Some good news at last – Chris the Blacksmith has finished the replacement parts for our pressure pot, so we’re back in resin-casting action again 😊
Fortunately there isn’t much of a backlog so most of it will be cleared today, there’s just one order I won’t be able to finish.
This is a good chance for a reminder about Crisis orders, there’s still time to get those in – I’ll be at the workshop on Thursday so any orders need to be in by that morning.
Crisis is the annual wargames show of the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, held on the banks of the Scheldt in an old warehouse, Hangar Waagnatie (now part of our Small Scale Scenery range).
We’d been a little unsure about our attendance because of the uncertainties around Brexit, but it now looks like everything should be OK over the weekend of the show. So we’ve made all our travel and accommodation plans and, barring any unforeseen last-minute political shenanigans, we will be there.
We are happy as always to take advance orders, either pre-paid via the website using the ‘Collect in Person’ shipping option, or you can just email us a list and pay on the day (please note that we are unable to take credit cards at Crisis as our card machine only works in the UK).
I’m rather grumpy this morning – in another (less rainy) world I would be sitting enjoying the September sunshine at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, having a few drinks with my mates from my former cricket club, watching the last game of the county season. Instead, it’s pitch dark and hammering down with rain and I’m catching up with stuff in my windowless office (sigh). Oh well.
Our penultimate (possibly … see further down) show of the year is SELWG 2019, run by the South East London Wargames Group at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. We will be back in our usual spot in the main hall on October 20th, in the corner by the entrance/exit tunnel. As always, we’re more than happy to take orders for collection at either event – simply send us an email with what you require and pay on the day, or you can order and pay in advance via the website using the ‘Collect in Person’ shipping option. The sooner the better, but we should be able to take orders until the week before the show.
Now, onto what should be our last show of the year – Crisis in Antwerp. This is on November 9th this year, which is just over a week after the UK is supposed to be leaving the EU. This is not the place to discuss the rights and wrongs of Brexit, so we’re not going to, except where it affects Brigade. We’re booked into Crisis, and we really would like to go, it’s a great show and we enjoy meeting many of our European customers. If Brexit is delayed, or there’s a deal with a transition period during which everything is pretty much as it is now, we should be OK. But if the UK does indeed leave the EU on the 31st as planned (which is not certain), especially in the case of a ‘hard Brexit’ no-deal scenario, we’re probably not going to want to risk the disruption and chaos that is bound to occur at the Channel Tunnel crossing point. So we’re playing a watching brief at the moment.
If we don’t go, then we’ll probably try to run some sort of reduced or free postage offer for EU customers around the time of the show to compensate for our absence.
First business for today is a reminder about Colours on Saturday; I’m at the workshop restocking tomorrow, so you only have a brief window remaining for any orders for collection at the show. You can either pay by cash or card on the day (just send us an email), or order via the website (use the Collect in Person option to avoid postage).
As threatened earlier in the year, our ongoing spaceship upgrade programme has moved onto the Chinese (CDSU) fleet. Phil found time between packing boxes for his impending house move to make the master mould for the bulk of the new masters, and I cast up the first ones last week.
The two dreadnoughts, the Longzi and Jiangzi, both now have resin hulls with various metal parts, while the new cruisers and escorts are all metal. Unfortunately they won’t be ready for this weekend, these are still several weeks away from release, . When they do appear, the old designs will be withdrawn, so get in now if you want to top up any existing fleets. Today I’ve been cleaning up the master castings of the smaller vessels ready for production moulds, so I thought it was time for a sneak peek …
For the dreadnoughts you’ll have to make do with some CG images for now, until I get all of the parts together to actually assemble some!
We return to the show circuit soon, starting at the Hereward convention at the Cresset Centre in Peterborough on Sunday September 1st, followed by Colours at Newbury Racecourse less than a week later (Saturday 7th). As always, we’re more than happy to take orders for collection at either event – simply send us an email with what you require and pay on the day, or you can order and pay in advance via the website using the ‘Collect in Person’ shipping option.
As our ranges have grown we’re no longer able to bring everything with us, so to help you plan here’s a list of what we’re intending to cram onto the stand at both events – if we aren’t bringing what you’re after, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.
We have a some new bits and pieces for the Joy of Six on Sunday – all 6mm scale (of course !). We have a mix of vehicles, VTOLs, starfighters and buildings to try to tempt the moths out of your wallets – none of these have been seen before in 6mm. Some of the models – especially the Squadron Commander starfighters and the Eaglewing VTOLs – will be in short supply as I don’t yet have production moulds so will only be able to bring what I can cast from the master moulds.
First up – a reminder about pre-orders. I finished stocking up for Jo6 yesterday so I will have some time tomorrow to cast up any last minute orders for collection at the show. For details about exactly what I’m bringing and how to order, click here.
So, onto the models. I was hoping to have the 6mm versions of the Flaming Sword of the Holy Brotherhood ready but we haven’t quite managed to get all of them done in time. However, I will have stocks of their largest vehicle, the M12L14 Tank Destroyer. This turretless beast is armed with a 20cm powergun and can go toe-to-toe with a Slammers M2 tank.
At Salute we released a 15mm VTOL, the Demeter. On Sunday we go one better with two new 6mm VTOLS, the Demeter (r) and its cousin, the Perseus. The former is an attack VTOL while the Perseus is a small troop carrier – the equivalent of a UH-1 Huey.
This one is brand new – it’s currently going under the codename of Rapier, although that may change 🙂 It’s a heavy tank used used by Anders Legion, who are rolling it out to replace their Cutlass tanks, and has a heavy cannon plus a missile pod. Expect to see this in 15mm very soon too.
As mentioned, we have two new starfighters in the Squadron Commander range. The first is the AmRep Raptor attack fighter. This has four X-foils with torpedo pods sandwiched between them either side and twin gatlings. The Germans get the Kondor two-seat heavy fighter, with it’s remote rear gun turret. I did make versions of both of these ages ago which never went into production, but these are brand new digital sculpts. Both will be available singly or in flights of four.
This handy little building is a radar dome – a conventional radar dish is enclosed in a protective dome to keep out the effects of weather, sandstorms, small animals etc.
Largest of all is this power station cooling tower. We’ve had a hollow 3D-printed item in our Shapeways shop and we’ve sold a few of these at shows, but this is a much larger resin version – at over 4″ tall, it’s almost twice as large as the 3D printed model.
But, much to my annoyance, I forgot to bring one home from the workshop to photograph, so for now you’re left with this enigmatic silhouette… (I’ll try to remember one tomorrow !).
HS6-2011 – M12L14 Tank Destroyer – £1.50
HS6-2601 – Perseus Utility VTOL – £2.00
HS6-2602 – Demeter Attack VTOL – £2.00
HS6-3611 – Rapier Tank – £1.25
SCR-203 – Raptor Assault Fighter – £3.00
SCP-203 – Raptor Flight – £11.00
SCR-303 – Kondor Heavy Fighter – £3.50
SCP-303 – Kondor Flight – £13.00
B300-144 – Radome – £2.00
B300-145 – Power Station Cooling Tower – £10.00
For those who can’t make the show, most of these models will be trickling onto the website in the near future. For those who can, please come and say hello on Sunday, but be gentle with me – I’ll be at a wedding the day before and although I won’t be hungover (I have to drive to Sheffield from Kent on Saturday evening) I may not have had much sleep…
Our next show, the Joy of Six in Sheffield, is less than two weeks away. Jo6 is, as you might guess from the name, an event dedicated to the delights of 6mm gaming across all periods and genres. Organised by Baccus, the show takes place in Sheffield Hallam University and attracts over a dozen traders and features almost thirty micro-scale games.
Since this is a very specialised show, I don’t take all of our ranges with us – instead I have a smaller stand packed with everything 6mm, plus a couple of other related ranges (full list below).
As always, we’re happy to take orders in advance – 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. You can advance order anything from any of our ranges, not just the 6mm ones.
As well as our recent 6mm releases, we are working on some more new items for the day – I’m hoping to be able to preview something soon.
It’s almost time for our local club, Maidstone Wargames Society, to hold its annual Open Day. This year it’s on Saturday June 22nd between 11am and 4pm, at the club’s usual meeting place in Linton, Kent. It’s not a conventional wargames show, there are no traders or bring-and-buy, and no entrance fee. Instead, the club puts on a selection of games across a variety of periods and scales to showcase our activities and hopefully attract one or two new members. All of the games are open for people to join in and try out a new period or set of rules.
Periods include Vietnam, Dark Ages, English Civil War and even a James Bond-inspired spy-fi game. I’ll be there, running a 1/600th Suez Crisis aircraft game featuring dogfights between MiGs, Meteors, Mysteres, Mustangs, Mosquitoes and some other planes not starting with M!
I’m not officially there in a Brigade capacity – there’s no Brigade stand and I won’t have any stock. However, if anyone is planning to come along to the Open Day and would like me to bring anything along to save on postage, don’t let me stop you – just drop us a line and we’ll sort something out.
Our next show is due in a couple of weeks. It’s our local event, Broadside, run by the ever-friendly Milton Hundred Wargames Club. Both Phil and I will be there in our customary spot. It’s held at the Swallows Leisure Centre in Sittingbourne from 10am to 4pm – a convenient ten minute walk from home (although a half-hour drive from Brigade HQ).
We’ll have decent stocks of most lines, including our newest releases. As always for any show, we welcome advance orders – you can either place an order and pay in advance using the collect in person option on the website, or just drop us an email with a list and pay on the day. You’ll see from the list below that we can’t bring everything, so if you would like anything from ranges that we’re not bringing with us then you’ll need to order it in advance.
Salute is the largest show on the UK gaming calendar – this year it’s a little earlier than usual, April 6th, at the now established venue in London’s ExCel centre. Once again Brigade will be in attendance, and you can find us on stand TE16). As always we try to bring a number of new items across our ranges, and this post is where you will find them all. It will be regularly updated as we release details of each new model, and we’ll stick it to the top of the blog until the show it over so it’s easy to find. For more details of the show, click the logo above and you’ll be taken to the official show website.
We’re happy to take orders for the show – you can either place an order and pay in advance using the collect in person option on the website, or just drop us an email with a list and pay on the day (cash or card). Our ranges have grown so much that even at a show as big as Salute we can no longer bring large quantities of every model, so if you’re after something in particular and want to guarantee that we have it then it’s wise to get your order in early. It’s often difficult to judge demand for new releases so they can sometimes sell out quickly.
VANFP-1703 – Spanish Carrier Pack – £22.00
VAN-102 – Exeter class Heavy Cruiser – £3.50
VAN-103 – Osprey class Patrol Ship – £1.00
VAN-105 – Cygnet class Torpedo Ship – £1.00
VAN-107 – Cossack class Corvette – £1.00
VAN-108 – Steadfast class Frigate – £1.25
VAN-112 – Arethusa class Fleet Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-112a – Arethusa class AA Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-128 – Medusa class Armoured Cruiser – £4.00
VAN-129 – Orion class Light Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-129a – Sirius class AA Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-1811 – Ammiraglio la Verde class Battlecruiser – £8.00
VAN-1710 – Príncipe de Asturias class Carrier – £9.00
VAN-1711 – Halcón class Fighter (x6) – £1.25
SFS-175 – Fort Linton class Replenishment Ship – £10.00
SFS-311 – Zugspitze class Light Carrier – £6.00
SFS-320 – Wuppertal III class Heavy Cruiser – £3.00
SFS-321 – Osnabruck class Attack Cruiser – £2.50
SFS-322 – Wiesbaden class Missile Cruiser – £2.50
HSC-007 – Hammer’s Slammers Counters – £20.00
B15-603 – Utility Dome – £7.00
B15-604 – Storage Dome – £5.00
B15-605 – LOX Tanks (x2)- £3.00
SF15-168a – Anti-tank Rifle Team (x2) – £3.00
SF15-168b – Twin MG Team (x2) – £3.00
SF15-169 – British Gun Crew – £1.50
SF15-566a – PLA Remote Twin Gun Teams (x2) – £3.00
SF15-566b – PLA Remote Missile Teams (x2) – £3.00
SF15-1267a – Neo-Soviet Tri-barrel team (x2) – £3.00
SF15-1267b – Neo-Soviet Auto-GL team (x2) – £3.00
SF15-203c – Baumann Command Vehicle – £8.00
SF15-209 – Cargo Hauler – £7.00
SF15-406e – Javelot Mortar Carrier – £4.00
SF15-1510a – Shinigami Missile Carrier – £4.00
SF15-1510b – Shinigami Mortar Carrier – £4.00
HS15-2602 – Demeter Attack VTOL – £12.00
SF15-937 – VTOL Weapons (x8) – £2.50
SF300-167 – British Skimmers – £3.00
SF300-756 – PacFed Skimmers – £3.00
SSS-8122or – Octagonal Tower with Roof – £1.50
SSS-8122rr – Round Tower with Roof – £1.50
SSS-8122sr – Square Tower with Roof – £1.50
SSS-8132 – German Village – £6.00
SSS-8133 – German Churches – £5.00
SSS-8134 – Modern Farm Structures – £5.50
SSS-8135 – Belgian Dockside Warehouses – £5.00
