Author: Tony

Desert Micro Warriors

Our other new set of models for Sunday’s Joy of Six show is this rather large collection of Sincanmo dune buggies. There are 14 different chassis in three configurations – half-track, 4×4 and 6×6 – and a total of 22 variants once the turret and weapon options are added up.

We don’t yet have a full list of product codes, you’ll have to find us on Sunday and just point at the ones you want!

They make ideal counterparts to our recently released 6mm Desert Raider infantry, and their natural opponents in the Hammer’s Slammers universe are the Hashemite Nation, already available from us.

The Iron Horse Gets Guns

So we promised some new items for the Joy of Six on Sunday, and here is the first. Our 6mm monorail came out several years ago and we’ve added a few extra bits and pieces since the initial release. The latest addition gives it some teeth, with a set of six armed and armoured carriages. When we get them onto the website you’ll be able to buy all the carriages separately, but for the show we’re keeping it simple with two options – an 8-carriage full-on armoured train, and a two-carriage scout train.

The larger train consists of a command car, an armoured locomotive, two infantry carriages, two artillery carriages and two tank cars. The scout train has just two scout cars. We’re still working out the exact turret configuration, so the final versions may differ slightly from these pictures – we’ll offer multiple options when it gets onto the website, but for Jo6 we’ll probably keep it simple.

Holiday, Celebrate!

So for the next couple of weeks it’s summer holiday time again for the Brigadieress and I, starting today. We’re not away for the whole of the fortnight and I’m hoping to get into work for a day or so each week to try and keep the backlog down. Nevertheless, there will be an inevitable slowdown in turn-around times so please bear this in mind when ordering. It’s best to assume that your order will take at least 2-3 weeks to ship, but if I can I’ll try to get some posted sooner. All orders that arrived by the end of Wednesday (22nd) are complete and I’ll take them to the post office tomorrow morning.

This isn’t perfect timing following the release of Castles in the Sky yesterday (we’ve already seen a distinct increase in orders in advance of rulebook), but unfortunately the Osprey release schedule doesn’t factor highly in our holiday planning!

The Joy of Six falls in the middle of the fortnight – more great planning! We’re still intending to have some new releases for the show, they’ll be previewed next week, so keep an eye out. I’m afraid that you’ve now missed the window for show orders, but we will have plenty of stock so you should be able to get what you need from us on the day.

And finally, just a reminder that tomorrow is the annual Open Day of our local club, Maidstone Wargames Society. We’re putting on a 6mm Hammer’s Slammers game which you’re welcome to join in with or just observe – I’ve been working on a lot of new scenery so I hope it should look pretty good (taster below). There are half-a-dozen other games to take in of various periods, so if you’re in the Kent area, please pop in.

Castles in the Sky

Castles in the Sky is the title of the latest Osprey release in the blue book wargames series, written by Eric Farrington. Rather than us telling you what it’s about, this is what their website has to say about it:

A wargaming ruleset for epic pre-WW1 battles in the sky.

It’s the dawn of the 20th Century and the Great Powers turn to war. Since the development of the air screw, leading to the creation of flying warships, the navies of the world have comprised an ever-growing number of these aerial ironclads. So fire up the turbines, ready the aether drives, and take to the air in Castles in the Sky: A Wargame of Flying Battleships.

Featuring all the rules required to fight battles with fleets of flying behemoths. Assemble your fleet from 8 nationalities and fight through a variety of scenarios. With a full campaign system, Castles in the Sky contains everything adventurous aeronautical admirals need to find victory in the skies.

The 48-page softback has a number of photos featuring our Imperial Skies models, plus other unique artwork. Today is the official release date, and we’ve just added it to our website. The Imperial Skies range now numbers well over 250 different flying machines of various types from 21 different nationalities, plus merchant vessels, giving you lots to choose from.

CITS-001 – Castles in the Sky – £14.99

Maidstone Wargames Society Open Day

Coming up this Saturday is our local club’s Open Day. Maidstone Wargames Society has a history dating back over 50 years (the Golden Jubilee was rather disrupted by the pandemic) and a current membership of around 30. The Open Day is an annual showcase where the club puts on a number of games so that potential new members can see what goes on, try out a game or two and see if the club is for them.

We’ll be there in our role as club members. Tony has been working hard on one of the games on display, a 6mm Hammer’s Slammers event which you can join in to get a feel for the rules. If that doesn’t float your boat then there are modern, Spanish Civil War, renaissance and other games to try. You can find out more here.

Joy of Six ’22

Our next show, the Joy of Six at Sheffield Hallam University, is just over two weeks away, on July 3rd. The show is making a come back after a couple of years off with over twenty 6mm games and a dozen traders including the organisers, Baccus.

Since this is a specialised 6mm show we take a very cut-down subset of our ranges:

  • Full range of 6mm Hammer’s Slammers models, including a good selection of detachment packs
  • Full range of 6mm Iron Cow models, including a full range of army and company packs
  • Full selection of building/scenery models of all types, including packs
  • Full range of Squadron Commander fighters, both individual and blister packs
  • The complete 2mm Small Scale Scenery range

We’re hoping to have some new releases lined up for the show, which we’ll preview before the day, so keep checking between now and the 3rd.

If you would like anything from one of our other ranges, you can order it in advance and collect on the day. You can either place an order and pay in full using the collect in person option on the website, or just drop us an email with a list and pay by cash or card on the day. Since we’re on holiday for the week leading up to the show, we’ll need any orders well in advance to give us a chance to get them ready – the cut-off date is June 22nd.

Brushes Out !

Following on from the recent Broadside show, the Milton Hundred Wargames Club is running a competition for the best-painted version of Leofwine. He was the free figure given away to the first 300 visitors to the show, and which we produced for them with help from from Martin Baker, who sculpted the master. Here’s mine, waiting for paint …

Simply pop over to their Facebook page (sorry, you will need to be on Facebook to enter) and put up a picture of your painted figure. We’ll be stumping up a prize for the best one of a random grab bag of Celtos figures – we can’t say exactly what will be in it, it might depend on what we’re overstocked on that day, but you’ll get a good number of figures.

So, what are you waiting for !?

PacFed Updates

Two more spaceships have had an upgrade this week, with new versions of the Pacific Federation Tigershark battleship and Sei carrier. Both are now 2-piece resin castings with improved detailing, and being all-resin makes them lighter and easier to base. An anomaly in these days of rampant inflation, the new Tigershark is slightly smaller than the original, which brings it more into line with the battleships of other fleets (and allows us to drop the price slightly). It also makes potential space for a larger PacFed capital ship sometime in the future…

SFS-701 – Tigershark class Battleship – £5.50
SFS-710 – Sei class Carrier – £6.00

Great War Vehicles in 28mm (and more)

News today of a new venture for us. We’ve had a store on Shapeways selling a few 3D printed bits and pieces for quite a few years; initially it did quite well, but changes in their pricing structure have made some items unaffordable and sales have dropped off markedly in recent times. So we’ve taken the decision to close it, and instead we’re going to concentrate on printing our own models and selling them directly from the website. We will have stocks of the first offerings at Broadside tomorrow; the two scenic pieces are already on the website, expect the others (and many more) to arrive there soon.

We’re adding a range of 3D printed vehicles to our existing 28mm Great War range, starting with three models. The first is the Bussing A5P armoured car, a single example of which was built by Germany and used in Romania and Ukraine in 1916-17.

Adding heavy firepower is the 21 cm Mörser 10 used in large numbers (over 200 were built) by the Germans throughout the Great War.

Finally for the Great War, we have a Ford Model T armoured car, used by the Royal Naval Air Service on the Eastern Front. There’s also a destroyed version (r) for those inevitable moments when the Germans find their range…

We’re also going to be printing some of the most frequently bought scenery pieces from the old Shapeways store. The Transmitter Pylon is the biggest selling item in the range, so we had to start there. At just under 6″ tall, it can be used as a small-ish 6mm scale pylon, or alternatively as a large 2mm TV tower (it’s based upon the Crystal Palace tower).

The final offering for now is a pair of 1/1000th scale Gasholders of the telescopic type common in Europe. Although mostly decommissioned nowadays, they were a common sight on the skylines of most towns and cities.

All are 3D printed in resin; although we will attempt to hold stocks of these items, orders may be delayed slightly if we ever have to print to order.

GW28-301 – Bussing A5P Armoured Car – £21.00
GW28-302 – 21 cm Mörser 10 – £14.00
GW28-101 – Ford Model T Armoured Car – £6.50
GW28-101d – Ford Model T Armoured Car (destroyed) – £6.50
SF300-902 – Transmitter Tower – £7.50
SSS-8191 – Gasholders (x2) – £3.00

Broadside 2022

Through a combination of circumstances, cancellations, last-minute COVID withdrawals etc, we’ve reached June before we finally get to our first show of the year. It’s our ‘home’ one, Broadside in Gillingham, on Saturday 4th June at Medway Park Sports Centre (formerly the Black Lion for those who know the area).

As always, we’ll be happy to take advance orders. You can either send us an email with your order and pay on the day, or alternatively you can place an order via the website (using the Collect in Person shipping option to avoid shipping charges) and pay in advance. We’ll be taking cash and credit cards on the day.

Because of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee holiday, we’ll need orders by the end of Tuesday (May 31st). We’ll be casting and packing on Wednesday, but we’re then closed for the two bank holidays before the weekend.

If you attend then you should get hold of this little chap – he’s Leofwine Wargamerson, the mascot/emblem of the Milton Hundred Wargames Club who run the show. We were very pleased to have been asked by MHWC to produce a figure for the 10th anniversary of the show and the first 400 people through the door will get one. He was sculpted by the versatile Martin Baker, who’s done a great job of reproducing Leofwine’s casual pose from the MHWC logo.

Work-in-progress version of Leofwine painted by David Mustill, MHWC chairman.