Time for some post-Salute R&R

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Tony

It’s been a couple of weeks since Salute, and our major achievement since then has been to clear the small backlog of orders that built up during the leadup to the show. We’ve also had quite a few orders since then, so it looks like we were able to reach some new people as well, which is great.

Having managed to get back to normal, the obvious thing to do is go on holiday and let the orders pile up again! Tony is off to the south coast for a few days, so while the website remains open for orders, we won’t be able to process any of them until after the May bank holiday on the 4th.

Happy doggo on her holidays!

Unfortunately, we haven’t had time to get any more of our Salute releases onto the website, so we’ll try to correct that with a double dose when he returns.

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Hic Sunt Dracones

Posted on April 24, 2026 by Tony

The sàirdseant looked to his left and his right, surveying the ranks of the lannsairean. Their polished armour gleamed in the waning sun as they patiently waited on the ridge while the battle raged below. He could clearly see his lord Nuada in the centre of the action, his silver arm flashing as it caught the last rays of the day. Soon, he knew that the signal would come and the drummers would beat out the call to arms. His troop of lancers, along with the others of the rèisimeid, would race down the hill and sweep away the remnants of the Fomorian army in one great, glorious charge. Until then, they waited silently, the breath of the drakes coiling from their nostrils in the cooling air as their talons nested in the heather. Their time was about to come…

So. Some new Celtos figures. It’s only been what, ten years ? Maybe more, who’s counting ?

Today we have four new Sidhe Dragon Riders. There are two heavily armed warriors with lances sitting astride armoured dragons, along with a kettle-drummer musician. There is also a leader with longsword and plumed helm. A new pack is also available with one of each figure in, plus a reinforcement pack that just has two of each lancer.

There are two variants of the armoured dragons, and seasoned dragon watchers (if there is such a thing) might notice that we also have a new rear end for thew, allowing for different versions to be made.

We promise in another ten years’ time to release some more Celtos figures…

CLTP-118 – Dragon Lancer Troop – £25.00
CLTP-119 – Dragon Lancer Reinforcements – £25.00
CLT-146 – Dragon Leader – £7.00
CLT-147 – Dragon Musician- £7.00
CLT-148 – Lancer #1 – £7.00
CLT-149 – Lancer #2 – £7.00

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

Air Cossacks

Posted on April 17, 2026 by Tony

The first of our Salute releases to reach the website are the three 15mm VTOLs for the Hammer’s Slammers New Ukrainian Air Cossacks. There is already a detachment list for these using other models, but there should shortly be an updated version which features these instead.

NUA cossacks disembark from their Chaplya VTOL while their Zhalo light tank drives out the back of a Leleka dropship.

With the advent of accurate line-of-sight powerguns in the Hammer’s Slammers universe, the life expectancy of high-flying aircraft and VTOLs is quite short. Instead, such craft tend to fly very low, nap-of-the-earth profiles, using cover to avoid detection. In effect (and in game) they function like very fast ground vehicles, unaffected by terrain and able to hop over low obstacles.

The Voron (Raven) Attack VTOL is a twin-seater, twin-boom design with three underwing hardpoints for missiles, rockets or gun pods. It also has a chin-mounted tribarrel turret for close defence. The model comes with a full set of our VTOL weapons to attach to the hardpoints.

A Voron makes a low pass over a Shershem tank destroyer and accompanying infantry.

The Chaplya (Heron) is a wide-bodied general purpose VTOL that is used as a troop carrier in combat, carrying up to 12 fully-equipped infantry. Variants are also used as flying ambulances, logistics carriers and general workhorses.

The Leleka (Stork) is a variant of the Chaplya with an open cargo area specifically designed to drop light vehicles into combat. There is no rear ramp and vehicles are secured by heavy duty electromagnetic clamps. The Leleka is able to fly in fast and low to a deployment zone, touch down briefly while the vehicle disembarks then rapidly clear the area. Special pallets are available to allow the craft to also carry cargo; a skilled pilot can touch down, release the clamps and slide the pallet out onto the ground with the need for ground crew to unload. Some enterprising crews have fixed a pallet between the ramps and rigged an anti-tank gun or artillery piece to fire from the rear, although this is strictly a field modification and not officially approved.

HS15-3906 – Chaplya VTOL – £12.00
HS15-3907 – Leleka Dropship – £12.00
HS15-3908 – Voron Attack VTOL – £12.00

Background image by Handiwork Games; desert mat by Geek Villain; building by Blotz with added extras from our 15mm building components range.

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, New Releases, Salute 53 (2026) | Leave a comment

In the Nick of Time

Posted on April 10, 2026 by Tony

We’ve just picked up the hire van, so we’ll shortly be trekking over to Brigade HQ to load up and head off to the ExCel so set up the stand.

In the meantime, here are the last additions to our Salute lineup. Firstly, some smaller Syrtian vessels for Imperial Skies to go with the two larger vessels previewed earlier this week. A cruiser, destroyer and frigate make up the initial fleet, and we’ll have boxed fleet packs and also packs of the fighter and bomber with bases.

And lastly for Salute this year, a new Japanese battleship for the spaceships range. The mould for this only came online yesterday and we don’t have many in stock for tomorrow, so be quick!

Posted in Aeronef, Previews, Salute 53 (2026), Spaceships | Leave a comment

New for Salute – 4/4

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Tony

And finally for today, we go from the skies to the surface of the Syrtis Major shield volcano with this assortment of forts. The territory of the Syrtians is well defended and studded with forts, castles and fortresses. These new models will be a new part of the Small Scale Scenery range, compatible with both Land Ironclads and Imperial Skies.

These smaller ones are independent installations with a variety of weaponry – a heavy gun turret, rocket battery, giant bombard mortar or air defence turrets.

This much larger fortress has a mix of open gun mounts and small turrets with a divided courtyard. There’s also a separate satellite tower, just because there was a big gap in the mould 🙂

And lastly, we’ve come up with these modular Syrtian castle components, similar to our existing medieval castle. So far there are walls, multiple types of tower and walls with gun mounts and towers with turrets. There’s currently no way in – the gateways are still in the mould, as is the main keep!

As you can see, there are multiple combinations – we haven’t yet decided how to package them for Saturday, it very much depends on how much we can cast in time!

There might yet be more – there’s are several uncracked moulds waiting at the work, with even more shiny new bits in – let’s see how those go…

Posted in Previews, Salute 53 (2026), Small Scale Scenery | Leave a comment

New for Salute – 3/4

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Tony

We just had to have some new Imperial Skies models – and as promised, it’s a whole new world. These are Syrtians, from the Syrtis Major Planum region of southern Mars. So far we have these two massive battleship sized vessels and some fixed wing bombers and fighters. All being well, there are more ships lurking inside a mould that we’ll be spinning for the first time tomorrow. Assuming all is well with that, there will be the obligatory fleet pack as well as individual models.

We’ll write up more on the Syrtians after Salute, but for now, you’ll have to make do with the models.

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, Previews, Salute 53 (2026) | 1 Comment

New for Salute – 2/4

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Tony

Here’s some more 6mm – these are Neo-Soviet infantry, expertly sculpted by Martin Baker. We have both regular infantry with assault rifles, RPGs and LMGs, and there’s also a pack of heavy weapons with a variety of weapons – tripod tribarrels and grenade launchers, heavy mortars, shoulder mounted anti-tank missiles and guys wielding huge gatlings.

These aren’t the greatest pictures (so far all we managed is a quick spray undercoat) but trust us, like all our other 6mm figures they have loads of detail – you’ll just have to come and see them on the stand Saturday.

Posted in 6mm SF, Previews, Salute 53 (2026) | Leave a comment

New for Salute – 1/4

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Tony

Usually we’re pretty good at getting our new releases for Salute onto the website in advance, but not this year. For various reasons we’re horribly behind and it’s only now coming together at the last minute (there are still moulds in the workshop which we’ll be casting for the first time tomorrow). We’ve had to abandon one or two of our planned releases through technical issues that we haven’t been able to fix in time but plenty of things have still made the cut.

So are you ready for a small blizzard of posts ? Tomorrow is the last workshop day before Salute, so today was the last chance to get new releases painted for the show. Thus it follows that this evening is the last chance to get these new releases onto the blog.

We’ll start with the missing VTOL – remember those two 15mm VTOLs we posted a while back? We said at the time that there was a third one and here it is, a chunky, box-van flying APC, a similar design to the open drop ship but with a solid body.

And there’s also the 6mm version of the same craft. We were hoping to get all three 6mm versions out for the show but we had some issues with the other two so they’ll have to wait until after the show. But we will have stock of all three in 15mm and this one in 6mm on Saturday.

Posted in 15mm SF, 6mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, Previews, Salute 53 (2026) | 1 Comment

Air Cossacks

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Tony

We’re looking at the next items on our Salute list today. We’re still sticking to this year’s theme of cavalry, but with the word ‘Air’ stuck in front.

One of our favourite Hammer’s Slammers forces is the New Ukrainian Army. They have an Air Cavalry detachment list and we’ve made some shiny new 15mm VTOLs for it (the list should get an overhaul as a result).

There are three in total, although we’re only showing two today (the mould for the third is curing while this post is being written). This is the an attack craft, a twin boom design which comes with a variety of underwing stores.

The second flyer is a cargo carrying drop ship. It is capable of hauling a light tank or truck in the open rear bay, which can be driven off the two rear ramps in a matter of seconds. Cargo pallets can also be carried, and some enterprising crews have fitted a fixed platform between the ramps and rigged an anti-tank gun or artillery piece to fire from the rear, although this is strictly a field modification and not officially approved.

Keep an eye out for the third model over the weekend, assuming no problems with the mould…

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, Previews, Salute 53 (2026) | 1 Comment

Little Dragons

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Tony

Salute 53 is 18 days away. 18!!!

It feels like we’re a long way behind with our prep this year – it’s probably the same every year, but this time it really feels like we’re really behind.

However, thing are starting to happen – a big stack of moulds went into the pressure pot yesterday (what’s in them ? That’s for later in the week…).

If everything comes together then we should have a cracking release lineup for the show. For the first time we’ve tried to run with the show theme which, if you missed it, is Cavalry. And our first reveal is right on point.

We’ve had the Celtos range since 2004, but it’s been a long time since we released anything new. We’re breaking that drought with this new set of Sidhe dragon riders. Equipped with lances, heavily armoured and driven by the beat of the drums, they’ll pack one heck of a punch on the battlefield.

There are four brand new riders – two lancers, a drummer and a sword-armed leader – and dragons fitted with plate armour. Seasoned dragon watchers might also notice that we also have a new rear end, so that all your dragons are no longer standing on the same leg !

Posted in Celtos, Previews, Salute 53 (2026) | 1 Comment