Basket Case

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Tony

Returning to stock today are the 15mm etched brass Turret Baskets – three sets of four baskets in different sizes to keep your tank crew’s kit in. Click on either picture to go straight to the website.

You might also notice a few items have gone out of stock recently. These are some older models (mostly Imperial Skies), ones that we don’t usually sell many of, that we’ve been muddling along with using less than perfect moulds. We’ve had a couple of time-consuming orders recently that have finally persuaded us withdraw these until we can get new moulds made (and in most cases redesign them). There are also some resin models – mainly 10mm and 15mm buildings – that also need remoulding, so again these will show as out of stock until the new moulds are made. Resin moulds are easier to make so hopefully this process won’t take as long.

On the plus side, the 15mm Neo-Soviet BMP-BM and the NUA Yastrub are both back in stock – I remoulded those before Christmas but hadn’t realised that they were still showing as out of stock !

Posted in 15mm SF, Hammer's Slammers, Updates and General Waffle | 1 Comment

Little Houses

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Tony

When we started the 1/700 range of scenery it was just intended as a small number of coastal forts that might be useful for naval gamers. There was never any intention to make it as extensive as the Small Scale Scenery range which is now rapidly approaching 200 items. The thought of managing two large ranges in what are reasonably similar scales was just too much for us to contemplate.

Nevertheless, we have had a few requests for other items in that scale, so we have widened the brief a little and released a set of houses and other small buildings. You get 28 different resin models, including houses, barns and the odd inn. They’re mainly suitable for European coastlines but with a bit of paint and imagination could be repurposed for other regions. They should be ideal for populating the coastal regions on your tables, in between the various forts.

B700-006 – European Houses – £10.00

Posted in 1-700th Scenery, New Releases | 1 Comment

Hammer Time

Posted on February 22, 2022 by Tony

It’s less than two weeks until our first show of the year, and our first outing to Hammerhead at Newark Showground. This seems like an ideal time to post a reminder about any pre-orders you wish to place.

The current stock plan is as follows:

  • Imperial Skies – full stock of fleet packs plus a selection of battleships in blisters
  • Celtos – full range of figures plus unit packs
  • Spaceships – full range of fleet packs and individual models (spaceships continue to be very popular so we wanted to bring the whole range)
  • 15mm SF – full range of individual models and figures
  • 6mm SF – army packs, selection of company packs, building packs – no individual models
  • Hammer’s Slammers – selection of 15mm and 6mm detachment packs, full range of 15mm models and figures
  • Squadron Commander – blister packs, no individual models
  • Small Scale Scenery – full range
  • Great War 28mm – full range
  • Magpie Miniatures – full range
  • 1/700 Coastal Forts – full range

We won’t be bringing anything from the Land Ironclads, Iron Stars or 10mm SF ranges unless pre-ordered. Please also note that we no longer carry the Crom’s Anvil figures since their transfer to their new owners, CP Models.

If you want to be certain of getting a particular item, or require large numbers of a single item, we are as always happy to take pre-orders. You can either send us an email with your order and pay on the day, or alternatively you can place an order via the website (using the Collect in Person shipping option to avoid shipping charges) and pay in advance. We’ll be taking cash and credit cards on the day.

The great news for us is that our PayPal account is finally working normally again. So we’ll start getting our new releases back on schedule at the end of the week, and maybe we’ll even be able to sneak some forthcoming items onto the stand on the 5th.

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Turn, Turn, Turn

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Tony

We still have no joy getting our PayPal account back under control, if I told you the tale of my communications with them you just wouldn’t believe me …

Hence no new release again this week (don’t worry, we’ll catch up soon enough) – but we do have the return of an old item. Finally back in stock are the Imperial Skies turn rulers – we have a few ready to go and will be ordering more shortly (along hopefully with the command markers and altitude markers).

Click the picture to go straight to the website.

Posted in Imperial Skies | Comments Off on Turn, Turn, Turn

Return to the Steel City

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Tony

We’re having a few ongoing issues with our PayPal account at the moment – don’t worry, we can still receive payments so the website is open and we’re still processing and shipping orders. But we decided not to put out our new release last week because of this, and we’ll hold off until things are back to normal (which should be within a few days). This also affected us with respect to shipping, so some orders from last week were delayed – apologies if you were affected by this, all outstanding orders up to the end of Sunday have now shipped.

We have some more show news – the Joy of Six show run by Peter Berry of Baccus is returning this year, on Sunday July 3rd at Sheffield Hallam University. This, as the title suggests, is a show dedicated to 6mm gaming, and has been running for a number of years before a Covid-enforced break. All being well, we should be back there again with our full 6mm range of vehicles, figures and buildings, plus the 1/300th scale Squadron Commander fighters. We also take the full 2mm scenery range (we’ve seen a number of very effective 6mm games that use smaller scale scenery) plus the 10mm buildings range.

Posted in Shows | 1 Comment

New Year, New Show

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Tony

Having already lost a couple of shows this year, it’s time for some good news. We’ve been on the waiting list for Hammerhead for several years and we’ve just heard that we’ve reached the top of the list. It’s fairly short notice (the show is in less than four weeks) but we should be ready to go.

Hammerhead, held at Newark Showground, has grown into one of the larger shows in the calendar. It’s situated just a few minutes off the A1, so is easily accessible.

Technically we’re returning to Hammerhead, since we attended the original show at Kelham Hall several times over a decade ago – but that was a different venue and different organisers, so it’s really a new event for us.

Posted in Shows | 1 Comment

Libertad o Muerte

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Tony

The Imperial Skies South America project reaches halfway with the release of the fifth national fleet. The Oriental Republic of Uruguay is a small country, the second smallest on the continent, but we decided that it deserved a decent fleet (mainly because we came up with a nice design style that we wanted to make the most of…).

The fleet consists of six models, from the General Artigas battleship and Montevideo battlecruiser down to the ROU-22 torpedo pinnace. There’s the obligatory fleet pack and torpedo flotilla, and no fewer than four flags (Uruguay has three official flags plus a naval jack).

I had a go at painting a 3-colour dazzle camouflage on the larger vessels (the small ones were too fiddly) using an airbrush and random wedges of masking tape. They didn’t come out exactly as I’d seem them in my mind’s eye (they’re a bit darker) but overall I’m pleased with the result.

VANFP-3401 – Uruguayan Fleet Pack – £23.00
VANFP-3411 – Uruguayan Torpedo Flotilla – £4.00
VAN-3401 – General Artigas class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-3402 – Montevideo class Battlecruiser – £8.00
VAN-3403 – Capitán Miranda class Cruiser – £2.75
VAN-3404 – Paysandú class Destroyer – £1.75
VAN-3405 – Flores class Frigate – £1.25
VAN-3406 – ROU-22 class Torpedo Pinnace – £0.50
VANF-3401 – Uruguayan National Flag – £0.50
VANF-3402 – Naval Jack – £0.50
VANF-3403 – Artigas Flag – £0.50
VANF-3404 – Flag of the Treinta y Tres – £0.50

Prices include UK VAT at 20%

Posted in Aeronef, Imperial Skies, New Releases | 2 Comments

Alien Dwellings

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Tony

This week we have something new for our 15mm Tolero aliens – somewhere to live !

There are three small stone houses, resembling yurts with multiple sides. The windowless dwellings have suitably Tolero-sized doors (your average 6′ trooper is going to have to duck to get in) with smoke holes in the centre of the roofs. The sturdy construction is proof against the weather of Eta Odin IV, their homeworld.

They’re available individually or in a pack of three.

B15-050 – Tolero Dwellings (x3) – £10.00
B15-051 – Tolero Dwelling 1 – £2.50
B15-052 – Tolero Dwelling 2 – £3.50
B15-053 – Tolero Dwelling 3 – £4.50

Posted in 15mm SF, New Releases | 1 Comment

Luxury Castles

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Tony

We’re down the scales back to our 1/1000th Small Scale Scenery range today. We have a pair of castles, one from Germany and another from Italy – but both are really stately homes rather than proper fortified buildings capable of withstanding a siege.

Schloss Glücksburg, or Glücksburg Castle, is a water castle in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, very close to the Danish border. It was built from 1582-1587 by the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg on the site of a former monastery. The grounds of the abbey were then flooded to create the lake in which it sits almost entirely surrounded. It seems to have seen little military use over the years, although in WW2 Albert Speer used it as his office while British troops searching for Heinrich Himmler seem to have looted it. Whatever its heritage, it’s a striking looking and very colourful building.

Glücksburg Castle

Moving south into Italy, Castel del Monte (literally ‘Castle of the Mountain’ – it has nothing to do with tinned fruit…) is a 13th century citadel built on a hill in the southeast region of Apulia. It has no moat or other obvious defences, although there does seem to be evidence of there having been a wall at some time. It has been used as a hunting lodge or prison and in WW2 the US Air Force based a VHF navigation aid called Big Fence in the grounds. We have two versions of the citadel – one as it is now, and another with the original taller crenellated towers.

SSS-8178 – Castel del Monte (modern) – £3.00
SSS-8178a – Castel del Monte (original) – £3.00
SSS-8179 – Schloss Glücksburg – £2.50

Posted in New Releases, Small Scale Scenery | 1 Comment

Back to the Space Race

Posted on January 18, 2022 by Tony

We have a couple of new spaceships today that fill in gaps in the EuroFed roster.

The first is the Voltigeur corvette, a small craft in the same style as the rest of the EuroFed fleet.

Voltigeur Corvette

The second is the Aigle, a small dropship capable of carrying infantry of light vehicles. It came about when a magazine review of the Le Malin frigate noted that it had a similar configuration to the Space 1999 Eagle Transporter. Now I hadn’t noticed that fact until it was pointed out, but from there it seemed an obvious next move to create a dropship in that style. The Aigle isn’t really all that similar to the Gerry Anderson vessel that inspired it – it has the same vague outline but that’s all.

Aigle Dropships

SFS-450 – Voltigeur Corvette – £1.00
SFS-470 – Aigle Dropship (x6) – £1.50

Posted in New Releases, Spaceships | 1 Comment