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 ? .