Well this years target achieved ! .

Sometime on this mornings walk me and Charlie clocked up our 1000th mile , will hopefully be doing it again next year . Note how the dog is looking at me adoringly - it's because I have one of his treats hidden in my hand .

 

Odd find .

Whilst on my way to have my Covid booster jab I looked into a 'antique' shop, (well more full of house clearance junk) I've bought the odd Del Prado figure from them and there was a box of plastic Airfix WW2 figures which I wasn't interested in but amongst them was the above figure - very gungily painted . I bought her cheaply and popped her into my jam jar of 'Dettol' to strip the paint off . I should have taken a photo before I did this . 

Here she is stripped of paint and the whiff of 'Dettol' about her . Her arm came off once freed of paint but has been glued in place . Think she is some sort of Yeomanary Vivandiere as she wears boots with spurs . I can't find any markings on her and as she's a solid casting think she is probably a modern re-cast .I hope to get her painted this week and I must keep my eyes open for a horse for her .

 

 

Reenactment of the Landings in the Dardanelles using miniatures.

Found on the Internet , a old postcard , not sure which set of rules the young man is using ?.According to Google translator -'The forts are destroyed  and the Allies land '.

 

2D in action .

Not so much a battle report as a collection of the 'Wofun' 18mm Plaxi-plastic in action on the tabletop - as I've managed to delete some of the photos from my phone (sorry bout that) .

The British push the French skirmishers back as the French infantry form 'ordre mixte' , the markers are for hits taken , three then you remove a base .

The 1st Battalion , 10th Ligne having moved through the village form into line .

The Frech Artillery on the ridge open fire on the advancing enemy . The guns are from a 2mm MDF sheet and a bit fiddly to put together (I enlarged the location holes with a small file )  , some people have replaced them with 15mm 3D metal  models . 

The French army prepares to defend the village.  You get 32 bases per side in the starter box , a total of 387 characters . I'm willing to believe they are not everyone's cup of tea - but having spent the last 50 + years painting toy soldiers the notion of being able to buy ready painted armies and within a couple of hours get them onto the table is very appealing . Flats are not popular with some people , but I have lots of metal flats and semi-flat figures so they are no problem for myself . I've ordered a few more 'sprue' in a combined order with my colleague 'A' to build up my existing force - overall I'm impressed with them .

 

 

Flats for the 21st Century .

My wargaming colleague 'A' has been expounding the virtues of the new plexi-glass 2D ready painted figures by the Romanian firm  Wofun  (WoFun Games (wofun-games.com) , so as an own Christmas present to myself I bought the 18mm Peninsula War starter box - it arrived very promptly in about ten days via DHL . I'm VERY impressed - I based up the box onto the bases that where included in my deal - tarted them up a bit and next day was playing a game with them .

One tip I found from other bloggers was paint the edges of the figures with a brown ink (GW Agrax Earthshade ?) which cuts down on the glare ., I also gave them a coat of  matt varnish . The British Line Regiments are six bases each of two strips giving a total of eight figures per base (48 to the Battalion).

One of the individual bases , the art work is by Peter Dennis and was originally from his 'Paper Soldiers' book .

The French Dragoon Regiment (click on photos to enlarge)

British skirmish bases , I see these as the modern equivalent of the old German flats , being ready painted means you can get them onto the table top almost immediately and let's face it my days of paint lots of small scale figures are well past .

Another nice touch is when you place your order they send you a link to a downloadable set of rules by Andy Callan - simple but effective . Will do a battle report using the figures that where in the box next blog .

 

 

Stevenson's Toy Soldiers

Some of Robert Louis Stevenson's toy soldiers, from the R.L. Stevenson Museum St. Helena CA. U.S.A. - Robert Louis Stevenson Museum - a bit worse for wear I'm afraid .

 

Roberts Louis Stevenson, forgotten hero of Wargaming ?

 

On the brilliant 'Man of Tin ' blog Happy Robert Louis Stevenson Day 13th November 2021 – Man of Tin blog (wordpress.com) there has been a series of articles about Robert Louis Stevenson's and his wargaming , which pre-date the much better known H.G Wells 'Little Wars' . Very interesting indeed everyone knows about H.G. but nobody mentions R.L.Stevenson which is a shame . He seemed to use quite complicated campaign rules which covered supply etc. , I'm not sure how the actual combat was adjudicated though ,there is mention of pea-shooters and rolled marbles (?) , I wonder if anybody has tracked down the actual rules used ? .

 

Bavaria sends aid to the Helenyk Republic .

Things have been a bit slow on the wargaming front here this last week , real life interrupted with various jobs around the house and so not much has got done . However I did get the semi-flat 40mm Bavarian figures that I cast up painted and based . I ended up snipping off their bayonets - they were just to slight and would not survive the rigours of the tabletop . These will be joining the forces of the Republic of Helenyka having been sent by Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to aid the cause . I rather like them, they have a dynamic pose  and of course the cornflower blue uniform is always a winner .

 

A tribute to H.G. Wells

I've just started reading this book* on my Kindle device , rather good I'm finding it as well . I've never read a biography of the great man, having seen various reviews of the existing ones which don't seem too impressive . I inadvertently read Claire Tomalin's biography of Jane Austen  .: Off piste reading (tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com) and was impressed - it being a subject I'd not usually read , so I thought I'd try this new one on H.G. 

So in this Wellsian frame of mind I decided to set up a small game using my 54mm figures in his honour .

Both sides will have four units of infantry , a gun and crew and a cavalry unit . Here we see the 'Blue Army' commander General Mouters , I will be using 'A Gentleman's War' rules for this engagement hence the coin unit markers and hand of command cards .

The 'Red Army' commander General Crawley oversees his troops deployment . I diced for points of entry using the Featherstone method (1- Left flank , 2 - Left centre, 3 - Centre , 4 - Right centre , 5 - Right flank , 6 - come on as reinforcement ) 'Red Army' has got most of its units on table with only one in reserve , 'Blue Army' rolled two '6's so has two off table .

The patent 'AGW Turn Counter Device' is deployed and the games afoot !

* will his playing with toy soldiers be mentioned or relegated to an embarrassing foot note - or not mentioned at all ? 

 

Lord Bygon defends the Koukialika Pass (part two)

The 'Garibaldi Volunteers ' extract a heavy toll on the Sublime Porte infantry and drive them from the hill .

On the other flank the Sublime Porte Infantry charge the 'Sportsman Rifles' 

They come to grips with the Helenyk riflemen . Orson Wells in his biography says "the gallant Volunteers showed signs of panic - so I grabbed a rifle from a fallen soldier and rallied them " (the unit got a re-roll on their dice because of the presence of a war correspondent ).

They are driven off and flee the battlefield ! 

The other unit of 'Garibaldi Volunteers' rush to reinforce the riflemen . With about half his infantry as casualties the Sublime Porte  General called off the attack and fell back covered by his cavalry and heavy artillery .A victory for the Helenyk Republic ! 

But what of Lady Caroline Lamb ? , having made her way across the battlefield she confronts Bygon ! (I was using the 'Mad Scientist' card to activate her - it seemed appropriate - she was very mad at Bygon) - she got to fire twice at him and missed both times and was then hustled off by Bygon's body guard much to his embarrasment ! .

Oddly Orson's report back to the New York Herald hardly mentions Lord Bygon and plays up his own part in gaining the glorious victory for the Republic !?