Brigade Models

We’ve made it – our final new release of the year, and the last leg in our epic quest to redesign/resculpt the Aeronef models of the six major powers. Today sees the release of the Russian cruiser and escort forces, with six redesigns and two brand new models. You can see all of the new models below, along with the two smaller vessels released last week.

The two new craft are the Kronshtadt Heavy Cruiser, an enormous beast the size of a small battleship with new twin turrets. The other vessel is the Burnyi destroyer, fitted with a forward barbette and torpedo tubes.

There’s a new Fleet pack with a Poltava Dreadnought, an Admiral Nakhimov battlecruiser plus escorts, and a new Russian Escort Flotilla pack with eight destroyers (although I’m afraid we still have no flying stands so the packs are without these for the the moment).

The small Russian barbettes have been redesigned and are available in packs of 12, as is the new cruiser turret on the Kronshtadt. There are even some new flags, the Imperial flag and Naval Jack.

VANFP-502 – Russian Fleet Pack #2 – £21.50
VANFP-513 – Russian Escort Flotilla – 10.00

VAN-501 – Petrapavlovsk Class Cruiser – £2.50
VAN-502 – Archangelsk Class Dig Cruiser – £3.50
VAN-504 – Dobrovolets class Destroyer – £1.00
VAN-505 – Derskyi Heavy Destroyer – £3.50
VAN-507 – Smolensk class Seaplane Tender – £2.50
VAN-511 – Strashchni class Destroyer – £1.75
VAN-516 – Kronshtadt – £4.50
VAN-517 – Burnyi – £1.75

VANF-503 – Russian Imperial Flag – £0.50
VANF-504 – Russian Naval Jack – £0.50

VAN-7051 – Russian Single Barbette (x12) – £1.50
VAN-7052 – Russian Twin Barbette (x12) – £1.50
VAN-7057 – Russian Twin Cruiser Turret (x12) – £1.50

Having finished with the major powers, we’re off in a completely new direction with Aeronef in 2021. News of this coming soon…

That’s it for new releases this year – next Friday is of course Christmas day, and we have better things to do then, as we’re sure you all do!

This week sees the release of new versions of the Russian Raevski Aerial Redoubt and Shevardino Aerial Battery. These heavily armed, static flying defences are positioned to defend harbours and air stations across the huge expanse of Mother Russia. These new versions are resin hulled, making them lighter and much easier to base, and feature the new heavy turrets found on the Russian capital ships. We’ve also released a Defence Battery pack with one Raevski and two Shevardino.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also have new versions of the Russian Murmansk Patrol Nef and Novik Torpedo Nef.

At the same time, the Austro-Hungarians get an updated Lussin Rocket Nef plus a new vessel, the Maros Patrol Nef. The Russian and Austro-Hungarian torpedo flotilla packs have been updated with the new models.

VANFP-511 – Russian Torpedo Flotilla – £4.00
VANFP-512 – Russian Defence Battery – £8.00
VANFP-711 – Austro-Hungarian Rocket Squadron – £4.00

VAN-503 – Murmansk Patrol Nef (x3) – £1.50
VAN-508 – Novik Torpedo Nef (x3) – £1.50
VAN-509 – Shevardino Aerial Battery – £2.00
VAN-510 – Raevski Aerial Redoubt – £5.00
VAN-705 – Lussin Rocket Nef (x3) – £1.50
VAN-716 – Maros Patrol nef – £1.50

At the start of the year we had this grand plan to finish upgrading all of the models of the major powers of the Aeronef world. All six had already had their capital ships replaced by new 3D sculpts, and we’ve also added plenty of new designs – but we had all of the escorts and cruisers still to go. We did most of the British, French and Germans in 2019 (not quite all, there are one or two to go), which left Japan, USA and Russia for this year. The Japanese received cruiser and escort replacements earlier in the summer, and now it’s the turn of the USA to be re-equipped. It’s turned out to be one of the most extensive releases of all of the fleets – we’ve replaced nine existing models and added no fewer than six additional cruisers, destroyers and frigates, plus a new fleet pack.

You may notice one or two re-classifications amongst the ships; the US fleet had some anomalies (largish vessels termed as Frigates, etc) which have been corrected, although all of the names remain the same.

The largest vessel is the Kentucky dirigible; this has a new one-piece resin hull with metal bridge, mast and turret.

Three of the new vessels are designed in the same style as the Lexington class battlecruiser, and form a Fast Pursuit fleet – these are the Raleigh cruiser, Augusta destroyer and Huntsville torpedo destroyer. There is a fleet pack containing two each of the Lexington, Raleigh and Augusta.

Another new ship is the Olympia class Light Cruiser, seen below with the redesigned Maryland model.

VANFP-205 – US Pursuit Pack – £21.50

VAN-201 – Tallahasee Class Patrol Nef – £1.00
VAN-202 – Des Moines Class Destroyer – £2.50
VAN-203 – Michigan Class Light Cruiser- £3.00
VAN-204 – Kentucky Class Dig – £4.25
VAN-208 – Brooklyn class Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-209 – Maryland class Cruiser – £3.75
VAN-210 – Decatur class Corvette – £1.00
VAN-211 – Saginaw class Corvette – £1.00
VAN-213 – Baton Rouge class Cruiser – £3.25
VAN-218 – Olympia class Light Cruiser – £3.25
VAN-219 – Nashville class Frigate – £1.25
VAN-220 – Raleigh class Fast Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-221 – Augusta class Fast Frigate – £1.50
VAN-222 – Huntsville class Fast Torpedo Frigate – £1.50
VAN-223 – Scranton class Torpedo Corvette – £1.00

And we should get to the Russians by Christmas – the moulds are done, the sample models painted for the website so barring unforeseen events (global pandemic, anyone?) we’ll hit our target. And we then we’ll tell you our Aeronef plans for 2021…

We had a very good response to the news of the website reopening at the end of last week, which has kept us busy filling orders. However, we want to get back to the business of releasing new models, since we’ve built up quite a backlog over the past few weeks.

We’re starting today with a new Aeronef model, the British Anson class Battlecruiser. It’s comes in at an impressive 110mm long, as large as an Albert class Dreadnought although not as hefty. She mounts two triple turrets and a pair of superfiring twin turrets, along with a more than respectable secondary battery, and boasts an impressive turn of speed for a vessel her size. In Aeronef however, she does suffer from the “There Seems To Be Something Wrong With Our Bloody Ships !” optional special rule.

VAN-130 – Anson class Battlecruiser – £8.00