Scandinavian Defenders

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Tony

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-9 – less than a week and a half to go)

Our Salute previews should ramp up into overdrive over the next few days, pretty much as fast as we can photograph and post things.

Today’s offering is a redesigned Scandinavian Union fleet for Imperial Skies. These ten new models replace the seven models in the existing fleet, plus some new designs for good measure. The two capital ships now have resin hulls, and they all have brand new turrets – and the first impression of them is that there are a lot of turrets!

VAN-2301 – Oscar II class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-2302 – Lillehammer class Battlecruiser – £8.00
VAN-2304 – Frederiksborg class Heavy Cruiser – £4.00
VAN-2305 – Varg class Pursuit Cruiser – £3.25
VAN-2306 – Tapperheten class Light Cruiser – £2.50
VAN-2307 – Udbye class Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-2308 – Ringkobing class Frigate – £1.50
VAN-2309 – Scheele class Corvette – £1.00
VAN-2310 – Vanern class Torpedo Nef – £1.50
VAN-2311 – Glomma class Patrol Nef – £1.50

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, Previews, Salute 51 (2024) | 4 Comments

The Adventure(r)s Continue!

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Tony

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-13)

Today’s Salute preview is the second pack of our new 15mm sci-fi adventurers. This next batch of human and alien ne’er-do-wells can be found in a seedy bar, spaceport loading bay or simply roaming the galaxy in a third-hand tramp freighter full of stolen chocolate eggs.

SF15-018 – Adventurers Pack #2 – £3.50

Mat by Geek Villain; backdrops by Jon Hodgson; road by Early War Miniatures.

Posted in 15mm SF, Previews, Salute 51 (2024) | Comments Off on The Adventure(r)s Continue!

The Firedrake

Posted on March 28, 2024 by Tony

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-16)

Many science-fiction fans will by now be aware of the passing of David Drake, author of the Hammer’s Slammers stories amongst many others, in December last year. We wanted to do something to commemorate David and his work, and Salute seems the ideal time to do it, since that was the show that the original rules were launched at 20 years ago.

The last Hammer’s Slammers story written by David was ‘Save What You Can’, which appears in the ‘Onward, Drake’ collection (which also includes the only Slammers story by another author, Larry Correia’s ‘The Losing Side’).

This story features a huge, 12-wheeled tank destroyer which turns up to throw chaos into a unit of Slammers combat cars. It has some interesting technology involving a massive flywheel for energy storage – we have no idea how feasible this really is, but it makes for a good read ! We’ve combined with John Treadaway, co-author of The Crucible rulebook to create this monster, initially in 15mm (6mm is to come). The model comes in seven resin and three metal parts, with a secondary turret, opening hatches and the optional rear track unit (for extra grip on rough terrain) can be assembled raised or lowered.

It’s not named in the book, so we’ve designated it the M-22FW Firedrake. It seems appropriate to name the last vehicle David created after him.

For each model sold, we’re going to donate £1 to the charity nominated on his website, the Blackhorse Scholarship Fund.

HS15-5001 – M-22FW Firedrake – £12.00

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, Previews, Salute 51 (2024) | 1 Comment

Oh no, not again !

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Tony

We’d hoped to give you some more previews today, but … Tony has been laid low by Covid (again). There’s something about Salute that brings out all manner of diseases and disasters at Brigade HQ in the weeks leading up to the show.

We do however have this quick snap taken last week. We will have a complete new fleet of spaceships at the show (all being well, and no other mishaps tripping us up along the way).

What we have done is added some new features to the website specifically for the show. UK customers can already select ‘Pickup at Show’ as a shipping option, which means they can place an order on the website for a show collection and not pay any postage charges. We’ve extended this so that customers overseas can also benefit – so far we’ve added France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, the USA and all countries in World Zone 1 (this is to accommodate a particular customer coming from Brazil !). If you’re coming from a country not on this list, let us know and we’ll add it for you. Or you can also just email us a list of what you would like and we can either send you an invoice, or you can pay on the day. Needless to say, we’d prefer orders for the show as soon as possible to allow us to get them ready.

Posted in Previews, Salute 51 (2024), Spaceships | 2 Comments

Return of an Ancient Threat

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Tony

(Brigadier’s log, show date S – 22)

Next on this year’s Salute line-up are some classic models from the archives. We’ve dug Germy’s 15mm Cimexian bugs out of storage, revamped the masters (the formerly two part hulls are now one piece), made some new moulds and one of the galaxy’s slimier races has slithered back into view.

So far we’ve refurbished seven of the masters, with three tanks, an APC-equivalent, an artillery bug, a walker bug and finally a brain bug to control all of the others (the Lygan is the one missing from the photo). More photos as and when we finish painting these.

BUG15-001 – Ixod Heavy Tank – £9.00
BUG15-002 – Coccid Medium Tank – £8.00
BUG15-003 – Isop Light Tank – £6.00
BUG15-004 – Prion APC – £7.00
BUG15-005 – Homon Brain Bug – £5.00
BUG15-006 – Apis Walker – 8.00
BUG15-009 – Lygan Artillery Bug – £10.00

Posted in 15mm SF, Previews, Salute 51 (2024) | 1 Comment

Action and Adventure

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Tony

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-25)

Every year we try to come up with a lineup of new releases for Salute, and it’s time to start our previews of this year’s offerings.

Much of our 15mm sci-fi output in recent years has been concentrated on Hammer’s Slammers, but our first Salute release this year is anything but. Jeremey ‘Germy’ Claridge has created a new range of 15mm civilian adventurer figures for us, ideal for rulesets such as Stargrave, 5 Parsecs From Home and (of course) Traveller.

We have four packs of six figures, a mix of humans and various aliens. These include several Tolero who have obviously escaped Eta Odin IV and made their way in the big bad universe, plus a Yenpalo warrior alongside a number of others. As well as civilian adventurers, the figures would also work as ragtag mercenaries, insurgents or rebels.

This is pack one – we’ll be previewing the other packs as soon as we get them painted.

SF15-017 – Adventurers Pack #1 – £3.50

Desert cloth by Tiny Wargames; backdrops by Jon Hodgson; adobe building by Blotz (with added bits by us).

Posted in 15mm SF, Previews, Salute 51 (2024) | 1 Comment

Going to the Chapel

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Tony

Salute is rapidly approaching (for us it’s no longer March 15th, it’s now S-29) and as always we hope to have a bumper bunch of releases at the show. To allow us to concentrate on getting all of these ready, this will be our last Friday release until we hit ExCel on April 13th.

As our final offering we have three more additions to our Agricultural Colony 6mm buildings. The first is another dwelling on a raised platform, the imaginatively named Homestead 5.

The next building is a warehouse/industrial building, with two units with large doors side-by-side.

The third is a small, non-denominational religious building – we’ve called it a Chapel for want of a better name. The design is based on a small wooden church that you might see in the US countryside, but styled to match the other buildings in the range. The small tower has a blank space at the front where you can paint the religious symbol of your choice (or just a clock if you want to leave your options open).

B300-1307 – Homestead-5 – £2.50
B300-1309 – Warehouses – £3.50
B300-1312 – Chapel – £3.50

Next week we’ll begin previews of our new releases (and, all being well, the return of some old favourites).

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

Fortified Walls

Posted on March 8, 2024 by Tony

We have two more additions to our 6mm Town Walls range today. Following on from the release of the versions with walkways at the back end of last year, we have a wall piece with a projecting bastion (for sticking a gun or infantry heavy weapon on), plus a formidable fortified gateway.

The gateway has the option of an enclosed bunker or open walkway over the gate, and two gun turrets sit either side of the approach to the doors. The doors can be assembled either open or closed (sorry, we couldn’t manage a working hinge mechanism in 6mm scale !).

We also have a new Fortified Walls set which has ten pieces and a 160 x 240mm footprint.

BP300-109 – Fortified Encampment – £16.00
B300-192 – Fortified Gateway – £4.00
B300-193 – Wall with Bastion (x2) – £3.50

Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops; desert mat by Tiny Wargames.

Posted in 6mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

Boat to Bolivia

Posted on March 1, 2024 by Tony

This week sees the release of the penultimate South American fleet for Imperial Skies. Bolivia is landlocked and bordered by no fewer than five other countries – Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile – most of whom it has been at war with at some point in history since gaining independence from Spain in 1825.

Bolivian Fleet

The main firepower in their aerial fleet is carried by the Bolivar class Patrol Battleships, which are not the largest but do carry a fearsome punch. The rest of the fleet consists of vessels no larger than destroyers, with the most curious being the Jacamar class gunboats. These are armed with the US-designed Dynamite Cannon, a strange weapon which propels 500-lb projectiles filled with dynamite using compressed air (this was a real thing – you can read more about it on Wikipedia).

In Imperial Skies, we suggest the following (unofficial) rules for the Dynamite Cannon: treat them as torpedoes, but with a short range. At targets under 3″ a 4,5,6 is needed to hit; up to 6″, a 6 is needed; damage is 2d6. They can only fire in the ship’s forward arc, and each cannon can only fire on alternate moves due to the time needed to refill the compressed air tanks. However, unlike normal torpedoes they have no ammunition limit and there is no limit to the number that an individual ship can fire in one turn. When designing your own vessels, each Dynamite Cannon costs 1 point.

We’ll have stocks of the Bolivians – both fleet packs and individual models – at Hammerhead tomorrow, along with the new Hammer’s Slammers rulebook.

VANFP-3001 – Bolivian Fleet Pack – £24.00
VAN-3001 – Bolivar class Patrol Battleship – £7.50
VAN-3002 – Santa Cruz class Battery Destroyer – £1.50
VAN-3003 – Cochabamba class Patrol Destroyer – £1.50
VAN-3004 – Charcas class Corvette – £0.80
VAN-3005 – Jacamar class Gunboat – £0.80
VANF-3001 – Bolivian National Flag

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

Return of the Crucible

Posted on February 27, 2024 by Tony

Some great news for Hammer’s Slammers fans this week. The original Crucible rulebook hasn’t been available (at least from us) for a while, but this past weekend we took delivery of a new softback version.

What’s in this edition ?

There’s the basic rules; the First Appendix (with the Alien Autochthons); the Second Appendix with Elite Skills and Personnel; the Third Appendix with Tank Names for the Slammers; plus the Timeline. The rules have been corrected where mistakes were detected, plus extra material has been included, lifted directly from the supplements. Finally, many of the measurements included have been adjusted to favour 15mm models rather than the 28mm ones in the original hard-copy rule set.

What’s not in this Edition (compared to the hardback) ?

There’s no introduction from Dave Drake; no background about the Slammers or all of the other forces listed in the original. In fact most of the first 100 pages are missing. There’s also no painting guide (it was aimed squarely at 28mm vehicles after all); and many of the illustrations of 28mm vehicles have been replaced by 15mm ones.

With this rule set – plus the five supplements and play sheets from the website at hammers-slammers.com – you are ready to play Hammer’s Slammers.

We have both the paperback (which is lighter and thus cheaper to post than the hardback) and you can also get a PDF digital version from us if you prefer to read on your tablet or Kindle.

HSC-008 – Hammer’s Slammers:The Digital Crucible (softback) – £20.00
HSC-009 – Hammer’s Slammers:The Digital Crucible (PDF edition) – £9.99

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