More pics of Dave's French revolution collection.

Following hard on the heels of my last 2 posts here are a few more pictures of Dave Huntleys French Revolution armies. Compsed of Old Glory, Trent Miniatures and Elite Mins they look fine indeed on the table. Units are a respectable size and it has to be said that despite previous remarks this period does attract me.

Serves me right !

Having gone off in a bit of a huff after my last post I re-read a lot of my stuff on the 1793-94 campaign in Flanders.Mostly Fortecue and Belloc but also a bit of Hamilton on the Foot Guards. and certainly the total frustration of the game WAS very realistic. However it seemed to me that the Allies were able to win victories but never exploit them Usually bercause the Austrians and Prussians were too slow but also because the French frequently retreated. The old Nursery ryme about the "Grand Old Duke of York" was very apposite and I begin to have respect for his generalship under very trying circumstances and not so old either 28 when he took the command. Not only did he have to deal with conflicting agendas from the Austrians Prussians and Dutch but - worse Ministers at home who were incredibly incompetant in Military matters. Despite all this however the tiny British force aquitted itself well winning - often against odds -most of its fights.
So dewpite a dissatisfaction with the rules I'll happily go back to Flanders.

Sculptors - alive or dead.

A couple of days ago a custome was on the blower to me telling me how wonderful and indeed God like the Perrys are. Now ignoring the crassness of this I forebore to differ at that time but it did cause me to think. The cult of the sculptor has become ingrained in our hobby now - copying largly from the fantasy genre- that the amont of of bacl- stroking and downright brown-nosing in some quarters is positivly nauseating.
Not -at least in some cases the sculptors fault this but a very small part of the "celebrity cult" that we now have to endure.
Nevertheless I look at lots of toys from all sorts of sculptors and sorry dudes the Ps are not Gods they are not as was opined to me "the best sculptors ever"(compared to who? Michelangelo? Henry Moore ? John Singer Sargeant? or just other blokes who make toy soldiers )
This does not make them bad sculptors far from it but there are chaps both living and dead who are technically as good or better and artisically as good or better but have not become a pair of cults ....
Dead Dudes first- Chas Stadden and Les Higgins both were as crisp as modern sculptors and did movement considerably better than most .Technically their job was harder as most masters were either "lost Wax" or even plastecine yet both manged miniatures which still stand up very well today. The same went for Ted Suren at his best though some of his models were more quirky and less consistent than either Les or Chas. Suren's mantle has been ably inheireted by David Wilson of Jacdaw.
Steve Hezzelwood and Peter Gilder- very different in style - and thats a point too - were both capable figure makers.
Of other sculptors working today Chris Hughes. Bob Naismith , Nickolay Bokarev(Drabant) are all as capable as any )and Tom Meir's work rightly stands out as some of the finest around- (though his "historical" output is small). There are plenty of others too who's names escape me as I write this - the lad who does Minden for a start- though they are a bit thin for my taste - are fine models.
My point that there are plenty of fish in the sea and thank God they don't all look the same. So many of todays sculptors are so "Perry - a - likes" that we are in danger of having all the same tedious stuff no matter who made it.
As an illutration the photo show George Washington being offered a drink on campaign but apparently preferring what the lady on the veranda has to offer....
Perhaps being away from home he hasn't seen "Marthas Vinyard" for a while... scurrilous fellow that I am....
The ladies are Les Higgins and Washington is a Stadden and I like the differing styles of many older figures.These differences are becoming harder to find amongst todays sculptors. This IMHO is compounded by the "accepted painting style" as pushed in some- but not all- of the glossies. Its getting to the stage where its difficult to tell the differences....

More little men

Well there you go . I've now officially started a 15mm Marburian project- don't know where it will end- simply because I'm not one of those tedious chaps who plans out his army to the last button before starting out. Thats no fun - part of the interest is the journey, not merely the destination, actually playing with the little lead monsters is only a very small tip of a much larger intellectual iceberg and often not the most interesting tip at that. So now John has painted me some Bavarian Curassiers and Guns to go with the first infantry and is doing another infatry battalion I have a beginning. Hardly an army yet but enough for the display case at shows - my next gig being Salute in April - and yes this will expand as a chap who never really cottoned to 15mm I do like these little fellas.