Back Again

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Tony

Back from my break, today’s first task is to tackle the order backlog which has built up while I’ve been away. Hopefully this should be cleared within a week or so.

I’ve been in Menorca, which has a much richer military history than I realised. Of special interest are the network of defensive towers, very similar to Martello towers, dotted around the coast. There are fourteen in all (plus one other which has been incorporated into a larger fortress). Expect to see at least some of these, plus other buildings that I’ve spotted which have given me ideas, popping up in the Small Scale Scenery range. In fact, it seems that Menorca is a favoured spot for Inspiration Particles, as I’m returning with a head (and notebook) full of ideas, some of which will come to fruition, others will be consigned to the ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’ dustbin.

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In other matters, we seem to have a small pocket of missing/undelivered orders, including some Imperial Skies ones. At first glance some of these appear to be from a large batch which was posted on the same day – I’ll be doing some investigating when I get a chance. In the meantime, if anyone has not received an order or their Imperial Skies pledge, please either e-mail us or in the case of Imperial Skies, you can contact Robin via the KS page and he’ll pass it onto me.

We have one more show to go this year – Crisis in Antwerp on November 5th – so now seems like a good time to post a reminder about pre-orders. You can select the Collect in Person option on our website, then create your order as normal in the shopping cart, pay for it by PayPal or credit card, but without any postage charges. Alternatively, you can just e-mail us a list and pay by cash on the day. Because of geographical restrictions on our credit card machine, I cannot take card payments at Crisis, just cash (sterling or euros).

Right-o, off to the workshop to fire up the forges…

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Slammers’ Support

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Tony

Following on from our initial release of 6mm Hammer’s Slammers’ vehicles, we have some additional support vehicles released today. The one that gets nearest to the frontline is the mortar version of the A21 jeep, diminutive but with plenty of indirect firepower.

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Further behind the lines you’ll find the cargo and ambulance variants of the M9 combat car. The cargo version in particular is also used by other mercenary units as a transport hauler or as a gun tractor towing anti-tank weapons.

In more Slammers’ news, we have restocks of infantry and skimmers from Ground Zero Games, so the Slammers’ army pack and mobile infantry detachment are available again.

HS6-112b – M9 Cargo Car – £1.00
HS6-112c – M9A4 Ambulance car – £1.00
HS6-113a – A21 Mortar Jeep – £0.50

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Greased Lightning

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Tony

The Lightning Division are a mechanized unit of brigade strength. They are veteran troops originally from Mittel Europa on Old Earth and – in the late 330s TW – they decided to upgrade the motive power sources and transmission systems of their vehicles.

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The M2A7 Blower employed by the Lightning Division from 349TW onwards is based on the M2A4F version, the command tank used by Hammer’s Regiment. This is equipped with a 22cm, discarding-sabot rail-gun and the rear of the turret bulge mounts a small turret with a 1cm gatling rail-gun.

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Infantry are carried in up-armoured M9 Command Car, the M9A14 Crew Car. This has frontal reinforcement compared to a standard Command Car and has two roof mounted 1cm gatling rail-gun turrets mounted offset so that they can both fire forwards and backwards with little impedance.

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The Lightning Division also use the standard A21 hover jeep, and we have a pack available with four each of the tank, crew car and jeep, plus four sprues of infantry figures.

HSD6-1701 – Lightning Division Detachment – £12.00
HS6-1711 – M2A7 Blower Tank – £1.50
HS6-1712 – M9A14 Crew Car – £1.00

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

Last Minute

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Tony

The Brigadieress and I are off for a short break for a few days starting today (in fact we’ll be in mid-air when this is posted). It’s a bit of a last minute decision, but it’s the only time that we can squeeze in a break between shows. I’ve literally chucked everything out of the van from SELWG yesterday, grabbed a suitcase and a couple of hours’ sleep, then headed off to Gatwick. All orders up to the end of Thursday last week have been cleared, but anything placed since then is going to be delayed a little, although Phil will try to clear some while I’m gone. I may also not be responsive to emails for a week or so either.

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I have left a couple of scheduled blog posts for your entertainment, including a new release announcement for Friday.

Photo by Ken Fielding/http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding, used under a Creative Commons license.

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Midi Domes

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Tony

We already have some of our resin Desert Buildings available in 6mm, 10mm and 15mm scales; today we’re releasing the first of our Desert Domes range in the in-between scale.

We have four buildings in this initial offering, enough to make a small settlement. And we already have several more masters lined up for release in the near future.

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B10-404 – Small Multi-dome Dwelling – £3.50
B10-405 – Small Oval Dwelling – £3.00
B10-411a – Small Dwelling A – £2.50
B10-411b – Small Dwelling B – £2.50

Posted in 10mm SF, New Releases | 2 Comments

A Change of Pace

Posted on September 30, 2016 by Tony

Lately we’ve very much been on a VSF theme, with the completion of the Imperial Skies Kickstarter, the release of the rules and the new models. And before that it was lots of 6mm SF, with new figures, buildings and vehicles which culminated with the release of the official Hammer’s Slammers models (of which there are still more to come). However, the rest of the ranges deserve some attention too, so it’s time for something different. Today we have a new 15mm model, a PacFed grav bike complete with rider. It’s a three-part metal model (bike, handlebars and foot rest) and come in packs of two.

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We will of course have stocks of these at Blast-tastic! tomorrow. We have had to make some slight changes to what we’re bringing tomorrow – we’re unable to bring the full range of individual models with us for Aeronef, Spaceships and 6mm, although we do have some (including a good array of Aeronef capital ships) We also have a full line-up of fleet packs, army packs, company packs etc. See you in Bristol 🙂

SF15-714 – PacFed Grav Bikes (x2) – £3.00

Posted in 15mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

Blast-tastic! 2016

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Tony

It’s rather short notice, but on Saturday our autumn round of shows resumes with our third visit to Bristol for Blast-tastic!, organised by Michael at Angel Barracks.

This is a sci-fi themed show, so we will be carrying the 6mm and 15mm ranges, spaceships, Squadron Commander, Aeronef models and of course we’ll have Imperial Skies at a show for the first time. We’ll also bring the 2mm scenery range since these complement the Aeronef and Land Ironclads models. We will not be taking Celtos, Great War or Magpie Miniatures.

Next weekend it’s SELWG at Crystal Palace, then a Stoke Rochford weekend on the 21st/22nd/23rd before we round off the year with our annual trip to Crisis in Antwerp on November 5th.

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The Russians are Coming !

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Tony

The four new models we created for the Imperial Skies Kickstarter were all the result of stretch goals that we hit in the campaign. There were several other goals that we didn’t quite get to, including a new Russian battleship. But in this case I decided to go ahead and make one anyway – and got so carried away that I ended up making three!

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The first model is actually a remake – it’s a new version of the Borodino class battleship, with the same layout but a new design and new turrets.

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Next up is the Poltava class dreadnought, very similar to the Borodino in styling but larger and with four turrets in a diamond layout.

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The third new model is the smaller Admiral Nakhimov class battlecruiser (although some naval experts feel she is more correctly termed a light battleship, as the class doesn’t have the speed of a conventional battlecruiser).

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All three models have resin hulls with metal turrets, funnels and masts. All are available from the website now.

VAN-506 – Borodino class Battleship – £6.50
VAN-514 – Poltava class Dreadnought – £7.50
VAN-515 – Admiral Nakhimov class Battlecruiser – £6.00

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The Gaulois

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Tony

The huge Gaulois class Dreadnought is a departure for the French aerial fleet, being slower and heavier than existing French vessels.

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The tumblehome-hulled ship has four heavy turrets arranged in a diamond layout with two centreline twins and two outboard singles. There is also a secondary battery of eight lighter turrets.

The main hull is a resin casting, with separate metal pieces for the turrets, tail and other fittings.

VAN-418 – Gaulois class Dreadnought – £9.00

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SMS Kaiser

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Tony

One of the largest aerial vessels in service anywhere in the world is the German Kaiser class.

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The Kaiser has six heavy new-design turrets, two twin and four single, along with an array of secondary turrets and sponson guns. The model has a resin hull with a number of metal parts to make up this impressively large model.

VAN-322 – Kaiser class Dreadnought – £9.00

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