Holiday Time (again).

Posted on September 12, 2021 by Tony

I’m off on holiday again for a few days – in fact by the time this post is published, we should be on the road. The Brigadieress and I are taking the faithful hound down to the west country, staying in a posh glamping site near Glastonbury. Hopefully the weather will hold …

Glastonbury Tor

All orders to the end of the Thursday (ie to September 9th) have been packed and sent – I’m afraid anything else will have to wait until we get back. The site is a bit isolated, so I’m not sure what the phone reception will be like (and there’s definitely no wifi) – but hopefully I’ll be able to answer emails, just not as promptly. In the meantime, we have a small scale treat for you running through the week, starting tomorrow…

Posted in Updates and General Waffle | Comments Off on Holiday Time (again).

Laser Towers

Posted on September 10, 2021 by Tony

Recently we helped out a customer who was trying to assemble some 6mm Laser Towers, using our existing Control Tower model as a base. We thought it would be pretty easy to create a new specific laser tower, using a new resin tower model and a 15mm metal laser weapon that we already have. So here’s the result…

They’re available singly or in a pack with two laser towers and one radar tower. Other weapons or turrets could be used – if there’s anything else from our ranges you’d like instead of the laser, just drop us a line.

BP300-1006 – Laser Tower Pack – £11.00
B300-1006 – Laser Tower – £4.00
B300-1006a – Radar Tower – £4.00

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

Return to the Front Line – SELWG 2021

Posted on September 7, 2021 by Tony

Very soon we’ll be returning to the show circuit, after an enforced absence of 18 months (our last show was Cavalier in February 2020 – about four weeks before the first lockdown. Remember that … ?). We have three shows this year – Broadside and Salute have both been relocated to the end of this year, while SELWG is making a comeback at it’s usual time, albeit in a new venue. The SELWG club have moved their event to the Lee Valley Athletics Centre in Edmonton, north-east London, which promises to be a much better venue with improved access and lots more parking.

We’re still working out how the stand will look – we have 18 months’ worth of new releases to cram on there somewhere, which probably means some older items will have to be dropped, and of course we have the modern-day issues of COVID safety to factor in. It’ll be a good practice run for Salute in early November!

Posted in Shows | 3 Comments

Search Party

Posted on September 3, 2021 by Tony

When A Billion Suns was released we drew up a handy chart that assigned each of our models to the ship classifications in the rulebook. This was a useful exercise for us, as it showed up a few places where we had gaps in the range – in particular, a lack of scout or recon ships for many fleets. Today we’re going some way to correcting that, as the British, Neo-Soviet, South African and German fleets all gain a scoutship of some description. As an added bonus the British also get the Harrier class Attack Corvette, which we’ve assigned to the Gunship category.

SFS-151 – Harrier class Attack Corvette – £0.50
SFS-152 – Vigilant class Scoutship – £0.50
SFS-351 – Thetis class Scoutship – £0.50
SFS-651 – Galashewe class Scoutship – £0.50
SFS-1251 – Steregushchiy class Scoutship – £0.50

Posted in A Billion Suns, New Releases, Spaceships | 1 Comment

Fast Attack

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Tony

Some of the first models in both our 6mm and 15mm sci-fi ranges were the three variants of the EuroFed Javelot scout car. The larger scale versions were replaced several years ago with new designs, along with several 6×6 vehicles. We’ve now brought these updated models to the smaller scale.

There are five basic vehicles – the Javelot 4×4 scout car, the Musareigne 4×4 utility car, Lievre 6×6 pickup, and the Belette and Blaireau 6×6 field cars.

Javelot 4×4 Family – (l-r) missile, Musaraigne, gatling, mortar, twin MG

The Javelot and Belette have three armed variants with either a twin MG, missile or gatling mounts. The Javelot also comes in mortar and tow truck options as well, for a grand total of 11 new vehicles.

(l-r) Belette gatling, Belette missile, Blaireau, Belette twin MG, Lievre

In the Hammer’s Slammers universe, these vehicles are used by the Hashemite Nation as their primary light vehicles, alongside a smaller number of larger Broadsword and Catapult AFVs. Coupled with the recent release of the new Desert Raider figures we’ve been able to put together two 6mm packs for National Brigade and Desert Raider detachments.

SF300-406 – Javelot Scout Car with twin MG – £0.75
SF300-406a – Javelot Scout Car with gatling – £0.75
SF300-406b – Javelot Scout Car with missiles – £0.75
SF300-406c – Musaraigne Utility Car – £0.75
SF300-406e – Javelot Scout Car with mortar – £0.75
SF300-406f – Javelot Tow Truck – £0.75
SF300-412 – Lièvre 6×6 Pickup Truck – £0.80
SF300-412a – Blaireau 6×6 Utility – £0.80
SF300-412b – Belette 6×6 with Twin MGs – £0.80
SF300-412c – Belette 6×6 with Gatling – £0.80
SF300-412d – Belette 6×6 with Missiles – £0.80

HSD6-4201 – Hashemite National Brigade Detachment – £9.75
HSD6-4202 – Hashemite Desert Raider Detachment – £9.50

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

Closest Point to the Sun

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Tony

We’re currently working hard on the redesigned Brazilian and Argentine fleets for Imperial Skies. They’re almost ready to go in fact, with the first samples waiting to be painted, and production moulds lined up at the workshop in anticipation.

But we’re getting into the swing of our South American adventure with a brand new aerial fleet. Ecuador lies in the north west corner of the continent, bordered by Colombia to the north and Peru to the east and south. During our research (yes, we do research things, we don’t make everything up – well, not all of it…) we learnt that the Galapagos Islands, 1000km out into the Pacific, are part of Ecuador (which, incidentally, just means ‘Equator’ in Spanish). And that, because of the way the planet bulges, the Chimborazo Volcano is the closest point on the earth to the sun.

All that aside, militarily the country is not the strongest in the region. When we were initially assessing the countries to determine the size of their air fleets, Ecuador ranked quite low, coming in just above Paraguay. As a result, the largest class are the Tunguruhua heavy cruisers, supported by a number of smaller craft.

The Ecuadorian airships are all armoured dirigibles, with their self-sealing gasbags supplemented by small Loewe Graviton Engines for additional lift. Only the Tunguruhua class have rotating turrets, with casemate guns on other ships plus flotillas of torpedo-armed small craft. Vessels use the prefix DAE; Dirigivel de la Armada del Ecuador.

The fleet has five models, and there’s a mini fleet pack and torpedo flotilla pack. We’ve also provided two flag sheets – the national flag changed in 1900 so we’ve drawn up before and after versions.

VANFP-3201 – Ecuadorian Air Guard Squadron Pack – £13.00
VANFP-3211 – Ecuadorian Torpedo Flotilla – £4.50
VANF-3201 – Ecuadorian Flag (1860-1900) – £0.50
VANF-3202 – Ecuadorian Flag (1900-2009) – £0.50

VAN-3201 – Tunguruhua class Heavy Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-3202 – Zamora class Light Cruiser – £1.75
VAN-3203 – Chimborazo class Destroyer – £1.25
VAN-3204 – Isla class Frigate – £1.00
VAN-3205 – Isabela class Torpedo Cutter (x3) – £1.50

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, New Releases | 2 Comments

Bases Are Back – At Last!

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Tony

As you’re doubtless aware if you have more than a passing acquaintance with this blog, we’ve been completely out of flying stands for some time. Our normal supplier’s mould had failed, and injection moulds are expensive, specialist items to repair or replace. So we were stuck…

However, after much searching we’ve finally been able to locate an alternative source of plastic flying bases. They are of a different design, with a circular base rather than a hexagonal one. The post is of a similar height, although fatter, and the peg at the top is of a slightly larger diameter (which means that you will have to open out the cast-in mounting holes at the bottom of our models with a 2mm drill). The plastic they’re made from seems to be a little softer, so they should be less brittle. We’ve already used them to base up a batch of new models and had no problems – in fact the wider post seems to make it a bit easier to balance the model on top while the glue sets. There is a downside – they are more expensive, costing us around twice as much. But at least we finally – finally – have something to base your flying models. Our stock arrived on Friday and we’ve wasted no time in getting them on the website.

Comparison between the new (left) and old bases.

Because they’re dearer, we’ve decided against putting them in fleet packs, as we’d have to recalculate the price of all the packs.

Coincidentally, we also received a restock of one or two codes of dice that had been out of stock, particularly the small (7mm) dice that are so handy as markers, along with a new colour (orange).

ACC-025 – Clear round-base flying stand (x10) – £4.00
ACC-003O – Small six-sided dice – orange (x10) – £1.00

Posted in A Billion Suns, Accessories, Aeronef, Imperial Skies, New Releases, Spaceships, Squadron Commander | 1 Comment

Italian Edifices

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Tony

Phil has been busy lately, coming up with all sorts of new models for the Small Scale Scenery range. Today we have two magnificent examples from the city of Taranto in Italy.

The first of these if the imposing Palazzo del Governo, a 52m-high imposing government building on the Taranto sea front. It was inaugurated by Mussolini in 1934 and is still used by the provincial government. It looks striking, being built of a mix of buff stone and pinkish brick.

A couple of hundred metres away over the Ponte Girovele is the Castel San Angelo. Also known as the Castello Aragonese, it dates from the C.15th and was built on the foundations of previous fortifications. Parts of the Castel have been demolished over the years to allow for the building of the bridge and widening of the canal – our model shows the structure as it is now.

Both structures would doubtless have been used as navigation markers by Fleet Air Arm pilots during the Battle of Taranto in 1940.

SSS-8168 – Castello de Aragonese – £8.00
SSS-8169 – Palazzo del Governo – £9.00

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Sneak Preview

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Tony

We don’t often do previews of upcoming releases, preferring to let our models sneak out when they’re ready. But we’re making an exception today, as these great new 15mm sculpts arrived last week and we just can’t keep them to ourselves – Phil had them in a mould the next day and Tony cast up the first ones just a day later. They are 15mm versions of our recently released 6mm Desert Raiders, sculpted again by Martin Baker. We have 21 different poses including riflemen, support weapons (buzzbombs and SAWs), command figures, heavy weapons crew, cavalry riders – oh, and a vehicle driver, as they’ll be getting some transport of their own in the near future. There’s also a new version of The Brigadier in desert garb – a sort of Brigadier of Arabia. Release date isn’t set yet – we need to cast and clean up production castings first. But we hope to have them in time for our first show after lockdown, SELWG in October.

Command Figures – the Brigadier is on the left

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

Dropping from Orbit

Posted on August 6, 2021 by Tony

Our games of sci-fi combat, whether it’s in 28mm, 15mm or 6mm scale, involve armies spanning the space between planets before dropping to the surface to face off against the opposition. But how do they get from a giant troop carrier in orbit to the ground ? Today we have a couple of solutions in the shape of the Athena Dropship and Heracles Assault Shuttle.

The Athena is a mid-sized troop carrier, capable of carrying 16 troops in relative comfort or more if they don’t mind being squashed in a bit. It can also accommodate a light tank or armoured car instead if necessary. The model has five pieces – resin hull, with metal wings, engines and tail.

The Heracles is considerably larger with the capacity to haul two main battle tanks or four smaller vehicles, or as much as a full infantry company for short journey. Unlike the Athena, the Heracles has some defensive armament in the shape of two turrets – one dorsal and one chin – mounting either a pair of gatlings or railguns. The model is a one-piece resin hull with the two metal turrets.

At 1/300th scale, the models could also be used in games of Squadron Commander, being escorted by flights of Kestrels or Valkyries. Or you could play the same scenarios with our fleet scale models since both models are already available in that range.

SF300-111 – Athena class Dropship – £6.00
SF300-112 – Heracles class Assault Shuttle – £10.00

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment