Colours 2024

Posted on August 28, 2024 by Tony

After the cancellation of the luckless Hereward and SELWG shows, our penultimate outing of the year is Colours 2024 at Newbury racecourse on September 14th. We’re on stand A37, which looks pretty much like the same place as last year, downstairs near the coffee outlet.

If you’d like to place an order for collection then you can either send us a list via the contact form (which we’ve now knocked the gremlins out of and is checked far more regularly) or place it via the website using the ‘Collect at Show’ shipping option.

Newbury Racecourse

We’ll have our usual array of ranges as follows –

  • Celtos – Decent stock of all individual figures (no army or unit packs)
  • Aeronef/Imperial Skies – A full range of fleet packs; a good selection of individual capital ships in blisters; rulebooks and accessories for Imperial Skies
  • Small Scale Scenery – the full range of all models
  • Spaceships – full range of fleet packs; a good selection of individual capital ships in blisters
  • Hammer’s Slammers – rulebooks; the full range of 15mm models; a selection of 6mm detachment packs (no 15mm detachment packs)
  • 15mm SF – full range of 15mm vehicles, figure packs and accessories (no buildings)
  • 6mm SF – full range of army packs, company packs and building packs (no individual models or buildings)
  • Great War Belgians – full range of figures
  • Great War Vehicles (15mm and 28mm) – we’ll bring a selection, but if you want anything specific or multiples then please order in advance
  • Squadron Commander – full range of blister packs (no individual models)
  • 6mm WW2 Belgians – full range
  • 1/700th Scenery – full range
  • We will not be able to bring any 10mm SF buildings, Iron Stars or Land Ironclads miniatures unless ordered in advance.
Image of Newbury Racecourse by RacingKel via Wikipedia, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Posted in Shows | 2 Comments

Steller Freight

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Tony

Today’s offerings are a pair of freighters to add to our burgeoning spaceship merchant fleet. The Auberon is a general purpose freighter with three large cargo holds, each of which can be pressurised or left open to vacuum as required.

The Umbriel uses the same main drive package and keel as the Auberon, but replaces the cargo holds with a single large fuel tank primarily designed for holding a hydrogen/helium mix scooped from the upper atmosphere of gas giants. This is transported to orbital processing plants where it is separated and purified ready for use as fuel.

SFS-5028 – Auberon Freighter – £3.00
SFS-5029 – Umbriel Tanker – £3.00

Posted in New Releases, Spaceships | 1 Comment

The Great White Admiral

Posted on August 16, 2024 by Tony

For the last year or two our Imperial Skies releases have mostly been concentrated on the South American project, where we’ve added fleets for almost every country in that great continent (almost – there’s one more to go, Venezuela, and they’re nearly ready). But in those two years, the great aerial fleets of the rest of the world haven’t been idle, continuing the arms race around the globe.

And today’s new release is a great example, as we debut the latest US battleship, the USS Rogers class. Built in the same Coyote Flats airship yards near Fort Worth as the Texas class, the familial resemblance to the earlier vessel is readily apparent. But the Rogers class is more heavily armed with a pair of two-storey superimposed main turrets fore and aft. Secondary armament is concentrated in four oval turrets, located on the superstructure corners. These are mounted low on the ship to allow a battery of quick-firing small calibre guns in the superstructure to fire over them – although their traverse is restricted by their placement deep in the sloped sides, so their utility must be limited.

The lead ship of the class is named for Vice-Admiral Jonathan E. Rogers, who distinguished himself particularly in actions in the Pacific, but also during the Spanish-American War and various conflicts in South America in his early career. He led the US First Air Fleet both in war against the Japanese and in peacetime when it acquired the moniker ‘The Great White Fleet’ during a series of courtesy visits to allied nations around the world. During a brief visit to Great Britain he was dubbed ‘The Great White Admiral’ by British newspapers, a nickname which stuck when he returned to the US. He remains in command of the First Fleet to this day.

VAN-225 – Rogers class Battleship – £8.00

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, New Releases | 1 Comment

The Monstrous Sisters

Posted on August 9, 2024 by Tony

Today we have a new addition to the stable of Centurions, the multi-wheeled campaign vehicles used by many mercenary forces in the Hammerverse. Centurions are large and roomy, allowing detachments to travel in relative comfort with plenty of space for equipment and supplies. They’re not generally supposed to go anywhere near the action, with infantry carrier variants disgorging their troops behind the lines, and any armed variants are mostly used as support vehicles, either air defence or artillery. You can read more about the history of the Centurion here.

15mm Centurion Gorgon

However, the Hellenic Heliodorus Regiment decided to go one further. Working with manufacturers JTTF Industries, they removed the turrets from three surplus C4H6 Hog artillery vehicles and, after modifying and reinforcing the turret rings, paired them with turrets taken from a trio of damaged Rheinmetall RA16A2 Helheims, dubiously obtained through the grey market. As well as a pair of massive gatling coil guns, these are also armed with twin launchers for the Heliodorus’ Gerakiou variant of the ubiquitous Kestrel anti-tank missile. The resulting variant is known as the C4G6 Gorgon, and the three vehicles (now named Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa by the crews) have proved to be very effective in urban actions supporting the regiment’s infantry. After the success of the conversions, JTTF are now rumoured to be marketing other heavily armed versions of the Centurion.

6mm Centurion Gorgon

The Gorgon is available in both 6mm and 15mm.

HS15-2218 – Centurion C4G6 Gorgon – £20.00
HS6-2218 – Centurion C4G6 Gorgon – £2.50

Posted in 15mm SF, 6mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, New Releases | 1 Comment

Addressing Gettysburg

Posted on August 2, 2024 by Tony

New this week, a pair of models for Gettysburg in 1/1000th scale. ‘A pair ?’ we hear you say, ‘There’s only one in the photos !’. But this set does consist of two models – first, the Lutherian Seminary building, employed by both sides as a lookout post. It was initially held by the Union for the first day, then for the rest of the battle by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. It was used a field hospital, treating casualties of both sides.

This is where is gets slightly embarrassing for us. The second part of the set is the Evergreen Cemetery Gatehouse, located on Cemetery Hill where much of the Union artillery was placed. The building served as General Howard’s HQ for the battle. We had a painted model of this and, er, it’s been ‘misplaced’ before being photographed. So you’ll have to make do with this CGI capture until we can get a replacement one done !

SSS-8051 – Gettysburg Seminary and Cemetery Gates – £3.00

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Back to our Rootes

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Tony

Brigade are from Maidstone – the one in Kent, the Garden of England, rather than any of our namesakes in the USA, Canada or Australia ! As part of our Small Scale Scenery range we’re starting to recreate a few notable local buildings from the town and surrounding area in 1/1000th scale, and today we have a couple of new ones – we’ve titled this pair ‘Art Deco Commercial Buildings’.

The first is a large Car Showroom – we’ve based this on an edifice known locally as the Rootes Building after the company that originally built it in the late 1930s (although it’s officially called Len House). It’s currently unoccupied but for years was home to a franchise of a well-known French car manufacturer. It’s now a Grade-II listed structure, and there are plans to turn it into apartments with shopping and dining facilities.

The second building will bring back memories for local gamers and modellers, even if you don’t immediately recognise it. It’s another Art Deco building, this time an L-shaped block of shops with flats above. It’s based on Granada House, which used to be the home of Hubble and Freeman’s toy shop, which is where the two of us spent considerable amounts of pocket money on various plastic kits, paints and other bits and pieces during a mis-spent youth.

SSS-8211 – Art Deco Commercial Buildings – £4.00

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Slamming Sheffield

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Tony

A couple of weeks ago we attended the Joy of Six show at Sheffield Hallam University. And so did John Treadaway, who put on a Hammer’s Slammers game (using the desert terrain that Tony built and that featured on the Maidstone Wargames Society blog a while back).

John has written up the game on the Hammer’s Slammers website – we’ve also nicked a few photos to whet your appetites.

Posted in 6mm SF, Hammer's Slammers | Comments Off on Slamming Sheffield

The Two Towers (and the Enneagram)

Posted on July 22, 2024 by Tony

Today we have a one-of-a-kind offering from the talented Phil Page (aka 6MilPhil on various forums and social media, and proprietor of Slug Industries). It’s a rocky outcrop with a winding stair, topped with a selection of options – two towers (one intact, one ruined), a sort of magical nine-sided symbol thingy (which we think is correctly termed an Enneagram, although that sounds like it could also be an invasive medical procedure), and a circular blank plate. Phil knows it simply as the Rocky Outcrop, but we think it deserves a better name – The Tower of Philipagius maybe ?

Anyway, it’s an excellent piece of work and we have precisely one of them for sale (for now at least) so get in quick.

SLUG-003 – Rocky Outcrop – £50.00

Posted in New Releases, Slug Industries | Comments Off on The Two Towers (and the Enneagram)

Suit Up !

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Tony

Germy’s been busy again – this time, creating a number of new 6mm Power Armour figures for us. These suits are more like small walkers, still one-man individual units but taller than a normal infantryman (they come in at 10mm from toe to top).

This release comes in two flavours – the advanced OSP-77 ‘Osprey’ Power Suit, which is an enlarged version of our existing power models with the ovoid body shell. This has a solid body shell and relies on an enhanced external sensor suite to give the wearer a view of the outside.

The second type is the ATL-12 ‘Atlas’ Combat Suit, a more conventional suit derived from civilian power loaders (the ATL part of its designation – Armoured Transport Loader – refers to this origin). The original plexiglass canopy has been replaced by a toughened synthetic diamond one to give the wearer a direct external field of vision, with the skeleton frame sheathed in composite spaced armour. Both types come with several different weapon loadouts – missiles, rockets, lasers, flamers etc.

Each pack contains 12 models, with four each of three different types in a pack. We’ll have stock of these at Joy of Six on Sunday – hopefully we’ll see some of you there. You’ll find them listed on the website under both Infantry and Mechs, as they sort of fit in both categories.

SF300-5006 – OSP-77 Osprey Power Suit – £5.00
SF300-5007 – ATL-12 Atlas Combat Suit – £5.00

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases | 3 Comments

Sturmpanzerwagen

Posted on July 5, 2024 by Tony

First up, a reminder to get your orders for Joy of Six to us as soon as possible to give us a chance to get them cast and packed. If you’re coming to the show, be sure to check out the 6mm Hammer’s Slammers game that will be next to our trade stand. The game is being hosted by John Treadaway, erstwhile co-author of The Crucible ruleset. Although it’s billed as a demonstration game, we’re sure that John will be more than happy to take you through the rules and give you command of a detachment or two.

We’ve had a minor upgrade this week to the website in terms of payment options. As well as PayPal and most major credit cards, you can now pay using either Google Pay or Apple Pay.

Today we have a new addition to our 28mm WWI vehicles range. The A7V was Germany’s only indigenous tank of the war to see service, and just 20 were built. It had a 57mm main armament and a plethora of machine guns, coupled with thick armour – although this was only steel plate rather than face-hardened armour plate, at 30mm thick it was impervious to machine guns. The downsides were its high silhouette and centre of gravity which made it unstable, especially considering the short and narrow tracks. And like all tanks of the era, breakdowns were common – many broke down before ever reaching the front line, and others suffered mechanical failure soon after engaging the enemy so were either lost immediately or destroyed to avoid capture.

GW28-304 – A7V Sturmpanzerwagen – £27.00

Posted in 3D Print, Great War, New Releases | 1 Comment