Doing our (EU) Duty

Posted on July 2, 2026 by Tony

It’s “fun” being a small manufacturer trying to negotiate international rules and regulations nowadays. The latest thing thrown at us is a new regime of customs duties being levied by the EU on all packages originating outside of the Union. This is presumably aimed at the likes of Temu, Shein, AliExpress et al, but of course, being a rather blunt instrument, it hammers the little guys as well.

The initial implementation sees a 3€ duty added to every parcel from outside the EU for each different HS code on the customs declaration. Fortunately most of our packages have a single HS code (we use 9503003000 – reduced scale models – for the EU) so we should only incur one charge, but nevertheless it means that we’ll have to add that each order. There’s no way for us to add this separately in our website code, so it’ll be bundled into the shipping costs and won’t show separately on the invoice. If you require an invoice that shows this fee separately, please let us know and we can manually edit your invoice to show this as a line item separate from the shipping charges. For any orders that require a second HS code (which will happen if you order a book from us) we’ll contact you with a payment request for the extra duty. Our EU shipping charges needed updating anyway to reflect recent changes in courier fees (they’ve gone up slightly, but not by much), so we’ve done this all at once. The regulations took effect yesterday so the new charges are already in place.

One important thing we should point out is that we’ll continue to make sure that, whatever taxes, duties and fees are levelled at us, we’ll ensure that they’re all paid up front and once your order is placed and paid for, you won’t get stung for any further fees. We collect them all at checkout and pay them to the relevant authorities when your package reaches the EU. Your courier won’t ask for any additional fees before delivery.

As much as we’d love to absorb these costs, with everything else rising around us we just can’t do that (if you’ve five minutes we’d love to tell you how AI data centres are cornering much of the world’s supply of tin and forcing up the price we pay for our casting metal at a exponential rate).

Posted in Shipping Stories, Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

Who Dares Wins (in 6mm)

Posted on June 26, 2026 by Tony

This is the point at which Brigade HQ was abandoned today – it probably got even warmer during the afternoon, but 35°C is more than enough to make casting problematic. Fortunately temperatures are due to drop in the next few days, we should be back to a more normal 23-24°C by Monday so we can catch up with any orders that had to be left unfinished.

Thermometer reading 35°C

Onto normal Friday business – and since it’s Joy of Six in Sheffield this coming Sunday, it’s only right that we should have a 6mm release today.

We have a new set of 6mm Special Forces figures, scaled down by Martin Baker from our 15mm SAS figures. Although they’re part of our sci-fi range, they would serve perfectly well as modern or near future figures. We’ve put them in the catalogue under the British as SAS figures, but at that scale they could be Spetsnaz, Seal Team Six, KSK, Rangers or whatever you need. That’s not to say that there’s no detail in the figures – Martin has put a lot into these tiny commandos.

6mm SAS Troopers surround a cottage in the woods.

6mm SAS Troopers close in on an industrial unit, presumably occupied by the bad guys...

It’s tricky to adequately photograph figures that are 6mm tall, wearing black uniforms, black balaclavas and gas masks and carrying black painted weapons. So here’s a sample sprue that we’ve given a quick wash to make the detail stand out. The pack consists of six of these sprues for a total of 24 figures.

Sprue of four 6mm figures, ink-washed to show the detail

SF300-163 – SAS Platoon – £3.00

We’ll also be bringing a few pre-release items to Jo6 with us, so you’ll be able to get hold of these a few weeks ahead of their releases on the website.

We’ve remade and upgraded our two 6mm Neo-Soviet river patrol boats with new resin hulls packing in a lot more detail.

This is a new 6mm air cushion tank landing craft – large enough to carry a platoon of tanks or a company of infantry on foot, it’s protected by four remote close-in weapon systems on the upper hull.

In 2mm we have this new Mainline Terminus railway station based on Norwich station.

We have two of our New Ukrainian VTOLs scaled down from 15mm, the Chaplya APC and Leleka dropship (although only very few of the latter, so get in quick if you want some of these). We’re still waiting on the Voron attack VTOL, the first and second iterations of the master have had issues 🙁

And finally, we have two packs of brand new, hot-off-the-press Syrtian buildings to accompany the recently released fortresses. Along with those and the new canal sections, you now have everything you’d need to make a Martian landscape. We’ll have a few packs of these but you’ll have to ask as we won’t have any display models.

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases, Shows | Leave a comment

Last Chance for Sheffield

Posted on June 23, 2026 by Tony

Don’t forget that we’ll be at the Joy of Six show at Sheffield Hallam University in the heart of the city this coming Sunday. For those sweltering in the heatwave that’s covering much of the UK this week, the good news is that the forecast is for a cooler day, around 23-24°C, which should be much more comfortable in the venue (it’s forecast to be as much as 35°C at the workshop tomorrow, so Tony would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as he toils in the heat).

You still have a chance to get an order in for the show. Although we only bring a subset of our ranges to this 6mm-themed show (for a reminder of these, see this post), we’re happy to bring items from any of our other ranges. You can place orders through the website using the Pickup at Show shipping option (that way you won’t be charged postage), and you can choose to pay in advance or on the day (cash or card).

Posted in 6mm SF, Shows, Small Scale Scenery | Leave a comment

World of Mortars

Posted on June 19, 2026 by Tony

We have something new in the 28mm Great War range this week – actually three somethings. We have a trio of heavy mortars, one each for the British, German and French armies.

The French get the Mortier de 58 mm type 2, otherwise known as the Crapouillot or “little toad”. The finned projectiles were fitted to a launching tube that fitted within the barrel, with the large warhead projecting beyond the muzzle.

French 58mm

For the British we have a 9.45″ Heavy Trench Mortar, which also picked up the unusual nickname of “flying pigs”.

British 9.45

On the German side of the trenches we have the 25cm schwerer Minenwerfer (‘heavy mine launcher’). These fired massive 50kg ‘mine shells’ which had thinner walls but more explosive filling than the conventional 97kg explosive shell. Although they had a very short range of less than 1000m, their effect was as devastating as much heavier artillery pieces.

German 25cm Minenwerfer

GW28-103 – 9.45″ Trench Mortar – £2.00
GW28-305 – 25cm Minenwerfer – £2.00
GW28-403 – Crapouillot 58mm Mortar – £2.00

Like the rest of our WWI vehicle range, these are 3D printed in resin under licence from Alphonse Marcel.

Posted in Great War, New Releases | 1 Comment

Men of Harlech

Posted on June 12, 2026 by Tony

Phil is rather proud of his Welsh heritage, which is why we have a small Welsh fleet in our spaceships range. Recently he’s turned his hand to modelling some famous Welsh castles, the first of which are up for release today.

Harlech Castel (front), Criccieth late (rear left), Criccieth Original (rear right)

We’re starting with one of the most famous, Harlech Castle in Gwynedd. Built between 1282 and 1289 by Edward I during his invasion of Wales, it withstood a siege during the uprising of Madog ap Llywelyn in 1294-5 but fell to Owain Glyndwr in 1404 before being recaptured in 1409. It was besieged by the Yorkists during the War of the Roses, and then during the English Civil War it was the final castle to fall to the parliamentarians.

1/1000th scale model of Harlech Castle

The castle has concentric walls with a large gatehouse and four great towers on each corner of the inner wall. It doesn’t have a conventional central keep, instead the great hall and various service buildings were built against the inside of the inner wall.

Our second castle today is Criccieth, also in Gwynedd. In fact we have two versions, early and late, as the castle was substantially extended after the initial build. The inner ward and gatehouse was built in the 1230s by Llywelyn ap Iorwert. The outer ward was constructed by his grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd beginning in around 1255. The castle was captured by Edward I in 1283, after which further improvements were made. It was besieged during Madog ap Llywelyn’s revolt of 1294-5, and captured in 1404 during Owain Glyndwr’s uprising (and possibly burnt). Our models represent firstly the initial build of just the inner ward, while the later model incorporates the extensions and the outer ward.

SSS-8230 – Harlech Castle – £5.00
SSS-8231a – Criccieth Castle (early) – £2.00
SSS-8231b – Criccieth Castle (late) – £4.00

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | Leave a comment

Canal Diaries

Posted on June 5, 2026 by Tony

This week’s release arose from a conversation at Joy of Six last year; someone suggested that what the Small Scale Scenery range needed was some canal pieces (take a bow, Des). His interest was in Cold War games and he pointed out that Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany are criss-crossed by canals of various sizes which would be vital linear obstacles during any Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe. They were also significant during WW2, with the British defence of the Ypres-Comines canal in 1940 significantly delaying the Germans in their drive to Dunkirk.

Image of a 1/1000th scale model canal bridge with apartment blocks either side

And canals are also apposite in relation to some of our other recent releases, because of course Mars is famous for its non-existent canals, and our Syrtian fortifications would be ideal for guarding these waterways on the Red Planets.

Image of a 1/1000th scale Martian canal with a fortress and temple behind

So, we have created a small range of resin pieces that allow you to create a simple, straight watercourse on your table. The width of the water is 25mm, which equates to 25m (~80 feet) – a reasonably sized canal for commercial traffic. We have two plain straights – one 80mm long, the other 160mm. We also have a 40mm long bridge section designed to fit one of our Girder bridges (a random one is supplied) and an 80mm long lock section with a lock-keeper’s house and pumphouse.

The pieces are sold individually, and there’s a pack of four long straights, four short straights, one lock and two bridges.

Components of a pack of model canal parts

SSS-8229 – Canal Set – £30.00
SSS-8229a – Long Canal Straight – £4.00
SSS-8229b – Short Canal Straight – £2.00
SSS-8229c – Bridge – £3.00
SSS-8229d – Canal Locks – £2.50

Background image by Handiwork Games; mats by Geek Villain.

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Krasnoarmeyets

Posted on May 29, 2026 by Tony

‘Krasnoarmeyets’ means ‘Red Army Man’ – which is what we have today. Two new packs of figures in our 6mm sci-fi range, both Neo-Soviet infantry and heavy weapons.

The infantry pack has 27 figures in six poses – squad leader, RPG gunner, LMG and three riflemen.

Neo-Soviet 6mm Infantry

The heavy weapons pack has a variety of weapons including heavy mortars, tripod gatlings and grenade launchers, shoulder launched missiles and backpack gatlings.

Neo-Soviet Heavy Weapons

As well as being sold in individual packs, all Neo-Soviet company and army packs will now include these figures instead of our generic ones, as will Zaporoskiye and NUA detachments for Hammer’s Slammers.

SF300-1270 – Neo-Soviet Infantry – £3.00
SF300-1271 – Neo Sov Heavy Weapons – £3.00

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

June Shows

Posted on May 27, 2026 by Tony

May has flown by, so we’re approaching June and our next two shows.

First up is Broadside in Gillingham, our local show, run by Milton Hundred Wargames Club. We’ll have the usual range of stock, with a full range of fleet packs, army packs, Slammers detachments etc, alongside Celtos and the new 28mm SF range. We’ve been told that there will be Voidfighter game running in the hall so we’ll make sure we have plenty of Squadron Commander miniatures with us.

Later in the month we’ll be as far north as we get, at Joy of Six in Sheffield hosted by Baccus. Note the change of date, as Jo6 has always been in July until now. As this is a specialist 6mm show, we bring a cut down selection of ranges to suit the event:

  • 6mm Hammer’s Slammers – detachment packs and individual models
  • 6mm Sci-fi – army and company packs, individual models, buildings and scenery (both packs and individual buildings)
  • Small Scale Scenery – the full range
  • Squadron Commander – blisters and individual fighters
  • Germy’s 3mm – vehicles and buildings
  • 10mm sci-fi scenery
  • 6mm WW2 Belgians
  • 1/700 Coastal Scenery
  • Slug Industries Medieval Buildings

We welcome orders in advance for both shows. You can place them through the website (use the Collect at Show shipping option so you don’t get charged postage) and pay either in advance, or on the day (cash or card). For Jo6 you aren’t restricted to the ranges we’re bringing, you can order from any of our ranges and we’ll bring it with us.

Posted in Shows, Updates and General Waffle | 2 Comments

Back up in Space

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Tony

Today we have the new Shikishima class Battleship for the Japanese Space Force, which we originally released at Salute and is now available on the website. It follows a similar design to our other Japanese ships with a large habitation ring around the fuselage and turrets spaced around the hull. Owners of our previous vessels will be pleased to know that we’ve tweaked the ring design slightly to make it a better fit.

Shikishima battleship (l) and Verdun carrier

As an added bonus, we also have a new EuroFed fleet carrier, the Verdun. This should also have been on the Salute roster, but for various reasons (we made a mistake with the design and caught it too late to fix for the show) didn’t make it on the day. It’s of a similar size to the Richelieu dreadnought (almost 5″ long) with twin flight decks and an offset bridge module.

SFS-1502 – Shikishima class Battleship – £10.00
SFS-415 – Verdun class Fleet Carrier – £12.00

Posted in New Releases, Salute 53 (2026), Spaceships | 1 Comment

The Skies of Mars

Posted on May 15, 2026 by Tony

Further extracts from the reports by Lt Algernon Carmichael-Jefferies of the 22nd West Kent Lancers.

The Syrtians maintain a powerful aerial fleet of flying warships. Unlike the small hovering silver craft of the Olympians, those of this Southern empire are closer in design to our own ships, although their arrow-head like profiles are somewhat removed from human configurations. Unlike Earth built vessels, they appear not to use steam power, having no recognisable funnels or chimneys. Instead, their energy requirements appear to be fed by some sort of rechargeable translucent crystal with colours running from a deep ice blue through to a bright emerald green. We chanced upon a downed and abandoned small civilian vessel deep in the deserts and were able to recover a sample of this crystalline power store for inspection by Her Majesty’s scientists. Each has a pair of ‘sails’ which we surmise are for steering and altitude change, almost like ailerons and fins.

Their armament is carried in rotating hemispherical turrets similar to Earth vessels, although we saw ships with large turrets bearing three gun barrels that appeared to spin around a central axis. The most unusual weapon we saw was a large indirect fire cannon akin to a mortar or bombard fitted to a battleship sized craft – we can think of no equivalent device in any navy on our home planet. Another we observed had a battery of rockets on a large trainable mounting. We have yet to see a Syrtian weapon discharge (fortunately, one might say !) so we know little of their detailed design – whether they use explosives, solid shots, canister or some other infernal technology, we were unable to establish.

They also use smaller winged craft which are remarkably fast and agile. Triangular in plan, they resemble nothing so much as a child’s kite, which is how we refer to them. They seem to be an equivalent of our own fixed-wing fighters and bombers – indeed, we saw larger examples with what much have been high-explosive bombs suspended from their wings.

All of the vessels were a sandy colour in appearance, but with an abundance of coloured stripes, panels and other markings which can only be for identification purposes.

VANFP-6001 – Syrtian Fleet Pack – £28.00
VANFP-6011 – Syrtian Kite Squadron – £7.50
VAN-6001 – Ul Shuttr class Battleship – £10.00
VAN-6002 – Ul Hanir class Bombard – £10.00
VAN-6003 – Nisan ul Mayib class Cruiser – £3.25
VAN-6004 – Misrak class Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-6005 – Symahn class Frigate – £1.25
VAN-6006 – Zeqam class Fighter (x6) – £1.25
VAN-6007 – Nusair class Bomber (x3) – £1.25

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, New Releases, Salute 53 (2026) | 2 Comments