Phil's been making castles from his native Wales again. This time we start with Dolbadarn_Castle in Northern Wales, in the Llanberis Pass overlooking Llyn Peris. It was built by Llewelyn the Great sometime between 1220 and 1240, but fell to Edward I in 1284. Edward apparently took some of its timbers to use in building a new castle at Caernarfon. It was later used as a manor house before falling into disuse.

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Recently, a European Federation scout paid a visit to the GJ 3470 (Kaewkosin) system, roughly 96ly from Earth. But it seems that they weren't the first to get there. Deploying long range scans, they found a space station of unknown type orbiting the system's single planet (the as yet unnamed GJ 3470 b). Moving closer in, sensors found that there were in fact several of these larger stations, and each was accompanied by a cluster of smaller installations.

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A small midweek bonus today. We sell loads of little 7mm dice - but not as for people to throw, they're too small for that. Instead, they're very handy as markers to show various statuses on the battlefield - wounds, health, damage, shock (if you play TFL games you'll know about that) and so on. But the dice can easily be knocked over, even a good sneeze can send them flying across the table.

We return once again to the reports of Lt Algernon Carmichael-Jefferies of the 22nd West Kent Lancers, written during his long reconnaissance patrol across the Syrtian plains of Mars. On the third week of the expedition we set up camp on the bluffs overlooking one of the smaller Syrtian cities. On the second day we observed a new (at least to us) class of large warship hovering in the skies above what appeared to be a port area - it must have arrived overnight.

We promised a holiday release, and here it is - and appropriately, it has to do with beaches (vaguely). We've previously previewed several 6mm landing craft of various types, and we even took a few to Colours. Today they hit the website (as well as the beach), along with a couple of others that you haven't seen before. The largest is the Air Cushion Tank Landing Ship; this carries either 3-4 MBTs, half-a-dozen smaller APC-sized vehicles or up to a company of infantry on foot (as long as they don't mind being squeezed in).

As is traditional this time of year, Tony's off on his holidays for a week with the Brigadieress and hound to recover from the rigours of Colours. The website remains open for orders, but we won't get to any of them until he returns on Monday 21st. This time it's Lincolnshire, a major battleground in the English Civil War, so who knows what ideas he'll come back with for the Small Scale Scenery range, which is the usual result of his holidays ! We've left a release scheduled for next Friday, and we should still be able to answer emails, just with a bit of a delay.

Today's offering is a series of new 6mm vehicles, mostly rear echelon. The American Republic logistics train runs on the carrying capacity of the M-421 Connestoga, a flat-bed GEV load carrier. The Connestoga can handle bad ground including marshy areas and its light armour means that it can operate just behind the front line. Derived from the same chassis is the M-422 Rosecrans Armoured Ambulance, named for a Civil War-era Union General who had a major hand in developing the first field ambulances.

We have two related Small Scale Scenery releases but at opposite ends of their respective size scale this week. For the last couple of years we've been promising a customer at Colours that we'd make some WWI aircraft hangars, specifically these - Bessonneau tent hangars. We thank him for his patience, and expect him to purchase a minimum of ten sets tomorrow 😉 .

We have a couple of new sets of 6mm Power Armour today; firstly, Germy has created a variant of our existing models with riot shields, useful for close-combat, boarding actions or some serious crowd control. The second set is a completely new design, a solid, chunky, square-edged power suit which we've named Titan suits. Six each of four different figures, including one wielding a missile launcher.

Our CDSU (Chinese Socialist Republic) 6mm forces get some new heavy weapons today. We have a pack of three remote machine guns, three missile launchers and two heavy mortars, each with two crew. We'll have stock at Colours this coming weekend. And this is a good time for a reminder to get those orders in - you're drinking at the last chance saloon as far as orders for the show are concerned. SF300-571 - CDSU Heavy Weapons - £3.25 Missile Teams Mortars Remote MG

Having brought out the Celtos Dragon Lancers at Salute, today we add some new Fir Bolg undead. The Fir Bolg are the dead hosts of Anwyn, spirits doomed to eternally wander the lands. Wraiths are incorporeal spirits, visible but lacking substance. At times they bind themselves to the rotting bones of the dead to give themselves a physical presence, stalking the hills and vales in search of fresh victims.

The latest innovation in hobby paints has been Citadel's new Contrast Paints. These are fairly dilute acrylic paints, like a thick wash in consistency but with more pigment than a wash. The idea is to

Just a gentle reminder to get those Colours orders in sooner rather than later; we have truncated working weeks both this week (due to a family wedding) and next (August bank holiday) so we'll be even more stretched for time. In case you need tempting, we'll have some new 6mm bits and pieces available on the day ahead of their scheduled website release dates.

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Stop destroying EU micro-businesses: Immediate moratorium on cross-border EPR fees

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We've had a couple of river patrol boats in our 6mm Neo-Soviet range for a while. They've been crying out for an update so we've remade the hulls as one-piece resin models with lots of extra detail. The BKRL River Gunboat has two Bizon tank turrets with plenty of anti-tank firepower, while the Fire Support version has a Bizon support turret along with a twin gatling air-defence turret and a Vihkr 12-round rocket launcher for indirect fire.

In the past couple of months we've had to deal with the new EU small parcel tariff, and then there was the new requirement for a 'withdrawal' button on the website. What next, you may ask ? Well, you may be aware of this from other small manufacturers, but the EU has just launched another new set of regulations for e-commerce retailers, this time regarding packaging and recycling.

We're just under four weeks away from our next (and penultimate) show of the year, Colours in Newbury on Saturday September 5th. This takes place in one of the grandstands at Newbury racecourse, which is a nice light and airy venue and always seems to be on a sunny, fresh autumn day (except for that time a couple of years ago when it was about 32°C...).

Lake Titicaca is the largest freshwater lake in South America, and lies on the border between Peru and Bolivia, high up in the Andes Mountains. The Bolivian armed forces maintains a sizeable presence on the lake; although landlocked following the War of the Pacific, the Bolivian Navy still exists as a river and lake patrol force. In addition, the Servicio Aéreo Naval…

We haven't added to our range of 6mm Advanced Buildings for a (long) while; despite this, they seem still to be pretty popular. Today that changes, as we have five new additions to the range. The first building is a simple two-storey affair with attached garage/workshop - in terms of layout it's almost like a modern domestic house. Next we have a medical centre.

Sometimes customers send us ideas for new products. Occasionally these are not practical ideas, or things that we don't think would sell in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile, so they quietly get forgotten. More often they are good ideas, but we have to fit them into our schedule and they disappear into the pending pile for an age until we can get around to them.

Today we have a new addition to the Small Scale Scenery range's railway collection. This is a large British Terminus station, based on the one in Norwich. A Terminus Station is one where the line ends - trains either have to terminate here, or reverse direction to continue their journey, there are no through trains. This example dates from the mid 1800s and has an ornate facade with a cloister vault roof over the central entrance. You'll need some work with a fine brush to pick out all the detail on this one ! SSS-8232 - British Terminus Station - £4.00

For domestic/logistical reasons (burnt out car windscreen washer pump; broken chassis on mechanic's van; loose exhaust tailpipe) we're slightly behind with the post this week. Orders have been cast and packed but are stuck in the out tray. This should be sorted by the weekend (MoT has been passed; new exhaust going on tomorrow) and all outstanding orders will hopefully be on their way on Saturday morning.