Brigade Models

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

One of the most iconic stories in the Hammer’s Slammers pantheon is “The Warrior”, a three-parter that tells the tale of Slick Des Grieux, a fearsome but somewhat wayward tank commander in Hammer’s regiment. The second part portrays an assault on the town of Morobad across a landscape of paddy fields, causeways and dikes by the Han Black Banner Brigade supported by Slammers’ blower tanks. The town is held by the Hindi army, aided and augmented by tank destroyers, infantry and artillery from Baffin’s Legion.

We’ve already released models for the Black Banner Brigade in both 6mm and 15mm, plus trucks and even some trikes for the regular Han troops (only in 15mm so far, 6mm is on the way). So we’re moving on to the opposition this week with the release of a series of vehicles for the Hindis.

Their primary armoured vehicle is the Hathauda (‘Hammer’), also know colloquially as the H-Tank. It’s called a tank by the Hindis, but could also be considered to be a tank destroyer as it has no turret which gives it a very low profile. It’s armed with a heavy liquid-propellent gun along with a remote-controlled chain gun plus a pintel weapon on the commander’s cupola. A specific feature mentioned in the story is that the vehicle can operate either on its wide balloon tyre wheels, or alternatively single-piece rubber tracks can be fitted around the wheels to lower ground pressure and improve traction. So we’ve provided both versions of the model to allow you to choose. Anyone familiar with armoured vehicles from the Cold War will immediately recognise where the inspiration for the H-Tank came from – and that’s because it’s exactly the vehicle that David Drake himself was thinking of when he wrote that part of the story.

Also mentioned in the story are towed anti-tank weapons which pop up in the paddy fields to take quite a toll on the advancing Han armour. These have the same LP weapon as the H-Tank on a wheeled chassis. Continuing on the towed weapon theme, the Hindis also employ artillery pieces which Slick encounters in Morobad itself. We’ve also provided a tracked gun tractor, the Khachchar (“Mule”) to haul these weapons around the battlefield.

There’s no mention of any other vehicles in the story, but we’ve rounded out the Hindi inventory with the addition of a 6×6 APC, the Ganda (“Rhino”) which comes armed with autocannon, gatling or missile pod. Finally, recce duties are carried out by the Nevla (“Mongoose”) armoured car and Binturong (“Bear Cat”) scout car.

HS15-4401 – Hathauda ‘H-Tank’ Tank (tracked) – £8.00
HS15-4401a – Hathauda ‘H-Tank’ Tank (wheeled) – £8.00
HS15-4402 – Ganda 6×6 APC – £7.00
HS15-4403 – Nevla Armoured Car – £4.50
HS15-4404 – Binturong Scout Car – £4.00
HS15-4405 – Khachchar Gun Tractor – £7.00
HS15-4406 – Pinaka Anti-tank Gun – £6.00
HS15-4407 – Saranga Field Gun – £6.00

The final part of the Warrior’s forces is Baffin’s Legion – these are already in the works, with several new vehicles to complete the story.

And it’s time for one of our occasional shout outs to other companies whose products make ours look good; firstly Geek Villain for their Autumn Grass Mat, and Early War Miniatures for the latex roads. As for the rest of the scenery – the foliage is from a variety of aquarium and other artificial plants, the hedges and fences are model railway bits (manufacturers unknown). The building was made by us from an old internet router housing with bits and pieces from our building components range stuck on.