Gaelcon

The blog will be quiet for a few days as I'm off to the Gaelcon games convention in Dublin, catching ferry in the morning, the invite was graciously extended by "Conrad Kinch " of http://joyandforgetfulness.blogspot.com/ fame, where i hope to be cracking a few beers/heads (game-wise) with the indomitable General Gorman, a full report of our activies will be posted.

For those interested in World War 1 take a look at this site

http://www.wdmodels.com/index.htm

Again many thanks to all who have posted comments and to those who have viewed my ramblings from all over the world since I started the blog thanks are also due

WSS

Sorry if I'm boring you all with WSS stuff but until I've worked out how to get rest of pics from external hard drive onto blog there's going to be a bit more WSS until then, Naps, ACW, SYW will follow I promise!!



Part of the Irish Brigade in French Service, with Garde Francais to rear

"the Blue King" Max Emmanuel , in centre, red tunic and white trimmed hat

Cologne Dragoons, mounted and dismounted, all bases have now been done, in blue are Liebregiment Nothafft, in red Chassonville Dragoons

Cologne Liebregiment zuPferde Arco, flanked by Bremen Grenadiers in red and Mecklenburg-Strelitz Infantry, British Infantry to rear

Bremen Genadiers, front and rear views

SYW & WSS

These were painted by Iain ( yet again ) for my collection, I supplied the figures and uniform details


Below Royal Rousillion, Les Higgins figures


Below Frederick the Great vignette, figures from Art-Miniaturen

Fred will be opening his wargames career in November in his first outing, trust he'll perform as good as he looks, luckily he be facing Iain who is not actually the best dice thrower to come out of Essex!

SYW

The following pics are from my SYW forces, bought several years ago from the late Terry Wise


Front rank, D'Escars Hussars, Second rank, British Mounted Grenadiers and Royal Horse Guards

Infantry Regt Buckeburg. French Engineers, Hesse Prinz FriedrichDragoons, French Royal Carabineers, French Gendarmes de la Garde

Regt Buckeburg

French Royal Carabineers and Gendarmes de la Garde

Passing in review

I Survived!!

Iain kindly sent me this pic of his Sikh War figures, which he converted, painted and based recently, wish I had his talent, Sikhs from Newline Design, cavalry from Tumbling Dice Crimean range. First pic is of Iain's Newline Designs Companions

Finally recovered from boys visit, great time with old pals (and I do mean old!!), excellent food, many beers, a few hours playing cards ( yet again we all covered B's travelling costs), discussion on the merits of various authors, Bernard Cornwell, Patrick O'Brien, Simon Scarrow, tales of grandkids exploits, Vic presented me with a dozen Zvedva GNW Swedes that he's been painting for me (nicely done) over past few years, E has started a new tradition involving a bucket and peculiar sounds at 5.30 a.m. T tried to get him to bathroom but inside door handle spring broke so both trapped until I heard T calling "HELP" , luckily I had left a bucket by E's bed as he wasn't too well on last visit, (new door handles fitted yesterday), KJPS again last to surface Sunday morning muttering "Cawfee, Cawfee", I fed and watered them all with multiple cuppas and toasted doorsteps ( translation, very thick slices of toasted bread with lashings of butter and marmalade), had a very relaxed morning due typical Welsh rain, they left around midday heading for their usual watering hole near Corwen for lunch on the way home, leaving me with the washing up again!! Roll on next visit sometime in the Spring when hopefully the missing campadre Joe can make it over from Crete ( brand new grand-daughter ) so then the "Magnificent Seven " will ride again !!

Answers to queries

When we played Nap Black Powder don't think we had any major problems with the rules handling large numbers of units and figures ( roughly 1000 plus per side), took a full 2 days gaming, very enjoyable and hard fought.

Must be honest I can't claim any credit for the re-modelled Airfix farm as I bought it off Ebay.

My usual set of Napoleonic rules are "Battles for Empire " by Buck Surdu dating from early 1990s, they have , for me, a good period feel about them and they handled some really big battles, Waterloo, Borodino, Austerlitz fought with local lads over a week-end in a school hall using 50 x 6 feet table, I was umpire, ended up with massive head-ache afterwards

Favourite rules for other periods

"Fire & Fury" and various variants of these like "Age Of Honour" but I don't like the Napoleonic version, personal choice,

"Patriots and Loyalists " for AWI
" Warfare in the Age of Reason" for SYW, although " Age of Honour" easier to teach as most of the lads I game with know "F & F" well.
Never found a Colonial wars set of rules that I'm happy with, anyone got any suggestions??
ECW/30YW I use several rule sets, all which give a good fast game
WSS/GNW, again "F&F" variant "Age Of Honour"

Probably won't be posting until Monday as just about to be invaded by 5 (all over 60s hooligans) on our twice yearly get together, involving slap-up meal in our favourite Bistro, followed by several beers until early hours, then back home for a card session (you name it we play it), we've been doing this since our early teens, which is close onto 50 years !!! Scary or what??!!

Boys just phoned, got to get kettle on, warm up embrocation, more on Monday if I survive.

Napoleonics

A couple more views of Black Powder game, French versus Austrians, less than 20% of my French Army collection on the table and about 50% of my Austrians, I kid you not !!! Yeah I know I'm totally crazy/obessesed etc etc

Worked out the other day I have 7,000 odd figures suitable just for Waterloo period, Heaven knows just how many other Napoleonic I've got, all German States, Spain, Portugal, Russia,all arms infantry, cavalry, artillery, command plus supply trains and ad infinitum, if you think that's bad wait still I start on ACW (someone once said I could put on Gettysburg on a 1 to 1 basis)

I do know that the WSS collection all painted is 3,000 items, luckily I have a very understanding wife ( who actually paints horses for me from time to time )

Napoleonic game using Black Powder rules, a real fun game, anyone identify any of the figures makers? no prizes given, and just for Harry P there's no white radiators this time!!

WSS

Part of my WSS French Army, 3rd pic shows WSS Bavarian troops (the command base with flag are Irregular Miniatures)

WSS

A better view

WSS

Irregular Miniatures Marlburian wagon with Les Higgins figures on base (painted by Iain) with a Wodensfeld SYW alongside

Napoleonics

Nap Austrian ammo wagon from a German maker "Emhke, I have a penchant for the supply trains of various armies

Napoleonics

Scruby Nap Russian Ammo wagon with Hinton Hunt horse

WSS

pics of game a year or so ago, figures include Les Higgins, Warrior 1690 range, Zvedza, Strelets

WSS

Whoops, forgot to label latest pic, these are WSS Hanoverians painted for me by Iain, now in my collection, Les Higgins figures

Thanks to Clive and Uwe for their kind words on their excellent blogs, much appreciated, thanks also to those who left comments, very encouraging

First piccie

I,ve finally cracked how to upload pics to blog and without having to find small child to help, these are Les Higgins figures from Iain's collection, I'll shortly start putting my own figures on

Collecting History

Upon reflection it might be an idea to fill in my gaming/collecting background, my first 20 mm figures were the Airfix Colour Party and Guards Band bought when they first came out way back in pre-history and been hooked on the 20 mm scale ever since, I continued buying all plastic sets as they appeared until one day around 1970 I found in W H Smiths, Donald Featherstone's book "Battles with Model Soldiers" and that kick started the gaming. My childhood pal Vic was persuaded to paint up Yankees while I did the Rebs (The South Will Rise Again), the conversion articles in Airfix Magazine added more inspiration as well as cut fingers, blood on Mother's white table-cloth, ( verbals in strength), created Louisiana Tigers from WW 1 French, Rush's Lancers from US Cavalry and Artillery sets etc etc

Followed by seeing an advert in Military Modelling magazine for the sale of ACW armies, which i bought where I initially discovered Hinton Hunt figures (this was the first of many collection deals over the years) and then things just exploded, I concentrated on ACW for many years then for some reason moved into Napoleonics massively, buying figures, collections, books, mags and along the way picked up AWI, SYW figures not to mention Colonials, things really went beserk when I contacted Harry P of Vintage 20 mil who at the time was looking for info for the site, now everything started spiralling through various contacts made through Vintage 20 mil , helped to buy the Les Higgins ECW & Marlburian moulds and masters and got them back into production so I got to thinking about other old ranges that I used to see but had disappeared, the hunt commenced with the result of me buying Douglas Miniatures and Wodensfeld, then Uwe contacted me and we became friends, when he had the idea to make our own figures to fill gaps in available ranges/periods.

more on this later as Mem-Sahib is serving dinner

Comments

Many thanks to all who have left comments, much appreciated, the suggestion about getting a small child to help put pics on blog does appeal to me, anyone got a spare one on a non-returnable basis ? Teenagers not acceptable unless Cai (my half German Shepherd/Welsh Collie mate) can use said teenager as a chew-stick (small child as dog food hence non-returnable). Those who have met Cai and survived will understand, I've begun to award bravery citations to all postal workers, couriers, deliverymen, and tradesmen who knock front door!!! The bravest of the brave is the Parcel Force lad ( who seems to wear shorts in all weathers), most wary is the Royal Mail Post girl who when she has to get something signed for, parks van on drive, stays in it and honks horn like crazy until I go out to the van to take delivery.

I've compared Schilling figures against several other makers inc Art-Miniaturen, Hinton Hunt etc and they seem to be of compatible height, slightly thicker in the body than A-M, no flash at all which A-M does seem to suffer from occasionly, the large array of poses available is a definite plus.

Latest Arrival

Yesterday arrived a large parcel from Jorge Schilling of Germany containing his ranges of French Old Guard and French Line Infantry all for 1815, these are superb figures, beautifully sculpted and well designed, at least 30 poses in each range, highly recommended, Jorge also produces a full range of Brunswickers again for 1815, pictures of all his figures can be seen here

http://www.zinnfiguren-schilling.de/


As I said in my first posting, thanks are due to Clive, James, Paul, Vincent, Rick, and Gary, who i missed mentioning before for their pressure to get me started blogging so now you all know who to blame

Plans are well advanced for Iain's visit in November where he gets his twice yearly thrashing, this time it's SYW ( Age of Honor rules, a Fire & Fury variant) and AWI (Patriot & Loyalist rules), forces from a variety of sources, Art-Miniaturen, Revell, Garrison, Minifigs S range and my own SYW French, there's even a few old Airfix, if we remember to use camera they'll be a few pics appearing, so long as I can work out how to upload pics to blog

Now I've started it !!

After many years of pressure from various parties I've finally got round to doing a blog, the idea behind the title " 20 mm Nostalgic Revival " is to again make available to 20 mm collectors and gamers some of the old 20 mm ranges that have over the years disappeared or gone out of production and to introduce to the younger generation of gamers the appeal of these ranges, an added intention is to produce ranges of 20 mm figures that the major makers of 20 mm figures, both metal and plastic, are unlikely to ever produce. The main periods covered will be 1600 to 1900 ( so don't expect Ancients, Medieval or WW 1 or 2 and later ( well maybe WW 1 in East Africa and Palestine)

Over the last few years I've been lucky enough to get hold of original moulds and masters of the following ranges

Les Higgins ECW and Marlburians
Douglas Miniatures Marlburians (Crimean and some Naps coming soon)
Wodensfeld ACW & SYW French

All these ranges are now back into production, amongst the new ranges are, Sepoys for Wellington in India, Akalis 19th century Sikh Fanatics and 1740s Arqubusiers de Grassin, these have been don in conjunction with friends across the world who found the scultors, supplied the uniform information, suggested ranges and poses for these and I have had them moulded and cast.

I intend to post pictures of my collection over the coming months to include ECW/30YW, WSS/GNW, SYW, AWI, Naps, ACW, FPW, Colonials, I have amassed over the past 40 odd years fairly large armies for these periods and as I've said I've finally bowed to pressure to share my 20 mm obession

Thanks are due Uwe, Harry, Richard, Jim, Iain, Donald, Terry, John, Stuart, David, Eamon et al, if I've missed anyone they'll get a mention in the future