Salute 21 – First Additions

After some much-needed R&R following Salute, we’re starting to feed the new releases from the show onto the website. Today we’re starting with three coastal forts in our 1/700th range.

The Lascaris Towers were built in the 17th Century by the Order of St John in Malta. Our set consists of two small watchtowers and a larger artillery tower, of which there are several examples of both on the island. It also has the much larger Saint Agatha’s Tower, which is a bastioned watchtower painted an unusual pinkish-red colour.

Lascaris Towers

Fort Paté is a Vauban fortification on an islet in the Gironde estuary in France built at the end of the 17th century. Along with Fort Médoc and the citadel of Blaye, it defended the approaches to the city of Bordeaux.

Fort Pate

The final new model is Aldeburgh Martello Tower from the Suffolk coast, the largest of the Martello Towers on the UK coastline. It’s effectively four towers joined together to give it a distinctive quatrefoil shape.

If you think you’ve seen some of these before, both Fort Paté and the Lascaris Towers were recent additions to the Small Scale Scenery range – these versions are that bit bigger.

B700-170 – Lascaris Towers – £3.50
B700-173 – Fort Paté – £3.00
B700-175 – Aldeburgh Martello – £1.50

Posted in 1-700th Coastal Forts, New Releases, Salute 2021 | 1 Comment

Salute 21 – The Final Tally

As this post is published, we’ll be loading the van ready for the drive to ExCel where we’ll be setting up for Salute tomorrow.

We have some last minute additions to the roster; the 15mm Sincanmo dune buggies get some heavy support in the shape of this 8×8 armoured car, with several turret options. There are also three new buggy variants – a 4×4 scout, plus 6×6 and half-track command vehicles.

We also have a new Celtos figure,a Vanir Healer sculpted by Jeremey. He doesn’t have a name yet, but might get one later.

Finally (yes, really finally), drifting majestically into view we have the Nightingale class hospital ship for Imperial Skies.

This seems like a good time to summarise all of the new models that we plan to have tomorrow (on the assumption that we remember to bring them with us – yes, there has been the odd occasion when we’ve managed to leave all the stock of one of our new releases behind…). The models with an (M) after the price are part of our charity fundraiser – 50% of the ex-VAT price of these models will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.

15mm Sincanmo
HS15-2901 – Garaad 8×8 Heavy Armoured Car – £7.50
HS15-2901a – Garaad 8×8 AA Car – £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 EW Car- £6.00
HS15-2904 – Qaadi 4×4 Scout – £6.00

15mm Ambulances
HS15-408g – Catroux Ambulance – £8.00 (M)
HS15-715 – PacFed Ambulance – £7.50 (M)

6mm Buildings
B300-148 – Desert Medical Centre – £3.00 (M)
B300-507 – Research Base Medical Centre – £2.00 (M)
B300-606 – Moonbase Medical Centre – £3.00 (M)

Celtos
CLT-212 – Vanir Healer – £4.00 (M)

Small Scale Scenery
SSS-8174 – Albeburgh Martello – £1.00
SSS-8176 – Victorian Hospitals – £3.50 (M)
SSS-8177 – Modern Hospital – £4.50 (M)

Spaceships
SFS-5027 – Neptune Conveyor – £4.00

Imperial Skies
VAN-5019 – Nightingale Hospital Ship – £6.00 (M)
VAN-1301 – Moreno Battleship – £8.00
VAN-1302 – Buenos Aires Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-1303 – Patagonia Cruiser – £2.50
VAN-1304 – Mendoza Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-1305 – Rosales Torpedo Frigate – £1.00
VAN-1306 – Libertad Battlecruiser – £8.00
VAN-1307 – Guerrico Frigate – £1.00

1/700 Forts
B700-170 – Lascaris Towers – £3.50
B700-173 – Fort Pate – £3.00
B700-175 – Aldeburgh Martello – £1.50

Posted in 15mm SF, Aeronef, Celtos, Hammer's Slammers, Imperial Skies, Previews, Salute 2021 | Comments Off on Salute 21 – The Final Tally

Salute 2021 – Micro-Hospitals

Phil gets in on the act today, with three new Small Scale Scenery pieces – a modern hospital building, plus not one but two Victorian-era ones.

The modern one (left) is a large, multi-storey building with loads of windows. The larger of the two Victorian hospitals is a stone building with multiple wings and a central garden for patients to convalesce in. There is also a much smaller cottage hospital, typical of one in a small town or large village.

These models will also be part of our Surgeon General range, raising money for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity. We’re still hoping to be able to squeeze more in before Saturday.

You might have noticed that we’re previewing undercoated or part-painted models; Tony’s a bit behind on the painting, but they should all be finished and ready for the Salute stand. We’ll go back and update the photos as soon as he’s got the last coat of varnish on everything.

Posted in Previews, Salute 2021, Small Scale Scenery | Comments Off on Salute 2021 – Micro-Hospitals

Salute 2021 – Armoured Ambulances

Next in line for Saturday’s releases is a pair of 15mm Sci-fi armoured ambulances. The first is from our Pacific Federation range of grav tanks, and thus would also serve for the Terran Authority Starmarines in Hammer’s Slammers. It’s essentially a slightly smaller version of the 6mm Bennelong model with a boxy body which flares out either side for additional space. Cunningly, it’s designed so that as well as an ambulance, it’ll also serve as a command or utility vehicle; there is a turret mount on the right hand side of the superstructure that will accept a radar, small turret or even a small crane, as well as the blanking plate seen on the left hand model.

PacFed ambulance and command vehicle

The second model is a European Confederation design based on the Catrous 10-wheeler chassis. Like the PacFed example, it has a standard turret mount for radar, gun or missile mounts or again, just the blanking plate for the ambulance version. Unfortunately my sample model is currently sitting in the shed with its coat of Army Painter Quickshade drying overnight, so you’ll just have to make do with a CGI version instead…

Both of these models will be part of our MacMillan fund-raiser, which we’ve christened the Surgeon General range, so we’ll be donating 50% of the sale price of each model to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity. More tomorrow..

Posted in 15mm SF, Previews, Salute 2021 | 1 Comment

Salute 2021 – Space Cargo

Joining the Salute 2021 lineup is the Neptune Conveyor, a large cargo transporter spaceship. The model is a straightforward design with a resin hull and metal engines. It’ll be available individually or in a new merchant fleet pack along with two each of the recently released merchant ships.

Neptune Conveyor

We’ve also got hold of a small number of very nice starmats with a blue nebula design on them. They are a full 6’x4′ in size, and at £35 compare well in price to others of a similar size. I photographed one (below) although my phone has done some odd colour correction tricks – in real life the mat isn’t quite as bright blue as the picture makes it seem.

Posted in Previews, Salute 2021, Spaceships | 1 Comment

15mm Dune Buggies for Salute

Tearing across the sands of Meridienne and into Salute 2021 come the armed dune buggies of the Sincanmo Militia. We have no fewer than eleven different configurations based on 4×4, 6×6 and half-track drives, some with multiple weapon loadouts for even more variation. We’re still finalising all of the options that we’ll offer on the day (I’ve still to paint the command and 4×4 scout versions), there are still a couple of moulds to be made but we should have plenty on the day. The vehicles are an ideal complement to our recently released Desert Raider figures.

Half-track with single AA gun and 6×6 with quad AA.

Half-track with single AA gun and 6×6 missile carrier

Utility and troop-carriers in 6×6 and half-track configurations.

4×4 Radar and Utility versions

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

Salute 21 – new 1/700 Coastal Forts

Next into the Salute line-up are these new 1/700th scale Coastal Forts. We have three models (or rather, two individual models plus a set of four). The largest is Fort Paté, a small oval Vauban fortification in the Gironde estuary in France, built at the end of the 17th century. We also have a 1/700th versions of the Lascaris Towers in Malta – both of these were recently released in the Small Scale Scenery range. The third new model is the rather unusual Aldeburgh Martello Tower from the Suffolk coast, the largest of the Martello Towers on the UK coastline. It’s effectively four towers joined together to give it a distinctive quatrefoil shape. As an added bonus we also have a 1/1000th version in the Small Scale Scenery range.

Fort Pate

Lascaris Towers

Aldeburgh Martello Tower

Posted in 1-700th Coastal Forts, Previews, Salute 2021, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

The Argentines Set Sail for Salute

Making their debut at Salute 2021 are the redesigned Argentine Imperial Skies fleet. There are seven craft in all – replacements for the existing five models, plus a new battlecruiser, the Libertad, and a frigate, the Guerrico. They retain the design style that Phil came up with many years ago with the intersecting circular deck layouts, and which at the time he carefully crafted by hand. These new versions are all digitally designed, which makes life much easier !

Argentine Capital Ships

Argentine Cruisers

Argentine Escorts

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, Previews, Salute 2021 | 1 Comment

Salute 2021

Before we get to the meat of this post, a quick update on orders. PayPal’s postage system was down on Saturday morning so we weren’t able to post anything – the orders were all done, they’ve just been sat in a heap on my office floor for the weekend. However, all is well now and orders up to the end of October (except for one) have been sent this morning. Now we return you to your scheduled programming…

This year’s Salute is creeping up on us very, very fast – it’s just 11 days away now. For us it’ll be slightly different – we won’t have our usual avalanche of new models, we had our Salute line-up sorted for April before the show was rescheduled and they’ve all been released already. However, we will still have a batch of new items on the day, and of course stocks of all of the other bits and pieces that we’ve put out over the past year. Things in the world at large are obviously markedly different since the last show, so before we go further we’ll like to point you at the safety guidelines for the ExCel centre. You will need an NHS Covid pass, proof of double vaccination, Covid-19 antibodies or negative lateral flow test (within the last 48 hours) to gain entry.

We’re starting with news of a mini-range of models all in aid of a good cause. MacMillan Cancer Support is a UK charity that provides specialist health care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer. The treatment unit at one of our local hospitals is MacMillan Cancer Care Unit and we’ve seen what a great job they do, so we decided we’d like to help out in a small way.

We have a new range that will consist of models that could fit into our other ranges – spaceships, tanks, buildings etc – but all with a medical theme. So we will have hospital ships, armoured ambulances, stretcher and first aid teams, full-size hospitals in the Small Scale Scenery range, even healers and apothecaries for Celtos. We wanted to create a range of suitably themed models, but ones that would fit into your existing collections and be useful in gaming terms. We’ll be donating 50% of the net sale price (eg the price without VAT) of each model to MacMillan Cancer Care for the forseeable future.

We will be releasing the first models at Salute, but the range will continue to be added to over time as we have flashes of inspiration. Not everything is painted and photographed yet, but here are some 6mm buildings to start off with – Medical Centres for the 6mm Desert, Moonbase and Research Base sets. As you can see, there’s nothing on the models that makes them specifically medical centres (the red cross on the Moonbase unit is just painted on a blank panel), so if you want to just use them as a generic building then you can.

We’ll add more models between now and Salute, so keep an eye out.

Desert Medical Centre

Moonbase Medical Centre

Research Base Medical Centre

Posted in 6mm SF, Previews, Salute 2021, Shows | 3 Comments

Sand Troopers

So today we’re releasing the first of the new 15mm Desert Raider figures. Seven packs are available including riflemen and support weapons, command figures, tripod-mounted tri-barrel teams, snipers and the impressive Lizard Riders.

We will have stocks of the new figures at SELWG, although the hoped-for new vehicles to accompany them won’t quite be ready. And unfortunately we’ll be short of one Brigadier (and more importantly, one car down) on Sunday so that may affect what we’re able to bring. It’s more likely that we’ll drop some of the display models – the display cases look good but take up a lot of room in the car and a lot of extra stock can be fitted into the same space. So the stand may look slightly different with fewer display models, but we’ll still have as much stock as possible.

The following packs are available on the website today:

HS15-4260 – Rifles (x8) – £4.00
HS15-4261 – Support Weapons (x8) – £4.00
HS15-4262 – Command (x8) – £4.00
HS15-4263 – Tri-barrel Teams (x2) – £3.50
HS15-4267 – Lizard Riders (x2) – £3.00
HS15-4268 – Brigadier – £0.50
HS15-4270 – Sniper Teams (x2) – £2.00

These packs are not on the website yet (they will be as soon as I can get them painted and photographed) but will be available at SELWG on Sunday:

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

And finally, here’s a teaser of their upcoming rides – we’re planning as many as a dozen variants of these dune-buggy-style vehicles in 4×4, 6×4 and half-track configurations, with armament options including AA guns and missiles. With a bit of luck we’ll have them at Salute.

Dune Buggy Preview

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, New Releases, Shows | 3 Comments