Wargames Figures News

Courier Dispatch: News of the Hobby

by Dick Bryant

Acrylic Paints; Howard Hues, P.O. Box 20915, Dept. M, Oklahoma City, OK 73156 has a line of acrylic paints consisting of 35 colors at$ 1.25 pe one ounce bottle. In addition to the stanclard colors, they offer "ruddy" flesh, leather black, belt white, Russian green, buff, military leather, and a number of other colors,

Amateur Publications; Simon Billenness, editor of the "Zine Register" is offering to provide interested individuals with 20-30 different amateur publications if one will send him $2.00 and a large self-addressed manila envelope. He can be reached at 61A Park Avenue, Albany, NY 12202.

The Thistle and the Rose Miniatures, 3079 Bridgeton Court, Woodbridge, VA 22192 has just released 15mm figures for Normans/Saxons/Vikings/ Picts/Slavs/Russians/Welsh/Scots & Irish as well as generic figures. Approximately 160 different figures are available at .25 per foot figure.

Greenfield Hobbies has released 15mm boats for the American Civil War although they would appear to be quite useful for 25mm rowboats. The two- boat set sells for $5.00 and has two different sized boats in each pack.

RAFM,19 Concession St., Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, N1R 2G6 recently released 11 packs of 25mm ancients consisting of barbarian command pack; Early German infantry in loin cloth and trousers/fur; later German infantry with axe; Dacian with falx; Dacian throwing javelin; Dacian archer; German cavalry; and heavy and light Sarmatian cavalry. Six foot or three cavalry are $4.00.

The National Geographic Magazine (December, 1986) had a fine map of the Northern Plains in their series on "The Making of America" which wargamers could put to good use for campaigning the American Plains Indian Wars.

American Civil War gamers now have a publication which may be of interest to them in "Volunteers -The Newsletter of Civil War Gaming", published by Bill Koff, 146 Chimmey Lane, Wilmington, N.C. 28403. This is a quarterly publication costing $6.00 per year and is aimed at the hobbyist and historian of the period.

Spencer Smith Miniatures (Peter Johnstone, 88 Greencroft Gdns., London, NW6 3JQ, England) is offering a beginner's package for the American Civil War consisting of 240 infantry, 60 cavalry, 4 guns, 16 gunners, 6 staff officers, and 14 extras, including a rules book for 35.45 pounds (overseas). These are hard plastic figures available for years covering the ACW, American War of Independence, Napoleonic Wars, American Frontier, and modern period in 30mm. Figures can also be purchased by the pack, for instance 30 ACW infantry (3 different poses) sells for 1.55 pounds as do eight cavalry.

Stone Mountain Miniatures, Inc., Box 594, Broomfield, CO 80020 has recently released a 15mm "Shenandoah" line of American Civil War figures and equipment. These include naval guns, crews and a U.S. landing party; "ragged rebs" which features a pack of 20 differently posed figures wearing tattered uniforms, kepis, soft hats, etc.; Negro troops; Texans in soft hats with the Texas star; Zouaves in kepis; and troops with blanket rolls and kepis with a variety of different heads (clean shaven to bearded). A number of naval artillery pieces (15) are also available. Foot figures are.35 while artillery pieces are priced at $1.75. Also available from Stone Mountain is the 25mm Campaign (from England) line of Imperial Rome, its Allies & Enemies encompassing Late Imperial Romans, Franks & Goths, Dacians, Parthians, Sarmatians, Palmyrans, Sassanids, Jews, and Armenians. Prices for this range are $3.95 for six foot or three cavalry. Stone Mountain will soon be casting the popular "Hovels" line of wargames buildings from Campaign. They have received molds for the complete set of Rorke's Drift buildings including the hospital and 49 storehouse, mealiebag/biscuit box barricade, as well as a Zulu village. Additions to the American Civil War and rural English lines will also be available soon. I do not know what scale these buildings are in.

Game Designer's Workshop, P.O. Box 1646, Bloomington, IL 61702-1646, has released "Command Decision", an operational level game for World War I I miniatures. This set of rules features a scale of 1: 5 for vehicles and platoon stands for infantry with 15 minutes as the game turn. They report that the rules are written for HO scale although modifications are possible for 1:285th scale. The set consists of the basic and advanced rules, national organization charts, national data charts, and a set of campaign rules for the Stolberg Corridor (September, 1944).

Irregular Miniatures, 18 The Avenue, Norton, Malton, N. Yorks, Y017 9EF, England, has 6mm figures available for the Napoleonic period covering France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and England, and plans to release figures for Bavaria, Spain, Belgium, and Brunswick. They offer a package deal for an entire division (range in price of 6.50 to-13.00 pounds) or an entire corps (range 18.00 to 35 pounds). A French division, for example, provides one with 12 battalions of line, 48 skirmishers, one battery of three guns, one regiment of 40 cavalry and a commander at a figure scale of 1:20. Union and Confederate armies are also available.

Wargames Foundry, 21 Villiers Road, Woodthorpe, Nottingham, England offers 25mm Marlburian War figures (.35 pence each) consisting of two officers, an ensign, sergeant, drummer, three infantrymen, dragoon, infantry casualty, British grenadier, and French grenadier. Postage is 30% of order for surface and 501Y, for airmail.

Scotia Micro Models, 32 West Hemming St., Letham, Angus, DD8 2PU, Scotland, has a line of 1/300th vehicles encompassing the modern (USA, China, England, USSR, Brazil, Argentina, Israel), WWII (Poland, Germany, USA & France), and WWI (England, France, and Germany). The models are available in either resin or metal.

SKT Wargame Figures, 9 Wargrave Road, Twyford, Berkshire, England, offers 25mm 19th Century Vietnam figures at .25 pence each (15% postage). Currently available are a black flag officer and two black flag infantry (one with musket, the other with winchester), Chinese regular and an Amanite with Halbard or musket. In 15mm they have available a Burmese elephant and crew at 1.20 pounds.

Special Forces, P.O. Box 814, Chicago, Illinois 60690 has available handcrafted 15mm castles for forts, 5mm castles, metal map boards, carrying cases for figures, as well as a number of items in 1:285th and 15mm scale. They also report they can make custom dioramas.

More Courier Dispatch: News

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