Stoke Rochford Action

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Tony

I’ve been out in the garden this morning doing some resin casting in preparation for Crisis. There are some hazards involved in resin casting, and I can reveal that one lucky purchaser of a Shaman hovertank will be getting a free insectoid crew member, which unluckily (or stupidly) flew into the mould just as the resin was being poured. So now it’s forever set in there, just like the insects preserved in amber in Jurassic Park ! Don’t worry, you’d never know, it’s buried deep …

It’s also a bit nippy outside, I’m not sure where the predicted unseasonally warm weather is, but it isn’t in Kent ! So I’ve popped inside for a warming cuppa and thought I’d share some photos from the Stoke Rochford Aeronef game at the weekend. My contribution this time consisted of some coastal scenery to defend/invade/bomb using our 2mm scenery range. This was a lot of fun to build and I enjoyed putting it together. I’ll be writing a full ‘how I made it’ post later, but for now I thought I’d share a few photos of the day, before and after the combat commenced.

The game featured many finely painted Aeronef models (I would hazard a guess at 300+) of many nations, British, Italian, German, French, Danish, Austro-Hungarian and probably many more.

Another weekend of fun is planned for early next year, probably in February – stay tuned for more news.

Posted in Aeronef, Shows, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Crisis Last Call

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Tony

So it’s just a few days until Crisis. We’re still able to take pre-orders, you can place them up to the end of Wednesday and we’ll do our best to have them ready. Last year due to space restrictions we did not take individual stock of Aeronef, Spaceships or 6mm SF vehicles, and it will be a similar case this year. We should have a good selection of starter and army packs from each of these ranges, and we plan to have individual stock of the extremely popular British spaceships, but for anything else it would be best to get your orders to us in advance. We won’t be taking Land Ironclads or Iron Stars at all, historically they don’t sell well at Crisis, so again if you would like anything from those ranges then you’ll need to order in advance.

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We will be carrying full stocks, both individual models and packs, of our 15mm SF range, Celtos, the 2mm buildings, Magpie Miniatures, Great War Belgians and a good selection of dice and bases from the accessories range. We’ll also have our ranges of SF buildings in both 6mm and 15mm, plus everything we have left in our range of Shapeways 3D printed items (if you saw my post a while back about the very significant increase in Shapeways’ prices, you’ll realise that we won’t be getting new stocks of many of these items, so get them while you can). Having said all of that, I have a slightly larger car than last year so it might be possible to squeeze in more stock, in which case I’ll try and bring as much as possible.

Now we haven’t had quite so many new releases lately due to the show schedule, but there are a number of new bits and pieces that should be ready for Saturday. In 15mm we will have the South African Hippo truck and Buffel light APC, and as at SELWG I’m hoping to have a small number of Angelshark VTOLs. There will be several new sets in our Small Scale Scenery range, which we’ll preview later in the week – I just need to paint some samples (you can see one of them below). We will have the new Aeronef releases from last week, and maybe one or two more. We may not have huge stocks and we won’t take pre-orders on these new items, so get there early if you want to snap some up.

Bonn HBF

We will be unable to take credit cards at Crisis – our credit card reader only works in the UK, so it’s cash sales only (or if you have a mobile phone that allows you to do so, you can transfer money by PayPal).

cash_only

Posted in 15mm SF, New Releases, Shows, Small Scale Scenery | Comments Off on Crisis Last Call

New Nef News

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Tony

It’s been quite a long time since we released any new Aeronef models. The Charlemagne resculpt is due later this year, but in the meantime we have a few models that have been on the back burner for a while and have finally reached the front of the mould-making queue. These are all of the fixed wing variety, and we’ve pushed them out in time for the Stoke Rochford Aeronef weekend which starts today. I’ve taken the opportunity to photograph them on some of the terrain we’ll be using in the game over the weekend.

The US get the Herring class biplane Light Bomber, which I’ve painted up in the very colourful blue/yellow between-the-wars scheme used by the US (not quite Aeronef period, but it looks good 🙂 ).

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For the French, we have the sleek Ader monoplane fighter.

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And finally, the Russian Empire gets the Oryol heavy bomber, used in the strategic bombing of Northern England during the invasion of 1899.

VAN-513

VAN-214 – Herring class Biplane Light Bomber (x6) – £1.25
VAN-417 – Ader class Monoplane Fighter (x6) – £1.25
VAN-513 – Oryol class Biplane Bomber (x3) – £1.00

Posted in Aeronef, New Releases | Comments Off on New Nef News

Fishing for Stats

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Tony

A quick note to say that I’ve finally got round to uploading Starmada X stats for the Fisher class dreadnought in its various derivations to the Brigade website. Click on the Starmada logo to go to the relevant page.

FisherRelease

Starmada

Posted in Gaming Stats, Spaceships | Comments Off on Fishing for Stats

15mm Légion Étrangère

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Tony

Another model making the move from 6mm to 15mm is the Catroux, wheeled APC of choice of the EuroFed Légion Étrangère. I’ve just completed the 3D modelling on the hull, wheels and the remote weapon system mount which you can see below. I might still do a bit of tweaking and add more details (in writing this post I’ve spotted a couple of changes I’d like to make). I’ve tried to retain the same detailing and style as existing EuroFed vehicles so the national resemblance is clear. Like its 6mm counterpart, it will be available with a number of other turrets from the Tassigny APC – MICV cannon turret, missile, and AA will all be available immediately, with a command variant and possibly engineering and ambulance later.

We’re hoping to release it later this year – we have already ordered prints for the wheels and the remote gun so that they can be cast in metal ahead of the resin hull.

Catroux CGI

Catroux CGI-2

Catroux CGI-3

Catroux Prints

Posted in 15mm SF, 3D Print, Previews | Comments Off on 15mm Légion Étrangère

No-new Release Friday

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Tony

I’m afraid that the current sequence of shows has thrown our carefully crafted release schedule into a bit of a tail spin, and once again this week’s planned new items aren’t quite ready.

However, a package arrived from the 3D printers this morning, which is always exciting, so instead of something you can buy this week, I thought I’d show off some of the items you can buy in a few weeks (much shorter in some cases). So, with the usual apologies about the difficulty of photographing translucent white plastic, here we go…

First up, a follow on from the post earlier this week on the new Charlemagne battlecruisers – here they are in all their blurry, washed-out glory. The sharp-eyed will spot that one of the hulls has already lost a gun barrel, which are a bit fragile, and I’ll have to replace it before they go in a mould.

Charlemagne Prints

Next we’re onto 15mm items. This is the hull for the Buffel APC previewed a week or two back, the first print was flawed (= I cocked up) so this is the replacement. It’s carrying a support weapon turret which will be available as an option and also fits the Wildebeest. Sorry, this really isn’t a great photo but trust me, it looks good in the plastic. The Buffel and Hippo will be available very soon, they would already be out had I not sent the wrong hull model to the printers first time round.

Buffel Print

This little piece is a 15mm heavy weapons tripod, designed to carry the range of pintle weapons we came out with recently – the sample is posed with a tribarrel gatling. And before anyone asks the obvious question – yes, they will come with crew (in fact Martin is sculpting them as I type).

Heavy Weapon Tripod Prints

Lastly, some new spaceships. The British fleet has been selling as fast as we can churn them out, and we thought it was about time for an addition to the fleet. This is the Swiftsure pursuit cruiser (left), next to a Halifax light cruiser hull.

Swiftsure Prints

Last, but by no means least, as with the older Aeronef models we’re going to be doing a slow rolling replacement of worn out spaceship moulds with remastered models. This is the CDSI Shanzi class fighter carrier (minus the lower hull, which is going to be a resin piece) – the deck is two part but the join should be neatly hidden under the new, extended bridge section.

Shanzi Print

Posted in 15mm SF, 3D Print, Aeronef, Spaceships | Comments Off on No-new Release Friday

Jeune École

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Tony

Some of our models have been around for a while … well, we are 26 years old as a company. Some of the older moulds are wearing out, and need replacing, so as a slow but ongoing process we’re going to take some of our more venerable models and resculpt them before making new moulds. One of the first of these is the French Charlemagne battlecruiser in the Aeronef range. This has code number VAN-401 – in other words, it was the first French Aeronef ever produced.

I’ve redesigned it with a slight tumblehome hull but it’s still recognisable as the same ship. Through the wonders of digital technology I’ve created three variants of the hull and three different superstructures with varying armaments. In theory all of these should be interchangeable, so it will be possible to create nine slightly different models.

Charlemagne-2

Charlemagne-3

Charlemagne-1

We’re hoping for a release later this year.

Posted in Aeronef, Previews | 2 Comments

More Shows

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Tony

Right, that’s the first half of our little burst of shows out of the way. This coming weekend we have a break before the second pair of shows.

On Saturday 25th of October I will be flying solo at Stoke Rochford Hall for the Aeronef weekend. Unfortunately for family reasons I can’t stay for the whole event, but I will be there gaming all day Saturday. I’ll be taking a very cut down stand with Aeronef, Land Ironclads, the 2mm buildings range and 15mm SF (last time there was also some Gruntz gaming going on). As always, if you would like me to bring anything else from other ranges then just let us know in advance and we’ll sort it out for you.

SRH

The final leg of our show odyssey is our last event of the year and also the furthest. On November 1st we’ll be cramming as much stock as we can into my car and travelling under the channel to Crisis 2014 in Antwerp. As last year, we will be bringing fleet, army and unit packs for Aeronef, Land Ironclads, Spaceships (except the new British and Indonesians, for which we’ll try to bring everything), Squadron Commander and 6mm SF, but not individual stock. We will have full stock for Celtos, 15mm, 2mm buildings and the WW1 Belgians. If you require any individual models from these ranges then, as always, let us know in advance and we’ll bring them along for you.

crisis14affiche

Posted in Shows | Comments Off on More Shows

SELWG Specials

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Tony

We’re all geared up for SELWG on Sunday – the casting is all done and we’re well stocked.

We do have a few new items for the day, some of which aren’t on the website and won’t be for several weeks yet.

In 15mm we have some pre-release samples of the PacFed Angelshark VTOL and South African Hippo truck. We only have very small numbers, since they aren’t officially released yet we haven’t stocked up (it literally is just 3-4 of each, so get in early if you want to pick up one).

SF15-704 – Angelshark Light VTOL – £8.00
SF15-608 – Wildebeest Heavy Truck – £8.50
SF15-915 – Small Cargo Container – £1.75

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We also have some new Aeronef – these are much nearer to a full release but you’ll get first crack at them on Sunday

VAN-417 – French Ader Monoplane Fighter (x6) – £1.25
VAN-513 – Russian Oryol Biplane Bomber (x3) – £1.25

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We will also have some special offers running with savings on multiple buys, rulebooks and maybe other – details on the day.

Posted in 15mm SF, Aeronef, Shows | Comments Off on SELWG Specials

Crew – debuss !

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Tony

Your tank’s been hit, but it’s not catastrophic – quick, grab the spanners and replace that damaged track link !

GaribaldiRepair

If you need to portray vehicle crews out of their vehicle, either performing emergency repairs or escaping a wreck and trying to get back to their lines, we have the answer. Six sets of crew figures, depicting both armed crewmen with SMGs and pistols, and a repair crew. They come in the same three flavours as our in-vehicle half figures with crewmen in Bone-dome helmets, berets or Soviet-style padded tanker helmets.

The helmeted figures are also ideal as Mech or VTOL crew, and we think the armed figures in berets would be perfect for the evil mastermind’s henchmen in a James Bond-style game.

All in all there are lots of uses and scenarios that can be built around these figures.

NeoSovietArmedCrew

SF15-007a – Armed Crew in Bone-dome (x4) – £1.50
SF15-007b – Armed Crew in Beret (x4) – £1.50
SF15-007c – Armed Crew in Soviet Tanker Helmet (x4) – £1.50
SF15-008a – Repair Crew in Bone-dome (x4) – £1.50
SF15-008b – Repair Crew in Beret (x4) – £1.50
SF15-008c – Repair Crew in Soviet Tanker Helmet (x4) – £1.50

Posted in 15mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment