So what have you painted since Enfilade hmmmmm? It’s hard to paint in the summer because household chores call, and it’s just too dang hot and all the acrylic paint dries up. Fortunately I have air conditioning, and I’m a teacher so I have a lot of free time, so paint, paint, paint!!! I’ve got some Foundry and Foundry spin-off items to look at, and some free stuff to consider too.

One of the projects I am working on is the wars of the Old Northwest. Old Glory released a range Wayne’s Legion Figures for this period five or so years ago, and I’ve been saving them up for a rainy day. They’re nice, even if they are mostly AWI figures with different heads and the Light Infantry helmets are all wrong. There are also a lot of frontier militia and ranger types, non-uniformed, that participated in Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, and Northwest territories between 1774-1814. There are lots of typical buckskin/hunting shirt lookalike guys one could use. A year or so ago I noticed the Foundry ‘Mountain Man’ figs from their Old West Range. I thought they were nice but a bit esoteric. While I was searching for interesting woodsman-like figs, encountering your typical settler/Coeur de Bois and AWI riflemen types, it occurred to me that these guys might serve as your basic cool heroic frontier Simon Kenton dude.

Just to answer the “Well, what can I do with this stuff question?” Well, lots. First, there is the whole Mountain Man thing. These guys would be comfortable in any skid row bar, bad manners and all, and frequently got into nasty tussles. Throw in the odd log cabin, trees, hills and mountains and you’ve got a skirmish game. There were frequent “disagreements” between the trappers and the indigenous aboriginal culture. There was a fairly sizable battle between Blackfeet Indians and trappers at a rendezvous. Finally, between 1811 and 1821 there was a full fledged shooting war between rival fur trappers and traders of the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company.

I’ve now picked up four packs of the Mountain Men. The Foundry site shows six packs of figs available, but I have actually seen eight—go figure. There are four different packs of six trappers of the far west. They are big and beefy guys. Most are dressed in some sort of buckskin attire with fur hats, flat hats, bareheaded. They have varying degrees of facial hair, including one bearded figure that would make Billy Gibbons envious. Lots of interesting stuff going on. Most are musket armed, and a few have their muskets wrapped in skins to keep them dry or from freezing. Additional packs are devoted to a Rocky Mountain rendezvous, with female as well as male figures. There is a very nice pack mule with mule skinners. Perhaps the most interesting are the Apo Ogie which are native American. As with all Foundry figs, they are costly at three bucks a pop, eighteen dollars for a blister pack.

Foundry, we all know them, the guys with the great over-priced figures. Grrr. Apparently they have had a bit of a falling out with some of their best sculptors. Alan and Michael Perry did some of the best work for Foundry and GW, and have struck out on their own, producing some very fine historical miniatures. They presently have six ranges of figures: American War of Independence, Napoleonic Brunswickers, First Crusades Christians, Lowland Scots of the English Civil War, and Samurai armies. All of the lines are still in the development stage with just a few figures available. The Brunswickers are most completely fleshed out. The AWI figures are niche fillers with highlanders and 17th Light Dragoons currently available. The other lines look like there is considerable room for expansion. The Perry’s have a website at www.perry-miniatures.com/. It allows you to view each of their offerings, and provides ordering information, though presently it seems to be mail order only.

Mark Copplestone is another Foundry artist who has bolted the Evil Empire. Copplestone Miniatures is carried in the U.S. by RLBPS, at www.rlbps.com/rlbpscop.htm. The ranges Copplestone is promoting are a variety of historical, fantasy, and sci-fi miniatures. Most interesting is his series of Darkest Africa figures. These include the Ngoni that fled the Zulus during Shaka’s expansion in South Africa, Somali tribesmen, Zanzibari tribesmen, and a nice group of British sailors.

The next product I have to offer costs nothing. The Yahoo!Groups offered free to anybody who wishes to subscribe is a gold mine of information and communication between other subscribers with similar interests. These are e-mail groups that share information about, well, just about anything. I belong to seven game-related groups, three that relate to various clubs and their business—including NHMGS, and four are very specific theme related wargame lists. If you are interested set your browser to groups.yahoo.com/, use the search function and type in wargaming groups.

There are over two thousand entries covering topics ranging from coastal naval warfare, to nineteenth century wargaming, DBM, DBA, or whatever else might strike your fancy. These are e-mail message boards, and you will receive messages as e-mail, not instant messages as they may appear on AOL. I’ll give a special plug to the NHMGS group. It is a critical communication device that lets you track important issues, or collect important information in between issues of the Citadel. It also provides you an opportunity to provide input, which we always seek, but rarely get, into some of the important decisions the leadership needs to make. I would like to see everyone who receives the Citadel a member of that list.

Good shopping and good gaming.