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