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For a lot of us collectors this is one of the goals or objectives… to be able to field an Army of Toy Soldiers… everything is there: Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry… and even some “civilians”. You need all sorts as I usually say. Enjoy.
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Probably the 4 black spots on the horses are a bit too much a simplification… (loved them) but you need all sorts as you know… excellent buildings and scenography! H.W. must be pleased!
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The very first game (or wargame) we played with dice was METAURUS (Great Battles of the World series).
It was a hit.
We never looked back after that boardgame with 54mm plastic minis… of course more than fifty years later the plastic minis are gone and forgotten… years ago I bought metal minis to use the map with them… actually after several tries with Baccus 6mm correct figures (meaning Gauls, Carthaginian, Elephants, and Republican Romans).
The private edition by my brother is not available commercially if I understood correctly!… will post actualizations once I got my complimentary copy! (After all it was me who introduced my little brother to wargames at a very early age… that he later will transform that passion into a business still puzzles me!).
Enjoy!
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Today’s anniversary… 25 June…
Since I saw Errol Flynn killed by Anthony Quinn in THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON it become a lifelong interest… I was puzzled as a child because it seemed to me the US Cavalry HAD to WIN no matter what… of course real life is not like that… I guess I have already mentioned that on other Posts in this Blog but nevertheless…
It has been a rewarding passion mainly reading&collecting books about it and trying to understand what happened that 25th of June… of course all films (but Little big man) related to and hundreds (literally) of miniatures for wargames purposes (in 28mm, 15mm and 6mm to do not mention my 75mm Playmobils).
After 70 years exposed to it I have come to the conclusion that Custer was put on a NO WIN – NO WIN situation… mainly by fate and circumstances but also for bad scouting, not believing his own scouts, and betrayed by his own experience fighting Plains Indians… the whole Reno Benteen paranoia is simply that a paranoia… the Native Americans where there in enough numbers (ask Crook), interior lines of communication, perfect ground for his tactics, and the will to fight for survival. The Indians Won. That’s that.
A magnificent American drama for the Centennial of the Nation.
Not much to enjoy about that of course… but a fascinating subject. There are a lot of trash books about it (and films too)… I can recommend the opus of Frederick Wagner III THE STRATEGY OF DEFEAT and the novel (fictional-history but it reads as History) A ROAD WE DO NOT KNOW.
Be impartial!
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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.
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Maybe in 2025 you will see “FASHODA GONE WRONG” an Old Toy Soldiers & Old Wargame entertainment (SOLO). 54MM AGW affair using British and French Colonials (NO entente cordiale… LOL)… in fact I am pretty sure that this one would be my next wargame (Old School).
You see I do not like to “kill” natives or indigenous people in my wargames… I do not collect them as “cannon fodder” (Not even in 6mm mind!)… One thing is collecting miniatures (read Toy Soldiers) and the other is not being aware of the more grim aspects of colonialism (as if Persian, Greeks and Romans… to name a few were not “colonialist” or “conquerors”)… BUT here is not the place for discussing seriously the inhuman race.
Get a sight of the troops that would be involved on the pics below. All the affair would be precipitated by the French Commander in place… General Armand d´Hubry et Nemesis desire to win the Legion d’Honneur…
Of course, after that incident and its consequences either Calais or Dover would be involved in a messy action… follow that here website for more!
Cheers!
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Sellers and postage etc went without a hitch… tip top all the way! (I clarify this because I forgot to mention). Kudos to them.
You see I was (very) busy at the beginning of the 90’s and did not notice at all when William Britains (the new owners I guess) did those soldiers in 54MM… Busy working on my real life and not much time for the hobby in that “fighting stances scale”… after a deep crisis with wargaming in 25/28MM (which caused the collection to be sold) I was going into 6MM wargaming (still are and satisfied of my decision) but indulging in Playmobils Hard Plastic 75MM… I still collected in 54MM but quite display and ceremonial sets (still have them no fear).
The acquisition of the book A GENTLEMAN’S WAR provoked an interest on wargaming in 54MM a la Wells (very old classic stuff) and I decided to reshuffle my collection. The French (mainly French Foreign Legion were transported to Andorra la Vella and left Pal forever… so did the Second Afghan War Replica Collection… and then I completed those sets (still at it mind) to play my FASHODA went wrong scenario… pitching one against the other… a part of playing them solo in colonial semi-historical more correctly. Later on even the white helmet British sets were transferred to Andorra la Vella and only ceremonial sets remain in PAL.
Then one day Andrew Stevenson published a pic of his units in full SIMKIN uniforms splendid array… and I was hooked… so I am now building a purely DORKING scenario British Army. BUT no Prussians at all… the French will do the trick again! (being the “enemy” I mean). Nearly there…
The tribulations of a loony collector should I have titled this post!
And of course 30 years later you need to search for them on ebay!
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There you have it… a collection of pics is better than a long text… this is what I did in 2023… from bottom to top chronologically I am afraid!
I enjoyed the lot of projects. Some come out of nowhere… some were convoluted… some straightforward…
How the mind wanders in a year… seriously considering selling my Playmobil Collection on Ebay nowadays… lack of interest by my grandchildren… and need of space… that happens…
Hope you enjoy my recollections!
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Since seeing “The Four Feathers” (1939 version if you please!) film as a child the idea of a British “square” formation has been ingrained in my brain (not that it appears in the film at all but vaguely the idea is there when the Fuzzy-Wuzzies attack at dawn the lone company of Captain Durrance -already blinded by the Sun- and Burrows and Willoughby of course!
The reading many years later of SMALL WARS revealed to me nothing “new” but it is a book I recommend because it is a compendium of “obvious things to do” (but easily forgotten)… it took me a long time to read and digest (meaning that since begun I read and finished a lot of other books) because it was interesting and meticulous. It has been a long time since I recommended a book!
So today I chosed some old pics from my personal Vault to illustrate the point. Maybe when I get the remaining 16 figures from DORSET (sorry IMPERIAL MINIATURES nowadays) I will indulge in a new series with Khaki clad warriors.
Maybe you already have seen them but anyway…
Enjoy!
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As it is, with the current NAPOLEON movie creating a bit (or a lot) of disturbance in the pacific waters of History I have decided to refresh this Post from long time ago.
I went to see the movie in a theater, in fact I was invited by my eldest son&family… so I could not decline (I planned to go for the Blu-Ray extended version or director’s cut if it ever is commercialized…). You see… I am a fan of Ridley-Scott movies… since I saw THE DUELISTS!… Blade Runner… Gladiator…Black Hawk Down… are very good too. BUT: one thing is “MOVIES” and the other History (different from actual facts sometimes too often)… I think it is a mistake to judge NAPOLEON by its History standards (which are very much distorted or incomplete)… I am grateful for an epic movie even if it is a bit too dark for my aesthetic taste… Kubrick was not able to do it (to his credit)… and I think it is fairly impossible to resume Napoleon Bonaparte in a 2 or 3 hours film… the period is too long to condense… and if you loose precious footage decapitating Marie-Antoinette etc even worse…
From an strictly cinematic experience it was boring, full of cliches, too many flags and a lovely lass!… would not go to a theater to see it again. It is a pity in a way because it could have been so much better. Would I still buy the Director’s Cur?… of course matter of fact!… KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is much better in that format too!. Joaquim Phoenix can not represent a young Napoleon and a sick Napoleon 25 years later as hard as he tries… not a bad actor… a bad script!… as for the battle sequences any Napoleonic Wargamer will tell you ad nauseam all the mistakes… me included! (but we are a minority… a learned minority perhaps in the napoleonic period… but I confess I am not an expert neither in the Romans (well a bit) or The Crusades (only have read an interesting book about it!). It is the same with the Little Big Horn or Greasy Grass … I own (and have read more than a hundred books about it… I just hope Ridley-Scott does not a film about it!).
My recommendation?… go to see it and judge for yourself!… if not a moderate expert yo will probably enjoy.
More than 200 years… and still present in our collective memory for what it was… a genius (with faults and virtues) and I personally think quite ahead of its time. Nobody seriously studies Napoleon without noticing that it was not exclusively Napoleon fighting offensive wars (mainly) but defending France against old monarchies coalitions because of the ideas (seen as dangerous) of the French Revolution (which has also controversy attached). Of course having a military background (after all he was an Artillery Officer) and following the European tradition that Clausewitz will formulate a posteriori he went to war frequently enough (understatement) as it was the custom in Europe, nowadays he is still remembered for his Civil Code (nearly 200 years of life) and abolishing feudal privileges. He also reinstated slavery in the Caribbean Sea (to his shame). He was not perfect but had a great brain and “je ne sais quoi”.
This post has really a lot of pics!
Napoleonic wargaming was my passion for almost thirty years, in 25mm because I was stupid enough to do not choose 15mm in the first place (minis in the late seventies had no such vast offer and traders… even if MINIFIGS did 15mm too!) so MINIFIGS 25mm (after all I was coming down from plastic 54mm and up from AIRFIX 20MM) I went for… and no regrets, was quite happy with my collection who also extended to other periods and wars (I though it would be very difficult to paint such small figures in 15mm because of the lavish uniforms of the napoleonic wars!).
Was interested for many years (obsessed is a better description) with the battle of Waterloo, could the Emperor have won? In context and after years of reading about it, I arrived at the conclusion that it was a NO WIN – NO WIN situation, it would have been 1813 all over again… with Austrians and Russians and what not invading France which was exhausted… and that’s that.
Have some pics of my years indulging in that particular wargamers fetish. And remember the fact that I painted myself all the Waterloo minis!… LOL
After a deep crisis with 25mm wargaming I sold them all. After some years toying with Playmobil (75mm) conversions and quite classical 54mm toy soldier collecting I went back to wargaming but in 6mm this time! (see the other Posts). Cheers