Glorious Little Soldiers

Avec mes sabots.....

2012-01-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Which piece of appalling French merely goes to introduce this short piece on basing now normally and for the last few years I base my figures on Dalerboard- its a thick art board used by chaps who paint in 2D and its splendid stuff. I also use it on the rare occaisons I make model buildings. Most of the previos pics on this blog show figures based on Daler board- although some of the smaller chaps are on somwhat thinner watercolur board. However. I've been looking at circular bases for some of the 40mm models. I tried 2p pieces but it didn't seem right somehow- Her Maj and all that - I suppose the nearest American similie would be using the Stars ans Stripes as a duster- not quite the ticket doncha know. . So I looked about and found plastic 25mm round bases. I tried these but somehow - having a hollow underside they made the figure a tad top heavy so again I looked about and found lazer cut MDF bases in all sorts of sizes and circular too. Not only that but detachable multi figure "Sabots" to place them in.

Sio the first pic shows rebased Drabant WSS figs in one of these Sabots which are approx 100mm by 50 mm and take 8 of the 25mm round bases as in the pic of the single figure

I terrained the bases so that they blend as much as possible which in the case of the Sabots is a bit of a faff to be honest as you must keep your holes clear or the bases won't fit properly, Still so far its been worth it.

So enthised am I with this that I'm thinking of using the same system for others of my 40mm models- at least in areas where the numbers won't leave me re-basing for a month or two so currently my 40mm Naps and ACW will stay as they are and IMHO this system does not suit my Dark Ages somehow so initially at least it will be 17th and 18th century 40mm that may get re-based.

First of the New Year.

2012-01-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well here we are at the start of another year and it has to be said it's started busy. We'- that is my wife Carole and I have already shifted out a good bundle of parcels and its only the 6th. I don't tend to do Christmas painting projects or such as you can bet something will get in the way.- the nearest to a project was "How far can I drink down that bottle of Woodford before I fall over" However I did paint a few things and started to get my head around going further on salready commenced projects. Here are some pics of the results of 1 idea I had.

More mixed marriages these and I'm pretty chuffed at how they turned out. Both figures are Sash and Saber on Drabant horses- the Drabant figs will go on S and S horses to see how that looks- they end up in units with these chaps- The Scots Officer in the Blue bonnet will lead a bunch of 1650s Moss Troopers and the Roundhead Corporal of Horse will be part of John Lamerts New Model regiment. I already have bits and pieces of New Model and Scots in 40mm so it seemed approopriate to expand 'em and anyhow I liked building these slightly individual and close to unique figures. Several more are on the go so I'm not as far away from actual units as I was. I just need to not get distracted by other stuff- Fiw Marlburians or whatever sometimes its the creation of the figures that is more interesting than the "mere gaming"

New Jacdaw Period.

2011-12-23T02:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of the latest Jacdaw masters Once again they are "30mm" but in a different period - Napoleonic. These are Swedes so lots of daft hatsand a bit different from the "bog standard naps" that you see about the place Once moulded and available the pack structure will be the same- more or less- as other Jacdaw ranges so we'll have 3 different infantry packs 2 different Command packs and a pack of Jaegers. An artillery crew pack is on the way (use Sash and Saber French guns or Old Glory Russian ones at least initially- the Swedes apparently had both types plus some peculiar to themselves) Cavalry will follow. If this range flies then you may see Danesand other slightly obscure Naps appearing. but that is still only a possibility. 18th century chaps - worry not - I also have masters for the Chasseurs de Fischer in hand as well as a French Dragoon in a Tricorne sword on shoulderand some Scots Greys to get into moulds as time allows.

So looking forward to a goodly number of Jacdaw releases next year. These Swedes will hopefully be ready for York as well as at least some of the new 18th century stuff too. Right I'm off for a bit of Christmas cheer- not sure if it'll be Irish cheer or Scottish cheer but certainly a few pints of English cheer from my local.... Merry Christmas chaps Andy

Christmas is coming.... Bah Humbug ???

2011-12-13T02:18:00.000-08:00

So here I am gentle readers sitting before the screen with a few moments in hand before setting about this mornings orders We are almost caught up with the backlog thanks toan after office hours packaqging session last night and a casting session during the day - making Jacdaw brits for a couple of customers and some Lanciers de Saxe likewise. I'm hoping a package from David lands this week - containg the first of the Swedish Napoleonics and - so he tells me some Chasseurs de Fischer. I'll post pics of the greens as soon as they arrive but it will be after Crimbo before they get into moulds. Actually going to be running a game this coming Saturday- WW2 western desert for which I'll be using Command Decision rules- probably version 3 . I've tried other sets but keep coming back to these as they treat you like and adult- they don't have the over simplification of Rapid Fire- or perhaps that should be Vapid fire as they bored the arse off me !! They don't have the patronising tone of Flames of War or the silliness of Spearhead. Indeed the only other sets of WW2 I considered were Lionel Tarr /featherstone but they were too limited So pics when I take 'em but in the meantime what is santa bringing me... well a new keybaord- which I'm using now- my old one snuffed it thespacerbargaveup- with odd results but in wargaming terms nothing of note since there is nothing I need tht I can't either do myself or cause to be done if I wish- mind you I do expect the beareded git to bring a bottle or two- Woodford Reserve Tennessee is one choice or perhaps a bottle of Red Brest Irish or The Antiquart Lowland Malt. Speaking of Lowland here is a pic of my most recent 15mm Malburian unit- almost the only thing added to my collection recently

The Royal Scots- as they would become- at this time Dumbartons then Orkneys so that little collection grows. I also have a Bavarian Dragoon regiment which only needs it flags adding- all these painted by John Reidyand the figures are of course Bluemoon

Smoggy saturday ?

2011-11-23T01:53:00.001-08:00

Well here I am on Wednesday morning pondering Smoggycon in Middlesborough on Saturday. If UPS do the deed I'll have a shipment fronm the USA tomorrow including lots of new Bluemoon 15/18mm stuff. I hope to have the first of the ACW Cavalry,the rest of the Horror range and the first tranche of the Napoleonics. ALL this as well as a re-supply of other stuff- so chaps who've been waiting for gear should get it when we get back from the Boro . Well most of you depends when we ran out of course . I order from the USA monthly . The next order to the USA goes off after Smoggycon so things I ran out of after I sent the last order will go on that oneas will any special orders for buildings and such that I don't carry as stock. As for Jacdaw I now have the British Artillery out- they should go up on the website in a day or so but a bit of bother with the Austrian Hussars has caused a small delay. Also a couple of new horses will appear in the "trotting cavalry" packs in addition to those we already have.

Way Dowwn upon the Swaneee Riiiveer!

2011-11-15T08:02:00.001-08:00

Aye well- tuneless or what. So Saturday 12th Novemebr dawned and off I went to the R- one the Commercial but all the letters fell off ! for another meeting of the TWATS. I was in the chair and in honour of Garth's imminent departure for the Royal Navy I decided to go for some Smoke on the Water... Not Richie Blackmores anthem but some ACW naval . I'd actually forgotten about this small collection until Floating Jeff remined me. There were 5 TWATS present Floating Jeff, Andrew the Tekkie , Garth and Farmer Dave - not forgetting your gentle Author. The models were all Thoroughbred 1/600th scale except for a couple of Peter Pig river steamers which while passable were not in the same league modelwise as the Thoroughbred item. I have about a dozen ships but today was a day for a set of singler ship actions. I quote from the recently discovered diary of Commodore Hiram J (Floatin' Jeff) Awdas..." November12th 1864 weather dull slight swell up the Yazoo- too much sow belly n' grits ... I stood upon the roof of the pilot house of the USS Monitorand watched as 2 rebel Ironclads hove into sight ahead off to Larbord stood the USS Minatomah . God will ing we'll show the Dammned rebels.. By God they have opened fire . I shifted me into the pilot house as a mighty clang echoed from the turret - a hit but mercifully no explosion. Through my glass I can see that Minatomah has opened fire with her Forrard guns shell splashes bracket the rebel tub Albermarle Full Speed ahead I yell above the belching of the dammed boilers. There is a second rebel ship- Atlanta banging away. All 4 ships have now opened fire and are manovering for position - Atlanta has a spar torpedoand attempts to ram but fails. Alas we are hit - a shell from the Atlanta and again .. bit hot in here ain't it......."

At this point the diary ends the bridge diary of the Albermarle takes up the action " We registered hits on the Monitoras did Atlantaand without warning a Titanic explosion rent the air as the smoke and steam cleared Monitor was simply gone we steamed to where she had beenand recovered a small leather bound book and a half empty flask of Bourbon...

Minatomah continued the action and hit our engines which despite much labour failed However Albermarle once more tried to Ram and successfully grappled the minatomah- which had been concentrating here fire upon us. For some time the action boiled upon the Yankess deck but the finally the Stainless Banner was seen flying above the Union- Minatomah was ours...Rules used were "Beer and Pretzels Ironclads" a simple but flavoursome set which echoes the confusion of ACW Naval actions. Long range work is largly pointless but get close in and hits can be devasting. We fought a second 4 ship action which resulted in a union victory-A fire on The CSS Planter only being put out by the inrushing water as she went down. A good and fun time was had by all much helped by a few beersand the obligatory Beef Butties- and chips- served up by Jean the Landlady. A quck chorus of "In the Navy" and sundry scurrilous and unrepeateable jokes prepared Young Garth for his life on the Ocean wave. Good Luck Lad.

Russian Magic... again.

2011-11-10T04:07:00.000-08:00

Nick Bokarev of Drabant fame has kindly sent me pic of the painted Britsh - shown a few posts ago as undercoated. Now here they are finished.

I really can feel a 40mm WSS force to be in the offing. I have a very small begining- but how to do it that is the question.

Jacdaw news.

2011-11-09T02:54:00.000-08:00

Just a quck word to let you know about up and coming Jacdaw releases. I've just sent off a new bundle of masters to the mouldmaker. All 30mm This means that the British Artillery will be out in a couple of weeks- a pack of 2 6 pdr guns and a pack of 8 crew plus tools . Also imminent are the Austrian Hussars- 3 or perhaps 4 packs. Command , Troopers, "Characters" - (a hussar Sutleress a looting hussar and a "Hussar Girl") . Also - and I'm not sure how I'll do this yet wether a 4 fig pack or a single - a Hussar in winder dress wearing his pelisse. This lot should all be out in time for Christmas. Also I can now tell you that David is working on some figures for a different period indeed in a different century- effectivly its a commision but this new range will be available for sale in the normal manner so Napoleonic Swedish here we come! This will be a full range including cavalry and artillery as well as chaps in silly hats. Swedish troops were tough- you'd have to be in that daft hat! But they also wore French and Russian style shakos. so we'll do those too. More info and pics as I have them Well thats all the news thats fit to print... Bye for now... Andy

Finished 'em!!

2011-11-08T01:33:00.000-08:00

Since I'm currently on a burst painting 40mm ECW Here are a couple of pics of the finished Sash and Saber Mounted Officers. 2 figs per pack - with alternative right arms and heads included for a mere £12.00.

I've built these 2 straight from the bag as it were with no conversion or fiddling about. Future variations will be different . I can see thise figues cropping up in various guises in the future-as TYW French or Imperialists with different heads and on other horses and indeed in different poses.. Now the Dragoons are out in the USA I must order some up for the UK chaps.

More Drabant goodies

2011-11-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

Another quickie this. Nick Bokarev of drabant sent me these pics of his up and coming Footguards Hatmen. Don't they look the business? I'll be having some of these when they come out .

Its a slow job but I am building a small collection of Drabant 40mm . Hopefully not too small in the long run.

Me and my big mouth....

2011-10-30T03:39:00.000-07:00

I should have learned in 50 years. Really you ' d think I'd know by now. Opening your gob can get you into bother. Not that I'm frightened of the odd ruck but just possibly its those times that don't end in a punch- up that you have to watch. When a well intentioned offer can cause you more bother than you expected. Let me explain gentle reader.... I have a certain relative, a young feller me lad, who is a workshop nut but doesn't know one end of a painttbrush from t'other. Doubtless the more perspicacious of you will see where this is going. Yep I got lumberd . See the pic of my painting desk as it currently stands. Some nice 40mm ECW cavalry ,a few old Willie Grassins to finally finish the unit, a rare and beutiful Les Higgins Marlburian general, and sticking out like a pork butcher in a mosque a dirty big wossname with a huge whumpeta gun and ridiculous sword. Fair makes you weep don't it? However, I thought to myself, Sod the GW paint schemes, its a tank so Wehrmacht 3 colour camo with the pilot in a black panzer suit .... or similar. Of course my young relative has put the whole damn thing together so its a bugger to get in amongst the twiddly bits. Apparently this plastic kit is the thick end of 25 quid so care is required and to be honest its a bit of a challenge so I'll get there but thats my historical cred out the window...

Howeve to continue in a spirit of historical re-affirnmation here are some pics of some proper gear. Recant additions to my 40mm TYW/ECW collection Including the first of the Scottish lancer- a mixed marriage figure containg Sash and Saber Romanoff and Jacdaw parts. The Cuirassier is pure Jacdaw and the couple of Infantry are again mised bit Romanoff and Sash and Saber.

Once I get this thingy out of the way I can get back to more proper stuff... mind you I might dig out the sci- fi...

Bluemoon

2011-10-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

Now another swift post before I nip upstairs to get my.... CAMERA out .Acurrent item on TMP has the first release of the Bluemoon 15mm Napoleonics out. They'll be on sale in the US at Fall in this coming weekend- or is it next well soon anyway. I' hope to have stock in time for Smoggycon in November and in time for Christmas. Now I can take orders befoore that- email me at info@oldgloryuk.com and you can pay by paypal. I'll get a version of this put up on my website in the next day or so. As for the toys themselves I have a few samples and the TMP pic don't do 'em justice. They are as good or better than the Marburians already featured on theis blog . Check out the TMP itemhttp://theminiaturespage.com/news/?id=1822294739As you may know I'm not a great 15mm dude but by gum I'm tempted. Andy

Another quickie

2011-10-19T06:04:00.000-07:00

A quick picture of the new-ish Sash and Saber 40mm ECW mounted Officers.Assembled and undecoated - there are other assemby variants- you get 5 heads and 5 arms so plenty of spares. These will be painted and then the pics of the finished product will go on the Old Glory UK website- and doubtless on the Old Glory25s site in the US also.

Doubtless they will also feature in my 40mm TYW set up too.

Mixed Marriages....

2011-10-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

By Gum!! Two posts in One day. well sort of. I've been trying to find the time to do a "proper" post for the last week or so but what with work and the rugger and one or two other things it just never happened.. Noiw some of you dear gentle readers , will be aware of my views on the" figure fascists" , those narrow worthies who have all their little men fr in one style from one maker and who opine loudly that all others are beneath contemp- usually if they haven't been sculpted by the 3 armed hydra. Now this is not about figure quality- well not really- but more in a way about the dead hand of conformity laying its cold and clammy fingers upon us however lightly. Why I ask myself in an age where there are more makers than ever are many armies less and less characterful . The same overpainted blandness trotted out over and over ? There may be more figures but there is a dammned sight less art. What I hear your cry Art?. Well yes in a very small way you understand. I'm not claiming I and my Ilk are akin to Michelangelo or Caravaggio- except(in younger days) for bar fights perhaps but good painting and modelling in our hobby is an art form albeit a very minor one. ( and you thought an Ilk was a funny animal that wanders aimlessly about the tundra.... well you may be right..) No what the dead hand of the FFs do is make it harder to do anything different

and no I'm not talking about warrior teddy bears or similar amusing silliness but about an attitude. An example , in the past Old Glory have been criticised- often quite brusquesly for using "different designers" well of course we did halfwits there was too much stuff for one bloke- unless he cloned himself and thats only been done once in this line of work-so we used different blokes for different jobs. We must have used 7 or 8 designers to date and I still use 4 - including David for Jacdaw. What that did was give us different styles for different tastes - how can that be wrong? However it was- apparently becasue it wasn't the same as the "designer minifigs" style prevelent both then and now(and no I'm not having a go at Minifigs they are fine for certain jobs).Now You also get all this sizist crap about "are yours 25mm or 28mm ". I covered this little gem in an article on the OGUK website so won't bore you with it again but its about presentation here. How you finish and present yoyr toys that is far more important than mere millimetres. So to somewaht "prove" my point- at least to myself here are a trio of pictures where mixed makers are used together. The ECW curassier unit are Old Glory figures on Jacdaw horsesand represent Colonel Balfours troop at Edgehill - one of 3 such troops in the Parliamentry army. The 18th cetury group is largely Old Glory but Soubise in the centre is a Willie figure on a Stadden Horse while the lady a la Hussard is a willie figure on an Old Glory Horse. To my mind all have more movement and style that repeated perryclones

Just a quickie

2011-10-18T02:33:00.000-07:00

Been very busy these last few days but here is a pic of the up and coming Drabant Marlborough.- He's and absolute cracker. This shows Nick Bokarev's sculpting and painting to a tee. Despite the comparativly high price- actually the same as Foundrys 40mm and a good bit cheaper than some I've seen- Mindstealers for instance an Italian outfit who fo some lovely medivals but around 5 or 6 quid per foot fig. Also First legion 40mm are about the same price as Drabant- at least on ebay- £14.99 for a 4 fig set. -similar from Drabant or £13.00 though 1st Legion cav are a bit cheaper. In spite of all the above I love Drabant the picture shows you why.

Black Powder- damp squib.

2011-10-05T03:30:00.000-07:00

The weekend before Derby a few TWATS got together for an AWI game at our usual pub. Now I was in the chair as I planned to use British Grenadier however I didn't have a copy- I'd sold out so I thought I'd try Black Powder. Now mu=y earlier musing upon this ruleset in another place- wherein now I do not go- were mixed to say the least. This small game did nothing to change those views except perhaps for the worst.The Britsh force had 2 "brigades" with unit sizes rangeing from large to tiny 40 figs for a guards battalion and 5 for a light company of the 17th foot while the rebels had 3 brigades - 2 of militia and 1 of continentalsand out mumberd the brits about 3 to 2 . Add to that the defemsive position and the brits were on a sticky wicket but not by any means impossible. So to the game. We managed 3 turns - the turn and turn about system doubles the length if the game, the proprtions between the various ranges and movement are just twaddle the spatial relationships are just wrong for the AWI but far far far worse than all of the above is the simple fact that you can't find anything in the damned book.. There is no index. The contents page is only of marginal help and flicking hither and yon though all the " pretty little rich boys eye candy" to find a given page became a real chore. The patronizing tone was also a pain in the **** even when you found the bits you were looking for . It became obvious that BP is simply a pretty book for sale to the sycophants or the suckers with a few nice ideas hidden between the rich boys showing off pages. I do like the way you can personalise the units but set that agaist the set unit sizes - which I'd hate in any ruleset-and I like the idea of the order system- despoite its "poseurs charter" - which could be fun once or twice but could end up being deeply annoying at least to permanent TWATS. As an AWI set well no. But I still think they might work well 100 years later as a colonial set . I will have another go at 'em but not without a bit of serious butchering

The above pic shows a general view of the battlefield - British in the Foreground.

American Militia defend the bridge.

this pic shows the 1st foot.- Old Glory Second edition figures. The rest of the armies were a misture Old Glory - both standard and Second Edition ranges rubbed shoulders with Staddenand a very few Hincliffe X ranger- the Hezzlewood figs a lot like RSM. Its just a pity that the rules just didn't function. I've lent my copy to Andrew the Tekkie basically to see if its just me who thinks they are twaddle I await his " not quite a wargamer's " verdict. It will be interesting to see how he fairs finding his way around the tome. It drove him nuts on the day.

Off to Derby...

2011-09-29T01:50:00.000-07:00

So its that time of year again and the City of Derby beckons.. For me- no longer the show sponsor there have been a few changes. Only 1 van full of toys this year. Floating Jeff no longer drives for me so its just me and Jim the painter in 1 van and a slightly smaller trade stand. 2 van was- due to the price of fuel- becoming unsustainable anyway so changes had to be made. Nevertheless we'll still be taking a "sh*****d"(to quote Slim Pickens) of models to the show including a fair bit of new stuff. As I write this I'm waiting for the pot to reach temperature so I can cast the new aircraft- 2 variants of the Cessna 337, one for Vietnam and the Lynx variant for the Rhodesians.Assuming I get time when I get back I want to get a start on my 15mm Moderns. I have some bits and pieces but not really organised forces. The bits and pieces syndrome is the curse of being in the trade." Oh I'll just get a couple of display units painted" and you end up with lots of half armies. Off the top[ of my head I have Trojan chariots, Polish Winged Hussars Greek Chariots Cairo Janisarries,Some Marlburian Spanish - all of whom have been photographed for the website but have never really grown past that- especially the Poles and the Trojans. At least the Janisaries and Mamelukes have beeen on the table a couple of times.

The Ottoman turks don't quite come under the Bits heading but they are far from a complete army. Again I started with just a couple of display units but they gre a little until they are almost an army but trying to get more done is problematic. I need to do some artillery and some more Spahis. The army is supposed to cover , by careful unit selection, a wide time period from the mid 16th century to about 1800 but the core is 1550-1650 so maybe I'll do some more... Of course that means I'll have to increase another set of bits.. The landsknects Oh Boy.

So here we see 3 pics of my Turks including the assualt of Fort St Elmo during the Siege of Malta- The Knighs are from the Old Glory Wars of Religion range- more bits from the collection - .I do like the look and style of the Ottomans but like many other projects they'll have to get in the queue. Nothing elso now before Derby - a fine show and the Flower pot is a cracking pub! Andy

Jacdaw up and coming.

2011-09-19T02:58:00.000-07:00

Our Next show will be Derby on 1st 2nd of October and by then I'll have the French Cavalry and at least some of the Brisish Artillery in the Jacdaw range available. . Its been a bit busy what with one thing and another- as I type this I'm waiting for the pot to heat up so I can go and make some aero

planes and soldiers- I need to to some WW2 Russian Planes and a bundle of 40mm Napoleonics. To be hoinest I haven't been paying that much attention to my personal wargaming recently as its World Cup year so my eyes are on New Zealand. Ireland beat the Aussies- cracking ! Pass the Guiness and the Paddy's ! Lets face it there have to be other interests than little lead men. I live with the little fellas day in day out. Sometinmes you just want a break. That gentle reader is the difference between the Hobbyist and the... well "professional" . Anyhow here are a couple of pics of up and coming Jacdaw French and Austrian Hussars and and Austrian Zimmermann.. The Hussars will have dedicated Horses rather than those shown. I have a big box of masters to work through so I'll take pics as I get time but what with the Rugger and Derby time is a bit short. Oh and what inconsiderate fellow put the England Scotland match on while I'm in Derby or is it visa versa?... Still you can't always have your own way so I'll not be throwing my teddy out of me pram just yet. Andy

Jacdaw French Line Cavalry.

2011-09-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

. Here are some shots of the soon to be released Jacdaw French Line Cavalry. There will be 2 packs Command- Officer Standard, Trumpeter and Kettledrummer and Troopers - 4 charging troopers.- 2 variants

The photos show the pre-production master castings just as they came out of the mould- with the exception of the kettledrummers horse which I'd used for a previous picture and had been blackwashed. I wanted to show these "au naturelle" so to speak rahter than fiddled about with cleaned, grey sprayed or whatever. The point is what you see is what you get- with horse variants. Now in the fullness I or more probably David will paint some of these and painted pics will go up on the website- likewise some of the other packs as we get round to it. I get tired of snide comments about pictures. Which would you prefer actual soldiers or just pictures of 'em you can't always have both as there are not enough hours in the day IMHO this is some of the best stuff David has done- same style as Willie but frequently better detail .with all the movement and style but a bit sharper.. I like these and will be adding some to my own collection.

Hectic weekend.

2011-09-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

By Gum I'm knackered !! Tired thsat is a little fatigued. Two shows in a weekend is a bit hectic, especially when one of my key guys - Jim the Painter has a family thing to deal with and can't make the whole event. Nevertheless another TWAT Andrew the tekkie stepped manfully into the breach so the Border Reiver. Good show that- best footfall for several years so they tell me.Not that I saw much as I was busy most of the day so no complaints from me though it closed a bit early at 3 pm . Mind you it was over by then so no problem- in fact all to the good as I could get home early as I had to be up at first sparrow fart next morning for the run to Newark and Partizan. Another busy day so not even a cursory look at the games and never even got out of the main hall except to the gents and the bar- to take a round back to the rest of the team . Once again a good day- far far better than the May Partizanand somewhat better than the previous September one. I'm told the gate was down - and yes there were quiet bits but I seemed to be talking most of the time - and getting gear out for chaps that sort of thing.
Saw a good few chaps John the mouldmaker for one. He'll be getting more jacdaw soon- French Line cavalry shold be out by the end of the month and just maybe Austrian Hussars. Also a couple of new Aircraft- variants of the Cessna for Rhodesia and Vietnam. Percy has donne a cracking job on these kits.
As for the Jacdaw I'll post pics next time I get the camera out.
Right now I think I'll catch up on a bit of sl;eep.

Old Glory -Wars of Marlborough.

2011-08-24T04:18:00.000-07:00

As a period I've looked at Marburian on and off for the last 25or so years. I once had a small mixed force of 20mm Higgins and Douglas Miniatures I bought second hand- sold 'em about 15 years ago. I had a load of Minifigs Marburians and painted about 6. Thought about Foundry but never really liked 'em- too stiff and samey.
Dave Allsop was sculpting the Old Glory 25mm range when he died. As a range they are a good bit smaller than most OG stuff and closer to "true" 25mm- wahtever that means. The Infantry are covered in depth with 28 different packs . Cavalry less so since Dave died before these were completedand what we had was finished by another sculptor. Artillery represented by 1 pack of crew and a couple of different guns though other useful guns are available in the ECW and Jacobite ranges- including Mortars and Gallopers.
On the OSW Yahoo group the moderator opined that these had big heads. I don't agree- especially compared to Front Rank or Dixons BUT having said that one or twop do have small bodies. The heads were sculpted separately to be added one all the body variants were done and a couple of the bodies do look a bit small. Still not bad for a range that is getting on for 20 years old.
Ilove the 40mm Drabant Marburian range and am very very slowly painting up several of those without any clear idea of what I'll do with them but I've fallen for the little Bluemoon 18mm range and now have 4 units done and another on the way- I don't paint these little fellas .
This means that on the whole I'm not sure what I'll do with the Saxon artillery in the picture- There are about 80 infantry too- needing basing same painting style no longer to my taste I'd need to "Bring 'em up" before I used them. They date from a few years back when I part owned Reiver castings and we did a GNW range. The Saxons were to be opposition for the Swedes I painted which I think are in the current owners collection but as so often happens other stuff got in the way. They have been in their box since then until this morning... when I was remined of their existance.

Musings upon the nature of Truth... and Fog.

2011-08-21T02:31:00.000-07:00

Philosophical title ... Ah well sometimes one muses upon the infinite questions, cating thought about in the ether of the endless unfathonable mind then again you might jusy want a beef buttie and a pint so I hies myself to the Commie to meet Flaoting Jeff and Jim the painter to tabletop battle using Jims fine collection of 15mm Ancients. Macedonians and Persians are the chosen adversaries and for the firt time Field of Glory the chosen rule set.
Now FOG is a superbly produced system- sahould be being published by Osprey- I've had a set and most of the supplements for over a year but never until today actually played the game. Its written is a sort of English which - when reading the idiot books(sorry Army lists) seems clear and mostly to the point. Only a few niggles spring to mind why are the units called "Battle Groups" probably becasue BG looks good in the lists- completly pointless they look like units and act as units so they are units however that is mere grammar On to the game.
The Macedonians had 11 units (3 phalanx , 1 companion, 1 Hypaspist, 1peltast 1 psiloi Javelins 1 Thracian Horse 1 each Thessalian and Prodromoi cavalry and 1 Cretan Archers.
The Persian 13 units (2 hoplites 2 Kardakes 4 heavy Cavalry, 1 light cacalry 1 Horse Archer 2 foot archers.
Unit sizes were as per the appropriate list from "Immortal Fire" and nothing too contoversial here except that perhaps the Kardakes were bowless which - depending upon the evidence you read they may or may not have been. In the event it mattered hardly a jot.
Now the actual fighting was slow to begin 2 reasons for this.

A/. Me and Floating Jeff know each others style pretty well so we tend to be cautios

B/. The Movement rates are short slowing upo the game and giveing an advantage to the defensive player.

Table size was for us average being only just over 6 feet by just under 4 now a smaller table say 5 by 3 would have speeded things up a tad but not that much as our assingned deployment areas "up to a foot in " meant that the outer ends of the table were never really used.
So it was at least 4 moves of fiddling about before the troops came into missle range.
Now the games mechanisms themselves are fairly simple and precise but sometimes odd - now as a first game there was stuff we were doing wrong- the second mpove thing for a start- never used it- that would have speeded stuff up a bit. But Jim never mentioned it and I only just noticed it as I write this so Hey TS boys it didn't happen. I'm still not convinced we used whatever passes for Morale correctly either. There was a distinct lack of Cohesion tests in the game bvut maybe Jimbo was umpiring close to his chest and didn't tell us. Nevertheless the random Charge move was well odd when a charge move can be less than a normal move but without any recouse to WHY that should be it just feels odd thats all.
Find out mre next time we play .
It strikes me that this set will be a godsend to fiddle-farters and Rules lawyers but since I don't play competitions I'll never encounter them. I don't know what the sentence would be for "inserting a Macedonian pike Phalanx up your opponent with intent to harm" but fortunately I'll never find out.... except perhaps as a witness.
Being element based the casualty system is either non- existant or severe- a fault of all element based games I feel and this - combined with - in this game at least- some extreme dice on both sides - gives odd results. Its possible for a losing unit to kill off the opposition and win a melee assuming it succeeds on its hits and the others don't. Yet its alos very difficult to fight back once you start to lose a melee. Still far from sure if we were doing this right - those 2 instances just felt odd.
Also I can't yet- under this system see the point of pikemen they have a + but apparently 1 + isn't enough you need 2 so its redundant.
Cross referenceing thew jargon without a quick reference sheet is a real pain. Since its highly unlikely that I'll play these rules more than occaisionally- 2 or 3 times a year - than I'll never learn the fiddly bits of which there are many but having said that with a single game under my belt I want another go- just to see if I'm totally wrong about this or if different troop types do actually matter.

The Pictures.
Give a totallly misleading view of the action. Franky I came second but the pics don't really tell you that. After all there is one of my Peltasts chasing off a large force of Persian Horse- and yes it did happen that way. Very odd indeed.

I've missed out the bit- sorry bad pic out of focus.... of the siver shield being broken by mercenary Hoplites I had 4 dice - re-rollonmg 1s so of course scored 3 2s and a 1 - re-rolled to another effing 2 - laugh I thought I'd never start.
This is what I mean about the nature of Truth. A picture may be worth a thousand words- but only if you put the right caption on it.....

Nevertheless we'll go back to FOG with other armies definitely more testing required.

Getting into a period. Part 1

2011-08-17T02:42:00.000-07:00

Of late - when I read various blogs and magazine articles I wonder how todays wargamers get into a period- especially as the history is now at the back of the queue in these "enlightened" or perhaps benighted times. It a given that ex "president" Tone and his rich mates didn't like history -except insofar as it was cool Britannia and Dave and HIS rich mates are no better(except insofar as they can get punters into the stately pile perhaps). Yet history is still popular- witness the number of "heritage" shows on the box. Nevertheless in olden tymes when ye worlde was a different place players of ye warre gaymes usually got into a particular period because of the history- at least all the ones I knew did. This didn't stop us doing fictional campaigns but we read our history books- how else were you to find out how they did stuff?.
For myself its almost always been the history that has provided the trigger for a new period. In one sense - for me at least there are no "new periods" been there, done that but, having said that there are many nuances and of course it depends on what you mean by "period". To take the "Pre-gunpowder period" for instance in my time I've had Roman Republican and Cathaginian armies. Late Byzantines and Fuedal French(both competiton armies these way way back) several Viking and Norman armies over the years as well as Crusaders, English Feudals and Ayyubid - these are the ones I can remember some at least I've done more than once. I've been through more armies than Genghis Khan
Currently the collection is much more modest and in pre gunpowder terms almost non-existant. Tastes change. I no longer compete so "killer armies" no longer exist, if they ever did.
My main periods now are the 17th century and the 18th century but with a respectable look at the Peninsular War and the ACW - both in 40mm. The ACw is one of the few periods where a figure line got me interested as I saw the origonal Dave Allsop greens for the Old Glory 25mmACW range back in 1990- some of these still survive in the OG WBS range but in their day they were simply streets ahead of all the others but the ACW was really Bruce Catton's fault. His Army of the Potomac trilogy is still my favourite ACW reading. I'm one of those chaps who has to "read himself in" to a period before I do it. The depth I read may change but yes I read myself in whatever period it is.
I suppose I've really mostly been a gunpowder man. Though there was a time when I considered that nothing of much interest has happened after 1485. Knights and longbows wwre the thing - with a few "smokie gunners" for colour. Most of my Medieval armies are gone now barring a few units but I still have the texts ... just in case and a 40mm Wars of the Roses collection which I add to a bit at a time.
Modern- that is post WW2 has always been a minor interest - currently buzzing around in my head- bushfire wars post colonial wars call 'em what you will they have a contining interest. I'm re-vamping my collection here- it use to be 20mm - Cubans Angolans etc but now will be 15mm and consist of a collection of "Battle Groups" - Mostly British but with some Danish who will fight various enemies- Pseudo Iraquis and Afghans. I bought 3 LeopardII for the Danes from QRF . They are not bad but I was just a tad dismayed by the casting quality compared to my Challengersand Warriors- which are of course OG . Mind you they'll paint up OK- better than OK but it will take effort.

The Pictures.
Top
40mm ACW Confederates. I fight regimental level battles using Featherstonian style rules.
Middle. Jose de Henradia Catellan of Ampaosta. One of my few medieval left. I ALWAYS tried to get the Heraldry right. That was the point.
Bottom.
Jim Mains 10mm Seven Years War Austrians. I love the period but won't paint this scale myself. See Jims pont though they look fine indeed en masse.

Minature Wargames

2011-08-12T05:48:00.000-07:00

In past posts here you will have seen that I have a pretty low opinion on average of the current crop of glossy wargames magazines. - There has been one exception that being Miniature Wargames. Now time was when that magazine was arguably the worst of the crop. Poor pictures were usually what its accusers flung at it. Now I never wholly subscribed to this - at least it had stuff in it you could read. It didn't assune you had the mind of a backward pekinese and while the picture content wasn't great at least it was of a standard attainable by most chaps in default of an overly healthy budget for your toys.
Nonetheless MW had become a little staid.
However in the last couple of years this has changed and for my money its now the only one worth a regular read. Others may pique the interest every few issues but MW is now the only mag I've found something to read every issue for the past year or so- I've evn been known to dip into the Dwarf fiddling column- sorry Fantasy and Sci- fi(the sci -fi bit I do have an occaisional interest in)
The current issue is a case in point- though dear reader I say it as shouldn't it has some tasty pictures of actual units used on my actual table at an actual show together with stuff that is actually interesting to read- A fine little article on early - and small ACW battles - which I'd never heard of - all to the good I can feel an outing for my 40mm ACW coming on - a nice ECW article- nice pic these(did I fell just a hint of a blush there!!) but again stuff you can actually read - which is the most important part. Despite the letter from Mike Smith in the "open fire" letters column- in which he makes several good points-regarding elitism I'm not a zillionaire nor do I have a permanet table the size of a small house. While he has valid points he is overly pessimistic.Most wargamers - even if they are not club memeber- the TWATS are not organised enough for a club- are somwheree in the middle of the picture mike paints . Merely becasuse He does not like it does not mean that it does not have a palce in our hopefully broad church MW continues to steer a good middle course and long may it continue
Andy OGUK

New gear on the way.

2011-08-11T03:48:00.000-07:00

Delayed but not forgotten are new releases in the 28mm Brooks miniatures modern range. There will be 2 new packs in time for the Newcastle show on Septeber 3rd. A British 50 cal HMG team- as previously mentioned here on this blog and a Taliban command group - the photo shows the masters . There will be a 4th figure in the pack - simply a running messenger-already done one of the "extra" figures I found when I took over the range that wasn't in any of the packs. There are others watch this space .
As for this group. The lad on the laptop is obviouly keeping up with his facebook page while the chap on the mobile is phoning his mum to find out how the Blues did last Saturday after all just because you are fighting the infidels does not mean that you lose touch !

Claymore prep.

2011-08-05T02:16:00.000-07:00

So today's the day. It's showtime and any other cliches you can think of! If it ain't done now it's too late. We load up for Claymore and start off at about 5.30 tomorrow morning for the Athens of the North.
This year we'll only be taking one van. I'm a driver down as floating Jeff has retired so some ranges will not be going to the show that had gone previously when we took 2 vans- unavoidable this I'm afraid but in rough terms we will be taking the follwing
Bluemoon 15mm- All we have including some of the newest Deep Dark Africa range. and all the new ACW AWI and Fiw packs - so a good bundle of these tasty little dudes.
15mmCommand Decision WW2 and Moderns- all we have in stock and in addition the NEW Fireforce15 Miniatures Rhodesians- see the pics on an earlier post
Lil' Flyin' fokkers Aircraft- all the WW2 and Moderns I have in stock or have time to make.
10mm- all the horse and musket ranges- the Ancients have had to make room for Bluemoon so we stopped bringing those to shows.

30 mm Jacdaw- all the range including the new British High Command The Civilians and the Royal Ecossaise

28mm stuff- Sash and Saber ACWand Napoleonics Old Glory 2nd Edition ACW AWI and Napoleonics.
and a selection of Old Glory 28mm stuff including Colonials, Pike and Shot Wars of the Roses. Dark Ages, Samurai, and as much other stuff as we can legally get into the van
40mm some ranges- British and French Napoleonic FIW, ACW AWI .
So still more soldiers than you can shake a stick at.
And of course the neverending "6 for5" deal is still in operation. Not forgetting that if we don't have it with us or have run out you can order it and pay on the day and we'll send it out to you post free in the UK.
No worries !
See you there
Andy

Hectic Days.

2011-07-31T03:19:00.000-07:00

Next Saturday will see Jim the painter ,Young Garth and your gentle Author getting up at first Sparrow Fart to make the 2 and a half is hour trip to Claymore in Edinburgh so this week will be all about preparation for that fine event.
Not that last week was particularly slow .A shipment came in from the USA - nine big boxes of toys- all had to be unpacked and sorted and the back orders sent on their way - still a few of those to do there only beiong 24 hours in a day but no worries they'll be on the post van in the coming week.
Amongst a clutch of new gear are additions to the Bluemoon 15mm - well 18mm - AWI range- some cracking Hessians which would fit well with an Prussian army of Frederick the Average. Also some lovely waggons fir for most horse and musket armies. Now as you know I'm not a 15mm dude but Bluemoon have caused me to go Marlburian and I can see me perhaps falling for the Napoleonics and possibly the Colonials when they appear- as long as somone else paints them of course- when iyt comes to actual brushwork I'll keep what left of my eyesight thanks and stick to 30mm and 40mm .
So the first pic shows some Bluemoon Confederates painted by John Reidyand a fine job he has done of 'em too.
Actually managed to get a game in Yesterday. Floating Jeff was in the chair so no surprise it was a Naval affair set in 1942 off the isalnd of Fucanal. An US navy force has to destroy Japanese transports before they unload their troops for the land campaign on the island...
Rules used wewre General Quarters 3 rd edition - this stuff is Jeff's speciality and as an Admiral I'm a good powder monkey... the other player was Andrew the Tekkie and Young Garth turned up late due to a surfiet of Gin.
The Japanese force of 6 destroyers and 5 crusiers took on a similar sized us force. The game opened with a Japense destroyer attack on the US crusiers which saw the USS Pensacola repeatedly struck by long lance torpedoes sink with all hands . First Blood to the Emperor. Banzai !! .
The next few turns saw gun exchanges which were largly inconclusive although the USS Brooklyn suffered damage as did the IJN Tone and Kayuga . The second Japanese destroyer flotilla was outmanovred by Andrew the tekkie and was too far away to effect the outcome. Nevertheless the US fleet steamed into the planned long lance killing zone and over 2 moves something like 30 torpedoes were launched. Not a single hit not one BUMMER!! Gunfire however had some effect and the Brooklyn suffered further damage and Indianapolis turned turtle and sank .
The US destroyers had not so far taken much part - aside from exchanging long range shots with the Japanese 1st Flotilla as it fled after the inditial torpedo attack . Now hwever they sped past the 2 heavily damaged Japanese crusiers- Tnoe was dead in the water repairing engines- and launched a torpero attack on the anchored merchant ships as they unloaded. While some stores and men had been landed the resulant titanic explosians meant that despite their heavier losses the US fleet had achieved its objective- on the final move too -another Bummer - .
A cracking game this Once I get copies of the pic Garth took I'll post them for the record the ships were all 1/1200 scale . We've tried the 1/9,000,000 or whatever those specks of Fly- shyte are suppoed to be but we keep coming back to models that you can actually see and tell what they are.
So until I get those pics from Garth the rest of the photos are from my own very small WW2 Naval Collection
The first ship picture is a Close up of the Graf Spee a metal Kit by Mountford I think. Next is HMS Ajax again a metal kit and finally the Admiral Hipper - an old Airfix plastic job . All have been painted by yours truly it makes a change from little men.
The ACW pic are of course Bluemoon. and yes they are 18mm - little chaps but I've seen 28mm with less style.

A day in the life....

2011-07-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

That splendid blogger Wargaming for Grown ups often seems to have to fit his wargaming in around his life. It's not like that here - and yet curiously it very much is. Merly becasue I run a wargaming miniatures company does not mean I do a lot of actual wargaming. Now don't get me wrong here - its my choice, I've tried other lines of work and mostly hated 'em all more or less sao there is nothing I'd rather do- at least in the terms of the actually possible so all of the following is rather simply to illustrate wht the hell I spend my working life actually doing - as its not all playing with soldiers.
One of the MAJOR advantages or working from home is the total lack of commuting thank God !! Man when I did it was the biggest pain- waiting for buses standing in the pissing rain or freezing cold- sometimes both or standing in a bus shelter that had been used as a urinal - frequently. No I don't miss it . The Civil service can do without me and good riddance says I.
So I can rise at 7.30 and be at my dest working well before 8.30 should that be needful- which it mostly is- sometimes earlier but no sweat.
Check the overnight emails- anything from Half a dozen to 50 or so depending upon what time of the year- or week it is- always more on a Monday AFTER the weekend.
Its a pretty fair bet that the phone will ring a few times too. I'm a tad old fashioned so am still happy to take Telephone orders. If you are planning to buy a fairly sized army its worth using the phone to take advantage of the "6 for5" deal. We can't do this on the website as the possible variants are simply too numerous(4500 to the power 4500 so my tame tekkie says ) . Our Sagepay payment system isn't able to deal with that. .
So sorted the emails - printed the order out - next job pull the orders from the stock bins and make out the order dockets. I still do this by hand as its the most reliable way of knowing the state of play on any given order- less chance of a cock -up - mind you those can still happen Not often though!.
If the order is Old Glory Sash and Saber or Bluemoon any missing stuff will be added to the next order to be sent to the USA(if it hasn't already). If its from a range I make here- Aircraft Jacdaw Romanoff Fireforce etc etc then If I don't have it to hand it goes on the casting list for the next casting day..
At this point my wife Carole enters the fray as packer and posting supremo. She's the other half of Old Glory UK . There are just the 2 of us here. My show crew only help me out at shows for the rest it's myself and Carole. Gophers I have none- don't want 'em.
By now its around lunchtime so usually a quick buttie and cuppa- often interrupted by phone calls - some from customers some from cold calling time wasters - " do you a website " "sell you some phones " " waste your time " - I've had up to 20 of these in a day and can get a tad testy- sometime **** off !!as you slam the phone down is really the only way to get rid of 'em . I've tried polite it does not work .
Afternoons can vary a bit. I may have photographs to take for the website or for a magazine article. I may have a bundle of paperwork to do - the bane of my life- or maybe its casting ., I have 4 or 5 orders to cast for tomorrow assuming I can fit it in and it doesn't have to wait until Tuesday.
Perhaps its a posting day so I'll walk the half- mile or so to our local post office with the smaller orders(larger ones may go by courier). We keep it local. We had a Post Office contract but they cancelled it - apparently the 5 grand a year I spent with them was beneath their notice. My local postmaster was more than pleased to take over. He and his girls do an good job.
The point here is that all of this stuff takes time. Some computer duded forget that the web isn't real they are only picture - someone has to make this stuff, pack and ship itand it takes time.
For instance photographs. The number of times I've been asked
"Why are there no photographs on your site"-
Give it a rest man there are over 2000 and still growing.
What they usually means is
"Why isn't there a picture or preferebly 27 of the pack I want to look at THIS MINUTE but have no intention of buying"
Now I fully understand but man a French Infatryman is a French Infantryman.
I have currently a bundle of about 100 pics from several chaps who have kind enough to give me permission to use their work. So I have to go through these - decide which I can use - re-size and sometimes otherwise fiddle about with them. Say an average of 10 minutes per photo 100 photos thats just over 16 hours work. Extrapolating this for roughly 4500 products thats 750 hours- doing nothing else - no wee wee or tea breaks no stopping to answer the phone almost 94 working 8 hour shifts doing nothing else to get 1 photo per code. And that assumes that I don't take the pics myself so
its pretty unlikely that I'll ever get everything photographed before I snuff it ! .
Especially as we keep bringing stuff out on both sides of the pond .
Nevertheless photos are added to the OGUK site pretty regularly As of this morning there were 2181 photos on the site not counting the homepage which has a changeing pic everytime you log on . By the end of the week that figure should have risen.
By now in my "normal" working day its pushing 5 O'clock and I've had enough. I needed to get some painting done but that didn't happen. Perhaps I'll do a bit later in the evening but frankly some days I'm sick of the little lead gits by 5 O'clock and want to think about something else. Fast Cars ... maybe... though that is my petrolhead wifes province Jane Austen... possibly A pie and a Pint very possibly indeed. Perhaps I'll cook. A little Penne al Tonno or maybe a Bruchetta or maybe something a little more substantial say a Chargrilled surloin with an Onion and Mustard dressing with a Green Salad and a bottle of Gamay ... . That will depend upon the seasonbor maybe I'll go to the Hoss or the Mary....
Andy

On the site

2011-07-22T01:53:00.000-07:00

Well the next lot of Jacdaw are now on the OGUK website. Lanciers de Saxe the first of the Civilians , Austrian Grenadiers and the British High Command . - another French foot command pack - different figures- another mounted officer a foot officer waving his hat as well as new ensin , serjeant and drummer.
I'll post a pic or two when I get a minute.
Nest up from Jacdaw- in about a week.- will be 4 packs of Royal Eccossais as soon as I get the production moulds back from my man . Command, Fusiliers, Grendiers in hats and Grenadiers in Mitres.
Take your pick.

"Charge- your Pike " and comparative pricing.

2011-07-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

An ongoing thread on the Old School Yahoo group about converting Young's Charge rules to the ECW got me thinking so there I was searching for appropriate info on what ECW stuff was available in those far off days when I came upon my copy of Military Modelling ISSUE 1 January 1971.
Afew comparative prices are absolutly intrigueing. I quote
Lamming 20/25mm Cavalry 2 per box - with horses- 7/-each Now as Mil-mod was only 3/- per issue at the time this would make1 cavalry figure more expensive than the magazine.
Translate that to today and you'd be paying a fiver for a single 28mm cavalry figure- given that most of todays glossies are 4 quid plus each - current Miniwargs price £4.25 . Around 3/- (15p) seems to have been the norm for mounted figures back then-(Garrison were 3/- each with fpoot at 1/3d each a box of Airfix would cost you about the same. Some outfits were more expensivew some less so but while comparisons are not exact its interesting that the actual models are in real terms cheaper than they were then - 3 bob was a lot of money certainly 2 or 3 pints (I was a bit young to know precisly) Now asingle pint will cost you about the same as a 28mm Cavalryman Hmmmm choices....
For me -despite the nostalgia for the old days - we have a better hobby now with more competititon - more companies and, on the whole, far far better product- at least as regards figures.
Now the photo is a depiction in 40mm - using my own Jacdaw and Romanoff figures a "battalia of foot a la Peter Young as depected in his article in the december 1969 issue of Bayonet. . I have placed the figures as he had them in the diagram- with the exception of the CO who I have placed- dismounted at the head of his regiement as would have been practice in the 17th century.
Andy

jacdaw news

2011-07-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well I have the moulds back so British High Command, Lanciers de Saxe . the first of the Civillians and the Austrian Grenadiers are available- or will be as soon as the webmistress gets them on the site.
There is also an officer of lanciers de Saxe available as a single figure .

In Search of Reality? part 3

2011-07-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

The Gentle Art of the Active Umpire

Funny chaps wargamers - at once very broadminded and incredibly narrow in outlook. Now I'm long past the time where I expect my opinions to influence another. Almost 40 years a wargamer has taught me that rarely happens .
The ongoing discussion on the OSW has revealed little except entrenched opinions- at least in the more wordy cases. Its not really a matter of "wood for the Trees" but rather more often - "this is what I want and all others are wrong because they are not me" - these are the more vociferious you understand - by no means everyone
So it once again strikes me that perhaps I'm not a "true" wargamer in that sense at all but rather a historian who plays with toy soldiers in as historical a manner as he feels like at the time.
One of the surprising things has been the way quite a few chaps simply ignore or dismiss the Umpire as either totally unnecessary(because their chosen rules are perfect?) or merely a scorer or if present limit his role to simple adjudication.
By Gum they- and especially the Umpire himself- are really missing a trick there.
Perhaps Umpire is a poor word.
Borrowing from Role players perhaps he should be the "Gamesmaster" In India he would be "Janghi Lat"- the Lord of War .
In our group his job is to organise the game set up the scenario provide the toys- other chaps help of course- and then run the game to his rules his way. We all take turns.

"The Umpire is ALWAYS right - especially when he's wrong"

is the only rule we have in the T.W.A.T.S. We find we work better that way. Any printed rulebooks is almost always secondary to the Umpires knowledge. In essence the rules provide the mere statistics the Umpire provided the "reality" - period colour, fog of War - general military Friction basically all the stuff that a mere rulebook just can't do the stuff you can't legislate for unless you want a rule set that's like Britannica.
A computer can't do it its too impersonal and it won;'t work with "win at all costs" or "gamey" players.
However we find it does work with chaps who have a sense of period and who would rather play to period than to rulebook.
We've been doing this for years- certainly since the mid 90s if not before ands=d see no reason to change though there are fellas out there who find our approach a bit odd.
What it means is that we tend not to be stuck in a rut. We'll play lots of different games in many different ways- depending upon who is running the show .
For instance - our last game was the Durham show game.- see the earlier post. Our next will be a WW2 Naval affair run by Floating Jeff most likely in the Pacific. Jim the painter wants to do a FOG based ancients game - we haven't tried these yet so the first few games will probably be "by the book" . But we'll see - thank God we are not predictable.
As for the pictures- they simply show that I've dug out my Indian collection and am adding to it. The white background shot shows a recently completed unit of Matchlockmen- from the Old Glory Muting range . Then another shot of my small Dikh wars group and also a shot of WSR Hodson - Rugby school boy - cavalryman and possible purloiner of Mess funds - setting about the mutinerrs with some of his troopers.

It takes all sorts...

The Search for Reality- part 2

2011-07-03T04:36:00.001-07:00

THE RESISTANCE LIVES ON ....

The ongoing debate on the Old School wargames Yahoo group which started as my poor first impressions of "Black Powder" has expanded beyond all recognition into dicussions of scale, battlefield Casualties and weapons effectivness. Some of it is pretty esoteric and basically boils down to the differences each of us has when we examine what we do. As an debate it's interesting but unlikly to change opinions. I've learnt a few things so its not been a complete waste but as ever I'm mildly surprised by - in what is a history based hobby - how many apparent "history haters" there are out there. Now that's deliberatly a bit strong and its probably truer to say that its the "empiricists" vs the "gamers" with perhaps a third faction - a small one- the "humanists" - having a bash at both sides as occaision serves .
For myself I'd say I'm a humanist with a shot of empiricism on the side- for me both are important. The "numbers racket" of the empiricists is a foundation and helps us quantify the quantifyable- weapon range movement speed etc. But the human element - mewmoirs battle reports history books prints and paintings put the flessh on the bare skeleton of the number crunchers.
Were our hobby a mere "gaming excercise" for "FUN" I'd be doing something else - watching paint dry perhaps or reading Paradise lost .
There are - contrary to the "Funsters" (another faction perhaps) many kinds of enjoyment and while I find some of them peurile that does not make them wrong in any way. Live like you wanna live Dude but that works both ways surely?
Now to be honest there is no such thing as a perfect set of rules - various systems do various jobs at various times. I shudder to think how many rulesets I've tried in 40 years but that doesn't stop me trying, maybe I'll get a bit of insight into how this or that worked.
In 40 years I've solved the odd problem- at least to my satisfaction latterly I've found most problems can be sorted by an Umpire who knows hisa stuff.
Quite why so many wargamers are anti- umpire I can't fathom. Its seems to be based around the fear that they may end up being one. Twaddle !.It's fun - in the broadest sense- espeially with adult players who also know the period. Its the normal way we run games at the T.W.A.T.S.. The idea of 2 player "head to head lead" no longer has appeal- I've done my shareand want a different experience one that - in an ideal world is intellectually stimulating , socially diverting and yes even that overused word !fun" - oh and preferably with beer in it ! .
What I don't want is to be patronised by over glossy rulesets with buckets of eye candy and comparatively thin content . Told that they are the best thing since sliced bread (to be fair NOT by the publisher) and if I don't like 'em I don't like fun - well not that kind I prefer to use my own brain thanks You can continue to plumb the shallows if you like
I'll not be dumbed down ...
The Resistance Lives on....
Andy

Latest Jacdaw Greens.

2011-06-29T02:18:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of some of the latest jacdaw.30mm masters the pictures show the British High Command. - Cumberland. Hawley (doubtless cursing a blue streak) and an ADC and Lord Stair appealing to heaven ! . Also due for relese soon are the Austrian Grenadiers and the first of the Civilian sets. I also hope to add the Lanciers De Saxe and the Royal Eccossais to this batch of releases. The Scots being in the uniform they wore in Flanders not Scotland.
Pretty soon after that we'll have British artillery and crew then more French Cavalry.

The search for Reality- part 1

2011-06-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

Descending to the Trivial

Now here we go again - while at War Torn last weekend I was given a copy of the latest Wargames Illustrated. I hadn't seen a copy for around a year for which I'm truly grateful. The magazine is bright, colourful and has plenty of very pretty- and some far from pretty pictures in it so style 7/10 - losing a few points for being a bit on the chavtastic side- I kept expecting page borders to be fake Burberry pattern- will succeeding issues arrive in a dayglo Vauxhall Corsa 2.4 with extra chrome?? .
Levity aside however upon perusal the magazine once again appeared to be written by and for the "yoof" market. "Its da gamin' innit" .. This size - in terms of page numbers is impressive but the content other than the pictures is almost nil. The depth of its triviality is spectacular. The distance between advert and articles is to all intents and purposes nil. Its a far far smaller magazine than it was in the Duncan Macfarlane era.
This got me thinking again - dangerous that ! Has our hobby become irredeemably trivial in its own eyes

Think about it most hobbyist in other fields don't view their hobby as trivial insofar as they practice it. It's something they enjoy at whatever level only we- as far as I know have a section of our practitioners who feel so insecure about what they do that they trivialise it perhaps as a defence mechanism. It has to be "easy" or "quick" or "simple" or some other weasel word that makes us less than we should be.
Now don't get me wrong I'm not in favour of permanently sweaty browed calculator wielding accountant-a -likes but neither does it have to bethe "bang you're dead" (with pretty pictures) that seems to be the norm in some quarters.
This - at least for me- ties in with a wider debate about "realism" in our games. Now the current discussion on the OSW group regarding the "Black Powder" rules has highlighted a few points upon what constitues "realism" for most of the debaters it seems to centre around how this games mechanism works or does not, but, in my view there are many layers of "realism" that we can put into the game before we get to mere rules.
Leaving aside the obvious one of model realism- are the toys painted and made up as their historical protoypes would have looked like - or if Fantasy does it have an internal logic of its own ? .
What you might term"organisational reality" - Could the units in your model army (or toy soldier collection) have fought in that time at that place in that manner(in those trousers!)?- This is more of a "does it feel right" question
At its simplist level that for me is "No macedonians fighting bloody Aztecs " but equally it could be no cavalry and infantry in the same brigade at that time in this place. Or perhaps - as it says in Black powder " Baker Rifles in the case of Britsh Napoleonic light infantry" (page 176)- this is twaddle they didn't . Light infantry regiemnts carried muskets Rifle battalions carried Rifles and is a small example of the simplfying to the trivial that seems to be current.
My point here is that - although many do know such statements to be twaddle other either don't or will seek to use it to ganin some trivial little advantge which simply would not occour had they been historically accurate. Another case- a custome recently bought a bundle of BMW motorbike combos for WW2 simply becase a loophole in his chosen rule- which may or may not have been FOW made these supertroops. "It gives me an advantage" he repeated ad nauseam. Being the chaps I am - an not really caring much I took his money and kept my gob shut but I did find it a bit sad nonetheless. However to be fair this chap wasn't claiming any kind of historical justification but simply wanted to score points off his mates - nothing actually wrong there then .
No I suppose my prime objection is that the simplistic lobby have the flooras its diffcult to argue with the "my brain 'urts when I fink" brigade because they trot out the "its only a game " liturgy over and over again like the responses at Mass.
And Finally- for the moment. Visual realism- a couple of pics of my collection King David has his correct Heraldry as does John Scymengour his standard bearer. The pikemen are from Denzil Holles Regiment of Foot in August 1642.A couple of months later and they would be a lot scruffier.

Back From the Sea.

2011-06-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

So here we are back from a very sunny Scarborough. War Torn was fun . Financially I lost my shirt- maybe more than one but it was still fun. Kel and his team has done all that men (and womwn) could do - nice organisation nice venue but a shortage of punters made life a bit hard on the selling front. They were let down by persons outwith their control promising but not performing- most notably but not alone Scarborough Council and apparently one of our hobby's glossiest magazines but I'll stay my hand on that subject as I'm not privvy to all the info yet.
Nevertheless I'll be going next year and youi can quote me on that.
Andy

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside...

2011-06-23T01:15:00.000-07:00

Off to the WAR TORN - event in Scarborough this weekend, where all being well there will be over 20 display games many of them Napoleonic as part of Armed forces day and an attempt on the world record -biggest Wargame . At least one Waterloo of course will have roughly 14,000 25mm figures on the table. I'll have to see if I can get a few pics for this blog.
Other news. I've recieved a big bundle of JACDAW masterd from David
Lanciers de Saxe
French Line Cavalry.
British High Command
Austrian Grenadiers.
amongst others
Keep an eye out for some pics I'll post as soon as I can. Expect to see them released in July and August as soon as I get moulds back from my mouldmaker.
Right now I'm off to the casting shed.

How big is it ???

2011-06-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

So gentle reader there I was casting up some of the new 15mm French aircraft and a few Warrior WRAP to boot when I again considered as you do the size of things - in this case wargames units. Now I like big ones 32 or 34 but 36 or even 48 for choice . As you can see from previous posts- the OBs for fontenoy -a -like have 32 and 48s but also some measely 24 - hardly big enough for a chap to get hold of as you might say.
Then I remebered that I have a 96 and the one illustrated which is an 88 but whne finished will be a 102
Unit frontqge is 44 cms which makes it bigger than most also at 4 ranks deep its wider too .... OOh Matron !

Fireforce 15 Miniatures.

2011-06-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

I've long had an interest in "Bushfire Wars" - those post WW2and modern conflicts that still bedevil us. Those of the African continent being of more than passing interest.
I'd long wanted to take a closer look at the Rhodesian War where - however poor the cause - that small and undersupplied Army fought magnificently. So here at last are the first of the "troopies" in 15mm .
These are pics of the greens of the first couple of packs . Basically Moving group and firing group- each group having an FN mag as well as SLRs. An Alouette Helicopter is on the Drawing board - for both K car and G car roles as well as a Cessna. We already have a C-47 for the "paradaks" and a couple of packs of Old Glory African Irregulars for the "terrs" . Pick up trucks and plenty of Warpac/russian stuff for any "externals" you might wish to mount .
These will be available as soon as I can get 'em into production.

Durham Wargames Group Open Day.

2011-06-12T03:02:00.000-07:00

8.15 on a slightly damp Saturady morning an Floating Jeff pulls up in his car to load the gear for the annual Durham show.
A samll event this so Old Glory don't trade as such- though we always take pre-orders for customers- the evnt is too small for us to get our trade stand in. No this is more of a "busmans holiday", we run a game at this very friendly show and as always its a pleasure to do so.So with my Umpire's white armband metaphorically in place we loaded up and awaited Garth then- ho! for Durham City and the Vane Tempest hall a one time Volunteer and Militia Drill hall. Good place for a wargames show.
Once there we set up and met Steve our 4th Player- Jim the Painter and Andrew cried off at the last minute due to work commitments so there were just the 4 of us. The game was to be "A sort of Fontenoy" basically just the middle bit from Fontenoy to the Bois de Barri and scaled to fit my collection. Not really a re-fight but more "use of the scenario"
Once we'd set up your author realised he'd left the box with most of the French Cavalry on the ****** packing table - Wrath and bad language ensued but not for long . After all this was a day off not work so relax man , take it easy dude !
Here follows the British OB .
His Britannic Majesty’s Army in Flanders.
Morning state
11th June 1745
Commander in Chief William Duke of Cumberland .+2

Cavalry Brigade. Commander Henry Hawley +1
1st Royal Dragoons 3 sqns. mv2 24figs 480 men.
Cobhams Dragoons 2 sqns. mv2 20 figs 400 men
13th Kerrs Dragoons 1 sqn.6 figs mv2120 men
Troop Horse Grenadier Guards. Mv 3, 3 figs 60 men .

The Foot.
1st Brigade Commander “Daddy” Huske +2
1st Foot (Royals) St Clair mv3 28 figs 560 men
3rd Foot (Buffs) Howard’s mv3 24figs 480men.
17th Foot Forbes mv3 32 figs 640 men
34th Foot Cholmondley ‘s mv3 32 figs 640 men.
1 light battalion gun to be attached to a designated battalion.

2nd Brigade Commander Brigadier Ingoldsby +1
36th Foot Fleming’s mv3 32 figs 640men.
50th Foot Hodgson’s mv3 28figs 560men.
87th Foot Kieth’s Highlanders mv3 28figs 560men
1light battalion gun which must be attached to either the 36th or 50th

Artillery
1 heavy gun
2 medium guns.

Total British troops 1060 cavalry 4080 foot plus artillery and staff

The regiments and were not necessarily present at the battle-Scale as 30mm and all minis were either Old Glory or Jacdaw with asingle Eagle regiment and a scattering of Warrior "real" strengths are calculted at a 1-20 ratio.

Here is the "Dutch" OB actually mostly Hessians.
Forces of the United Provinces and the Landgrave of Hesse.
Commander
General Hertz van Rentals.

Cavalry
Garde Dragonder1 sqn 8 figs mv2 160men.
Hussars 1 troop. 4 figs mv2 80men

Dutch Infantry and artillery.
Gardes te Voet 24 figs mv2 480 men.
1 medium gun.
1 coehorn mortar.

Hessian Infantry brigade- British subsidy troops.
Commander FMH Claus von Konigsegegegeg.=1
Infantry Regt “Von Donop” 48 figs mv2 960 men
Infantry regt “von Konigsegegegeg” 24figs mv2 480men.
Fusilier regt “Von Schorthausen” 22 figs mv2 440men.
Combined Grenadier battalion 14figs mv3 280men

Unbrigaded
Free Companies 12 figs mv1 240 men.

Total Dutch and Hessian troops
240 Cavalry 2880 foot plus artillery and staff
OnlyVon Donop and the Dutch Guards are real - the rest are remnants of my Prussian army so the regimental names are - as you may have guessed ficticios for this game! The Dutch were a mixture of Old Glory Sash and Saber with a single regiment of Stadden.
and Finally the French OB

Army of the Meuse. Morning State June 11th 1745.
Commander in Chief Armand De Rochefort Duc de Brie +2
The Cavalry.
Commander. Auguste Chateaubriand ,Comte de la Plume de Matante +1
Cuirassier du Roi – 2 sqns. Armoured mv3 16 figs= 320 men
Fitzjames Cavallerie 1 sqn. Armoured mv3 10 figs =200 men
Chabriant Cavallerie 1 sqn . mv2 6 figs =120 men
Bercheny Hussars/Chassuers de Fischer 1 sqn.mv2 9 figs 180 men
The Foot.
Brigade “La Reine”
Commander General Remy Martin Comte Courvasier+1
Regt. La Reine 1st Bn. Mv2 24 figs 480 men
Regt. La Reine 2nd Bn. Mv2 24 figs 480 men
Regt Augverne 2nd Bn Mv2 24 figs 480 men

Brigade Piedmont.
General Jean deRicard Sieur de Pernod.+1
Regt Piedmont 1st bn mv2 30 figs 600 men
Regt Piedmont 2nd Bn(detachment) mv2 11 figs 220 men
Regt Royal Eccossais mv2 24 figs 480men.
Regt Auxerre mv2 16figs 320 men

Brigade Roth. The Irish Brigade.
General Patrick Murphy O’Guiness +1
Regt Roth mv2 (mv3 in melee) 28 figs 560 men
Regt Dillon mv2 (mv3 in melee)32 figs 640 men
Regt Clare mv2 (mv3 in melee)28 figs 560 men

Unbrigaded troops.
Arquebusiers De Grassin mv2 6 figs 120men.
Grenadiers de France mv3 42 figs 840men

Artillery
3 medium guns
1 siege gun .

Force totals 5780 foot 820 cavalry plus artillery and staff
However with the exception of Fitzjame Cavallerie all the French hore were "lost on the road" - thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!.
The French Army was again mostly Old Glory but with a couple of Jacdaw units and the Grenadiers De France were elite minis. there were afew Willies about !! The missing French Cav are also Old Glory and Jacdaw .I'd decided to put my Front Rank ones on the Bring and buy as they simply didn't fit in.

So after a quich Coffee and Bacon buttie we were off. Battle was joined. Rules were Warfare in the Age of reason with a good few local amendments - mostly doubling of ranges and halving of Artilley movements to bring the "spatial relationships" into some kind of order with a few other fiddly bits to discourage unhistorical tactics.
Steve commanded the Brits- a tall order for a chap who albeit a wargamer of many years was new to the 18th century and more especially new to the T.W.A.T.S way of doing things .
Liam- thats Garth to us- took the Dutch and Floating Jeff took the French. Your humble author was umpire and general pest.
The battle began with a French Cannonade and a Dutch advance againt "Nontenoy" . At first the Britsh approach was decidedly tentative though the Free Companies did enter the Bois de Pisse - possibly to divest themselves of the looted wine but, running up against the Grassins engaged in a firefight which they eventually won.
On the opposite Flank Von Donop advanced againt the village taking fire from the French guns therein and an enforeced moral check
"OK Garth " says I as umpire "3d6 score 6 or more and all's well "
Dice are rolled and up comes Snake and a Half - 3 ! Von Donop - still over 800 men strong retreat in consdierable dissarray. General Van Rentals- who had been accompnying the unit decided that the proximity of roundshot to his coiffure was too much and retired to a safer distance.
The french foot were also taking a bit of stick from the well served British guns and after considerable punishment Augverne broke and retired into Nontenoy- there to remain - sulking .
Now was the time for the british to mount a full blooded assualt but alas they were not ready. Kieth's Highlanders dashed in but after taking fire from the French guns and a couple of Volleys from the Grenadiers de France they retired cursing in Gaelic and reaching for the Talisker!doubtless wondering where their support was.
By now the Dutch assualt wave was going in .However fire from the houses of the Village as well as the French guns took a terrible toll and first Von Konigseggeggegg broke and then Von Schorthousen causing and army reaction and a general Dutch retreat covered by the now rallied Von Donop.
With the timely appearence of the Irish Brigade in the French centre there was little for the now outnumbered British to do but retire in good order covered by their cavalry. which due to the dilatoy umpire far far out numbered the French Horse.
By this time of course the show was dismantling itself around us- at least one trader fleeing precipitatly- almost "taking out" my camera in his hurry- bad cess to 'im!His Apologies being entirely absent .
The other games were largely WW2(not all FOW thank God) with a single rather nice medieval skirmish and apparently some GW game or other which I compleatly ignored.
Once we'd packed up we repaired to the Queens Head- a fine hostelry of my aquaintance -there to wrap my tonsils around a couple of pints of Black Sheep
All was then well with the world.
Safe to say We'll be going back next year . I always enjoy the Durham show small it my be but worh your time it is.

What is a Wargamer part III

2011-06-07T00:34:00.000-07:00

Following on from Robbies remarks on the Independent Wargames Group blog- good blog that- I find myself sort of agreeing but then after a little though perhaps not so much. Its a delicate balance after all these days subtle debate is not in fashion its more a sort of "tis tisn't" style so beloved of the over simplistic media., In reality its NEVER that black and white- whatever the subject. Now personally I've always enjoyed the cut and thrust of adult intellectual debate which used to be a part of this hobby but alas is now pretty rare.
Now the assertion - very common now- that we are merely playing with toy soldiers is one of those statements that would bear looking at merely as a point of interest you understand. Now call me old fashioned but its only true on one level. On another it denigrates and infantalises what we do - especially as regards the "other stuff" already alluded to in earlier parts of this series. If you view yourself as thick go ahead ,fine I don't and have always considered our hobby to be for those of at least average intelligence or better but in the last 10-15 years I've seen a massive dumbing down of the mainstream as our little hobby descends from Wargaming to " its gaming innit" . Now don't misunderstand I don't CARE well not much - but I do regret and the acquiescence of many of us in this dumbing down is negligent in some ways-the simplification for the mythical "yoof" market - how bloody patronising I'd trell you to shove it were I a "yoof".
You are not thick just cos you are under 330 you know - we often now see Orwell like simple =good, complex =bad - not always true as if it ever was. I've become of the opinion that perhaps just possibly "the playing with toy soldier chaps" - in this context are rather more the defensive as regards the hobby - after all if you trivialise it and infantalise it, it must be harmless and you'll attract less opprobrium from the unknowing . Now that doesn't mean that we all have to be furrowed brow intellctuals all the time but we don't have to be dumbed down cretins either.

What is a Wargamer part II

2011-06-04T04:41:00.000-07:00

So contiuing more or less with my previous post I ask what IS a wargamer is he as I have found in the past a nerdy social inadequate who thinks Tolkien's world is real and often needs to stand closer to the soap or as I have found at least as often an Historically based polymath who knows his stuff and is willing to learn- and no those last are not mutually exclusive. Both of course exist but as ever the truth lies on average somewhere bewteen the two.Though the pernicious influence of fantasy based "gaming" is making the polymath somewhat endangered- at least on the show circuit. The major change in the hobby in the last 20 years or so has been from "model figure centic" to "rules and gaming centirc" or even more to "instant answers only" as if actually knowing stuff is harmful to your health. Oh and most of all no LAFFIN and lets have FUN in large letters of course which tewnd to mean IMHO Intellectually lightweight but deadly boring gaming innit where victory is all at the expence of style and knowledge. If our hobby was just about winning I'd play bridge or whist instead.
No its at least as much if not more about stuff other than the mere gaming and exactly what the "other stuff" is will depend upon the individual. For myself its about historical knowledge Toy soldiers, or models if you prefer and on gaming day a few beers with the lads and a larf or two but never submerging "the period" in favour of mnere gaming even with SCI-FI it has to have an internal logic of its own however daft.
So the 3 pics show some of my recently unearthed Sci - Fi collection
From the bottom up
Fidel Ernesto Guevara Smith President of the Republic of New Nevada on O'Toole's World wit his henchmen .
Middle One of the Dictators Robots- Call -me-Constable Collecting parking fines.
"But I only stopped for a minute"
Top
Denzil Washington Snipoes and the resitance fighters of the Armed Revolutionary Socialist Executive prepare for another mission.

What is a wargamer.... ???? part 1

2011-06-04T02:51:00.000-07:00

nO I'm not about to go all deep and meaningless on you but it does bear a thought or two. Now thankfully our hobby is a very broad church - even if I exclude the Dwarf fiddlers and Zombie strokers which of course I wouldn't ... resally even if its something I find a little odd amongst adults- even when consenting. Sorry but I just can't take Fantasy seriously even when I fiddled myself (and yes gentle reader I did -mea culpa mea maxima culpa ! but I got out of therapy years ago )I did it mainly for laughs the armies and games were full of daft puns and silly jokes and the whole thing was deliberately light relief- I had a gay dragon who would only eat male virgins! and a Jewish Vampire so the cross had no effect- not my idea this but Alfie Bass in "Dance of the Vampires". The human armies- my Grenadier late medivals with a bunch of character figs bolted on were the "human league"- lots of frilly shirts and dubious hair dos. Barbarians were all conanesque. Dwarfs were in 7 man units... think about it .Ideas were stolen left and right but whenver I ran a game at our old Games Workshop heavy club the outraged seriousness of the nerd brigade knew no bounds- now theese were not kids- my risque games were for grown ups- but knew how to act like 10 year olds. I even ran a game at a convention- based on a Conan story which was basically a bsattle between Conan and a bunch of Samurai .
Once again the bafflement and outrage- albeit at a more subdued level was palpable At this point I packed it in . The Fantasy suff was sold off- exit villain sneering. So now the only non historical stuff I have is an equally light hearted Sci - Fi set upo which owes nothing to GW but a fair bit to SF author Gerry Pournelle.
What made me cringe over the whole sorry farrago of idiocy was the idea than fantasy HAD to be of a certain type. I remember the debate in the late 70s early 80s in Battle and Mil mod - people were trying Fantasy because it was- in their eyes then -more free form and less complex. Yet afew years later this was no longer the case-AND fantasy had become as tired and anal as historical player were contantly accused of but in my expoerience were not.

Latest 28mm Moderns

2011-06-01T04:34:00.000-07:00

Just arrived this morning from one of my sculptors is the British 50cal and crew for the Brooks miniatures 28mm Modern range . Following not very fast on the heels of the ANA packs relased ealier this year- or was it late last year time flies when you are having fun- these add to the Brooks miniatures range.
My own interest in post WW2 and modern warfare means that both the 28mm Brooks range and the "CDMODS" in 15mm will continue to grow. Not only that but watch the Firforce 15 label for more intresting stuff as soon as another sculptor has finished his current project..
The pictures show the 50cal team in both Front and rear views- made as black and white images simply becase they are clearer on the "greens" . I'll have these moulded up and in production as soon as maybe.

June days.

2011-05-31T01:22:00.000-07:00

Well that's May as good as over. Its been a busy month what with 3 shows and all the normal Mail order to deal with. Two shows in 2 weekends in the same catchement area - not wise- I'm talking about triples and Partizan - about 40 miles apart on successive weekends. Needless to say both shows suffered and between the two made up 1 decent event between 'em .
My next show is the Durhan Open day on the 11th June. I'm not trading but as usual running a game. Though some lads always seem to oder gear which I'll happily bring along . This year it will be an 18th century affair - very loosely based on Fontenoy using a slightly modiefied version of Warfare in the Age or Reason but with proper sized units.
There will be about 700 figures on the table or thereabouts and I've modiefied my origonal scenario to leave out those Front Rank cavalry units.
Here are a coupl of pics to show what I mean. The Dragoons de Saxe are superbly painted but still somehow lack any life. The Irish Brigade staff group has 1 FFront Rank fig and 1 Old Glory - the OG boy simply stands out as more natural. It used to make my blood boil when OG used to be poorly compared to FR . Now I know that they just were not looking so sod 'em !

and again.

2011-05-23T02:01:00.000-07:00

So even here the curse strikes- I didn't press publish!!
So back to the plot in almost 30 years of going to shows I've travelled thousand of miles - mostly without mishaps 20 years as a trader amongst them. Yes we've had the odd breakdown - 1 in Belgium which was interesting but all in all not too bad However of the 7 or so breakdowns we've had a total of 4 were because of Sheffield. There is a curse not doubt about it ....
This time its only a changed wheel - no bother except you can't crack the nuts with that little tool in the van toolkit So out come the AA and a bloke with a very big and powerful tool indeed- it wrenches your nuts off no problem!!
So the AA guy does the deed with splendid efficiency and we were only delayed for about 45 minutes.... but the van hire company say the hirer is liable for punctures....

The Sheffield curse strikes again!!

2011-05-23T01:58:00.001-07:00

S o gentle reader there we were motoring back from triplesc after a moderatley enjoyable if not particularly lucrative weekend when BAM! the front nearside tyre blow out. A lametable but not disasterous occourance. However it was merely another manifestation of the Sheffield curse......

Just a quickie ....

2011-05-15T01:49:00.000-07:00

A somewhat breathless post this time as I snatch a few moments on my day off before preparatory work begins for Triples -we leave next Friday.
David is back ib sculpting mode so more jacdaw stuff should see the light of day in the next few months . Hopefully I'll have British Footguards in "Full Dress" out next month, once the production moulds are made. British High command are on the cards as are more French Cavalry - both Line and Gendarmerie. I'll post pics as soomas I get the greens in hand.
Painting wise I'm trying to get a unit of 43rd Highlanders done-for Fontenoy so Buff facings and colours . I'm using the jacdaw charging highlanders for this job as they will give a different look to the unit Have to check mu sources for the details but my 1893 Harry Payne illustrated History of the Black Watch shoews buff facings and the text gives buff regimental colours as does a Haythorntwaite article in an old " Military Iluustrted " from the late 80s when it was worth buying rather than the pale re hash one sees these days.
Right I'm away for the rest of my day off... no more toy soldiers till tomorrow!
Andy

Busy in May.

2011-04-29T01:36:00.000-07:00

Speaking personally Smudger I'd rather be doing street ling in the Mall just now!

May promises to be a busy month so I'll post while I can .After all not everyone is fixated on this wedding. Not that I'm anti mind I just don't need satuartion coverage from a collection of fawning media hacks. After all the lads doing street lining and various other public duites have been up and about since before first sparrow fart cleaning, polishing etc etc and generally WORKING for a living while the privelewdged classes lie dozing in their pits. Ah it was ever thus !.

Nevertheless I have 3 shows in May. Falkirk next week 7th - alway nice to see Kenny and his team - a good local show this with some good games woth your time if you are North o' the Border. Then Bliss - a weekend off before Sheffield Triples on 21st and 22nd then following hard on that Partizan on the 29th so ther may not be much bloggin' time in May.
As for the picture- a couple of Brooks Mins SAS- just a little reminder that some of our chaps Won't be dressed up today but will be REALLY working for a living.

A Couple more.

2011-04-28T02:35:00.001-07:00

Had to get the camera out again this morning to do a couple of shots for the website and some for my next magazine advert in Miniature Wargames. Now the only consisant paper advertising we do. So while I was at it I took a couple more 30 Years War shots. The csannon are- Sash and Saber- the larger of the two and Drabant Crew are Sash and Saber. The musketeers are mostly Jacdaw but with some Romanoff and some Sash and Saber heads. Once again its the versatility I like here.

One of my curret betes noir is the saminess of many modern miniatures- all the same style good detail but little or no movement and as far as character goes Mr Blandor Mr Conformity is the name of the game. Fie upon it !! . Doubtless I'll bamg on about this till I'm blue in the face but I have great difficulty telling a lot of the newer makers apart. One thing I'll say in favour of Front rank -you can tell whose they are. Like 'em or not they have a style of their own. No mean feat in these lets copy "Gods anointed Perry's" days.
Personally I don't want my collections to look like carbon copies of everyone else or clones of those in some glossy mag. Surely part of the point of having a collection in the first place is to make it your own. This is where- though not really my thing - I have some fellow feeling with the fictional countries chaps. At least their collections are their own.

Variations on a theme

2011-04-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

Now all in all despite my butterfly habits when it comes to wargaming and model soldiers I do seem to keep coming back to the 17th century. I have largish ECW armies in 25/28mm(take your pick they are of course the same). Ealier posts will show you at least one of the battles- see Battle of Theakstons Folly.
I suppose it's what comes of sapending 10 years as an ECW re-enactor but the period has always been one of my favourites not just ECW but the Thirty years War too- especially the involvment of English Scots and Irish Mercenaries. So here we see the first of my "Munroe's Regiment" in 40mm - equally it could be Mackays since the latter became the former. In Danish and then Swedish service until the 1630s there is even a little evidence to suggest that the remnants ended up in Ireland- certainly Robert Munroe did- in the army defeated at Benburb by another Mercenary come home Owen Roe O'Niell - who had fought for the Spanish..
There was a lot of that in those far off times. Professional soldiers following the Drum across Europe. ECW Generals Waller and Hopton both fought in Bohemeia and the Earl of Essex fought for the Dutch. Lesser names fought in Poland Saxony and all across Germany. The Scots especially providing troops and Officers for Swedish, Danish, Moskovite and Polish and Dutch armies- but especially Swedish.
So thinking upon these variations the next 3 pictures show officers of various armies of the later 30 years War period- most of whom would be equally at home in ECW armies. All are 40mm and like Munroes they are made from a variety of parts. Mostly Romanoff but with Sash and Saber heads or jacdaw with Romanoff heads . The parts are all pretty interchangeable /. They were designed that way. I wanted the interchangeability. - this would be a pain in 25mm but the bits are big enough to get your fingers round in 40mm .
sculptors do this sort of stuff all the time- small variations in a basic figure. Some charge the bloody earth for it too . I've been quoted £40.00 for a simple arm variant- about 15 minutes work according to the lad who got the job- and DIDN'T charge anything like that.. Some sculptors are just taking the **** but if you are daft enough to pay then fine. However there are plenty of lads out there who do a good job for a fair price so you takes your pick...

Ancient and Modern.

2011-04-24T03:20:00.000-07:00

Now as you know I'm a bit of a polymath- thats posh for "never stick to one project for long" If I was female it would be called multi-tasking and I would be told how good at it I was but I'm not I'm a chap so while women never finishing anything is called multi-tasking and if OK even laudable if you are a bloke its called never finishing anything and is simply part of life.
So the 40mm Greeks are one of those projects that stutter on and off. The plan is to do Pelopennesian War forces for battles between city states. However this was disrupted when I opened the box after a show last year and discovered they had been given a right "elvising" - ie "all shook up"- laugh,I thought I'd never start ! . So away they went out of sight out of mind sort of thing.However the recent extract from Hail Ceasar (que - Sid Jmaes!!) in Miniature Wargames caused me to dig 'em out and see how bad the damge was. Nothing a bit of superglue couldn't put right - and a drop of paint here and there so here they are . Now all I need is about another 200 or so plus some more peltasts anda few cavalry- all of which I have or can make but painting will slow the job down.
At the other end of the scale are these 15mm Moderns- painted for me by Paul Cotton . These are "Middle Eastern Regulars" from my 15mm Modern Range and are deliberately generic . They'd even do as Cubans at a pinch, its all in the paint job. Now my pattern maker has finished the new Warrior W.R.A.P. and its out on the site I'm on a bit of a moderns kick at the moment but as ever it won;'t last and other stuff will catch my eye.
Next game won't be 'till June as I have 3 shows in May. Falkirk on the 7th being the first the Tripleson 21st and 22nd then Newark on the 29th I think so a crowded month 30% of a years' shows in 1 month - "somone has blundered" methinks! Actually its the venue owners for Triples- they dumped on the organisers from a great height so it was take it or leave itas if basketball actually matters- at least on this side of the pond. However it takes all sorts so they tell me.
However said game will be at the Durham Wargames Group Open Day on the 11th June. Now this is a small local show as I've doubtless said beforeand The T.W.A.T.S and I have been doing a game the for the past 5 years or so. This year its a toss up between ECW and 18th century- and the probability is that it will be 18th century.. Especially as I'm told Robbie Roddiss and his crew can't make it this year.
In a roundabout way this has brought me to a decision. I'm getting shot of some of my 18th century collection. Only a few units - all Front rank because they are fat and I just don't like the look of them anymore. There are at least 3 French Cavalry units maybe 4 and some French Light infantry . Painting ranges from the Superb- by Steve Skinner- to the not half bad- by me to the They'll do . As more Jacdaw come out the FR will be replaced by them I've always had an ambivelent attitude to FR. Casting quality and detail is excellent -posing and anatomy ranges from the OK to Gwd 'elp us. Detail while excellent is often overdone. I can see why chaps like 'em but they are so static so now the Jacdaw De Saxe Dragoons are fairly imminent and then Gendarmerie these FR units can move on .

Salute- A personal view.

2011-04-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

So I'm back from Salute and I have to say it was a good day. Not that I saw anything other than the customers in front of the stand and the gents kharsi. Far too busy for a look round . The only game I saw was one by Dave Marshall of TM terrain- who buttonhooled me on the way to said kharsi to have a look at his very tasty ECW game. Superb terrain as you would expect and the usual cracking handmade buildings.
So my personal view of Salute is very limited indeed. Saw a new Spanish Military history magazine Desperta Ferra - beutiful production not promarily a wargame magazine thankfully - we have plenty of those and about 50% are twaddle. These days I only read Miniature Wargames regularly and Vae Victis sometimes as I'm somewhat sick of magazines that treat me as if I have the reading ability of a backward hamster. The urge to capture the "yoof market"( of whatever age) seems to assume that they need to be patronised and spoon fed. Now were I a "yoof" - alas no longer- I'd tell 'em to shove it where the sun don't shine ! .
However back to the plot this Spanish mag is a little cracker - even if my Spanish is only enough to get the barest gist the fine picture content tells the story. Next time I get the camera out I'll shoot a couple of pages.
As for shifting soldiers we did OK thanks the new Bluemoon 15mm - including the AWI and Acw went well and I hardly have a 28mm Italian wars fig left to my name till I order some more up. Nary a zulu either nor yet much Wars of the Roses.
As for Jacdaw as soon as I've caught up with the mail order I'm in the casting shed.
So a good time had by all .
Andy

Coming ... ready or not.

2011-04-14T02:05:00.000-07:00

So the deed is done, the Van is almost packed ready to leave tomorrow morning for Salute on Saturday . All the new stuff will be there including the 15mm- well 18mm really -AWI range which I've had a quick butchers at and yes they are very nice indeed. Well up to the standard of the Malburians pictured in an earlier post. This range is by no means finished. I was talking to the chaps in the US yesterday and Hessians, Artllery and Generals still to come. The Acw line is the same- with about another 50 or so packs- Zouaves Camp sets Generals, Hospitals etc etc all in the pipeline. Bluemoon are promising all sorts of funny stuff in 15mm too - A horror range and a bunch of Gangsters- probably available as boxed sets with appropriate buildings.
Also of course the WILL do Napoleonics. Its about time there were some new 15/18mm lines out there the size has been largly stagnant for a good while with only Eureka making really quality stuff - until now that is.
As I promised I've posted a couple of pics of my latest regiement 25mm OG second Edition AWI. I do like this range - sort of shorter staddens.
They'll be in our disply case at Salute.

Arrivals.

2011-04-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Well there you go. The UPS man came and dropped off 9 big boxes of toys - wanted £300.00 VAT and duty before he'd let go mind but what can you expect after all we must keep Premier Dave and his rich mates in the manner to which they think they were born to.
There is an absolute shedload of new stuff in there - mostly 15mm New WW2 French - about a dozen new packs of tanks and such. Then a bundle of new WW2 German stuff too again about a dozen new packs- unlikely that these will get on the site until after Salute but I'll try.
Lots more Bluemoon 15mm stuff - Loads of VERY tasty AWI as well as additions to the ACW and Plains Wars range.
All this lot will be coming to Salute
Just thought I'd let you know.
Andy

Salute beckons.

2011-04-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

Taking a break from casting stuff up for Salute - expecting a big delivery tomorrow so this will almost certainly be my last post before I leave on Friday- unless of course I get a minute to take a pic of my newest AWI regiement- 4th Foot all OG 2nd Edition and dead tasty . Just finiwshed the bases this morning.
However back to the point Salute beckons Jim the painter and I will be going down with a van load of stuff we are stand TK5 so do come and have a shout- I would say word but the din is usually so much that shouting is almost the sole option. We'll be taking plenty of toys in lots of different sizes from 40mm down but as you may know its simply not possible to take everything. I sat and worked it out once. I reckon I'd need 3 vans- or 2 big ones - and about 60 plus feet of stand space so the bill would be 3 grand plus before I's shifted a soldier so it ain't happenin' dude- and that doesn't include fuel and hotels which woud add another monkey or more. So we'll stick to the one van full of stuff. I suppose its the price you pay for having such a s******d of soldiers in your catalogue.

Jacdaw regiments.

2011-04-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

What with all the preparations for Salute going on apace I've been basing way like there is no tomorrow. New units for the diplay case at shows that is. Here are some of the results 2 regiements of jacdaw 30mm A british one and a French . The British are of course the 3rd foot the Buffs while the French are Regt Piedmont. Painting done by David Wilson - basing and fiddling about by yrs truly.
These lads will bew in the display case at Salute along with plenty of other stuff to look at and of course the unpainted versions will be for sale too! .
Pre- ordewring would be apppreciated though as I have to make these little suckers. Likewise with any oif the growing list of ranges OGUK make in the UK . !
That list is getting longer by the month what with all of the aircraft and Jacdaw and Romanoff and Brooks Miniatures and the Glorious Victorian Toy Soldier Co. Almost forgot all the 15mm Modern stuff we do . Ranges that are still growing- albeit in fits and starts I should have the New Warrior W.R.A.P. in time for Salute. Then some new Aircraft in May. Its never stops niot that I'd want it to. After all its better than a day job - God I did THAT for long enough to know that had I not got the hrell out my brain would have been porridge by now- and who's to say it ain't I hear the cry!!! Keep quiet that boy at the back!! .

A bit more Jacdaw.

2011-03-31T00:58:00.000-07:00

Just a quick not to say that a few more jacdaw packs are out
LWF 27.The French Guard Grenadiers advancing
Contents, 1 officer 1 drummer 1 NCO . 7 Gremadiers advancing with shouldered fusil
LWF 28.The French Foot Grenadiers in fur caps A
Contents, 1 NCO 1 drummer. 8 Gremadiers advancing with shouldered fusil
LWF 29.The French Foot Grenadiers in fur caps B
Contents, 1 NCO 1 drummer. 8 Gremadiers advancing with shouldered fusil
I only just got the moulds back for these and will be casting them up in the next couple of days along with yet more 15mm WW2 aircraft and the modern Afghan National Army- what a selection !! Its a varied life in toy soldier land !
In the meantime here are a selection of pictures of some of the Jacdaw 30mm 18th centruy range painted by David the sculptor (Including marching Highlanders and Command and the aforementioned Fur capped Grenadiers) as well as a couple of interlopers from other eras- Afghan National army- only blackwashed and an Australian WW2 aircraft delightfully called the Wirraway. It fought against the Japanese and frankly was not that good and a bit of a stopgap but at least 1 pilot did down a Zero in a plane that was slower and much more poorly armed so maybe it was his lucky day .

Scots Wha- hey!

2011-03-30T02:39:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pics of blackwashed Jacdaw charging Black Watch- recently released The 10 figure pack has 2 Grenadier-1 pose and 8 highlanders including 1 officer and a piper . Because of the slightly extreme posing muskets are separate parts and some targes are included in the pack . All in all david has done a fine job here with lots of movement - certainly none of the static stiffness that is so common these days . I'm actuallt tempted to paint up the ordinary highlanders as Jacobite front rank "gentlemen" for my Jacobit army- which I have painted up but needing basing in a box in the "studio" . Since I has 5 or 6 smallish regiments I really should get my finger out and base 'em....

This won't do- write me down a victory!!

2011-03-27T04:50:00.001-07:00

- From the diary of General Hertz Van Rentaals Saturday March 26th. Now I have entered the service of his majesty Frederick of Prussia it behoves me to tell you dear Diary of an action fought this day against the Austrian army commanded by my one tome comrade Avis Van Hire also from the United Provinces. ....
For the record this game - umpired and run by Jim Main and using his superb 10mm collection had a toal of 5 players, 3 Prussian and 2 Austrian. The Austrians had 48 infantry stands - each of 14figures in 8 6 stand Infatry battalions 3 cavalry regiments of 4 stands each - 4 figs to a stand and 2 guns . The Prussians mustred 11 Infanrty regiments at 4 stands each - so 56 little men per battalaion 4 cavalry regiemtns and 4 guns. Rules used were AOR - mostly unmodiefied. Each stand represented the usual 3 figure AOR base so the number of little men was- in this case for the look of the thing- in which they suceeded admirably.
now back to Van Rentaals Diary.

I disposed my forces in4infantry Brigades with the bulk of the cavalry on my right to my left front the Austrians skulked behind the mass of the Largerberg ridgeand our right outwinged them.They somewhat outwinged me on my left but such was their defensive posture that it concerned me not

After a little prelimenary movement the action commenced in earnest with Prussian cavalry charging the slowly emaerging Austrian Horse and after a sharp figt putting some- but not all to flight. In the left centre the Prussian guns gained the height of a small hill withing range of the Largerberg and commenced to batter the Austrian Infantry. The Prussian guns would perform somewhat above the norm all dayand effectivly accounted for 2 of the Austrian Infantry units.
Meanwhile on the right the Austrian horse- albeit weakened had rallied somewhat and while a major and prolonged firefight ragres along the main infanrty lines sought to hold the Prussian horse and even put in a couple of spirited charges against hard pressed prussian foot - capturing a brigadier in the process. However this brave action saw the end of the Austrain horse and with Prussian Hussars rampaging about their reras areas (OOOH Ar missus !!) and the rally Prussian Kurassiers again beginning tpo threaten the remaiming Austrian foot began to draw off..
The firefight in the centre had been long and bloody and had it not been for the preformance of the Prussian guns the day had gone hard for the Prussian foot. As it weas their weakend conditiion led to a most lacklustre follow up . Indeed there seemed to be a heavy sigh of relief about the Prussian camp as the Austrians staggered off into the dusk.
The actual game was fiarly fast running - starting at 1 pm and finishing around 5 - including beer, fag and buttie breaks.( alas gentle reader some of our bretheren still use cigges!!).
On the photos the dice next to units are casulaty markers so in AOR termsthe Austrians had 16"hoits" before a battalion was wiped out the Prussians 12 - though no unit on either side was actually wiped out- it was close a couple of times though!
All the figures were from the Old Glory 10mm range the infantry come in 5 figure strips which are- as Jim has proved easy to cut- his infantry bases have 14 figures on them . This makes for some fine lookin units - real linear warfare indeed.
I'm in the chair for the next game- hopefully sometime in April I have absolutly no idea what will take my fancy by then.

Busy busy.

2011-03-19T03:13:00.000-07:00

Had a busy few weeks here at OGUK. What with bundles of new kit coming out left and right. More on the way too. Finally managed to get a few more JACDAW 30mm out French Grendiers- Charging Black Watch and more French Guards.
Biggest release from the UK is on the aircraft front though where we have a total of 7 new planes either out or iminent- all WW2 The picture is of a Fokker- no honest - in Finnish Service with skis to land on frozen lakes. We now have about 50 model aircraft and what started as a small project has grown a bit.
The 18th century pics are of course all JACDAW. These examples painted by sculptor David Wilson . This range also continues to grow albeit more slowly than the aircraft but there are now around 40 packs all told French ,British and a few Austrians with more to come.
As you know I'm quite taken with the Bluemoon 15mm Marlburians- well got my eyes on the ACW range last week and they are every bit as good - perhaps better. Now there is no way I'm doing ACW in 15mm go too many 40mm for that but these are very nice indeed so I'll be having a couple of display units painted for the shows and photgraphs.
For now though its back to painting 40mm Napoleonics - I need to have more French done by mid June for thre Durham show . These appear firsat as I almost always forget that you upload picture ares about face as Grandad Albert would have said- he was the one who rode in the TT in the 1930s so family legend has it . Certainly he was a great motor bike fiend so heres to the King of the mountain... Non TT fans might not get that but I always make a point of watching the TT races if I can .
Andy

And now for something.....

2011-03-13T01:53:00.000-08:00

I've long had an interest in the middle ages. In my wargaming life I've had lots of assorted medieval armies. Normans- currently working on my 4th Norman Army this time in 40mm. Hundred Years War , at least 3 or 4 armies French English and Flemish - not to mention Scots. All long gone now except for a few disply Items. My 40mm Wars of the Roses have been about on this blog and are still extant - even slowly growing but that does not account for these chaps.
54mm "Toy style" Knights-over the last few years I've built up a small collection of mostly Britains levened by a few Mulberry and a single Jose Akmeyer. This all started with Peter Greenhills excellent book Heraldic Minuiature Knights which I bought years ago primarily for the info it contains. Nevertheless the pictures of Courtenay, Ping,Greenhill and Almeyer knights got me going. Now most of these are way out of my price range- a Courtenay mounted Knight can fetch around £1500.00 at auction assuming you can find one so not being awash with spare cash I picked up these few over the years mostly on ebay.
HenryV directing his archers are all Britains. The melee- with Price Philip "le Hardi" on the ground are all Mulberry. The Black Prince- with an extra lion on his caparison is my only Almeyer duelling with a Britains mounted Knight.
All of these of course come pre painted in the shiny style- only the Black prince has any attempt at "realism". I'm not sure where to go with these . They have charm and an attraction but I'm not sure Iwant to continue to collect... but we'll see Have not yet made my mind up.

War Torn

2011-03-10T05:39:00.000-08:00

Nope not me after a night on the beer but a new show in the seaside town of Scarborough at the end of June this year.
I'll be there with the trade stand and it promises well after all you can bring
T' wife and rug rats (or partner and children) to Scarborough where they will have the resources of a fine English seaside resort to amuse them while you get some toys bought and perhaps play a game or two
Check out the website on
http://www.scarboroughwargamesclub.info/wartorn/
for more info . As I find out more I'll let you know but contact me if you need more info.

Sikh Wars picture.

2011-03-08T01:03:00.000-08:00

I found this photo in an archive of mine while searching for some Napoleonic pictures. It's a selection of my 25mm Old Glory Sikh Wars figures- a period I've often thought about. I have a couple of period memmoirsand a biography of Joesph Thackwell- who led the cavalry - as well as several regimental histories from unitswho fought in the wars. I painted these -or had them painted , some are mine some not, as dsiply stuff for shows but Jim the painter and I both fancy the period so maybe it will go further.

Up the Frontier and"figure Fascists"

2011-03-06T04:42:00.000-08:00

So there I was having a little tidy up - as you do- and Lo and behold out pops this golden box once containing cosmetics, now holding some of my venerable North West Frontier collection and incidentally containing the only Foundry figures I have left in my personal collection- the mountain gun crew- though the gun is an Old Glory piece. The rst are a mix of Willie and Stadden with the odd Connoiseur figure . These all mix pretty well with the Old Glory Bengal Lancers, Mountain Battery Mules and British Infantry I have its just that they have not fought for some years- The OG Bengal lancers need reconditioning after several years "on the road" as part of the display case collection. The whole period of course screams to be gamed but it isn't easyand while I've done it in the past of late it has fallen out of favour. Nevertheless I thinks it may be time to look again and get my Kipling out not just the Frontier but the whole subcontinent.
What caught my eye here was asusuall the movement of the figures and how despite the "figure fascists" they all fit together well becasue of the paint job . Now I don't claim to be the greatest painter about but despite the eyesight I can do a bitand its a matter of using the colours and the figure to create what you want. Not as the "system freaks" have it simply layering on painting by numbers style to create anothert clone. Now don't misunderstand here- paint any way you want after all they are your toys but be aware that there are other methods than the "recieved wisdom " of the "use this paint this way" brigade.
Again I don't blame the designers for figure fascism but rather chapsc who know no better and would if they could reduce us all to gaming with simlar clones of each other. Its odd to me that so many of todays figures are difficult to tell apart from the magazine adverts. However that as they say is for them.
As for the Frontier its tailor made for chaps who like me prefer Umpire controlled games and the scope for an evil minded umpire is enormous- assuming of course that he knows the period. Now I'll need to revise as its been a while but British India is probably the largest section of my not inconsiderable library (if you don't have the info how the hell can you game the period) not just the Frontier but Clive, Coote, Wellington Roberts etc etc all did a turn there so I will perhaps ressurrect these forces too - More tidying up Iknow I have a box of partly painted mutiny sepaoys somewhere.!!1

19th Century European Wars

2011-03-02T00:44:00.000-08:00

An author friend of mine- who has to remain anonymous at this point - has asked me to help him find pictures for an upcoming book on wargaming 19th century European Wars 1816-1880. So Crimea Aurto- prussian Scleswig-, Franco prussian Russo - Turkish etc etc . Now thses are not really my thing but I knoew some chaps out there do 1 or more of these periods.
I'd like to get good quality pics of your games and collections- scale does not matter or style though I would like some toy -style if possible. Full credit will be given in the book for any that are used.
The author in question already has several wargaming books to his name so I know this is not a scam of any kind if you can help contact me on
info@oldgloryuk.com
or post comments here
Andy

Game or period.?

2011-03-01T00:50:00.000-08:00

Now following on from some earlier posts ,Here's a thought. How do you play? Do youy play to "period" or do you play "the game" . Now to me this is a no -brainer -period EVERY time. One of the more depressing changes in the hobby in recewnt years has been the rise of "game" over "period" . This manifests iteself in various ways . Perhaps the most obvious is the re-appearence of multi period rules that purport to have it all "Black powder " and "Rank and File " being the most obvious recently . Now forgetting how good the "game" may be for a moment how the hell can a set of rules purporting to be historical cover conflicts as varied and different as the Seven Years War and the Spanish American War in one set that is not phone book thick?.
Now to be fair I have not tried Black powder- at £30 a shot it can whistle since its all-encompassing style is very unlikely to give me the period feel I want in any set of rules. Rank and File are however too generic with pre-set unit sizes(now common proactice in many sets)and repetitive mechanisms these are simplistic and lack nuance. Both of them are of course full of pretty pictures of mostly bland "perry-a-like" units which seem to be their main selling point.
Of course generic rules are not really new DBA M R MM or whatever has done this for years and there has alway been a tendency towards one size fits all in pre-gunpowder sets where at least the similarity of many weapons forms something of a basis but the DBs again are so generic and abstract that they are merely chess without the chess and like many such games soar majestically to the height of mediocraty.
Now for the record I use the following sets in my games
WW2 Command Decion- have tried others but keep coming back to these as they treat you like an adult.
ECW and TYW- Forlorn Hope- nothing else I've tried comes close though I do still have a soft spot for WRG- Gush 2nd edition as it handles the wilder stuff pretty well.
WAS and 7YW Warfare in the Age of Reason- Heavily fiddled with I use larger units in most cases but the basics are simple and elegant so I stick with them .
ACW - My own mostly based on Featherstone.
Napoleonic
General De Brigade for larger battles but my own Featherstone a like for my 40mm games.
AWI- British Grenadier lately but also Warfare in the Age of Reason- with amenrments
The point here is that according to the publishers Black powder and Rank and file should be able to handle all of the periods from the 18th century onwards alone - excepting WW2 of course.
Now mostly I tend to prefer umpire controlled games- especially if you have an "Active Umpire" to make your life hard and change the conditions and rules to suit the scenario. So for me period knowledge is key not to mention crucial but these days is often absent in the mainstream- the "knowledge gap" filled apparently by the rulebooks. Some almost do this WHAB and FOG both being better than a pretty low average. FOG having the edge here mainly because of Osprey's publishing expertise.
Of course it never helps that I find rules reading a real pain- I'd rather read Charles Dickens!! . As I've said in an earlier post NO set of rules has EVER inspired me into a period (though Charles Grant came closest) it has always been History or Art that has done that - usually history so perhaps its no surpise that"games first history nowhere" rules tend not to get my vote.

More pics of Dave's French revolution collection.

2011-02-25T06:53:00.000-08:00

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 !

2011-02-22T01:10:00.000-08:00

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.

You can't win 'em all

2011-02-20T04:12:00.000-08:00

So Gentle Reader , here we are again gathering at the Commie for a BBBB day (that's Beer, Beef Butties and Battle ) Dave Huntley of the Border Reivers was in the chair with the game and chose a French Revolutionary war encounter played to General De Brigade. Now that is a ruleset I have a love hate relationship with - mostly I like 'em but like most Napoleonic sets they are not too good at the British Army - though better than some they don't really capture the peculiarity of the British soldier or the regimental structure of fiercely independent battalions. who's main aim - it often seems to me is not to disgrace themselves in front of other battalions -after all you'd get blackballed in all the clubs don't cha know.... pint of port and a pistol for breakfast ...
However onward. The French had roughly 11 foot units mostly "bleus" but includingat least 2 "blancs" 4 cavalry units and 6 guns-including 2 battalion guns and a shedload of voligeurs. The Austrians 4 infantry battalions with 2 battalion guns and a few Grenzer tasked to defend a hamlet . Hurrying to the relief of the Austrians and not even on the 7 foot by 5 table yet were 5 british battalions- including 1 converged light battalion -3 squadrons of Dragoons and a 3 gun battery .
The whole action was a frost from the start. The Austrians were battered sensless by the vast hoardes of French and were on their chinstraps before the Brits were allowed onto the table. Even after the umpire allowed the Brits to advance we had 2 or 3 approach moves before contact (March Moves 18 inch ones so4and a half feet of movement before contact). The only bright spark appeared when 2 French cavalry units legged it upon sight of the British Dragoons- galloping through a bundle of Bleus who completly ignored this and shot down the Brits- now forgive me here but surely an untried battalion of Blues would have - in 1794 little or no chance of surviving this - yet the rules made no mention . Finally getting the British guns into position - around move 7 or 8 they wer deemed short of ammo either during or even before their first shot and with the Austrians in full retreat the Brits lost interest and repaired to the bar.
Throughtout the whole game there was a conflict between "period knoledge" and "rules knowledge" G de B can handle "proper napoleonics" well but I'm not sure about this early period at all without a tad of modification. The French seemed to manouvre at will Skirmishers were deadly and the Blues were far far better than their prototypes. Mostly it was over before the Brits appeared- none of this was helped at all by some truly abymal dice - countered by an uncanny ability of the French to get exactly what they needed almost every time As the Brish Commander was heard to opine - quaffing his pint the while
"I can deal with my enemies but God preserve me froom my bloody Allies"
Nevertheless Daves collection is truly excellent and is anothet poke in the eye for thre figure fascists containing as it does different figures from lots of makers- Elite, OG, Front rank Foundry and Trent - none of which looked out of place or wanting

Sculptors - alive or dead.

2011-02-12T04:44:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-10T03:19:00.000-08:00

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.

More From Les.

2011-01-30T03:23:00.000-08:00

As regular readers will know I'm something of a fan of the work of Les Higgins who died almost 40 years ago. This makes his figures hard-ish to come by. His 20mm are available again both the ECW and Marlburians as are the 25mm Naploeonics- or at least some of them . However my favourites were always the 30mm Jason range- Marlburian and ECW. as A sculptor Les could show the modern dudes a thing or 3 though uniform knowledge was not as it is now and production was more difficult then than now as well . So all in all Les'gear was pretty special and back in the day they were far too pricey for me.
However I've now collected a good few both painted and unpainted- and By God were not 1960s painting styles... er well "different" some indeed very good but some of my Jasons will be going in the stripper. I have about 100 figs now perhaps a few less mostly ECW but with a very Few of the Marburians- including Marlborough- already on this blog.
These are one of the very few ranges of figures I can actually paint faster than I can buy!!
The 2 pictures show a couple of Roundhead officer types from the same basic figure and what is almost unit.Painted as the Guards in 1660 which is more or less how they looked despite being "ECW" at the time.As I said uniform knowledge was not then as now.
Nevertheless I love the delicacy of detail and proportion so absent in many of todays models. Also of course like all "proper" figures they are metal not 2nasty plastic" - Yes I'm a metal snob and proud !!
Andy

More From Marlborough Man.

2011-01-16T02:58:00.000-08:00

Well its dammned ticklish- just when I thought I'd sorted out how I was going to finally approach Marlboroughs wars I get stymied. I mean you don't expect it do you? A mate of mine John Reidy by name- known to at least 2 folowers of this blg- vpainted a battalion of the new Bluemoon 15mm Marburians for me - for my display case at shows. I ummedd and arred over flagging and basing them but finally did the deed- dammed fiddly it was too but worth it as you can see from the picture - yep those are 15mm. Grand paint job by John I only added the "smoke and Mirrors" but the end result is a bit tasty. Now the problem with 15mm is like any of the shorter dudes you need loads of 'em to get the effect but it has to be said that I've 25mm that didn't look this good so I think I'll have at least a few more units . This won't stop me painting those Drabant 40mm though but these little fellas are dammed tasty all the same.

Uniforms and "accuracy"

2011-01-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

Now the New Year is upon us and I'm back at work slaving over a hot casting machine but I did manage to complete a few figures for my personal collection . Mostly 40mm 7YW Brits pictured here. I have- unusually for me based them singly on round bases for Charge type game both in Europe and more approriately in America where marching along they stand a rreasonable chance of getting a right "Braddocking" until their supporting light troops get painted.
However When I recieved these from one of my painters he'd done them in the White smallclothes Braddock had made for his 2 regiments- nothing wrong with that but I re-painted them red so I could use them for other units. This made me think a bit about wargamers and accurate uniforms- where we know them of course- My painter had made several simple errors- no facing colour on the sergeants sash indeed the sashes were closer to purple than red or crimson Officers lace was not consistant- he used both gold and silver seemingly at whim. This kind of stuff is not uncommon I always ask a painter if he has the info he needs but its not always enough. In the past I've had some true corkers- Parrot green ECW "Greencoats" French line infantry of 180 with red lapels and once a mud- brown elephantand an Iron Grey horse with yellow mane and tail . Certainly enough to make you wonder if all painters can actually read. Now most of the painter I use know their stuff or will ask so its not a problem- these 40mm came as part of a deal I did and were a long time coming. I have about another 20 or so hatemen to deal with plus a few others I picked up on ebay to go into the same unit - should be 4 companies when finished - maybe 5 . So while most of the lads I use- Jim the painter Tony Runkee Northumbrian painters etc know what they are about Ido have to keep awake.
Nevertheless making models "accurate to source" is important for my historical soul even if they campaign in fictional scenarios they have to look the part. Anyhow I can always make sure by painting them myself .

White Crimbo and other bits of Flotsam

2010-12-23T02:21:00.000-08:00

Well a white Christmas is on the cards- it may even snaa on Der Tag . I discovered a blog the other day called Wargaming for Grown-ups Hmmm. aye well see his point as its about how the hobby fits into everyday life but then it IS my everyday life and therefore by thre "terms of the Act " so to speak I want to fit some everyday life into my wargaming or to be precise into other peoples wargaming since I don't get to do much of my own. Its a bane of my life that its dammed hard to carry a project through. Now part of this is definitely my fault. Where History is concerned I do have a butterfly mind flittering hither and sometimes even thither amongst the flowers (perhaps even the Flowers of the Forest -cue bagpipes !! ) Being a somewhat voracious reader I tend to move about a bit historically speaking . But having said that I can't take all the blame- being in the wargaming biz full time means that you don't tend to get a lot of personal stuff done and finished- not that any of my personal projects are ever truly finished but even if they were its often a case of "I must paint up a new display unit of that new range or if not me then somebody must paint up etc etc ".- Currently Jim the Painter is doing his 15mm FIW using Bluemoon - which doubtless I'll photograph and my mate John is painting some Bluemoon Marlburians up for me. As for me I'm trying to finish the aforementioned first of the 40mm FIW.
Now despite trying to have a few days off I still have work to do. Heads need to go on the masters of the first packs of Brooks Miniatures 25mm Afghan National Army . I've a couple of new 15mm - thats 1/100th - the CORRECT scale Aircraft to check before they go off to the mouldmakers and some more jacdaw 30mm Austrians to sort out- oh and don't forget the Jacdaw charging Black Watch set either so maybe I'll get a bit of real ife in the gaps.
A slice or two of Yuletide pork and a good bit of Cracklin' and as foro the stuffing... Wassail - Drink Ale...To a Hearty Yultideand the return of the sun...
Sorry Got a bit pagan there it must be my Viking ancestors ...
Andy

lonely little blog.

2010-12-18T03:20:00.000-08:00

By Gum its been a few weeks since I even looked at my blog let alone posted on it. What with the snow causing havoc to the post office and my courier service its been interesting trying to get as many orders as possible out on time. Trudging the half mile or so to our local post office laden down like a coolie but looking like Nauks understudy was - well ... intersting and sometimes downright dangerous- bloody 4 x4 drivers are largely assholes- zebra crossings mean nothing to 'em . Nevertheless most things got at least as far as the post office after that its in the hands of the Gods. Now I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks off and trying to deal with some personal projects - like my 40mm FIW which is finally underway with about 30 or so infantry waiting to be based up - I can see these regulars also starring in Charge type games as they are all individually based or will be as soon as I finish the joband of course take a pic or two..
Ice and snaa (local pronunciation) mean that a game before Crimbo is exceedingly unlikely but with luck next year should see more game reports appearing here. 10mm 7YW and French Revoltion are both pencilled in for the New Year.
Heres hoping you all have a great Christmas. and as the Late Great Dave Allen would say- May your God go with you.

Smoggy in the snaa!

2010-11-29T01:08:00.000-08:00

Suppose they gave a war and nobody came !!!
Well Smoggycon was fun . no really ! .Despite the fasct that a jouney which normally takes 30-40 minutes took 1 hour 20 mins and unloading was enough to freeze the b******s of a brass monkey it was still fun . The journey home took almost an hour and a half and unloding was -lets say -interesting. The show was less than well attended - chaps had taken one look at the ewather and said "Sod that for a game of soldiers"and doubtless repaired back to bed.
Most of the traders made it but several games did not so the games hall looked a bit like a bad pub fighter with lots of missing teeth as tables were left blank.
Some customers braved the weather so it wasn't a total loss by any means and I'll go back next year as it a nice local show. But hope for better weather.

Now for those of you who are not aquainted with Britsh weather its most unusual to get snow at this time of year even more unusual to get the stuff in these quantities- I have about a foot and a bit lying with more forecast so getting the packages out to customers is likely to be a bit trying but we'll do our best Nanook will be out there trudging to the post Office looking like a refugee from the moscow retreat. Once I've dug my way to the front gate that is .
Because I have a sadistic streak The accompnying picture are all of Sunnier clime Frecn in Egypt in 28mm and Modern British in Afghanistan in 15mm.
Ah well you know what they say
"If you can't take a joke you shouldn't have joined."
Andy

Chilly Northern Climes

2010-11-26T01:51:00.000-08:00

It's parky up here in T'north. There is a bit of snow about(local pronunciation "Snaa" ) so casting up various items for Smoggucon this coming Saturday has been a bit of a trial nevertheless 30mm 18th Century 42nd foot and Austrian Musketeers have been done along with15mm (1/100th) Chinook Helicopters and lots of modern Brits and assorted unfriendly fundementalists.
As I was casting away - shivering slightly- it occoured to me that there are several things in Wargaming terms that interest me that I've so far not mentioned on this blog. Now I know there are blokes out there who have a blog for each of their interests but thats not for me. I viewd this blog more as a sort of "Gemeral Historical Wargames Magazine" than a specialist project blog. The problem has been as ever that time for personal projects is limited- partly my own faulth this- as there are days when at the end of my "shift" so to speak I'm totally fed up with the little lead gits. What this does is to highlight a difference between the "hobbyist" and the "professional". There have been times when after a days packing ,casting ,answering customer queries. etc etc Onne of my gaming mates will call and wonder why I'm not at that precise time as enthusiastic to discuss the next game or project as I might be . Well the answer is simple do You want to talk about your day job ALL the time ? Some days I just want something else in my head .
Now back to the point. This blog has so far mostly featured what you might call my main periods of interest- the 17th and 18th Centuries with the odd bit of Napoleonics etc but no Ships ,Aircraft of WW2 or modern stuff all of which from time to time engage my attentionas does Coloonial Warfare the NW frontier and the Zulus in particular., its just that these other periods and interests have been on the back burner in recent months but you can never tell whatr might re-kindle and older interest so Gentle Reader like the boy scout Be Prepared! Shere are a few pics of some- just some- of my "lesser interests" as it were . Lesser only in the sense that I tend to get less time on them. But then when there is so much history about is it any wonder.
From Landsknects- the pic is 28mm figs to 15mm WW2 in thew Desert is not thsat big a step surely and by way of the Turks storming Fort St Elmo on Malta , not a long journey. This is why I'm not really a fictional countries type of chap there is so much real history out there .
I've tried fictional countries and they do have their points- especially inmy view for more modern warfare so my modern British campaign -or will- in Rhaghidistan or if in Africa The Peoples Democratic Republic of Zingola but and here is the point for me I won't be inventing uniforms. So even if - and this would go for whichever period I chose the geography is fictional and the background likewise the troops
come from a historical background.

not forgettin' the Man Himself....

2010-11-08T07:35:00.001-08:00

and finally the les Higgin Marlborough that started off this train of thought.

Marlborough man

2010-11-08T07:04:00.000-08:00

And not a ciggie in sight.

One of the periods I've continually looked at but never actually had a proper set of armies for any length of time in is the War of Spanish Succession. I did once have a 15mm collection but sold it on when I suffered from a small bout of T.F.E. I had some nice minifigs 25mm too but never painted 'em sold those too . I've looked at the various available ranges and never really had my skirt blown up by any of them. I like the OG 25mm Infantry but am less keen on the cavalry- mainly because there are several types missing but its still a good basic range. I'm very keen on the new Bliemoon 15mm - well 18mm really but someone else will have to paint them for me also here I can't decide between the WSS or the GNW- the voting is currently going North but you never know.
I know chaps rave about the Front Rank offerings and I can see why but no the coats don't hang right and the muskets are too short they are just too stiff for my taste. As for the new plastic 28mm well less said. I'd lose the will to live building 'em they will fall to bits in the hurly burly of the table- even if careful and the photos I've seen don't convince me anyway so I'll simply pass a veil over that and move on.
So what's a chap to do ? I even have the most perfect little Marlborough to lead the allies. A lovely little Les Higgins 30mm Jason figure one of only about 20 of the range I possesand the only mounted example one of the best 30mm figures I've ever seen put a good bit of the modern stuff to shame and almost 40 years since they were last made. I'll never have an army's worth but perhaps enough to make the couple of OG regiemnt I have raise their game.
Of course there is always Drabant but that is likely to be a bit on the dear side nevertheless its tempting to do at least a small force or two just for the look of the thing. I have about 20 painted and want to do more but its a slowjob along with all the other gazillion projects but here are a few pictures of myfinished figures.
Regt Dorrington.
English Footguards
A French Dragoon
Regt Navarre
All to be added to inthe fullness of time.
Maybe one day I'll even run a Marlburian game you never know....

Russian Majic .

2010-11-02T07:14:00.000-07:00

Now it may not have escaped your notice Gentle Reader that I'm a devotee of 40mm size models- in scale terms this works out at about 1/43rd or Railway O guage or 7mm = 1 foot.
I have a fair collection of these figures and a couple of ranges of my own aside from Sash and Saber.
Also I have Drabant Miniatures of Moscow . These are what is known as a bit tasty and I've been importing them into the UK for the last 4 or 5 years or thereabouts.
They are not cheap- about the Same price as Foundry's re-released 40mm ACW BUT IMHO far superior and Remember Moscow is a long way off so they have a way to travel - not just down the road in Nottingham.
For myself I'm slowly building a Marlburian Collection and will get around to some TYW in the fullness of time. I have a few ACW in my largely Sash and Saber Collection and our own line of Ancient Greeks was largely sculpted by the Drabant team.
So when Drabant owner Nick Bokarev sent me these pictures I thought I'd share them .
The first shows Dutch Guards of the very late 17th- early 18th century and the second a Swedish Heavy gun and crew of the Great Northern War period.

More shiny toys.

2010-10-27T02:32:00.000-07:00

As ever these things take longer than you'd like but I now have a second release in the "Glorious Victorian Toy Soldiers" range. These new figures cover the Rifle and Fusilier regiemts of the British Army . Now I've always had a soft spot for the Green jacket- especially when it carries the red distinctions of the KRRC( my Dad was a rifleman in the early 60s in the 2nd Green Jackets - The KRRC ) or the 60th Rifles - depending upon date. Now thanks to Sean Bean and Sharpe the 95th get the glory but the 5th Bn 60th had rifles first- not by a long time its true- about 3 years or so but first nevertheless and definitely senior in the line - 60th against 95th until both regiments were taken out of the line to become the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade respectivly. Despite the perfectly normal interegiemental rivalry both regiments and thier modern successoors- The Rifles speak for themselves and in the case of the 60th starts in the French and Indain War in the mid- 18th century and continues in Afghanistan today seeing on the way such diverse fields as Talvera , Albuhera, Delhi Ridge , Spion Kop the Somme Calais etc etc etc By Gum you may say the lads have been about a bit and just like the rst of our Armed services so they have.
So here are the rifles available in both helmet and busby - paintable as either KRRC or Rifle Brigade- and doubtless as RIR and possibly Canadians too .
In addition you can now also get the Fusilier regiements or at least the non-scottish ones- I plan Scots in the future. so the British Army marches on in toy form as by God we hope it continues to do despite the actions of its enemies- mostly those in Parliament .
Andy

High Standards from John "The Flag"

2010-10-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

Now it has to be said I can be a tad picky.Whenever I'm building a unit or an army I do the best job I can.Not for me the "i just painted 'em quicly to get them on the table " excuse Nahh do it right or don't bother. Now this can get you into trouble in soooooo many ways - it means you spendd a small fortune on booksand your painting speed drops to something less than the speed of a government department giving out tax refunds.
But what it does mean is you look out for the best your wallet can bear. Now when I build a unit I want them to have proper and accurate flags banners ,colours and standard- which ever is appropriate to type. In the past I've painted by own - which I still do but less often, used various paper printed flags - ranging from not bad at all to bloody awful- ALL of these need a greater or lesser amount of touching up even if its just to paoint the edges - which many chaps miss- it look awful if you don't- you get a white edge round the flag yeauch!!
However I now have a fine , almost perfect solution - get 'em from John the Flag - this needs explanation. Johns lovely flags are printed on cloth and come fitted to the pole. He does lots of different ones in addition to those I have I have seen ACW AWI and more ECW as well as WSS and Napoleonic. Most of mine are fro my 40mm collection but he does them for 25/ 28/30 mm too. I've found nothing better.
The pics show - first
25mm Royal Eccossais.
40mm Napoleonic British-3rd foot
40mm ECW Sir John Gells regt(stars) and John Lampughs .
40mm Spanish Napoleonics. Leals de FernadoVII(blue coats) and a unit whose name I forget.
Contact john on jondhut@ntlworld.com .
Getting these is a bit slow- John works for a living- but the wait is well worth it.

40mm ACW Game at Derby.

2010-10-13T03:50:00.000-07:00

My thanks to James Douglas for supplying the photos as I'd forgotten my dammed camera !!
The figures are all Sash and Saber 40mm ACW mostly from the collection of Phil Freeman an avid 40mm gamer and Collector. about 20% of the figures were mine but almost all those in the pics are Phils For the actual gaming we use a somewhat modified version of Featherstones Horse and Musket rules- a bit more period detail was piles in- Rifles Muskets - 2 types Breechloaders and rifled artillery. Since I was working most of the time(you can't get thestaff ......) the gaming was done by Phil and Peter Sleigh . One of these days I'll get to play with my own toys.
Most of scenery was mine buildings either scratchbuilt or from the Sash and Saber range of scenics- which in the UK you get from yours Truly or in the US from Chris at Sash and Saber the Walls and some of the fences too. - Though some of the latter were Phils own. Table size was 10 feet by six and was a tad crowded- with 1000 plus figures on at once the game was a bloodbath - especially for the luckless Rebs who despite an artillery superiority were shot to bits in their assaults. It just wasn't Phils day. Nevertheless the game looked fantastic and was fun to watch- not a phrase I'll use often as I've never seen our hobby as a spectator sport.
As ever Derby was a great show- often overlooked I feel its been a favorite of mine for years. Roll on next Derby.
Andy

You can't get the staff.....

2010-10-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

Well Derby has come and gone and a good time was had by all - even though your gentle author forgot loads of stuff including his camera. So no pics yet of the 1000 fig plus ACW game that Phil Freemen did with mostly his own stuff plus avery few of mine. Oh Blast I said Heck ! and a few other choice phrases suitable for the barrack room. Nevertheless some had a better time than others as the photo shows- or at least shows the results of a Saturday night.... and a glass or two of "orange pop" so to speak.

Old Glory World Wargames. Derby

2010-09-30T01:38:00.000-07:00

Just a quick not this as Derby looms and I'm up to my armpits in casting soldiers and aircraft. I'll have a very few packs of the JACDAW Austrians and Black watch at Dery- I supoose you'd call them Pre- production models but they are the same as the production chaps will be . Hope to have at least a few of the new Rifles and Fusiliers in the Glorious Victorian Toy Soldiers range but Busy Busy sao we'll see if there are enough hours in the day. We load up and set out tomorrow - Friday the 1st Oct.
Also Phil Freeman and myself are doing a 40mm ACW game so I'll try to remember to get some pics for the chaps who can't make it to the show after all if you are across the pond its a fairish trip !!!.
Andy

Commieswald- technical stuff and Umpires comment.

2010-09-20T00:43:00.000-07:00

As an exercise it was quite hard work..Jim the painters comment that we needed 2 umpires was apposite - he took over the last few moves as my head was throbbing .
Actual troop numbers were fairly substantial. On the Allied side their battalions avaeraged 28 figs each though Von Donop was 48 and the Lieb Grenadiers a mere 14. Cavalry squadrons were most often 8 figures with the British having 2 3 squdron regiment and a single squardron with the Hessians/Dutch haveing a single Squadron plus a troop of Hussars.
On the French side Most of their squdrons were again 8 figures but there were some 6figure s and a 10 - fitzjames and a12 - Royal Dragoons. Infantry avaerages 28 figures but the Grenadiers de France were 52 .
In terms of make of figures most were of course old Glory but Stadden Willie Front Rank and Eagle were also represented as were Jacdaw- I just don't have many Jacdaw painted yet.
So in rough figure numbers the Allies disposed of 320 infantry- including Jaegers 58 cavalry and 6 guns- including 2 battalion guns which had to be asigned to specific infantry units.
The French had 308 infantry including lights 104 cavalry and 5 guns- including 1 heavy piece.
In analysis the question remians why did the French footle about ??? They singularly failed to "get tore in" while an Allied defnsive was an obvious move for a somewhat outnumbered and certainly out horsed army . The French Cavalry was not used well- niether were thre brits . There was no major cavalry vs cavlry figt in the whole battle-on the French right their horse did achive a victory of sorts against the British but were too few to exploit it .
Niether commander showed at his best that day.....
Perhaps a veil should be tactfully drawn over the affair and we should await the next campaingning season to begin...
Andy

The Battle of the Commieswald Sept 1746

2010-09-19T02:43:00.000-07:00

A bright crisp day saw the arrival of generals troops and terrain at the Commercial Inn- Tantobie Co Durham known as the "COMMIE" Locally but strictly speaking is now actually
"The ..... RI... as all the other letters have fsallen off.
Nevertheless 5 members of the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society and 3 Border Reivers Wargamers converge upon this hostelry for our almost regular monthy game. This time I was in the chair again and so elcted to dig out the 18th century troops for a largish encounter battle.
Now read on.......
The French army disposed of 10 infantry Battalions 15 cavalry squadrons and 5 guns plus some light troops while the Allies constisting of British Dutch and Hessian troops deplyed 12 infantry battalions 9 cavalry squdrons and 4 field guns plus 2 battalion guns attached to the 2 British Infantry brigades.
Rules were a somewhat modified version of Warfare in the Age of Reason plus the experience of your steely eyed and granite jawed Umpire.....
Both sides were hesitant at first and movement was kept to a minimum. The Hessian
commander- actually a Dutchman - Hertz Van Rentaalls by nom de plume watched anxiously as a mass of French horse bore down upon him on the Allied right. There was little he could do but grit his teeth.and order Hessian regiement Von Donop to stand fast on their ridge. The Dutch Garde Te Voet moved up in support along with the Hessian Lieb Grenadiers. Dutch Gunners worked like trojans to get their guns into position before the grip came.... The first wave of French Cavalry came on- FitzJames Horse and a squdron of the Royal Dragoons . Fire lept from von Donops muskets and when the smoke cleared the Royals were gone loose reined the sorry remenats galloped from the field. Fitzjames however wwre of stronger mettle despite many an empty saddle they closed with the hessians and a fight ensued- alas they simply were not strong enough to do more than disorder the Hessians and the remains of the regiemnt drew off to make room for the second wave- 2 squadrons of Cuirassiers du Roi and another of Dragoons . Again the French charged in Gallantly but this time to even less avail a fearful volley from VonDonop smashed the Curassiers flat ably seconded by the Dutch gunners - A troop of Dragoons got amongst the gunners and a shout of "Nails! Nails !" went up the dragoons however were enough to finish the gunners- The LiebGrenadiers enough to finish the Dragoons ... The French Horse were finished.
What I hear you ask had been happening in other parts of the field while these momentous events unfolded on the Allied Right- well not much to be honest... The French maintained they had a plan but no amount of enquiry by your genmtle Author could uncover what it actually was.
On the Allied left fear of the French artillery was causing the Briths cavalry some concern- Your author could hear the Marquis of Granmby spinning in his Grave at such craven behaviour. When the Briths Dragoons finally launched their attacks the French barely broke sweat seeing them off despite some French gunners standing not upon the order of their going and legging it for the rear. The French right was never in any real danger.
In the centre peace reigned- a little bickering between the Schomberg light infantry and the British line resulted in heavy casualties for Schoomberg . The French plan seemed to involve neutrailing the British Guns before commencing an advance. This last is however a mere guess as finally the French centre began to move. Fire rippled along both lines but the additional firepower of the British Battalion guns sen 1st battalion La Reine reeling back. However the British having suffered from French guns and indeed light troops were not prepared to move and stayed nailed to their positions.
After shattering the French Horse Van Rentaals had been given furiously to think- a not common event after calling for the Bols he decided to advance his command from the ridge to menace the remains of the French horse and threaten the centre but as dusk approached little more could be achieved and his thrust petered out.
On the other flank despite defeating the British Dragoons the French cavalry no more than 3 squdrons- were not strong enough to do more than support their own foot. so the action peterd out into a muttereing of skirmishers as night closed in.
In truth it was an intresting fight- the more so because some of the players exibited a pusilaminity I didn't expect. The main body of the French horse was handled with courage but was in the evnt thrown away to little avail.. The foot of both sides- excepting the Germans and dutch lacked resolution- though the British could claim with some justice that they were merely acting on the defisive.
Both sides exhibited fear of artillery to a -to me- ridiculous degree and allowed their plans to be influenced by it.
Nevertheless as the saying goes a good time was had by all- and a few beers drunk too..
Andy

New Jacdaw Nation.

2010-08-28T04:01:00.000-07:00

So far with Jacdaw David and I have concebtrated on British anbd French Troops for the War of Austrian Succession. However we thought its the War of AUTRIAN Succession so perhaps we need a fe Austrians about the place so here are shots of the masters for the first 3 packs which I'll get into productionn as soon as I can. I'm even going to bump them up the queue a bit and try and have them out fairly soon along with the 42nd Highlanders which include a lovely charging group which may give my moulmaker the odd sleepless night! . I'll photograph those next.
However its Austrian day today. I particularly like the Inhaber- colonel and the Grenadiers. All German units these Hungarians in their funny trouser will be added later . David tells me he's working on some Croats but reckons that once he's finished the figures he's on he's going to catch up on some painting so I can catch up on mouldmaking. You'd be surprised at what we have in the pipline.

Comparison Photos continued.

2010-08-22T03:40:00.000-07:00

Oh Sod- pressed the wrong button- now to carry on.
Front Rank Cavalry Trooper. Old Glory Cuirassiers du roi and Stadden 30mm Horse Grenadier . The only foigre I dislike here is the Front Rank one. His head is HUGE,sword too short and stumpy. The other cavalry shot shows side views of the same figures.Frankly I was surprised to an extend at how poorly FR compared with the others- especially the Old Glory.
As for the infantry much the same applies though those OG Prussians do have big heads RSM are the smallest but still tasty Jacdaw and Stadden match well enough as do the OG. Even the FR don't look as nealt=y as out of style as the cavalry. There is a distinct lack of aniumation in the FR figs that I'd never really considered before. Weell now I'm sure my FR will go the journey in the fullness and be replaced by Jacdaw and OG with a few Staddens along the way.

Comparison photos

2010-08-22T03:20:00.000-07:00

After the discussioins resulting from my lat post I decided to do some size and more importantly style comparison shots using figure from my personal18th century collection.
To be honest I was mildly surprised by some of the results- not so much size as style . The pics show JACDAW, FRONT RANK , OLD GLORY RSM and STADDEN 30mm and somewhat surprisingly- considering the good press they seem to get Front Rank come out of this the worst. Their figures look fat stunted and stationary- even the moving horses. Strictly speaking the infatry are not neasrly as bad as the cavalry but I was still surprised to see how badly they looked against all the other makes. When I consider some of the vary harsh things that have been said about Old Glory I was gratified to see how much better they looked than FR- all the figures are about the same age around 10 or more years old Only the JACDAWS A are really new. Both the stadden and the RSM- though differeing in size have a certain elegence though the RSM to lack a certain detail they do still paint very well.
Of the 4 pictures the first Cavlary shot shows Jacdaw- mounted infantry officer-

Finally the Cavalry.

2010-08-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well at last they are out. The first Jacdaw 30mm Cavalry. Since the Glorious Victorian Toy Soldier co. is now also on the go and figures are available its been a hectic month for bringing out new stuff.
The Jacdaws first we've added 6 packs 3 French 3 Brits - all Dragoons eah nation with a command and Dragoons both charging and "at rest" with a variety of horses. Now it has to be said that I bogged up a couple of these photos they are not to the standard I like but they do give the idea. I'm particularly pleased with the way the charging lads came out- lots of movement and passion- very different from the static stuff that seems to be all the rage these days amongst the less discerning. Check out the group of French Dragoons . I've just blackwashed all of these. I'll get proper paint on 'em in the fullness of time. Maybe I'll base them singly for "Charge" not sure yet.
The more static at rest are just as good but well at rest- not leaping about but still looking asif they might be alive. David has done a good job on these.
As for the 40mm Victorian stuff pics of those are in ealier posts but now they are available- like the jacdaws- on the Old Glory uk website.
Andy

Fictional Regiemnts

2010-08-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

Now it has to be said I can't see myself painting up a fictional army for a fictional country- just not my thing there is far too much real and interesting history about. I might and indeed do fight fictional battles with historical armies but I've never really gone the whole hog and made it up- I'm afraid my historical soul couldn't take it seriously enough to actually paint the lads.
Neverthelessan occaisional aside into fictional regiements in a more or less historical setting is by no means a step too far. Hence when I found this little tome some years bsack I bought it. The Queens Malabars are of course entirely fictionaland belong with the Prince Regents Own Heavy Hussars and Hitlers Sturmpostmann on the lighter side of Militaary un-history.
The book was published in 1970 and I've had this copy for the best part of 20 years
For those who enjoy a little military whimsicality its just the job .
Andy

latest Jacdaw.

2010-08-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

Just hot off the casting machine are the French High Command 4 figures King LouisXV an ADC- saluting . the Duch de Riceleau and finally Maurice de Saxe- doffing his hat

More shinyness

2010-07-17T04:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie as the Bishop said to the actress! Here are a couple of pics of my slowly (very slowly ) growing collection of 40mm"Glorious Victorians"
Now normally I use matt varnish but these lads just have to be shiny. The 3 pics are 2 in Home service Dress and 1 in foreign Service white helmet. Painted in a more toy style than is my normal wont. I do like the look. The various chaps who persueded me across to the shiny side have a point.

One down 9 zillion to go....

2010-07-17T04:08:00.000-07:00

You know how it is in this game finishing stuff can take a lot longer than you'd think well I finally finished my ox drawn Spanoshj Napoleonic limber. The model was finished last October but the driver wasn't. We finally he is so that can now be put away with the rest of the Spamish- all I have to do now is complete the 2 infantry battalions (I have half a battalion done,,,) a small cavalry unit and the Guerillas well at least its a start.
I have almost enough 40mm Penisular stuff for a game . Plenty if I could get around to finishing the 100 or so Infantry I have blocked in and just needing the details and finishing .
The limber of course is all C.S. Foresters fault- with perhaps a little help from Sophia Loren's chest !!
The Oxen are from the Sash and Saber waggon and the assorted crew all Sash and Saber conversions .
The British and French are all standard Sash and Saber figures except the British General who is an Austrian officer with a British head.

Jacdaw British

2010-06-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well it took a while but the first3 packs of Jacdaw 30mm WAS Brits are now available-all Infantry. Here are the pics that will be on the OGUK website as soon as my webmistress does the deed. The Command pack is the usual JACDAW structure 7 foot figs and a mounted officer. Unlike the French there a fewer bits to worry about- all the private men are single piece castings and only the officers have separate spontoons. All I've done is black-wash these before photographing them. Now all I have to do is get a regiment or two painted up.
Andy

No more Willies

2010-06-28T02:22:00.000-07:00

At lat its over. Well nearly -an England tems humilated by a series of performances the best of which was utterly mediocre, Now as a cricket and rugger fan I was sort of used to this but the men in white seem to be doing rather well at the moment.And of course the 15 beat the Aussies away from home- nice. Not so the overpaid under educated dick heads in red.
Mind you the media must bear its part for the over-hyped hysteria it generated- as if belief can replace actual talent there will now be a national navel gazing and muttering with spiteful celtic noises off as if any of it matters....
As for me I'll carry on with the toy soldiers now the jacdaw brits are out with more on the way in a month or so as well as a few more French then we can move on. More aircraft more Modern stuff and from acraoss the pond more of those Bluemoon 15mm- well 18mm really but dead tasty. I've seen pics of the Marburian and Great Northern War masters and they are a bit nice ! Yanks should see some or perhaps most of 'enm at Historicon. I'll have to wait a bit before I get my stock but might have them for Claymore on the 7th August. There will also be a French and Indian War range by the same people- I'll be carrying that too in the fullness of time.
Andy

Projects Problems and Possibilities

2010-06-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

Well here we are on a lazy Sunday afternoon still making strenuous efforts to avoid the soccer. As I sit here contemplating I wonder about those single minded blokes in our hobby who can devote hours even years to a single project. In some ways I admire 'em after all they must have a very high boredom threshold- unlike me the problem of course is that there is so much History about the place. Even if I restrict myself to the last 1000 years or so and ignore all those Classical chaps you know So- crates and all those blokes in togas shouting about Infamy Infamy- they've all got it in fer me!! Which I mostly but not entirely do. That still leaves a lot of history.
Then add in the fact that I'm in the toy soldier business with all that THAT entails with getting new stuff sculpted and cast etc etc.
The upshot of this is simple- you get precious little time to develope personal projects to a conclusion - no army is ever finished.
Currently as always I'm working on several projects at once. My 40mm Wars of the Roses are having a breather and the 40mm 30 years War have been dug out for a sorting out to see what I actually have. The tally was a bit less impressive in numbers than I'd thought as I'd made a good few individuals figures for use in the display case before getting started on proper units. So I have a smattering of Imperialists and Bavarians a Danish Infantry Company and a couple of Companies from the French regiment Champagne a couple of guns and about half a dozen cavalry that is my lot! So a long way to go before these are on the table.
Not so with my 25/30mm AWI. I've fiddled about with the AWI for years- starting with a bundle of Stadden 30mm which I acquired a bit cheap. I've added to them over the years and even painted some of them as well as adding units using Old Glory and Sash and Saber so now I have 2 small forces- enough for an evening game . The Old Glory US brought out their "Second Edition" range of ACW Napoleonic and AWI Infantry. All are very tasty indeed but the AWI are especially nice. and anyway I needed a display case unit . So I asked Tony Runkee to paint me one. Now Tony is for my money one of the best painters about. Not the fastest nor the most expensive by far you get a cracking job for a reasonable price and a style that really suits these figures. I've taken 3 pics one of the whole unit , one a comparative sizing shot showing a2nd Ed fig a Stadden30mm- the tallest- and an old Pax Britannica 30mm - so the same SIZE as RSM95. These are fine subtle figures and I'll be adding more units to the AWI forces . The other 2 pics are of my Bavarian Infantry Company- standing about as usual and the so far pathetic Imperialists pikes at the Charge and muskets ready to fire-I just need 4 times more of 'em .
Now if I can just concentrate on one project for more than an afternoon I'll be laughing.
Andy