John Firth’s Own (II)

Visits: 66

Lets have some cavalry from the same author.

Really you can field exotic uniforms of Yeomanry and Volunteers that way, curiously enough THE BATTLE OF DORKING intended as a “depressing and alerting” book is somehow revered by the wargames fraternity as an opportunity to turn the tables on the willy foe! (You need all sorts you know…)

Fancy uniforms… the stuff of ZENDA!
And again…

Maybe some more tomorrow. Enjoy.

Finished!

Visits: 468

That glorious moment when the job is done!… a close look at the matt will show you the hard work and love put into those Toy Soldiers… Ready to March and Fight on the Tabletop!… and remember the main thing TOY SOLDIERS never die…

Those are not mine at all but I can understand the pride of the painter!

Seen in Facebook…

Lancers for traditional AGW wargaming…

Visits: 75

First two pics by John Firth and the last by John Clarke. All easy to see in Facebook if you go to A GENTLEMAN’S WAR group… I dutifully bought the rules by Howard Whitehouse… they are fun to read… but not what I do with 54mm Toy Soldiers… You need all sorts you know…

Those are very fine Toy Soldiers and excellently painted, I do not use mine with those rules, and I have to say they are more “historically collected” and only for display because I have them in 6mm too… and there is where I wargame…

French Lancers
Rather fancy lancers…
The officer is out of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA… aka Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

A BIG BANG!…

Visits: 98

Gun with a big bang… probably can outshot the limits of your tabletop…
Where can French Chasseurs charge British Infantry? ,,, answer: In A Gentleman’s War…
Much more my kind of Artillery… BTW see the face of the General seen his Hussars flee!

It all started with a BIG BANG… but today I have decided to take a rest… as The Kinks sung I’ts Too Hot!…

Shall I post in the future Yep never fear… as a matter of fact I will add a Post today of my pet subject… the ACW… finally decided to update the Post before this one with an ACW pic… it is good to go with a BIG BANG!

Mix and Match

Visits: 100

A pic of the peak of my own 25/28mm Collection.

Funny, today I have a bit of time to write… well… the pic is to the point… by then I mixed and matched manufacturers… I did find DIXON horses fantastic coupled with FOUNDRY riders (but not exclusively… TO THE REDOUBT and OLD GLORY too!).

It was the apex of my involvement in wargaming on that scale, I had a moderate surplus of bits and pieces from here and there and I could easily change “heads” at will with my PROXON minidrill and vice… had a lot of horses of discarded projects (that I would use in fancy units as the mounted Regiment of the French Foreign Legion)… and life in the hobby was FUN.

I still used painting services for the rank and file, and only did paint myself “specials” or closer to my heart subjects. You see I had NO time enough to paint because my real life as an Architect used my time… and I have a family too!… so the only way was to organize, list, buy, get the parcels, customize, send the biggest part to the painters with full instructions… and paint a little myself.

I enjoyed those years of my hobby to the full because time was so scarce. I am older now… over seventy (bot my grandfather and father were dead at my age)… no longer can I have fantasies about long term projects… I’ve done that, been there, got the T-Shirt as they say… but surely enough those new technologies help me pass the time and share my experiences with other people with similar interests.

The Michigan Brigade of Volunteers is a pet subject (as the ACW is) and Custer was better served in the Civil War than in his “Indian times”… the famous 7th had NOT the same stamina as the wolverines… understandable too of course… I own more than a hundred volumes on the Little Big Horn and after reading them… you can have a moderate sympathy with Custer as a man doing his job… but the so called “Indian Wars” were frustrating from a military point of view.

That Custer is better known for his death in a NO WIN situation that for his campaigning in the ACW is one of those ironies in History.

Wow!… time to write without interruptions for a change!… count the present one as an extra Post. Hope you enjoy too.

Changing the Guard

Visits: 165

Today we had lots of snow in Andorra, so my grandsons did not went to school (as on the Calvin&Hobbes comic strip). Then we went to my old office (on the first floor) and we played or toyed a bit with Playmobils.

The new Guard is coming from Wellington Barracks, and the three seem interested enough… the trick was to let them manipulate the minis themselves (with a bit of grandad guidance).
A rear view of the New Guard going up the Palace.
With Playmobils you need the whole table… Appearance of the Old Guard formed in the court. They still were interested… Brainwashing the family says…
A close up of the Old Guard. Such a well known ceremony worlwide that does not need a lot of words to describe it.
Another perspective. A bit tricky those pics…
The Changing of the Guard begins properly.

They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace –
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
“A soldier’s life is terrible hard,”
                                                                    Says Alice.

They’re changing guard at Buckingham Palace –
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We looked for the Queen, but she never came.
“Well, God take care of her, all the same,”
                                                                    Says Alice.

We had a great time, because afterwards I gave them the EXIN CASTLES box full of bricks/things to play… and each one of them did their own thing… bits of castles everywhere now…

After a bit of time has passed… I do not really know who was entertaining who…