Coming Up For Air

Posted on December 23, 2021 by Tony
Order Update

It’s been quiet on the blog lately, but I finally have a day away from the workshop to catch up on a few things. The response to the sale rather caught us off guard, we’ve had a similar number of orders as previous sales but this time condensed into a single week. After seven 12-hour days in the last week-and-a-half, I finally managed to finish the last sale order yesterday, but being so close to Christmas it won’t be possible to get them all sent out so one or two will have to wait until next week when the post office reopens. I’ve also done a few of the orders that have arrived after the sale, and will have one last day tomorrow to get as many of those finished as possible, but it looks like there will be a handful that are going to have to carry over to the new year.

Please bear in mind that this is a very busy time in the postal networks, and many will be running on skeleton staffs over the holiday period, so orders will take longer than usual to arrive.

We’re off for the whole of the Christmas to New Year period, so the workshop will be shut from the end of tomorrow (Christmas Eve) until January 4th – obviously the website will still be open and accepting orders, but nothing will be dealt with until then.

Show News


You may have already heard this, but we’ve been informed by the Warlords that Salute next year is off, due to the continuing uncertainty around possible pandemic restrictions – so the next Salute will be in 2023 (there’s no rescheduling this time). Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society have already cancelled Cavalier 2022 for the same reasons, so as things stand our first show next year will be Broadside in June.

EU Shipping

This is still ongoing, but we’re almost there – I had a Zoom call earlier today with a representative of the shipping agent to finalise everything. Our account has been approved, I need to make the final changes to our website software to accommodate the new shipping charges then we’ll be good to go.

That’s all, Folks !

I think that’s it for now – we were hoping to get a new release or two squeezed in before the end of the year, but there hasn’t been time. We’ll be back to normal (or whatever passes for normal nowadays !) in the new year with lots of shiny new releases. We (Phil and Tony) would like to thank you for your custom over the past 12 months and wish you all a Merry Christmas.

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

Flash ! Flash !

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Tony

For one reason or another we weren’t able to have a Christmas sale last year – 2020 was just a very odd year… This year has been equally strange, but we’ve decided to squeeze in a brief sale now that the short burst of shows is out of the way. The sale runs from today until next Wednesday – so it’s much shorter than normal, but we want to get it done and squared away before the Christmas holiday. So for the next week we’re offering 15% off most of our ranges*, ending at midnight GMT on Wednesday 15th December.

You don’t need to do anything to activate the sale – there’s no code to enter at checkout, everything happens automatically. The website will still show the full price of each item, but the price that goes into the PayPal shopping cart will be the discounted one. Because of the way that browsers keep hold of old versions of websites if you’ve previously visited them, you might want to refresh your browser (usually F5 or shift-F5 on Windows machines) to ensure that the new version of the shopping code is loaded with the discount in. If we get an order from which the discount has not been deducted then we will make a manual PayPal refund for the equivalent amount.

* – There are a few exceptions and conditions, as you might expect – shipping will still be charged at the full rate, since we were unable to persuade the post office to match our offers. The discount covers our metal and resin models – it doesn’t apply to rulebooks, dice, bases, counters, decals, 3D-printed items or anything else that we don’t manufacture ourselves, simply because the margins on those items are much tighter. However, starter packs with rules, dice or bases in are covered. This year we’ve also excluded the Iron Stars and 10mm Scenery ranges, because these are minor ranges that we don’t usually keep stocks of, so even small orders end up taking a significant amount of time to cast.

Posted in Special Offers | 1 Comment

The Sincanmo Federation

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Tony

Rounding off this bumper week of new releases, we have a huge swathe of vehicles for our latest Hammer’s Slammers force, the Sincanmo Federation. The Sincanmo share the planet of Meridienne with the Hashemite Nation, with whom they are constantly warring. You can read all about them in the Slammers story The Warrior, which follows the misadventures of Slick Des Grieux across several contracts and planets.

The Sincanmo ride around in high-speed vehicles which come in a number of variations including 4×4 and 6×6 wheeled models, plus light half-tracks. For heavy support they use 8×8 armoured cars with railguns or light lasers. Our recently released Desert Raider infantry are also ideal for the Sincanmo, including the fearsome Lizard Riders.

HS15-2901 – Garaad 8×8 Heavy Armoured Car – £7.50
HS15-2901a – Garaad 8×8 Air Defence – £7.50
HS15-2901b – Ugass 8×8 Command Car – £7.50
HS15-2902 – Naib 6×6 Technical – £7.00
HS15-2902a – Naib 6×6 Troop Carrier – £7.00
HS15-2902b – Naib 6×6 Command Car – £7.00
HS15-2902c – Naib 6×6 AA Truck – £7.50
HS15-2903 – Aamir Half-track – £7.00
HS15-2903a – Aamir Half-track Troop Carrier – £7.00
HS15-2903b – Aamir Command Half-track – £7.00
HS15-2903c – Aamir AA Half-track – £7.50
HS15-2904 – Qaadi 4×4 Utility – £6.00
HS15-2904a – Qaadi 4×4 Missile Car- £6.00
HS15-2904b – Qaadi 4×4 Scout – £6.00
HS15-2904c – Qaadi 4×4 EW Car- £6.00

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, New Releases, Salute 2021 | 1 Comment

Raider Reinforcements

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Tony

We released our 15mm Desert Raiders a little while ago, and at the time we only released a subset of the packs. This was for the rather ridiculous reason that I hadn’t finished painting all of the options! Well, now I’ve done, so we can add the last four packs to the list. These are the missile and mortar teams, plus a gun crew and a pack of vehicle drivers.

HS15-4264 – Desert Raider Missile Teams (x2) – £3.00
HS15-4265 – Desert Raider Mortar Teams (x2) – £3.50
HS15-4266 – Desert Raider Gun Crew (x5) – £2.50
HS15-4269 – Desert Raider Drivers (x4) – £1.50

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

The ABC of South America

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Tony

Militarily, the three most powerful nations in South America have always been Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Having already released the latter two Imperial Skies fleets, we’re completing the alphabetical trifecta with the Argentines.

There are seven models in the fleet with replacements for the existing five vessels, plus two new additions in the shape of the Libertad battlecruiser and Guerrico frigate. The new models are in line with our other upgraded fleets, with better detail, separate turrets and resin hulls for the heavier ships.

VAN-1301 – Moreno class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-1302 – Buenos Aires class Heavy Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-1303 – Patagonia class Light Cruiser – £2.50
VAN-1304 – Mendoza class Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-1305 – Rosales class Torpedo Frigate – £1.00
VAN-1306 – Libertad class Battlecruiser – £8.00
VAN-1307 – Guerrico class Frigate – £1.00

VANFP-1301 – Argentine Fleet Pack – £21.50
VANFP-1311 – Argentine Torpedo Flotilla – £21.50

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, New Releases, Salute 2021 | 1 Comment

Ambulance Chasers

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Tony

It’s back to the new releases again, today with a pair of 15mm military ambulances. Both are designed to also be dual purpose and usable as command or utility vehicles as well.

The PacFed Sharkey ambulance is a wide-bodied grav vehicle. The main hull flares out either side into a pair of sponsons each with racks for two stretcher cases, and the roomy hull leaves plenty of space for the medical crew to work. A Sharkey is large enough to act as an emergency field operating theatre with a compact robotic surgeon to back up any human counterpart.

The same hull, when fitted with a full command and electronic warfare suite, is known as the Rangatira command vehicle. These are used up to company level – at battalion level and beyond the larger Bennelongs are used.

The Sharkey/Rangatira has a single-piece resin hull with a metal crew hatch. The hull has a 7mm turret ring which is covered by a blanking plate on the Sharkey or mounts a radar in the Rangatira. It will also accept a small gun or missile turret, or you could even mount a small crane to make an engineering vehicle.

The EuroFed Legion Etranger utilise the Catroux 10-wheeled hull for most purposes, including command and ambulance variants. Like the PacFed equivalent, the same hull can be a command vehicle or ambulance by swapping over the blanking plate or radar.

SF15-408b – Catroux Command Vehicle – £8.00
SF15-408g – Catroux Ambulance – £8.00
SF15-715 – Sharkey Ambulance – £7.50
SF15-715a – Rangatira Command Vehicle – £7.50

All of these (command versions as well as ambulances) are part of our Surgeon General charity fund-raising range. 50% of the ex-VAT price of these models will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Posted in 15mm SF, New Releases, Surgeon General | 1 Comment

Houses of Healing

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Tony

Next up on the Salute 21 conveyor belt are our 2mm scale hospitals. Both designed by Phil, they are based on real ones that are (relatively) close to us in Kent

The Modern Hospital is a stark, white, clean affair with lots of airy windows.

The large Victorian Hospital has a cloistered central courtyard to allow the patients to get some fresh air, with a classic design that includes a colonnaded side entrance. It’s paired with a second, much smaller cottage hospital that looks very much like it’s had bits added to it over the years. Both would also serve equally well as a stately home or manor house respectively.

Finally in today’s releases, we have the Aldeburgh Martello tower. One of over 100 defensive towers that used to ring the coast of south east England, the Aldeburgh example is unique in its quatrefoil design.

SSS-8175 – Albeburgh Martello – £1.00
SSS-8176 – Victorian Hospitals (x2) – £3.50
SSS-8177 – Modern Hospital – £4.50

The two hospital models are part of our Surgeon General charity fund-raising range. 50% of the ex-VAT price of these models will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Posted in New Releases, Salute 2021, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

The Lady with the Lamp

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Tony

Next off the Salute conveyor belt is the Nightingale Hospital Ship, a new Merchant vessel for Imperial Skies. It’s the size of a battleship and has plenty of game value as an objective or even maybe a game where you have to rescue survivors from another stricken craft. Alternatively, with a different paint job it would serve as a liner or troop ship. There’s plenty of open deck space to fit it with turrets from our Accessories range to turn it into an armed merchant or Q-Ship.

VAN-5019 – Nightingale Hospital Ship – £6.00

The Nightingale is part of our Surgeon General charity fund-raising range. 50% of the ex-VAT price of this model will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Posted in Imperial Skies, New Releases, Salute 2021 | 1 Comment

Stellar Hauler

Posted on November 24, 2021 by Tony

Hitting the website today is the Neptune Conveyor, a medium sized cargo spaceship. A simple three-piece model (resin hull, metal engines and probe), it is also available in a new third Merchant Convoy pack along with two each of the medium freighters that came out earlier in the year.

Neptune Conveyor

SFSP-5003 – Merchant Convoy #3 – £21.50
SFS-5027 – Neptune Conveyor – £4.00

Posted in New Releases, Salute 2021, Spaceships | 1 Comment

Medical Centres

Posted on November 19, 2021 by Tony

The next batch of new releases to arrive on the website are these three 6mm Medical Centres, one each in the Desert Buildings, Research Base and Moonbase ranges.

Desert Medical Centre

Research Base Medical Centre

Moonbase Medical Centre

These models are the first in our new Macmillan charity fund-raising range. 50% of the ex-VAT price of these models will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support. All of the models will be listed in the ranges in which they belong, and there is also a separate page for the range, which we’ve christened the Surgeon General range, which will bring all of the models together. We’ll update the page as we go along with how much money we’ve raised (we’re not expecting to raise a fortune, but every little helps).

B300-148 – Desert Medical Centre – £3.50
B300-507 – Research Base Medical Centre – £2.00
B300-606 – Moonbase Medical Centre – £3.00

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment