25/28mm minis – Page 2 – My Toy Soldiers & Me

28mm “Tricornes period”

Guess I have to thank again the collections of the Wargames Holiday Center and Mark Freeth (for the Facebook pics).

Wargamers are a very varied and multicultural breed… see those examples (or pics) below… One can be a fan of a period and utterly unimpressed by others… the impermeability of influence syndrome… it is very difficult to start a new period!

The more yo cumulate information about the cherished one the more you tend to have a lazy and (quite to the point) uninterested feeling for what for others in the hobby is the topermost!.

Talk about studious “normal” people obsessed with the Little Big Horn (me included)… have read more than a hundred books (in my collection) about it and when I buy a “new” one I already know Custer will die at the end (to be fair in some he dies about the middle of the book!)… LOL (I am laughing at myself not at them fans).

So here you have it from Marlborough to the Seven Years War a very interesting period and colourful armies.

Enjoy!

In those times Cavalry used to “Charge” Infantry…

ARNHEM at the WHC

I was going to Post another thing and then I pushed the wrong button and all went deleted… and did not wanted to search for the pics again.. so here it is an strange post from me… WWII!… I really do not dig the XXth Century… call me old fashioned fool or whatever… but found the first pic impressive (as the guy open mouthed in the background).

So… for once…

Enjoy!

Napoleonic eye candy 28mm (IV) and a special one…

Today (in a hurry) one of the most painted units in the wargaming world… French Imperial Guard Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde… probably the Cavalry unit par excellence…

Posted in facebook by Wilfrid Gloria… (I think… not a 100% sure)…

Enjoy!

Napoleonic eye candy 28mm WHC (III)

Well, as I usually say… you need all sorts… I am obliged to Mark Freeth for those nice pics of the WHC facilities and Napoleonic Armies (and wargames) they are very easy to find in Facebook.

The day I will stop maintaining the present webpage you will be drinking directly from the fountain if you follow some groups on Facebook.

Before retiring I will provide the names and addresses of those Groups to do not let you orphan of your daily dose of Toy Soldiers.

Enjoy!

Napoleonic eye candy 28mm WHC (II)

Just to celebrate my 140.000 visitors (on a modest webpage) I Post this anticipatedly instead of tomorrow morning…

Those are the dreams of a wargamer when first he becomes involved in the hobby!

Enjoy!

Clashes of Cavalry are always spectacular… even in in real life either one turned tail or they intersperssed… rarely they come head on…

Napoleonic eye candy 28mm WHC (I)

There was a time where I thought I would equal that… LOL… that is megalomania for you!

Now, living more relaxed.

If I ever want to go BIG Napoleonic again… I guess I will book a wekkend at the Wargames Holiday Center, pay my bill and forget about the rest!

Enjoy!

PS: My actual obsession is the Crimean War 1854 in 6mm… maybe one day I will post about that too.

Ancients at the WHC.

Somehow fascinating… but I could never seem to enjoy to the full “close combat” with edged weapons. I do not mind to be shot at if I can shoot back… quite proficient at shooting I was in my time… but cold steel? NO thank you!

I still own the METAURO (GREAT BATTLES OF THE WORLD series) map and battle set (by now with 6mm Baccus minis instead of the 54mm plastic minis completely gone forever…). And play that semiboardgame grid with Hasdrubal and the Romans… but not quite often…

I was never interested in collecting them or building “collections” of them.

But they look magnificent and you must admit they had stamina and courage in spades in Ancient times.

Myself, I need a musket, or a Minie, or a Martini-Henry, even a Lee-Metford would do up to 1900… but Ancient times make me shiver! Guess to rip or be ripped is not at all my taste… even bayonets are not at all my thing… and that is talking wargaming!… lol

You need all sorts you know…

Enjoy! (If you like those rude times!)

You’ll pay your money and you’ll take your choice…

Got a bit of time today. So not intending to preach I just would show you the main differences in approach of two scales I have been involved with in the course (curse… lol) of my wargaming life.

Nowadays 28mm (no one in his right mind says 25mm anymore to MINIFIGS shame!) is the reference of the very big table boys!… meaning of course big Clubs or organizations fans of IN THE GRAN MANNER of the late Peter Gilder… see posts about the Wargames Holiday Center for instance… it is a scale where everything is “right”… you can paint as a master Military Modeler… even customize minis… indulge in fancy flags and whatever… whatever but one thing… room to maneuver… (meaning on the tabletop)… you can use fancy systems to simulate flank marches, reserves, and the like… but you NEED square meters surface to fully appreciate the scale.

Back in my time (middle seventies of the past century!)… oh! dear NO! reminiscences of an old man!… well, you can call them that I do not care at all… 15mm was a “new” eccentricity… and the only 6mm where not called even that (1/300 Heroic&Ros was their name… and I even painted a Cuirassiers Corps of Napoleonic French)… sadly they were mainly used in WWII affairs with plenty of Tanks… I failed miserably in that scale because there were not GOOD or AVERAGE RULES for them… and none had come with the notion of using 6mm in brigade stands (or regimental if you are truly megalomaniac)… obsessed with minor tactics like forming square, changing from column to line etc. I still based them in too small stands and that was impractical… if you want small tactics go 15mm or 25mm and skirmishing or Divisional Games would do you good… BUT..

BUT…

IF you want to play GETTYSBURG (after all 50% of my readers come from the USA) or WATERLOO… or even LEIPZIG… to name but a few… get yourself a copy of the rules POLEMOS (by BACCUS) RUSE DE GUERRE (by PEARCE) or ALTAR OF FREEDOM (by the LITTLE WARS TV team look for them in YouTube). The concept of wargaming strategically and brigade tactics instead of company tactics… will become clear and THEN and ONLY THEN you will make a rational choice about what you really really want!

Enjoy the pics!

PS: You can also go for “old fashioned Traditional Toy Soldiers games” or even Playmobils… keep your options open! LOL

Or why not 54mm Britain’s style? (Here REPLICA by Andrew Stevens)

Napoleonic period has its charm (until you grow up from it!).

I can understand you and all the rest, it was my obsession for thirty years!… that Corsican Emperor and his Regiments… MINIFIGS 25mm all the way (seee elsewhere in this Blog if you are really interested… Waterloo would do if you want to see the little soldiers I painted one by one painstakingly for years… (LOL)… and then sold away tired of that scale (too little to be 54mm… too big to wargame with… you need all sorts you know…).

At least I can remember the happy times when my brother and I tried (some time vainly and quite historically… to win at Waterloo) and one time succeeded in storming that bloody ridge! (knowing all the time that the Russians and the Austrians would not quit anyway…)… those were the days…

Well, in a way, those were some of my days… deeply involved in 6mm as readers of this webpage know already… but it is SOLO wargaming for me nowadays…

Enjoy!

Napoleonic Imperial Old Guard Grenadiers (I guess again from the WHC)

Napoleonic French Imperial Foot Artillery (ditto)… the pic is not from Waterloo at all…

The Sudan at the WHC (Wargames Holiday Centre).

The Wargames Holiday Centre has been one of my obsessions for a long time (as you know I post pics from Mark Freeth many times per year), have probably passed the age to book a reservation myself, the idea to wargame with perfect strangers does not appeal to me in the least… and the only possibility remaining is the retirement of my brother from business… but as we have an age gap of ten years… when he will retire I would be too old or dead (LOL)… and then real life gets always in the middle of those chimerical projects…

Enjoy the Sudan! (IMHO there is nothing to enjoy there but… you need all sorts!)