We have a pair of new additions to the Roman buildings in our Small Scale Scenery range this week.
First we have a 1/1000th rendition of the Basilica of Maxentius in Rome. Roman basilicas were public buildings that served a variety of purposes, and this example is a particularly large and impressive edifice with a distinctive roof design, and was almost 100m long. The original building is still partially standing in Rome today.
Our second release is a set of Roman barracks buildings designed to match up with our existing Roman Fort set. It consists of over 20 metal buildings – 12 barracks blocks, six stables, two granaries and several administrative and utility buildings. The photo shows the buildings in the barracks pack while the CGI image shows a possible layout of a fort using the two sets combined.
Today sees the release of new redesigned versions of our British Aeronef merchant vessels. The old models of the Pearless, Orama and Shillito have been replaced by new sculpts, all featuring resin hulls with metal parts – and looking much smarter with lots more detail, cargo cranes etc. The Orama, the largest of the vessels, has also been renamed the Frampton. These vessels play an important role plying the trade routes between Britain and the rest of the Empire.
There is also a fleet pack with two of each design plus a pair of escorting Osprey patrol Nef.
VANFP-5001 – British Merchant Convoy – £22.50 VAN-5005 – Pearless class Bulk Merchant Vessel – £4.00 VAN-5007 – Frampton class Bulk Freighter – £6.00 VAN-5008 – Shillito class Freighter – £3.00
This week, we have these very handy Jump Gates – ideal for spaceship games as objectives or deployment markers. Each one is a three part casting – the panels/fins are separate from the rings, and they’re interchangeable so you can swap them round. You get one of each type per pack, enough to make three complete jump gates. The post is cast as part of the ring so you just need to stick it into the supplied plastic base.
If you haven’t already come across it, Mike Hutchinson’s new game A Billions Suns (due for release by Osprey early in 2021) allows play across multiple tables, using jump points to navigate – we’d like to think that these would be perfect for that.
As promised last week, we have fleet scale versions of the new Yenpalo fighters ready to go. These come in the usual packs of 12 of each type. The hex paneling has come out, even at this scale (it has, really – the photos don’t show it very well…) – we’d recommend using quite thin paint for them to avoid clogging the detail, I went with a purple wash straight over the undercoat followed by a quick drybrush.
Last weekend saw the end of the discount/charity donation period for our new Yenpalo 15mm vehicles and figures. And since those were the last of our planned Salute 2020 lineup, we thought it was time to work out the final total that we’ve collected for the HEROES NHS charity. Overall the sale of our Salute models has raised £194.69 towards helping NHS staff, of which £135 has already been donated. We’ve rounded the total up to £200 and today we donated a further £65.
Thanks to everyone who’s contributing by purchased any of the models along the way, we only expected to raise a small amount so £200 is a decent total.
This week releases bring some new fighters for our Squadron Commander game. The Yenpalo receive a pair of craft, the Shynil Light Interceptor and the Axopo Heavy Fighter. They have distinctive hexagonal thermal-resistant paneling and closed down cockpits with only a very small vision slit – is has to be assumed that the Yenpalo pilots use sophisticated sensors for flight and combat rather than simple visuals.
Unlike most human fighter craft, both Yenpalo fighter types have miniature jump engines and can operate independently of parent craft. Hit and run missions on merchant shipping are becoming more and more common in recent months; small groups of Yenpalo fighters jump in very close to a convoy, fire off a few volleys and jump out again before defending fighters can be scrambled. Often little physical damage is caused, but the psychological effects can be tremendous.
Both are available singly, or in flights of four.
To answer the question that I know will be coming from spaceship gamers – yes, we have fleet scale versions in the works, due to be released very soon. And if anyone wonders where the names come from – well, we use an online password generator and just keep hitting ‘refresh’ until something jumps out at us…
SCR-1101 – Shynil class Light Interceptor – £2.50 SCP-1101 – Shynil Flight – £9.00 SCR-1102 – Axopo class Heavy Fighter – £2.50 SCP-1102 – Axopo Flight – £9.00
We’ve also been scrying in the Brigade crystal ball; we have a round dozen releases planned from now until November, when the traditional pre-Christmas sale gets underway. Of those, the current plan has four Aeronef, three 6mm, two Spaceship, two Small Scale Scenery and one 15mm releases. Of course no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, so things could change, but we thought you’d like to know…
We’re back in 15mm again today, with some brand new Hammer’s Slammers vehicles. One of the more memorable stories in the series is Rolling Hot, which deals with the campaign on the planet of Prosperity and particularly the story of Captain June Ranson and the relief of the siege of the city of Kohang by a scratch column of Slammers’ armour. That story can be found in volume two of The Complete Hammer’s Slammers:
A number of different vehicles pop up in the book – the civilian Cyclos we released a month ago come from this particular story. The climax of the tale is a large armoured engagement between the Slammers and a battalion of Prosperity Nationalist light tanks, and our first release of the week is the Colonial Light Tank with a variety of weapon options including light artillery, air defence and a tank destroyer with a remote railgun.
Air Defence
Tank Destroyer
Light Artillery
Also mentioned is a Marine ‘amphibious landing vehicle’ with machine-gun armament. This has resulted in the Pioneer class APC, an amphibious tracked vehicle with a variety of light weapons.
Remote Support Weapon
Remote Tribarrel
Remote Gatling
Missile Launcher
Twin MG Turret
Finally for this week, the Consie Rebels have a powergun on a cruciform mount. It turns out that the standard 8-barrel Calliope mount also fits this base nicely to create a fixed AA weapon.
HS15-3801 – Colonial Light Tank – £8.00 HS15-3801a – Colonial Engineering Tank – £8.25 HS15-3802 – Pioneer Amphibious APC – £8.00 HS15-3803 – Powergun on Cruciform Mount – £4.00 HS15-3803a – Calliope on Cruciform Mount – £4.00
This week’s new releases are four items that have been developed in response to customer requests. They’re all in the Small Scale Scenery range of 1/1000th buildings.
The first is a set of general purpose sheds and workshops. Some are existing models that have been taken from other packs, but there are several brand new ones as well. The pack contains twenty models, two each of the ten different designs shown below, all cast in metal.
The next two packs are both additions to the modular Medieval Castle range. They are smaller gateways set in a single tower, such as are seen more in fortified town walls (these are based on those at Visby in Sweden). There are two types, one with a peaked roof and the other with battlements on top. And they come in two versions – either built into a 40mm long piece of wall, or alternatively there are free-standing versions. The dimensions are taken from the Visby ones and they are larger than our other towers.
The final pack is a new type of bastion for the Vauban Fortifications range. These are straight bastions, so that they can be used to create a structure such as a city wall with a bastion partway along its length.
Peter Hunt has sent us some pictures of his latest 2mm creation, Schloss Zenda. Over to him (or rather his alter ego, Hercule)…
Gentlemen,
Whilst strategists believe that the recent Bacterian offensive on Zenda was undertaken to provide support for a beleaguered Sylvania, our real estate correspondent Sue Casa suggest that the operation may have been intended to obtain property in the neighbourhood at knock down prices. She speaks of course of that most desirable property, Schloss Zenda.
The Front Aspect, showing the new faux medieval fortified gatehouse housing sumptuous apartments, ballroom, barracks and stables with the ancient keep behind.
This famous Schloss consists of two parts: the ancient keep, surrounded by a deep, dark, and very cold moat; and the new residential complex consisting of a faux medieval fortified gatehouse housing sumptuous apartments, ballroom with the best sprung dancefloor east of the Kit Kat Club, barracks and stables. The two bailies are joined by a State Of The Art modern drawbridge utilising the very latest in mechanical contrivances to ensure easy operation.
A Side Aspect: The ancient keep, moat and drawbridge.
The moat ensures complete privacy from paparazzi, door-to-door salesmen, insurance hawkers and interfering nanny-state government bureaucrats intent of ruining your plans to usurp the legal government of the land by placing an altogether more worthy candidate on the throne. The ancient keep contains ample storage facilities for French mistresses and detained Heads of State, whilst offering convenient means to promptly dispose of either should the need arise. Full operating instructions for the moat, drawbridge and accommodation are included in this useful handbook:
Rather like Schloss Altschwanstein, Schloss Zenda has been often imitated but never equalled. Examples of this highest form of flattery include Berg Kreuzenstein near Vienna and Castell Coch near Kaardiff:
Berg Kreuzenstein: a Viennese ConfectionCastell Coch: You can take the boy out of Kaardiff, but you can’t take Kaardiff out of the boy.
Yes, Schloss Zenda remains a very desirable property in these uncertain times, offering seclusion, security, and ample parking. It remains to be seen if the Bacterians, or other parties, will make another bid on the premises.
The Rear Aspect: No joy here for paparazzi, door-to-door salesmen, or squadrons of Guard Hussars seeking access.
At last, we’re finally in a position to put the last of the releases which were originally planned for Salute (!) onto the website. We hope it’s been worth the wait…
Our 15mm Yenpalo Aliens have been mainly an infantry-based force, and had just the single vehicle, the Xarledi grav tank, which was released (and sold out on the day) at Salute 2017. This balance has now been redressed with this release. There are four new vehicles – light tank, APC, scout and troop carrier vehicles, more Xarledi variants plus heavy guns, infantry variants and skimmers.
Ssetzu Air Defence
Infantry Skimmers
Kjalba Heavy Gun
Xarledi Light Support
Xarledi Air Defence
Xarledi Missile Support
Since these models were intended to be part of our Salute set, we’re going to extend the combined discount and charity donation that applied to all of the other releases. All of the new Yenpalo releases will initially be discounted by 7.5%, and for each sale we’ll also donate the same amount to HEROES, a charity set up to help frontline NHS staff as they battle the Covid-19 outbreak. This will run until August 21st.
Today we have a bunch of assorted 15mm bits and pieces added to the website. There are several engineering vehicles based around the engineering kits we released recently (we will do more but it’s a matter of getting them built, painted and photographed!).
Fauchard Engineering Vehicle
Kopis Engineering Vehicle
Catapult Engineering Vehicle
We have a PacFed gun crew for our various towed and fixed guns.
There’s a new weapon option for the Catapult 6×6 AFV with a remote anti-tank weapon.
In the Hammer’s Slammer range the Stewart Regiment have their own 15mm page to make ordering easier, and they’ve also gained a pack of remote guns plus a control team which features in the Stewart Borderers detachment list.
