Tag Archives: aeronef

As the next stage in our gradual re-sculpting of the Aeronef range, we’re pleased today to be able to release five new capital ships for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Three of the models replace their existing battleship designs (the Erzherzog Ferdinand Max, Budapest and Szent István class battleships) while two are new designs. All have new resin hulls with the customary collection of metal fittings – turrets, masts, funnels and tails.

The Ferdinand Max and Szent István share a similar (but not identical) hull design but differ in important details, with the Austrian-built Ferdinand Max having one main and one secondary turret along with a heavy broadside battery in casemate mounts in the amidships and aft superstructures. The Hungarian built Szent István replaces much of this fixed armament with a heavier turreted layout including moving the secondaries to turrets. The Szent class also has improved steering vanes and a for’d steering house under A turret along with bridge wings, improving on the limited view of the aft bridge on the Ferdinand class.

The Budapest is a lighter vessel, more of a battlecruiser size but without the speed. Armament is concentrated in two single turrets for’d along with a respectable secondary battery and upper deck mounted rocket tubes.

The Viribus Unitas dreadnought may be familiar to more venerable Aeronef gamers – long, long ago I wrote an article on our website about converting a Ferdinand Max model to the Viribus Unitas class by extending the hull and adding to the armament. This version of the Viribus is similarly an extended Ferdinand with an extra main turret.

Finally, the Habsburg class utilises the semi-rigid dirigible hull of the Kaiserin class fighter carrier, but replaces the flight deck with a substantial mixed main battery, and the flank anti-fighter turrets are replaced by eight secondary gun turrets. The result is a powerful vessel with very heavy hitting power but less armour than a conventional vessel.

The three existing models are already in fleet packs, and we’ve created an extra fleet pack with a Habsburg and Viribus Unitas in, along with escorts. There’s a new flag sheet too, the older yellow-black Austrian Empire one. And although the older models are technically being retired, they’ll still be available to anyone who already has some and wants compatible models – just go to the page for the new versions and scroll down, then you’ll see a link allowing you to buy the old version.

VAN-704 – Erzherzog Ferdinand Max – £7.00
VAN-706 – Budapest – £6.00
VAN-708 – Szent István – £7.00
VAN-714 – Habsburg – £9.00
VAN-715 – Viribus Unitas – £7.50

VANFP-704 – Austro-Hungarian Fleet Pack #3 – £22.00

VANF-703 – Austrian Empire Flags – £0.50

LINK

Today it’s the turn of our new Spanish Aeronef to hit the website. This is our first completely new fleet in quite a while, and the first to be digitally sculpted from the start. The original designs are based on a prototype that Phil made many, many years ago that we attempted to cast but didn’t survive the mould-making process. We resurrected the design and extended the fleet to a total of nine vessels from battleship down to a tiny patrol nef. The ships have a broadside layout with most of the firepower concentrated in turrets with little or no forward or aft arcs of fire. The two capital ships have resin hulls with metal superstructures and everything from destroyer up has separate turrets (tip – paint the turrets separately, it makes it so much easier to define the line between turret and deck).

Two fleet packs are available along with a torpedo flotilla. Most of the turrets are existing designs but the huge triple turrets on the España are new, and all are available in separate accessory packs.

VANFP-1701 – Spanish Fleet Pack #1 – £22.00
VANFP-1702 – Spanish Fleet Pack #2 – £22.00
VANFP-1711 – Spanish Torpedo Flotilla – £5.00
VAN-1701 – España class Battleship – £8.00
VAN-1702 – Aragon class Battlecruiser – £7.00
VAN-1703 – Pimienta class Heavy Cruiser – £4.50
VAN-1704 – La Coruña class Light Cruiser – £3.00
VAN-1705 – Pluton class Destroyer – £1.75
VAN-1706 – Maó class Frigate – £1.25
VAN-1707 – Numancia class Torpedo FF – £1.25
VAN-1708 – Atalaya class Patrol Nef – £0.50
VAN-1709 – Galerna class Torpedo Nef – £0.50
VAN-7015 – Triple Heavy Turrets (x10) – £1.50

LINK

Although not one of the conventional major powers, the Netherlands nevertheless has significant colonial assets at the end of the 19th Century, both in Central/South America and the Far East. The Royal Netherlands Air Fleet watches over the skies and seas of these far-flung territories with its force of unique twin-hulled Catamaran craft

We’ve had a pair of Dutch models in our Aeronef range for some time. As well as remaking those, we’ve created three new designs to round out the classes. The de Ruyter class heavy cruisers remains the largest vessels in the fleet, but they’ve been joined by new light cruiser, frigate and torpedo boat designs.

The Dutch now get their own dedicated fleet pack with two of each of the largest four models, and a torpedo flotilla with five torpedo craft and a frigate as leader.

All of the models, apart from the torpedo Nef, feature separate turrets – the smaller ones are the existing secondary turrets from the Gaulois, while the larger ones are a new design. These are available separately in accessory packs of 12 along with all of our other turret models.

VAN-1001 – de Ruyter class Heavy Cruiser – £5.50
VAN-1002 – Zeeslang class Destroyer – £2.00
VAN-1003 – Tromp class Light Cruiser -£3.00
VAN-1004 – van Speijk class Frigate – £1.50
VAN-1005 – Flores class Torpedo Catamaran – £0.50

VAN-7047 – French Single Medium Turret (x12) – £1.50
VAN-7048 – French Twin Medium Turret (x12) – £1.50

VANFP-1002 – Netherlands Fleet Pack – £22.00
VANFP-1011 – Netherlands Torpedo Squadron – £4.50

LINK

Back in the days of the Imperial Skies Kickstarter, we decided to remake two Japanese cruiser models, the Akashi and Yakumo, since the original moulds were in need of replacement. For some reason these two models seemed to be cursed – the first designs wouldn’t cast reliably (we managed to get enough out for the Kickstarter pledges but it took an awful lot of miscasts to produce them), then we managed to damage one of the replacement masters before moulding so it had to be reprinted again, and then the second set of designs wouldn’t cast reliably either !

However, after a third (or possibly fourth – I’ve lost count) iteration we finally have a reliable working production mould for the two models and everyone else can at last purchase the two new redesigned versions. The overall layout of the models hasn’t changed, but the detail has been improved and the Yakumo has gained separate turrets rather than the original cast-on ones. The two new designs will also appear in fleet packs from now on.

VAN-604 – Yakumo class Heavy Cruiser – £3.50
VAN-605 – Akashi class Light Cruser – £3.00

LINK