) – £2.50

Posted in 6mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, New Releases | 1 Comment

Ehrhardt E-V/4 M1917

Posted on March 24, 2023 by Tony

In the early days of WW1 armoured cars were used to great effect by both the Belgian army and the Royal Navy, their hit and run tactics causing many problems for the Germans. In response to this in 1915 three German companies (Büssing, Daimler and Ehrhardt) were each contracted to produce a prototype for evaluation (we’ve previously released the A5P, Büssing’s contribution). In comparison to the Belgian and British vehicles (which were mainly based on touring cars) each of the German prototypes were much larger featuring multiple machine guns and a crew of 8 or more men.

Thirteen of the E-V/4 were made by Ehrhardt in 1915-16 and these were used extensively on the Eastern front. An additional twenty were ordered in 1917. These were modified from the earlier models with increased armour, a radio and a fully rotating turret!

In the German revolutionary battles of 1918-19 the Ehrhardts were used to good effect by both the police and Freikorps. As result a further twenty were produced. They were also used by both Poles and Germans in the Silesian Uprisings in 1921. Some were still in use by the German police as late as 1939.

GW28-303 – Ehrhardt E-V/4 Armoured Car – £15.00
GW28-303d – Destroyed Ehrhardt E-V/4 – £15.00

Posted in 3D Print, Great War, New Releases | 1 Comment

Coastal Churches

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Tony

Our 1/700th scenery range started off as just a few coastal forts to accompany naval games such as Warlords Games’ Black Seas. Last year we added a set of houses, and this year we’re increasing the non-military options with some churches to give your coastal villages a focal point.

The first set is a pair of English Churches, one smaller with a pyramid hip roof tower, the second slightly larger with a more traditional crenellated bell tower.

We also have this Menorcan chapel with an small offset bell tower for battles in the Mediterranean.

B700-007 – English Churches (x2) – £3.50
B700-020 – Menorcan Chapel – £1.50

Posted in 1-700th Coastal Forts, New Releases | Comments Off on Coastal Churches

Armour Upgrades

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Tony

We’ve been converting a number of our 15mm vehicles from metal turrets and guns to single-piece resin castings with integral guns. The models look the same, but it makes them lighter and easier to assemble. The Curtiss, Kochte, Kraus, Vyriz and Bulava have all benefitted from this lately.

We’ve also been working on many of our German and PacFed models that previously had separate resin hulls and metal hover skirts or, in the case of the PacFed, grav skirts. These are now single piece resin hulls with integral skirts. They look much the same although we took the opportunity to put some more detail on the PacFed skirts.

We went a step further with the Neo-Soviet Bizon, one of our more venerable 15mm tanks. As well as a one-piece, uparmoured resin turret, the hull has been widened so that the turret fits on it better. The tracks and track guards have been made into composite resin pieces, one for each side, that fit more neatly into the hull. We’ve designated this upgrade the Bizon-R.

SF15-1201 – Bizon-R Medium Tank – £8.00

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

Heavy Logistics

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Tony

Thanks to the flurry of activity involved in having two shows in seven days, and the need to restock in-between, last week’s new release rather fell by the wayside. We’re partially making up for it today, although not everything scheduled for this release has made it – we simply haven’t been able to get a couple of items painted and photographed. But fear not, we’ll get those out as soon as we can.

What we do have is nevertheless (we think) big and impressive enough on its own. The Han Chinese wheeled vehicles released back in August last year were from the Black Banner Regiment, a regular Han army unit with a decent level of training. The bulk of the Han forces however are made up of People’s National Army (PNA) units, mostly militia infantry in trucks with minimal heavy fire support. The MV-701 heavy truck is manufactured by the PAW (People’s Automobile Works) in both four-wheel and 8-wheel drive versions. The cab has room for the driver plus five passengers, and the large rear flat bed can accommodate 12 infantry (in Hammer’s Slammers terms that’s four TUs – one in the cab and three in the back).

The main fire support for the PNA is the truck mounted PHL-18 rocket-launcher system, with a dual-mode 18-tube launcher mounted on the flat bed of an MV-701 chassis. This can be configured as a long-range artillery system with 240mm HE or bomblet rounds for over-the-horizon missions. Alternatively, in direct fire mode, the system can be loaded with Zhēn heavy hypersonic missiles. These solid-rod penetrator rounds initially boost clear of the launcher vehicle then accelerate sharply for the rest of their flight time, thus continuing to increase their lethality until the propellant is exhausted.

HS15-504a – MV-701 8-wheel truck – £8.00
HS15-504c – PHL-18 Rocket/Missile Truck – £10.00

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

Ramble On

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Tony

Firstly – we’re able to send overseas items via Royal Mail again, so we’re pretty much back to normal. The service is apparently a little slower than usual (the cyber attack has taken out some of the RM systems used to deal with customs data, so clearing customs is taking a little longer) but otherwise working OK. Huzzah !!

This week we have another 3D printed new vehicle in the 28mm Great War range. This is the US Jeffery Quad, a four-wheel drive vehicle first developed in 1913 to meet a US army requirement. It became one of the most widely used trucks in WW1; initially used by the US army and Marines, the Jeffery was also adopted by both the British and French armies.

Initially known as the Rambler Quadruple after its Rambler 4-cylinder engine, it became the Jeffrey Quad and later the Nash Quad when Nash Motors took over the Jeffrey Company in 1916.

As well as general transport it found use as an ambulance and as a portée in the French army carrying a 75mm gun. When production stopped in 1928 over 41,000 of the trucks had been made, 11,490 of these in 1918 alone.

GW28-203 – Jeffery Quad Truck – £10.00
GW28-203d – Destroyed Jeffery Quad – £10.00

See you at Cavalier on Sunday !

Posted in 3D Print, Great War, New Releases | 1 Comment

The Blue Eminence

Posted on February 17, 2023 by Tony

Our run of new releases carries on this week, with the European Federation receive substantial reinforcement in the form of the Richelieu class Superdreadnought. At 120mm long, it’s the largest spaceship we’ve made (so far), bigger even than the British QE2 class carrier. A third larger than the Milano dreadnoughts, it’s armed to the teeth with half a dozen triple gun turrets and a pair of heavy railguns between the bow mandibles.

It’s named after Cardinal Richelieu, a famed clergyman and statesman of the 17th Century. He was known as l’Éminence rouge, or “the Red Eminence” – but our ship is a bit more blue than red, hence the post’s title.

SFS-403 – Richelieu class Superdreadnought – £12.50

Posted in New Releases, Spaceships | Comments Off on The Blue Eminence