Facing The Warrior

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.