Mark Stevens

Keep up the good work.

My Belgian army is looking good. I will have two companies of Belgian Askari (each of two platoons), a Krupp gun and crew, bearers, two to three groups of Azande irregular s and a unit of Azande bodyguard.

The last have white jibbahs and red fezs. They are mostly armed with Remingtons and will also make nice Sudanese irregulars in my Egyptian army. The Ral Partha Krupp looks well with the Foundry Askari gun crew - it looks light enough to trundle through the jungle. I mix Belgian Askari packs with British and uniformed Askari packs for variety.

I may add another company of Belgian Askari and also plan a gunboat with Belgian sailors.

I hope to run a game at Cowpens [at Clemson University] in late March.

Thanks for the compliment, if my painting kick continues my Askari forces will be next. But, probably just the British. I would really like to have a unit of Askari for Samuel Baker and wife to run around with. I remember them being more uniformed than Foundry currently has produced, but I guess I can overcome that with their uniformed Askaris.

Ted Herbert

Many thanks for this interesting issue. A great read!

One point raised by Scott Hansen was a query about The Swish of the Kris. I have had a look at the microfilm copy in the British Library. It is by Vic Hurley and was published in 1936. It attempts to summarise the whole history of the Moros in a gung-ho, adventure story, sort of way; and includes sections in the later part of the book on Jikiri and on the battles of Bud Bagsak, the Mindanao campaign and Bud Dajo. Unfortunately it has no illustrations, plates or maps and, as far as I could see, no specific information on Moro dress, tactics or weaponry that you could not find easily elsewhere. The only things I picked up was that 'the kris is 2-3 inches wide' and 'is kept in a wooden scabbard' and in 1907 Prince Sanaluna was dressed in a yellow jacket, tight white trousers, red sash over his shoulder with a large gold badge of office as leader of the Moros in Mindanao. He had an interpreter dressed in pink and a slave dressed in blue. Probably the most useful sections of the book are the appendices, which include an index of Moro words, a list of Spanish posts in the Moro country pre-1898, the pay of Spanish ranks, a generalized list of Moro tribal divisions, and the names of the US commanders of fort Petit Barrach from 1900-1933.

I would not recommend purchasing it at $200! I would be glad to provide more detailed information if Scott has any specific enquiry about anything in the book.

And another letter about Swish of the Kris:

Edward Mikus

The Heliograph issue 123 arrived yesterday. Scott Hansen mentioned a book Swish of the Kris (by Vic Hurley). Over the years I have searched for it at a variety of book sales and have not been able to find a copy. I suspect it is a vary good book, but $200 is beyond the price I would be willing to pay. In the early 1960s Jungle Patrol another of Vic Hurley's books appeared in a used bookstore, and I was most fortunate in obtaining it at 50 cents. It is the story of the Philippine Constabulary from inception to absorption into the Philippine army. It is full of details useful to war gamers including composition, uniforms and small unit actions. I have read it twice completely and in part at other times. In 1963 Jack Scruby borrowed it and I believe made some figures based on this conflict. Among others the constabulary campaigned against the Moros.

Enclosed you will find copies of some of the pages and photographs in Jungle Patrol... Edward offered to let me borrow the book, if I do I would turn around and write a few scenarios based on it, provide some uniform info, and OBs. From what I received this could be very interesting, loads of good information. Sounds good to me, OK Edward I will borrow the book from you, and thank you very much.

Grant Strandberg

Follow you again thru jungle and sand? Search the depths of the deepest and darkest areas of the world? Face the cruelest, savage, and often the bravest enemies ever encountered on a tabletop?

YES!

I'll re-up

This, to my memory, is the best note I have received with a re-subscription card. Well Done and Thank you Grant!

Patrick Wilson

Just the briefest update on things at Foundry USA Mail Order Service at the first anniversary of my accepting the Shilling and partaking of The Great White Queen's salt. First, for those not already aware, the "1-800" number was discontinued last August at the end of the catastrophic Inventory Reduction and Single Figure Clearance Sales. Orders may still be sent to 10208 Haverhill Pl., OKC OK 73120-3922, and the other phone numbers are unchanged (see below). My hours at the phones may be more realistically described as from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, M-F with the usual holiday and disaster escape routes.

Did I say "Catastrophic," earlier? Well, I can hardly think of a better description given that while the sales generated record sales, it was a the cost of the entire mail order system which had been so carefully developed over the previous years. The combination of the move from Guernsey to Nottingham, the tremendous increase in new personnel, and failures in the new mail order Officer Corps, cost Foundry dearly in customer goodwill. Naturally, the price increase coming while all these disasters were still piling up did nothing to improve the picture.

For whatever it's worth, I honestly state that those days, so reminiscent of the finely tuned management evidenced by Custer at Little Big Horn, are now sufficiently removed in time to become the stuff of history themselves. New management, fully trained and balanced staffers, among other sweeping changes in the Mail Order Department have for at least the last 6 months brought us back to an even keel and orders are filled within 24 hours. A change from the Royal Mails to DHL was a signal failure, but the new carrier, TNT, seems to be delivering with far greater speed and reliability. However, anyone on either side of the equation who believes PERFECT service is now assured should talk to me later about land deals in Arizona.

In short, the best figures on the market--if not the cheapest--are still available in profusion at your demand and even more coming all the time. My own business is well down from the height of the feeding frenzy last Spring and Summer, not least because of the ever improving service and options available to customers via the Foundry's websites and the policy of providing post paid envelopes with each order good all the way back to Nottingham. New bulk order deals are now available that, if fully exploited, offer discounts of 33% and more.

A recent change in the Standing Order deals seems like a significant break as well. Where previously, customers with Standing Orders got some 20% off the individual blister pack price for a new release of from 6 to 9 packs and post paid, now there is only the 10% price break for buying a packaged deal, but each comes with a voucher good for three full price packs of anything at normal price. That's a $54 retail value, which is at least twice what could be saved by the 20% discount previously offered. The voucher may be sent in with an order or redeemed right over the website. The only thing I'm told can't be done is save up vouchers to get another release deal. As may interest those of us in the Colonialist family of the Wargaming Tribe, here is some news of forthcoming developments.

The next Darkest Africa release MAY be out the door in May. I cannot be certain as to content, but I have reason to expect some Belgian Askari Mutineers, Personalities, and possibly some British Naval Landing Parties, as well as first of the Schutztruppen for German East in the uniforms of the 1880's-90's. There is further talk of future releases for the Ashanti, Dahomeyans, and French, Spanish, and Native forces in North Africa.

Mike Owens is still busily cranking out figures for the Old West line, many of which have wider application for skirmish games in our era. The most recent release of "Scalphunters", "Filibusters" and the start of the Texas Rangers are particularly beautiful. Mountain Men are probably in the next release and, unless his plans have changed, Mike is working on a line of figures for Oklahoma Territory (including a personality figure of my Great Grandfather, Floyd Wilson, who got himself potted by Henry Starr) as well as a definitive line of the Native Americans who fought for both sides in the Civil War. These are to include specific packs of all the Five Civilized Tribes, as well as others swept up into the conflagration of the Border Wars.

These figures will be, I feel comfortable saying, the first such figures in the history of the hobby, the specific costume and other data having been provided by Curator Mark Megehee of the U.S. Army Artillery Museum at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, and of Sac-And-Fox ancestry himself. Of almost as eagerly awaited developments is the announcement just made today (April 4, 2001) that the old Northwest Frontier range of figures will be available again later this Spring, possibly in May. These will be followed, I am told, by the Boer and Zulu War ranges of long standing popularity. The Sikh Wars line may follow them as would the Franco-Prussian, Indian Mutiny, Crimean War, and WW I ranges.

For those who have forgotten or did not know, these, and ALL Foundry ranges previously available on a single figure basis, were temporarily discontinued pending their return in blister pack format which necessitates the manufacture of new production moulds. While I have been constantly assured that all lines will return eventually, those lines coming back first are doing so based on their popularity and the comparative ease of making smaller numbers of new moulds.

Larger lines, such as the Franco-Prussian, will require a great deal of time to reconfigure, but these would still come ahead of the "Early American Indians" or "Elizabethans,' for example, as these lines were never what you'd call "hot sellers" in the first place.

Compounding the problem has been the almost desperate shortage of qualified mould masters. Their numbers have fluctuated, though some progress recently made has allowed this first Resurrection of a line (the NWF). After all, the effort to return these older lines has to be done even while still cranking out all the new lines (including--GAG!--Orcs). However, for the first time in months I am very optimistic that we historical gamers will once again be able to eat our cake and have it, too.

Okay, so maybe this wasn't so brief. So shoot me. But after a year at this crazy--and frequently deeply rewarding job well beyond matters of money and loot--I figure I owed you and the readership something like a State of the Union, and you've just read/skimmed/ignored it.

Patrick R. Wilson USA Mail Order Wallah, The Foundry USA (405) 755-8863 FAX: (405) 755-8572

"Cry Havoc, And Let Loose The Chihuahuas Of Inconvenience!"
The Number One Least Quoted Line From Shakespeare