A Decade On

Posted on January 16, 2024 by Tony

It’s a small but significant anniversary today – it’ll be ten years since one of us (Tony to be precise) took the plunge and threw himself into Brigade full time. Overall, Brigade has been running for almost 36 years, but for the first quarter century it was a part-time exercise. We didn’t announce it until a little later as there were a few legal loose-ends to tie up first, so you won’t have known at the time, but Tony’s first day as a full-time Brigadier was Jan 16th, 2014. A lot of water (and resin and metal) has flowed under the bridge since then.

At a rough estimate, we’ve released well over 2000 new items in those ten years – that’s something like four a week !

  • 270 15mm SF vehicles
  • 253 Imperial Skies craft
  • 239 6mm SF vehicles
  • 213 Small Scale Scenery items
  • 151 6mm buildings and scenery items, and 22 packs
  • 149 Spaceships
  • 118 packs of 15mm figures
  • 117 15mm detachments and platoon packs
  • 100 sheets of 15mm decals
  • 84 6mm detachments and company packs
  • 68 15mm buildings and scenery items
  • 67 Imperial Skies fleet and flotilla packs
  • 51 packs of assorted 15mm accessories and components
  • 42 assorted packs of accessories and components for Imperial Skies
  • 21 10mm SF buildings
  • 20 Spaceship squadron packs
  • 18 28mm WWI vehicles
  • 14 Squadron Commander fighters
  • 12 packs of 28mm WWI Belgian figures
  • 12 1/700th coastal forts and buildings
  • 11 15mm WWI vehicles
  • 10 packs of 6mm figures
  • 4 Celtos army packs for SAGA

plus of course the various packs of dice and bases, plus rulebooks, gameplay aids etc.

As a small celebration, here’s another splendid looking Brigadier to add to our collection. Technically, he’s not actually a Brigadier – in fact we outrank him, as he’s a Lieutenant Colonel. Lt Colonel Carrera in fact, of the Royalist army on Pontefract. He appears in the Hammer’s Slammers story The Darkness, and we were always struck by the description of him – “An officer in a green dress uniform with gold crossbelts was coming up the steps from one of the trailers, steadying his bicorne hat“. We just had to have a version of the Brigadier in a bicorne ! So here he is, sculpted for us by Jeremey ‘Germy’ Claridge.

SF15-016 – Brigadier in Bicorne – £0.50

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, New Releases, Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

Dodgy History

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Tony

Today we have a couple more additions to the Small Scale Scenery range of forts and castles, including one of the models we previewed at the start of the year.

Schloss Wewelsburg is a renaissance castle built between 1603 and 1609 near Paderborn, Westphalia. It was fought over and changed hands several times in the Thirty Years War, and was razed by Swedish troops, being rebuilt after 1650. It also acted as a military prison in the Seven Years War, and even had witch trials held in the cellar in 1631.

Its C.20th history is somewhat darker, as it was leased by Heinrich Himmler in 1934 and became an important centre of the Nazi cult. Rather than repeat all of that rather sinister background here, you can read about it on Wikipedia. In 1945, as the war came to an end, the fleeing SS garrison attempted to destroy the castle but ran out of explosives, and it was siezed by US forces.

Nowadays, after restoration the castle houses several museums and war memorials, covering both the WW2 era and earlier.

Our second release is Hull Castle, an artillery fort built in 1542 as part of Henry VIII’s Device Fort program (keen followers will know that there are plenty of other Device Forts in the range already). The castle was rectangular with a curved bastion at either end and a central keep. There were also two large satellite blockhouses, each with three bastions, all linked by a crenellated curtain wall – the whole structure was over half a mile from end to end.

The castle, like so many Device Forts, never saw any action against the French and Spanish who it was intended to deter (so arguably it did its job). From 1577, it was used to imprison Catholics who refused accept the Church of England. It did see extensive action in the English Civil War when Hull declared for parliament, including two sieges and the accidental demolition of part of the North blockhouse by the defenders ! Eventually the defences of Hull were remodelled and the castle and South blockhouse became part of the Hull Citadel. In the Napoleonic wars it was used as an armoury, but eventually the whole site was demolished as the docks were expanded. Nowadays there is nothing left apart from some excavated foundations.

We’ve modelled the three main structures of the castle, and suggest that if you wish to model the wall that you use the resin wall pieces from our Modular Castle set.

SSS-8206 – Schloss Wewelsburg – £6.00
SSS-8207 – Hull Castle – £5.00

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Hindi Troopers

Posted on January 5, 2024 by Tony

To follow on from our recent 15mm Hindi armoured vehicles for Hammer’s Slammers, we have some new infantry figures to accompany them, this time from Jeremey Claridge. There’s a nine-man infantry section (NCO, SAW gunner, buzzbomb gunner and two each of three riflemen) plus some heavy weapon teams. They are wearing full-face helmets with respirator masks, fatigues with knee and elbow pads plus a semi-rigid backpack.

There are also some light support laser teams for fire support, and weapon crew figures so you can man the new towed guns that are a crucial part of the Hindi forces.

John Treadaway has recently updated the Hindi detachment sheet on the Hammer’s Slammers website

 

 

HS15-4460 – Hindi Rifle Squad (x9) – £4.00
HS15-4461 – Hindi Crew Figures (x4) – £1.50
HS15-4462 – Hindi Support Laser Teams (x2) – £3.00

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

Happy New Year !

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Tony

OK, so we’re a couple of days late, but Happy New Year anyway …

We’re also back in the workshop and working through the backlog. We don’t usually get many orders between Christmas and New Year, so we can safely take the week off without worrying too much – but not this time. We’ve returned to a significant pile of orders, enough to keep us busy for a while. We’ll plough through them as fast as we can, but at the moment there’s likely to be a delay of a couple of weeks on any new orders.

As always, we have some grand plans for new releases this year – let’s see how many we actually manage to get out of the door ! There’s a significant new Hammer’s Slammers force in 15mm almost ready to go – we just need to paint and photograph the sample models (so we’re praying for a break in the weather in order to get that done). However, here’s a sample than John Treadaway (co-author of the Slammer’s rulebook) painted up for us.

Ar842 APC – Baffin’s Legion

We still need to finish the South American project for Imperial Skies – the Bolivians are due next (a few of their vessels can be seen below), after which we need to complete the final fleet, the Venezuelans. Then we’ll be able to move on to other subjects, probably visiting some of the less travelled parts of Europe along with revamping more of the existing models (Ottoman Turks and the Scandinavians are top of this list).

Bolivian Imperial Skies flotilla

We’re hoping to get a brand new spaceship fleet out – they’re been stuck in development hell for quite some time, so we’re saying nothing more about that in case we jinx it…

The Small Scale Scenery range rolls on and on … this is one of our offerings for the near future, Castle Wewelsburg, which has a rather chequered history.

In 6mm we’ll be catching up with some of last year’s 15mm releases, especially Hammer’s Slammers ones (we must get those Han Chinese trucks out…). As always, we’ll continue to expand one of the largest ranges of 6mm sci-fi scenery going.

Caravanserai Oasis

And, after a long, long gap, Germy has been at the sculpting desk creating some new 6mm Power Armour for us.

And lastly, we’re hoping to release something completely new at Salute – something historical, and a subject we don’t think anyone else has tackled in our chosen scale. But again, we’re not saying too much just in case…

Here’s hoping that the dice are kind and your brush points stay sharp for 2024 !

Posted in Previews, Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

Have a Good One !

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Tony

We’re fast approaching Christmas, just four days to go as this post is published. We’ve spent the week ploughing through the sale orders, which came in a very big flurry in the last couple of days of the promotion. We’re taking today to get all of the ones finished so far in the post, as well as a few admin tasks – it’s the end of the year, so salaries need paying, taxes settling up, accounts updated etc. As things stand, pretty much all of the orders that arrived up to and including Saturday 16th have been processed and were posted this morning – hopefully all the UK ones will reach their destination by Christmas Day, although obviously overseas customers will have to wait a little longer. We’ll also be in the workshop tomorrow trying to get a few more done, which will be posted on Saturday, but there are too many orders remaining to hope to get them all done this week. As always, we’ll be taking a well-earned rest for the period between Christmas and New Year, so any remaining outstanding orders will be dealt with as quickly as possible when we return on January 2nd. The website will still be open for new orders, but they also won’t be dealt with until the New Year.

We have some festive good news as well about our Surgeon General range. If you haven’t come across it, this is a small set of medically-themed models which we use to raise money for charity. Sales have been pretty good across the range this year, and it has allowed us to donate a further £150 to Macmillan Cancer Support. That makes £350 in total now, which is a brilliant result, so thank you to everyone that has bought anything from the Surgeon General this year. We’re looking to add a few more new items to the range in 2024.

Posted in Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

The Brigadier gets Festive

Posted on December 5, 2023 by Tony

It’s that time of year again when the Brigadier, opens his sack and, once the moths have dispersed, hands out presents to the local children. No, wait, that’s Santa! Instead, the Brigadier dons his red dress uniform, opens up his laptop and hands out discounts from the website. For one reason or another (mostly working around domestic commitments) we’re slightly later than usual, which means the sale will be short and sharp, running until midnight GMT on Sunday December 17th.

Until then, any order of £10 or over placed on the website will get 15% off by using the code BRIGADIERSANTA2023 – the offer covers almost all of our models (there are a couple of minor exceptions, see below). Unlike in previous years (on our old website) you must enter this code at the checkout – it’s not applied automatically.

The offer doesn’t cover any books, accessories (dice and bases), acrylic tokens – basically anything we don’t make ourselves, because the margins on those are tight. We’ve also excluded one or two subsets of models because they’re slow/awkward to produce. These include Iron Stars, and our 15mm and 10mm SF buildings. You can still add these items to your order, they just won’t be discounted.

Since we get a tend to get a reasonable response to our sales (or we hope we will) it means that our turnaround time on orders won’t be as quick as usual. In particular, we can’t guarantee to get orders to you for Christmas, so please bear that in mind, although we will do our best.

Don’t forget that you can buy the splendid festive version of the Brigadier in 15mm from the website.

Posted in Special Offers | 1 Comment

It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green

Posted on November 24, 2023 by Tony

Given the large number of planets that humanity has colonised in the Hammer’s Slammers series, there’s surprising little sign or mention of sentient aliens in the books. One race that does materialise (literally) is the Molts from the planet Oltenia – they’re also known as Autochthons, although this simply means original inhabitants. They are bipedal, humanoid creatures with the ability to teleport which they do by tuning into the energy flows in the living rock of the planet. This talent is put to good use in their campaign of hit and run raids against the human colonisers of Oltenia, who the Molts view as unwelcome occupiers of their planet. The Oltenians struggle to contain the local populace and eventually end up hiring the Slammers to restore order (the story is At Any Price – you’ll find it in book two of the three volume compendium).

Molt figures have always been available in 25mm from Ground Zero Games, but not in the smaller scales. This week we’re rectifying that in 6mm with the release of a set of Molt figures, sculpted for us by Martin Baker (who also sculpted the 25mm ones back in 2010). There are 24 figures per pack – three each of eight sculpts, including a leader/elder with bladed weapon, gunner with captured buzzbomb and six figures with small arms (either a powergun or combat shotgun).

Molts are reptilians and have green skin which darkens as they age, and yellow-ish eyes (good luck with those in 6mm…). They don’t wear clothing, although they have adopted crossbelts, bandoliers and pouches to store ammunition – doubtless stolen from a hapless Oltenian trooper.

They don’t have a regular organisation like human forces, instead they are arranged in ‘Themes’ (their equivalent to a detachment in the rules). Individuals are classified by their age and experience, from Adolescents through to Elders, and are armed with a selection of small arms, hand weapons or explosives. The Crucible gives details of how to generate a Theme, with differing numbers of each category and armament. The rules were originally written to handle Molt warriors as individuals – but this was using 25mm figures. If you don’t want to have to deal with single 6mm figures, we’d suggest using the rules as written but grouping the Molts on bases of 3-4 figures as we have and treating each base as you would a single 25mm figure.

HS6-4670 – Molt Warriors (x24) – £3.00

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

An Epic Scenario

Posted on November 21, 2023 by Tony

You may (or may not) remember that back in 2016, we were involved in the successful Kickstarter for Polyversal, a 6mm SF miniatures game from Collins Epic Wargames.

Byron from CEW has just published the first new scenario for the game, which features amongst the combatants our Ridgway walkers. You can find it on his Google drive here, or click on the image below. The files include some background fiction (Byron recommends that you read this first) and a feedback form, and we know he’d appreciate your thoughts on it.

Posted in 6mm SF, Polyversal | Comments Off on An Epic Scenario

Slammers Update

Posted on November 17, 2023 by Tony

Since the new website came online, we’ve been putting a lot of effort into updating some of the content of our various ranges – it was always something we wanted to do but put off until the new site was ready (after all, what would be the point of updating the old one when it was due to be retired ?). In particular, we’ve been looking closely at the Hammer’s Slammers part of the website, setting unique pages for as many of the different armies and mercenary units as we can and listing all of the different model options for each one. Hopefully this will make life easier for new gamers to find their way around and pick the correct vehicles and infantry units for their forces.

To this end, we’ve also created some new pre-packaged detachment packs to make things really easy – just pick a detachment that takes your fancy and you’ll get a complete force ready to put on the table (once you’ve painted it of course !). We’ve concentrated on the forces derived from the stand-alone novel The Forlorn Hope. Strictly speaking this isn’t a Hammer’s Slammers story (the Slammers don’t appear in it) but since it deals with the adventures of another mercenary unit it fits right in, and David Drake was happy for it to be considered part of the Slammerverse as far as the game is concerned.

It deals with the fortunes of Fasolini’s Company on the planet Cecach, caught between the forces of the Federals (who they are fighting for) and the religious zealot Republicans. It brings some interesting equipment to the table, such as Fasolini’s tracked support guns, the huge Kastenwagen personnel carrier and the Henschel Eisenfaust laser tank. There are detachment lists available for the Fasolinis, Federals and Republicans including regular troops and garrison units, plus a new mercenary unit, Podele’s Lions.

You can find dedicated sections for Forlorn Hope in both 6mm and 15mm on the website. Each of these has sections for Fasolini’s Company, Podele’s Lions and the two indigenous Cecach forces. We’ve also added detachment packs for each force which cover all of their options on the lists. Each pack makes up a complete detachment with vehicles and infantry as appropriate, plus in the 15mm packs you also get tank crew, vehicle stowage, right down to bases for the infantry.

HSD15-301 – Fasolini Company Detachment (410CGS Guns) – £43.00
HSD15-301q – Fasolini Company Detachment (440CGS Quad Guns) – £43.00
HSD15-302 – Fasolini Support Detachment – £24.00
HSD15-901 – Cecach Republican Commando Detachment – £45.00
HSD15-902 – Cecach Republican Mechanised PzGren Detachment – £68.00
HSD15-903 – Cecach Republican Infantry Detachment – £43.00
HSD15-904 – Cecach Republican Mechanised Infantry Detachment – £48.00
HSD15-905 – Cecach Republican Armoured Detachment – £91.00
HSD15-1301 – Cecach Federal Garrison Detachment – £82.00
HSD15-1302 – Cecach Federal Mechanised Garrison Detachment – £92.00
HSD15-1303 – Cecach Federal Infantry Morale Detachment – £58.00
HSD15-1304 – Cecach Federal Mechanised ‘Intruder’ Detachment – £81.00
HSD15-801 – Podele’s Lions Heavy Infantry Detachment – £45.00
HSD15-802 – Podele’s Lions Panzer Grenadier Detachment – £52.00
HSD15-803 – Podele’s Lions Panzer Detachment – £71.00
HSD15-804 – Podele’s Lions Assault Panzer Detachment – £105.00

HSD6-301 – Fasolini Company Detachment (410CGS Guns) – £7.25
HSD6-301q – Fasolini Company Detachment (440CGS Quad Guns) – £7.25
HSD6-901 – Cecach Republican Commando Detachment – £5.75
HSD6-902 – Cecach Republican Mechanised PzGren Detachment – £10.00
HSD6-903 – Cecach Republican Infantry Detachment – £6.25
HSD6-904 – Cecach Republican Mechanised Infantry Detachment – £6.75
HSD6-905 – Cecach Republican Armoured Detachment – £11.50
HSD6-1301 – Cecach Federal Garrison Detachment – £10.50
HSD6-1302 – Cecach Federal Mechanised Garrison Detachment – £11.50
HSD6-1303 – Cecach Federal Infantry Morale Detachment – £8.00
HSD6-1304 – Cecach Federal Mechanised ‘Intruder’ Detachment – £11.00
HSD6-801 – Podele’s Lions Heavy Infantry Detachment – £6.25
HSD6-802 – Podele’s Lions Panzer Grenadier Detachment – £7.00
HSD6-803 – Podele’s Lions Panzer Detachment – £9.75
HSD6-804 – Podele’s Lions Assault Panzer Detachment – £12.00

Posted in 15mm SF, 6mm SF, Hammer's Slammers | 1 Comment

A Sluggish Expansion

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Tony

Phil Page, our friend at Slug Industries, has a Kickstarter running to expand his 1/300th Medieval village. We’re pleased to see that it’s already reached it’s target, but you still have a couple of weeks to jump on board and pick up some beautifully detailed micro-Medieval buildings.

If you missed his initial KS for the first part of the village (which includes a very nifty laser-cut partially constructed barn), we still have a small number of sets left on our website (you won’t find them anywhere else).

Posted in Slug Industries | Comments Off on A Sluggish Expansion