Brushes Out !

Following on from the recent Broadside show, the Milton Hundred Wargames Club is running a competition for the best-painted version of Leofwine. He was the free figure given away to the first 300 visitors to the show, and which we produced for them with help from from Martin Baker, who sculpted the master. Here’s mine, waiting for paint …

Simply pop over to their Facebook page (sorry, you will need to be on Facebook to enter) and put up a picture of your painted figure. We’ll be stumping up a prize for the best one of a random grab bag of Celtos figures – we can’t say exactly what will be in it, it might depend on what we’re overstocked on that day, but you’ll get a good number of figures.

So, what are you waiting for !?

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PacFed Updates

Two more spaceships have had an upgrade this week, with new versions of the Pacific Federation Tigershark battleship and Sei carrier. Both are now 2-piece resin castings with improved detailing, and being all-resin makes them lighter and easier to base. An anomaly in these days of rampant inflation, the new Tigershark is slightly smaller than the original, which brings it more into line with the battleships of other fleets (and allows us to drop the price slightly). It also makes potential space for a larger PacFed capital ship sometime in the future…

SFS-701 – Tigershark class Battleship – £5.50
SFS-710 – Sei class Carrier – £6.00

Posted in New Releases, Spaceships | 1 Comment

Great War Vehicles in 28mm (and more)

News today of a new venture for us. We’ve had a store on Shapeways selling a few 3D printed bits and pieces for quite a few years; initially it did quite well, but changes in their pricing structure have made some items unaffordable and sales have dropped off markedly in recent times. So we’ve taken the decision to close it, and instead we’re going to concentrate on printing our own models and selling them directly from the website. We will have stocks of the first offerings at Broadside tomorrow; the two scenic pieces are already on the website, expect the others (and many more) to arrive there soon.

We’re adding a range of 3D printed vehicles to our existing 28mm Great War range, starting with three models. The first is the Bussing A5P armoured car, a single example of which was built by Germany and used in Romania and Ukraine in 1916-17.

Adding heavy firepower is the 21 cm Mörser 10 used in large numbers (over 200 were built) by the Germans throughout the Great War.

Finally for the Great War, we have a Ford Model T armoured car, used by the Royal Naval Air Service on the Eastern Front. There’s also a destroyed version (r) for those inevitable moments when the Germans find their range…

We’re also going to be printing some of the most frequently bought scenery pieces from the old Shapeways store. The Transmitter Pylon is the biggest selling item in the range, so we had to start there. At just under 6″ tall, it can be used as a small-ish 6mm scale pylon, or alternatively as a large 2mm TV tower (it’s based upon the Crystal Palace tower).

The final offering for now is a pair of 1/1000th scale Gasholders of the telescopic type common in Europe. Although mostly decommissioned nowadays, they were a common sight on the skylines of most towns and cities.

All are 3D printed in resin; although we will attempt to hold stocks of these items, orders may be delayed slightly if we ever have to print to order.

GW28-301 – Bussing A5P Armoured Car – £21.00
GW28-302 – 21 cm Mörser 10 – £14.00
GW28-101 – Ford Model T Armoured Car – £6.50
GW28-101d – Ford Model T Armoured Car (destroyed) – £6.50
SF300-902 – Transmitter Tower – £7.50
SSS-8191 – Gasholders (x2) – £3.00

Posted in 3D Print, 6mm SF, Great War, New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Broadside 2022

Through a combination of circumstances, cancellations, last-minute COVID withdrawals etc, we’ve reached June before we finally get to our first show of the year. It’s our ‘home’ one, Broadside in Gillingham, on Saturday 4th June at Medway Park Sports Centre (formerly the Black Lion for those who know the area).

As always, we’ll be happy to take advance orders. You can either send us an email with your order and pay on the day, or alternatively you can place an order via the website (using the Collect in Person shipping option to avoid shipping charges) and pay in advance. We’ll be taking cash and credit cards on the day.

Because of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee holiday, we’ll need orders by the end of Tuesday (May 31st). We’ll be casting and packing on Wednesday, but we’re then closed for the two bank holidays before the weekend.

If you attend then you should get hold of this little chap – he’s Leofwine Wargamerson, the mascot/emblem of the Milton Hundred Wargames Club who run the show. We were very pleased to have been asked by MHWC to produce a figure for the 10th anniversary of the show and the first 400 people through the door will get one. He was sculpted by the versatile Martin Baker, who’s done a great job of reproducing Leofwine’s casual pose from the MHWC logo.

Work-in-progress version of Leofwine painted by David Mustill, MHWC chairman.

Posted in Shows | 1 Comment

Steps of Emotion

This week’s offerings are a small collection of useful 6mm scenic items.

First up is a set of eight cargo containers in various sizes, scaled down versions of our 15mm ones. You get four large, two small and two mini containers. The large one fits neatly on one of our monorail flat cars, while the medium ones can be carried by a Hippo heavy truck.

To allow better access to our new Deep Ocean Research Centre we have a pack containing four sets of stairs, an elevator and a ramp.

I’ve been making some scenery for a display game recently, and decided that I could also use some additional steps and stairs, so I made a set to go with those in the same material. The pack contains fourteen different items, including main steps for large buildings, straight stairs and also 90° corner ones in both directions.

Another item I wanted for my scenery was some arches to go between buildings, so this set has four ranging from one big enough to drive a tank through, down to a small one which would only fit a single soldier.

SF300-901 – Cargo Containers (x8) – £2.00
B300-151 – Steps and Stairs (x14) – £2.00
B300-152 – Archways (x4) – £1.50
B300-1252 – Stairs and Elevator – £2.00

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

The Last, Best Hope

After a false start (I made a mistake on the original master…), this week we have a new addition to our spaceships range, the Argos space station. It has a cylindrical resin main hull with four metal solar panels, two either side. The station is unarmed (or at least has no visible weaponry), but you can add some from our various spaceship turret packs if you’re after something with a bit more offensive power.

It would make a great objective for a game of Full Thrust or Starmada, or as a installation in A Billion Suns.

SFS-6008 – Argos Space Station – £15.00

Posted in New Releases, Spaceships | 1 Comment

Ersatzteile

With the release of the German battleship and battlecruisers recently, we have some useful metal parts from those models that we’re making available as an accessory set. Each set has a pair of heavy twin guns, two pairs of solar side panels, two different bridges and a vertical fin. We’ll only be selling these as a set, so please, no requests for twenty pairs of Pomerania guns – we won’t be able to do that.

SFS-395 – German Capital Ship Parts – £2.50

Posted in New Releases, Spaceships | 1 Comment

Culture Vulture

This week we have another assortment of Small Scale Scenery releases – two from the UK, and another pair from over the channel in France – all with a slight air of culture to them.

Starting up north with the largest building, we have the rather grand Glasgow People’s Palace. Opened in 1898, it was intended as a cultural centre for the East End of the city, which at the time was an overcrowded and deprived neighbourhood. After the 1940s it was used as a museum of social history, but it’s currently closed as the huge greenhouse area is considered unsafe.

Moving a long way south, we alight in Brigade’s home town of Maidstone. The subject is one of Phil’s old haunts, Springfield Library, which is sadly no more. The distinctive tower block with its ten-sided reading room overlooked the town for almost fifty years, but like pretty much every other interesting site in the country, it’s due to be turned into a housing estate 🙁

Finally we move over the water to La Belle France, with a pair of small chateaux. On the left is the Chateau de Morbecque at Hazebrouck. This was owned in 1914 by Baroness Ernest de la Grange. She made it available as a base for the RNAS armoured car squadron under Commander Sampson during the Great War. The second is the Chateau de Cherimont. This was the family home of Lt Charles Henkart – he was a pioneer of armoured cars in the Belgian army (or indeed any army). He was killed in early September 1914. Both of the chateau still exist – Morbecque is now a restaurant and Cherimont is an activity centre.

SSS-8188 – Glasgow People’s Palace – £4.00
SSS-8189 – Springfield Library – £2.00
SSS-8190 – Small French Chateaux (x2) – £2.00

And yes, we know that we’ve listed the People’s Palace under ‘English Buildings’ – but retitling that section to ‘British’ would break a lot of website links, so it’ll have to live among the Sassenachs for now.

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

This World of Water

Some time ago someone commented on Facebook asking why many/most sci-fi wargames buildings seem to be desert themed. He has a point, and I won’t pretend that we’re not guilty of this – we have three main desert themed building ranges (although it must be said in our defence that they outsell all our other sci-fi building ranges collectively). In case you hadn’t already worked it out, the answer to the Facebook poster’s original question is, of course, ‘Tatooine’ (which I’m sure he knew).

But we’re always on the lookout to do something different – the Moonbase set is always popular, as are the advanced buildings (both of which we really need to expand). And today we’re moving into a completely new environment with the release of the Deep Ocean Research Centre (or DORC if you prefer). This series of buildings sits on platforms above the surface of a newly discovered planet’s fathomless oceans, where the inhabitants perform whatever research-type things that marine scientists do. The initial offering has six different structures but we already have ideas for more, so don’t be surprised if others appear. We have a small accommodation platform, a research lab platform, VTOL landing pad, desalination plant, workshop/utility platform and command centre to start off with. There is also a set of small connecting walkways to allow easy access between platforms. This being a sci-fi setting, there are naturally no handrails.

Of course you don’t necessarily need to use these on the water – they could be placed in a hostile land environment such as a jungle, where the buildings need to be raised up from the jungle floor to deter predators.

The buildings and platforms are cast as single resin pieces, while the metal legs fit into gaps around the platform edge. A couple of the larger buildings have separate metal aerials or radars. For access, some legs have ladders moulded on, while the VTOL platform comes with a ramp. A set of extra legs is also available separately if you wanted to scratchbuild your own models.

BP300-1201 – DORC Starter Pack – £16.50
B300-1201 – Small Accommodation Platform – £2.00
B300-1202 – Research Lab Platform – £3.00
B300-1203 – VTOL Landing Platform – £2.00
B300-1204 – Desalination Plant – £2.00
B300-1205 – Workshop/utility Platform – £3.00
B300-1206 – Command Centre – £4.00
B300-1250 – Walkways (x6) – £2.50
B300-1251 – Spare Legs (x12) – £5.00

And credit is due to Geek Villain, the models were photographed on one of their superb fleece Pacific sea mats.

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases | 3 Comments

Baroque Grandeur

Today’s releases are a trio of fortresses and castles, at opposite ends of the size scale. Most impressive is the massive Castle Krzyżtopór (not the easiest pronunciation for a non-Polish speaker), a huge baroque pile in Ujazd, southern Poland. It was built in the mid-17th century (the exact dates seem uncertain) by a nobleman, Krzysztof Ossoliński. It was captured by the Swedes and ransacked in 1655, and so badly ravaged that it was not deemed worthy of repairs. Several noble families occupied the least-damaged areas, but it was ultimately abandoned in 1787. Nevertheless, it has stood, slowly crumbling, for over two centuries since then. The buildings of the castle stand within a high wall with five huge bastions, which Phil pointed out resembled a turtle from above (!). Our model depicts the castle in its original splendour, rather than as it is now.

Rather more modestly proportioned is Nehaj Fortress, in Senj, Croatia. A fairly simple square tower design, it was finished in 1558 as a defence against the marauding Ottomans.

Finally on our castle mini-break, we come to the Forte de Nossa Senhora de Monte Serrat, a small fort in Salvador, Brazil. Don’t confuse it with the much larger fortress in Portugal of the same name, as I nearly did when writing this up… It dates from 1583, and is built in the shape of an irregular hexagon. Other than that, it seems to have little service history, but it’s a nice design. Oh, and it should be painted white, not bare stone as I’ve depicted it.

SSS-8185 – Krzyztopor Castle – £12.00
SSS-8186 – Nehaj Fortress – £2.00
SSS-8187 – Forte de Nossa Senhora de Monte Serrat – £2.00

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment