Racing the Dunes

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Tony

New this week is the big bunch of 6mm 4×4, 6×6 and half-track vehicles for the Sincanmo Federation, mirroring the 15mm release last year. There are 22 different variants in total when you include all of the turret and weapon options, enough to keep the most demanding desert warlord in business.

The 6×6 and half-track sets have the same options, with seven different variants in all – technical (eg open-backed utility), troop carrier, command, air defence (with three different armaments) and ambulance.

6×6 variants – {l-r) AA Missile, Quad AA, single AA, ambulance, technical, troop carrier, command

half-tracks – (l-r) AA missile, single AA, quad AA, ambulance, command, troop carrier, technical

The 4×4 buggies come in four different chassis types with different weapon options resulting in a total of eight variants – utility, scout (with two turret types), missile buggy, radar/EW buggy, buzzbomb carrier, mortar carrier and tow-truck.

4x4s – (l-r) utility, scout (twin powerguns), scout (laser), AT missile, radar/EW, mortar, buzzbomb, tow truck

The two ambulances have been added to the Surgeon General range, our list of models that support the MacMillan cancer charity – 50% of their ex-VAT sale price will go towards that cause.

The Sincanmo’s heavy armoured cars will follow soon, at which point we’ll also add detachment packs to the website.

HS6-2902 – Naib 6×6 Technical – £1.00
HS6-2902a – Naib 6×6 Troop Carrier – £1.00
HS6-2902b – Naib 6×6 Command Car – £1.00
HS6-2902c – Naib 6×6 AA Truck – £1.00
HS6-2903d – Naib 6×6 Ambulance – £1.00
HS6-2903 – Aamir Half-track – £1.00
HS6-2903a – Aamir Half-track Troop Carrier – £1.00
HS6-2903b – Aamir Command Half-track – £1.00
HS6-2903c – Aamir AA Half-track – £1.00
HS6-2903d – Aamir Half-track Ambulance – £1.00
HS6-2904 – Qaadi 4×4 Utility – £1.00
HS6-2904a – Qaadi 4×4 Missile Car- £1.00
HS6-2904b – Qaadi 4×4 Scout – £1.00
HS6-2904c – Qaadi 4×4 EW Car- £1.00
HS6-2904d – Qaadi 4×4 Buzzbomb Car – £1.00
HS6-2904e – Qaadi 4×4 Mortar Carrier – £1.00
HS6-2904f – Qaadi 4×4 Recovery – £1.00

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

Armoured Monorail

Posted on July 22, 2022 by Tony

First … we’ve finally cleared the backlog (well, as good as) – we’re down to eight outstanding orders, of which two are finished and just need boxing up, two need one piece of resin each (we simply ran out of steam yesterday evening), and four new ones that arrived overnight. Everything else will go the post office tomorrow morning.

So by way of celebration, it’s finally time for something new. And what could be cooler than a train ? That’s right, a monorail. And even better than that is an armoured monorail 🙂 We took a few of these to Joy of Six, and now they’re finally available on the website.

There are six different cars – tank, scout, artillery, infantry, command and locomotive. They’re all available in pairs, and there are also two pre-packaged sets, one of four cars and one of eight.

The eight-car version has two each of the tank, artillery and infantry cars, plus a command car and a locomotive.

The four-car train has one each of the tank, infantry, locomotive and artillery cars.

The tank car is simply that – a tank turret on an armoured chassis. By default it has a Rapier turret, but we’ve put in options for several other turret types. If there’s any other tank turret you’d like, drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do.

The scout car has a light turret (from either a light tank or armoured car) plus an AA turret. Again, we’ve made it available with several options but let us know if you’d like anything else. This is intended to be an independent powered car which operates either singly or in pairs, running patrols along stretches of line.

The artillery car has two light artillery or mortar turrets plus an AA turret. And again, the same applies as far as turret options go.

The infantry, command and locomotive come as seen – there are no turret options (although the command car has a large radar which you could swap out for a turret if desired).

B300-1122 – 8-car Armoured Train – £12.50
B300-1123 – 4-car Armoured Train – £6.25
B300-1137 – Scout Cars (x2) – £3.50
B300-1138 – Tank Cars (x2) – £3.50
B300-1139 – Artillery Cars (x2) – £3.50
B300-1140 – Infantry Cars (x2) – £3.00
B300-1141 – Command Cars (x2) – £3.25
B300-1142 – Armoured Locomotive (x2) – £3.00

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases, Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

Feelin’ Hot, Hot, Hot…

Posted on July 15, 2022 by Tony

Tony is back at work after his holiday, so we thought it was time for a quick update on orders. We’re steadily working through the backlog that built up while he was away, so far we’ve managed to clear almost all orders up to July 6th (and a few after that). Of those, only a few small UK orders (that fit in a post box) have been posted – we decided against losing valuable casting time at the post office, so everything from this week will go tomorrow (Saturday). As far as possible we’re working on a first-in, first-out basis and doing everything in sequence, so any new orders will go to the back of the queue. Please bear this in mind if you place an order, it’s probably going to take the best part of two further weeks to completely clear everything, but hopefully we’ll be back to normal by the end of July.

It’s been rather warm in the UK this week, which is making things interesting – resin sets incredibly quickly in the heat, and the metal casting kit gets very hot to the touch as well. And temperatures are forecast to hit 35°C on Monday and Tuesday – we can’t ever remember seeing temperatures that high being predicted (UK forecasts are usually quite conservative). The plan then is to get in early, do half a day and clear off before it gets unbearable, and catch up later in the week. Still, it beats working for a living…

As promised, we will try to get the new 6mm bits from Joy of Six (the Sincanmo and Armoured Train) onto the website in the next week or two, but we need to get them all properly photographed first.

In the meantime, Imperial Skies turn rules and altitude markers are now back in stock thanks to Dave at Moomin Merchandise who’s just sent us a big box o’ stuff. The command markers will be back as soon as he can get some suitably-coloured acrylic.

And one last update – the various global supply chain problems have finally caught up with us. Our mould manufacturer is unable to get supplies of the base material for our silicon moulds, it’s a combination of factors apparently including a fire at the processing plant in Scandinavia. We have a small number left which have been lined up for a couple of releases and a master mould, but after that we’re stuck until the supply chain unkinks itself. We should say that this only affects our ability to make moulds for casting metal – fortunately these have a very long life, so once we’ve made them they last a long time (we have moulds which are 15+ years old and still fine). But it means that we will have to switch to resin-only releases for a little while, we still have a good supply of the RTV used to make resin moulds and as far as we know there are no issues with that.

Posted in Imperial Skies, Shipping Stories, Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

EuroFed Battlefleet

Posted on July 8, 2022 by Tony

Tony’s still on holiday, so there’s not much going on at the moment. We had a good day at the Joy of Six last Sunday – unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of the show itself, one of the downsides of being a trader, but it was certainly busy with plenty of visitors. There are some after show reports online if you would like a better view of things.

We should hopefully start adding the new 6mm items released at the show to the website (the armoured train and the Sincanmo dune buggies). There is quite a backlog of orders which will take a couple of weeks to clear first, however.

In the meantime, Stephen Toropov has kindly sent us some photos of his rather nicely painted EuroFed spaceships – so instead of any more waffle from us, here’s some ships in a very striking colour scheme.

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Posted in Galleries, Spaceships | 1 Comment

Desert Micro Warriors

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Tony

Our other new set of models for Sunday’s Joy of Six show is this rather large collection of Sincanmo dune buggies. There are 14 different chassis in three configurations – half-track, 4×4 and 6×6 – and a total of 22 variants once the turret and weapon options are added up.

We don’t yet have a full list of product codes, you’ll have to find us on Sunday and just point at the ones you want!

They make ideal counterparts to our recently released 6mm Desert Raider infantry, and their natural opponents in the Hammer’s Slammers universe are the Hashemite Nation, already available from us.

Posted in 6mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, Previews | 2 Comments

The Iron Horse Gets Guns

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Tony

So we promised some new items for the Joy of Six on Sunday, and here is the first. Our 6mm monorail came out several years ago and we’ve added a few extra bits and pieces since the initial release. The latest addition gives it some teeth, with a set of six armed and armoured carriages. When we get them onto the website you’ll be able to buy all the carriages separately, but for the show we’re keeping it simple with two options – an 8-carriage full-on armoured train, and a two-carriage scout train.

The larger train consists of a command car, an armoured locomotive, two infantry carriages, two artillery carriages and two tank cars. The scout train has just two scout cars. We’re still working out the exact turret configuration, so the final versions may differ slightly from these pictures – we’ll offer multiple options when it gets onto the website, but for Jo6 we’ll probably keep it simple.

Posted in 6mm SF, Previews, Shows | 1 Comment

Holiday, Celebrate!

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Tony

So for the next couple of weeks it’s summer holiday time again for the Brigadieress and I, starting today. We’re not away for the whole of the fortnight and I’m hoping to get into work for a day or so each week to try and keep the backlog down. Nevertheless, there will be an inevitable slowdown in turn-around times so please bear this in mind when ordering. It’s best to assume that your order will take at least 2-3 weeks to ship, but if I can I’ll try to get some posted sooner. All orders that arrived by the end of Wednesday (22nd) are complete and I’ll take them to the post office tomorrow morning.

This isn’t perfect timing following the release of Castles in the Sky yesterday (we’ve already seen a distinct increase in orders in advance of rulebook), but unfortunately the Osprey release schedule doesn’t factor highly in our holiday planning!

The Joy of Six falls in the middle of the fortnight – more great planning! We’re still intending to have some new releases for the show, they’ll be previewed next week, so keep an eye out. I’m afraid that you’ve now missed the window for show orders, but we will have plenty of stock so you should be able to get what you need from us on the day.

And finally, just a reminder that tomorrow is the annual Open Day of our local club, Maidstone Wargames Society. We’re putting on a 6mm Hammer’s Slammers game which you’re welcome to join in with or just observe – I’ve been working on a lot of new scenery so I hope it should look pretty good (taster below). There are half-a-dozen other games to take in of various periods, so if you’re in the Kent area, please pop in.

Posted in Hammer's Slammers, Shows, Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

Castles in the Sky

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Tony

Castles in the Sky is the title of the latest Osprey release in the blue book wargames series, written by Eric Farrington. Rather than us telling you what it’s about, this is what their website has to say about it:

A wargaming ruleset for epic pre-WW1 battles in the sky.

It’s the dawn of the 20th Century and the Great Powers turn to war. Since the development of the air screw, leading to the creation of flying warships, the navies of the world have comprised an ever-growing number of these aerial ironclads. So fire up the turbines, ready the aether drives, and take to the air in Castles in the Sky: A Wargame of Flying Battleships.

Featuring all the rules required to fight battles with fleets of flying behemoths. Assemble your fleet from 8 nationalities and fight through a variety of scenarios. With a full campaign system, Castles in the Sky contains everything adventurous aeronautical admirals need to find victory in the skies.

The 48-page softback has a number of photos featuring our Imperial Skies models, plus other unique artwork. Today is the official release date, and we’ve just added it to our website. The Imperial Skies range now numbers well over 250 different flying machines of various types from 21 different nationalities, plus merchant vessels, giving you lots to choose from.

CITS-001 – Castles in the Sky – £14.99

Posted in Aeronef, New Releases | 2 Comments

Maidstone Wargames Society Open Day

Posted on June 21, 2022 by Tony

Coming up this Saturday is our local club’s Open Day. Maidstone Wargames Society has a history dating back over 50 years (the Golden Jubilee was rather disrupted by the pandemic) and a current membership of around 30. The Open Day is an annual showcase where the club puts on a number of games so that potential new members can see what goes on, try out a game or two and see if the club is for them.

We’ll be there in our role as club members. Tony has been working hard on one of the games on display, a 6mm Hammer’s Slammers event which you can join in to get a feel for the rules. If that doesn’t float your boat then there are modern, Spanish Civil War, renaissance and other games to try. You can find out more here.

Posted in 6mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, Shows | Comments Off on Maidstone Wargames Society Open Day

Joy of Six ’22

Posted on June 16, 2022 by Tony

Our next show, the Joy of Six at Sheffield Hallam University, is just over two weeks away, on July 3rd. The show is making a come back after a couple of years off with over twenty 6mm games and a dozen traders including the organisers, Baccus.

Since this is a specialised 6mm show we take a very cut-down subset of our ranges:

  • Full range of 6mm Hammer’s Slammers models, including a good selection of detachment packs
  • Full range of 6mm Iron Cow models, including a full range of army and company packs
  • Full selection of building/scenery models of all types, including packs
  • Full range of Squadron Commander fighters, both individual and blister packs
  • The complete 2mm Small Scale Scenery range

We’re hoping to have some new releases lined up for the show, which we’ll preview before the day, so keep checking between now and the 3rd.

If you would like anything from one of our other ranges, you can order it in advance and collect on the day. You can either place an order and pay in full using the collect in person option on the website, or just drop us an email with a list and pay by cash or card on the day. Since we’re on holiday for the week leading up to the show, we’ll need any orders well in advance to give us a chance to get them ready – the cut-off date is June 22nd.

Posted in 6mm SF, Shows, Squadron Commander | 1 Comment