SELWG 2018

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Tony

The shows come thick and fast this time of year; our next port of call is Crystal Palace for SELWG 2018 on Sunday week, October 21st. As always, advance orders for collection at the show are welcome – you can either place an order and pay in advance using the collect in person option on the website, or just drop us an email with a list and pay on the day. I have a couple of days off next week which means I need a little more notice than usual – so ideally any pre-orders need to be with us by the end of this weekend (Sunday 14th) so that I have enough time to get them ready.

It’s also the final chance to see our local clubs’ (Maidstone Wargames Society) Twisting the Dragon’s Tale demonstration game, a depiction of the 1918 raid on Zeebrugge featuring a 28mm scale light cruiser!

Posted in Shows | 4 Comments

Sons of Fūjin

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Tony

Today sees the official website release of our new, remastered Japanese Aeronef capital ships. We’ve previewed these extensively and had them for sale at Tabletop Gaming Live last weekend, so you’ve seen them before. There are four new models – replacements for the Yashima and Yamashiro battleships, and a new version of the Ryujo class carrier. There’s also a brand new ship, the Shinano class dreadnought.

All follow the new configuration of resin hull with lots of metal detail fittings, including separate turrets – the Japanese use the same types as our British battleships.

We’ve reconfigured the existing fleet packs, added a new one containing two Shinanos plus escorts, and introduced a Japanese Grand Fleet Pack for the first time.

VAN-602 – Yashima class Battleship – £7.50
VAN-603 – Ryujo class Carrier – £9.00
VAN-615 – Yamashiro class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-617 – Shinano class Dreadnought – £8.00

VANFP-026 – Japanese Grand Fleet Pack – £48.00
VANFP-601 – Japanese Fleet Pack #1 – £22.00
VANFP-602 – Japanese Carrier Pack – £22.00
VANFP-604 – Japanese Fleet Pack #2 – £22.00
VANFP-605 – Japanese Fleet Pack #3 – £22.00

That leaves us on target to complete the overhaul of all of the major powers’ capital ships by the end of the year. We’re only left with the USA to update, and the new masters arrived for those a couple of weeks’ ago (in fact Phil is already making the moulds for the metal parts).

Posted in Aeronef, New Releases | 2 Comments

A Day at the Races

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Tony

Following the preview last week, we’ve added our Roman racetrack to the website. I’ve been referring to it as a Hippodrome, but that’s the Greek term for the same thing. It’s based on the remains of the Roman circus in Jerash, Jordan – this is quite a small one at 250m long, the Circus Maximus in Rome is almost three times the size ! It’s a one-piece resin casting which is roughly 10″ long by 3″ wide.

SSS-8115 – Roman Circus – £9.00

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Painted Japanese

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Tony

One last post before the weekend – I’ve finished painting the new Japanese Aeronef and these are ready to go at Tabletop Gaming Live.

There are four new models – from left to right these are the new Shinano class dreadnought, and new versions of the Yamashiro and Yashima battleships, and the Ryujo fleet carrier. We have stocks of all of these models and fleet packs (the only thing I didn’t manage was to create a new fleet pack with the Shinano in – that will have to wait until they hit the website next week).

VAN-602 – Yashima class Battleship – £7.50
VAN-603 – Ryujo class Carrier – £9.00
VAN-615 – Yamashiro class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-617 – Shinano class Dreadnought – £8.00

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, Previews | 1 Comment

Gimme Shelter

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Tony

We’ve now run through the new models that will be available at Tabletop Gaming Live tomorrow. I’ve found time to put two of these on the website – the two sets of Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) are now available to buy, although they obviously won’t start shipping until next week.

With the earlier than usual start to the show (9am) there won’t be time to set up tomorrow morning, so I’m off to the workshop to load up then up to Alexandra Palace to set the stand up this afternoon. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

SSS-8116 – NATO Hardened Aircraft Shelters (x6) – £3.00
SSS-8117 – WarPac Hardened Aircraft Shelters (x6) – £5.00

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | Comments Off on Gimme Shelter

6mm Crucible Detachments

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Tony

Something we’ve been wanting to do for a little while is expand on our range of pre-made 6mm detachment packs for the Crucible, as we have with the 15mm Hammer’s Slammers range. This week we received some new backing cards for our blisters and I’ve been able to put together a number of detachment packs in time for the show this weekend.

These packs are a great way to get into the game, costing around £5-£12 each for a full detachment that matches the appropriate detachment sheet from the Crucible website.

We’ve revamped some of the old packs that didn’t match the detachment lists, so all of the ones for the Slammers regiment have been replaced by new ones with the correct contents. And of course as soon as I get time, we’ll add all of these to the website.

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

10mm Research

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Tony

The last of our new items for Tabletop Gaming Live are from our 10mm Sci-Fi buildings range. We’ve rescaled some more of our existing buildings, from the Research Base set, to this scale (I can’t remember if I rescaled the 15mm versions down or the 6mm ones up !). The first three buildings to appear in 10mm are the Accommodation Block, Small Garage Block and Utility Shed. Assuming sales on these are OK, we’ll do the other models in the set later.

Posted in 10mm SF, Previews | 1 Comment

Hardened Shelters

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Tony

We have some more 2mm previews to follow on from the Hippodrome yesterday, although these are somewhat smaller and a lot further down the historical timeline.

In response to a customer request, we’ve produced two sets of Cold War Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) of the type seen dispersed across military airfields all over the world. Both sets are of a size to accommodate a single fighter-bomber plus ground crew and equipment.

Type 1 are NATO designs, based on those at Leeuwarden Air Base in the Netherlands. These are simple reinforced concrete shelters which aren’t buried or covered over.

The second, larger type are based on a Czech design. These ones are covered in soil and grass to increase the level of protection – internally they’re probably the same size as the NATO ones, but the earth cover makes them appear larger from the outside.

Both sets are cast in resin and come in packs of six.

Although these are part of the 2mm range, they could equally be used as 6mm sheds or workshops – just a thought…

Posted in Previews, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Counting Down to TTGL

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Tony

So I’m back from my holiday and have cleared the order backlog, everything to the end of Sunday has shipped so things are officially Back To Normal on the mail-order turnaround front. I’ve turned my attention back to Tabletop Gaming Live, which is just five days away now. Although it’s very close, you still just about have time to get in pre-orders if there’s anything you’d like us to reserve for you – I’m casting tomorrow, so really need them by the end of today (Tuesday 25th).

As mentioned, because of holidays ‘n’ stuff we’ve not released anything new for a couple of weeks, instead holding some bits and pieces over to the show itself. We’ve already previewed the Japanese Aeronef – I’m just polishing off the painting on these and will take some better photos later.

We will have some new releases in the Small Scale Scenery range. The first of these is the largest model we’ve yet produced in the range – even bigger than the previous holder of this title, the Roman Amphitheatre. This is a model of a Roman Hippodrome, or racetrack, with the dimensions based on the remains of the one at Jerash in Jordan but with some details influenced by others around the world. It’s over 250mm (10″) long and 75mm wide, plenty big enough for a 2mm scale chariot. There’s no truth in the rumour that we’re about to launch a 2mm scale Ben Hur game, complete with tweezers to move the pieces !

Posted in Previews, Small Scale Scenery | 2 Comments

Big in Japan

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Tony

As mentioned, we’re looking to have some new releases at Tabletop Gaming Live, and these are the first of them. The Japanese Aeronef fleet is the penultimate one of the major powers to get an overhaul (the US are coming by the end of the year), with replacements for the Yamashiro and Yashima battleships and the Ryujo carrier. And as we have with the other fleets, I couldn’t resist adding an extra model, so we also have the Shinano dreadnought. The photo below is of my semi-painted prototypes, I’ll arrange for someone proper photos next week.

Posted in Aeronef, Previews | Comments Off on Big in Japan