Salute Round-up

We’ve been quiet for a couple of days – Tony has been locked in the workshop and chained to the centrifuge all week, churning out stock and filling orders for Saturday. The good news is that all the orders are ready to be collected, and the stock drawers are as full as they’re going to get.

So it’s time for a round-up of the show releases, including a few bits and pieces we haven’t announced so far.

15mm Sci-fi

As well as the four sets of adventurer figures, the re-released Cimexians and the Firedrake tank destroyer, we have a few more bits. First up are two civilian vehicles – the Avery Etesian hover car, and the Durrant Ilinga grav truck.

We also have several reinforcements for the recently released Baffin’s Legion – the GD-719 Scorpion light tank and GD-834 logistics vehicle. There’s also an ambulance version of the command vehicle, and mortar and cargo versions of the GD-516 jeep. They weren’t originally on our Salute list, but the moulds are ready and we had time to make some stock, so we thought they’d make a good addition.

GD-719 Scorpion Light Tank

SF15-017 – Adventurers Pack #1 – £3.50
SF15-018 – Adventurers Pack #2 – £3.50
SF15-019 – Adventurers Pack #3 – £3.50
SF15-020 – Adventurers Pack #4 – £3.50
SF15-021 – Adventurers – All Four Packs – £12.50

SF15-9001 – Avery Etesian Hover Car – £2.50
SF15-9002 – Tarrant Ilinga – £6.00

HS15-4502 – GD-719 Light Tank – £8.00
HS15-4503d – GD-815 Ambulance – £8.00
HS15-4506a – GD-517M Mortar Jeep – £3.00
HS15-4506b – GD-517 Cargo Jeep – £2.75
HS15-4508 – GD-834 Logistics – £8.00

HS15-5001 – M-22FW Firedrake – £12.00

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

6mm WW2

As well as the models we mentioned at the weekend, we will have packs of Maxim machine guns and DBT light mortars.

WW2-1101 – T-15 Light Tank – £0.60
WW2-1102a – T-13 Type.I – £0.60
WW2-1102c – T-13 Type.III – £0.60
WW2-1103a – Vickers Tractor Type A – £0.50
WW2-1103b – Vickers Tractor Type B – £0.50
WW2-1160 – Belgian Riflemen (x50) – £6.00
WW2-1161 – Belgian HMG (x3) – £1.25
WW2-1162 – Belgian DBT Mortar (x3) – £1.50

Japanese Spaceships

As well as recapping the list of ships (which has changed slightly – we’ve reclassified the torpedo destroyer as a frigate), we thought we’d clarify the contents of the two fleet packs. The Heavy fleet has a dreadnought, two heavy cruisers, two destroyers and a torpedo frigate. The strike fleet has two battlecruisers, two light cruisers and two frigates.

SFSP-1501 – Japanese Heavy Fleet – £24.00
SFSP-1502 – Japanese Strike Fleet – £24.00
SFS-1500 – Iwari class Dreadnought – £12.00
SFS-1501 – Takao class Battlecruiser – £9.00
SFS-1520 – Kasuga class Heavy Cruiser – £4.00
SFS-1521 – Yubari class Light Cruiser – £3.00
SFS-1530 – Nadakaze class Destroyer – £2.00
SFS-1540 – Hinoki class Frigate – £1.50
SFS-1541 – Murakumo class Torpedo Frigate – £1.50
SFS-1550 – Ushio class Corvette – £1.00

Scandinavian Imperial Skies

Again, here’s a recap of the Scandinavian list. We’ve tweaked the fleet pack slightly – it now has one each of the two capitals, one light and one heavy cruiser, two destroyers and two frigates. The torpedo flotilla has two Scheele corvettes and six Vanern torpedo boats (and both packs include bases).

VANFP-2300 – Scandinavian Union Fleet Pack – £24.00
VANFP-2311 – Scandinavian Union Torpedo Flotilla – £6.00
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 – £1.50
VAN-2310 – Vanern class Torpedo Nef (x3) – £1.50
VAN-2311 – Glomma class Patrol Nef (x3) – £1.50

And that’s it. We look forward to seeing many of you on Saturday in London.

Posted in 15mm SF, 6mm WW2, Aeronef, Hammer's Slammers, Imperial Skies, Previews, Salute 51 (2024), Spaceships | 1 Comment

Blazing the Stars

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-7 – just a week left)

A few days ago we previewed a lone spaceship which was part of our Salute line-up. Today we can reveal the rest of it’s compatriots, our new Japanese space fleet. There are eight in total – the ship you’ve already seen is the Takao class Battlecruiser, which is a pretty big ship in its own right at just short of 4″ long, but even that is outdone by the Iwari class dreadnought, which measures 5½” from the tip of its sensor probes the the end of the engine vanes. These two are accompanied by two cruisers and four escort vessels, all with distinctive rings.

SFSP-1501 – Japanese Heavy Fleet – £24.00
SFSP-1502 – Japanese Strike Fleet – £24.00
SFS-1500 – Iwari class Dreadnought – £12.00
SFS-1501 – Takao class Battlecruiser – £9.00
SFS-1520 – Kasuga class Heavy Cruiser – £4.00
SFS-1521 – Yubari class Light Cruiser – £3.00
SFS-1530 – Nadakaze class Destroyer – £2.00
SFS-1531 – Murakumo class Torpedo Destroyer – £2.00
SFS-1540 – Hinoki class Frigate – £1.50
SFS-1550 – Ushio class Corvette – £1.00

Posted in Previews, Salute 51 (2024), Spaceships | 1 Comment

Pastures New

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-7)

It’s not often that we launch a completely new range – the last one was probably Small Scale Scenery, which itself only started as an add-on set of terrain accessories for Land Ironclads.

But today, here’s something completely new and utterly unconnected to anything else we make – and it’s a historical range as well. The two of us first started gaming together in the mid-80s playing WW2 actions in 20mm. Phil had a reasonably large collection of late war German and US forces, while Tony concentrated on the early stages of the conflict with German, French, British and, possibly his favourites, a small contingent of Belgians. We’ve both still got them, probably 1000+ 20mm vehicles between us.

At our club, Maidstone Wargames Society, there are some 6mm WW2 gamers, so Tony wanted to recreate his Belgian force in that scale, but found a shortage of options. However, one of the best things about running a miniatures company is that you can make whatever you want so, just like Phil did when he created our WW1 Belgians, we decided to make our own. We commissioned Martin Baker, who created most of our 6mm sci-fi figures, to sculpt a set of infantry figures while Tony designed digital masters for the vehicles. As you can see from the photos below, Martin has done a magnificent job – just look at the expression on the squad leader’s face as he urges his men forwards. The figures are slightly smaller than our 6mm sci-fi figures, as we’ve designed them to fit in with the 1/300th WW2 ranges made by other popular UK manufacturers. The basic infantry pack has enough for a single rifle platoon – Belgian infantry platoons were relatively large at ~50 men. The exact composition of a rifle platoon does seem to be up for debate, we’ve found at least four different organisations so they may have differed between regiments. All being well, we should also have packs of Maxim heavy machine guns and DBT light mortars (there’s an HMG in the photo below).

The initial vehicle range starts out with the core of a Belgian armoured force – the T-15 light tank, early and late versions of the T-13 tank destroyer, plus the two versions of the Vickers Utility Tractor (infantry and cavalry). T-13s were organic to the infantry divisions, with a company per division, and they were also fielded by cavalry units. T-15s were restricted to cavalry units, plus a small number with the Chasseur Ardennais. The Vickers Utility Tractor comes in two versions, infantry and cavalry, also known as Type A and Type B (although which was which isn’t always clear – we’ve seen both designs referred to as Type B, with one website mixing the two up on the same page !). The vehicles are designed as best we can at 1/300th using scale plans and drawings, plus references to photos that Phil took at the Antwerp war museum,

Assuming these sell well, we will follow up later with more including some towed ordnance – artillery, heavy mortars, anti-tank guns – and maybe even the famous Chasseur Ardennais on their bicycles.

Posted in 6mm WW2, Previews, Salute 51 (2024) | 2 Comments

More Action and Even More Adventure(r)s

(Brigadier’s log, show date S-8)

The next batch of 15mm sci-fi adventurers is painted and ready to show off – here they are, another six rogues and scoundrels ready for Excitement, Adventure and Really Wild Things!

SF14-019 – Adventurers Pack #3 – £3.50

Urban cloth by Tiny Wargames; backdrops by Jon Hodgson.

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

Scandinavian Defenders

(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!

(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

(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 !

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

(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

(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