John Hollyoak

It has been a long time since I wrote to you (mainly because issue 10 of PoW mag is way behind schedule but it is almost finished) so I thought it was about time I did something.

I have received issue 125 and note that there is no reply to Hal’s enquiry from 123. I realize that 15mm is not your scene and should have got round to this earlier.

I enclose a copy of the colonial pages from the Minifigs catalogue (I’m sure they won’t mind--it may result in lots of sales) and you (and Hal) will see that they do cover late British infantry together with Sikhs, Baluchis and Ghurkas together with plenty of opposition. If painted in wash techniques they really do look the part, but they don’t take well to black undercoat and dry brushing (the creases are not very deep).

Personally for Bashis or Zouaves to fit in with Essex figures, I would use Essex figures! They do Egyptian infantry for the early and late Sudan but they also do a figure described as a gendarme. This is barefooted and has baggy trousers and a short waistcoat, he will do as loads of semi regular Zouave types. I was lucky enough to be given a few units of these by Mark Copplestone. Not only were they superbly painted but they had various conversions such as turned heads and bare heads replacing fezzes!

I believe the Minifigs Zouave in the Franco Prussian War range (code 4M) does not have a pack, I have just based some up as French in Guinea. A little roll of Milliput around the fez with some creases poked in makes a passable turban.

I hope this is useful. Tell Hal to keep up the amazing work with MWAN.

Hal, consider yourself told. Thank you very much for the list I will not publish it here but if anyone wants a copy of the list please send me a self-address, stamped (34 cent stamp) envelope and I will be more than happy to send you a copy. The list is a page and a half of very small print, must be about 90 infantry, 17 command, artillerymen, artillery, artillery and wagon horse teams, wagons, 35 cavalry and 20 command.

Timothy Boyd

Just a quick note of thanks for the great work you've done in the "Intelligence" section of the latest Heliograph--you've given me a heap of new sources for my favorite hobby. I notice that you've included Gladiator, mentioning Abyssinians and Zulus, but they also have a small line of Russians--infantry, command, cossacks both mtd and dismtd-- for their 1860-70s colonial wars.

They don't, unfortunately, make opponents, and I was hopeful when The Courier reviewed the appropriate 15mm figures being offered by Jihad, in Arizona. I wrote to them, however, and got my letter back stamped "not at this address". I wrote to The Courier letting them know that the address was wrong, but, except for a promise "to look into it", that was about it from their end (6 months go by, 8 months go by, I grow a beard, my hair turns grey, I think about changing my shoe-style).

Luckily, Irregular makes some all-purpose Pathans in lots of poses, and I--and anyone else who'd be interested in this seemingly little-known area of colonialism--can make some very believable opponents from them. (You can also flesh out the missing Russian bits--artillery, dragoons, mtd commands--from US Civil War forces in kepis, as well as from Rank and File Russians for the Russo-Turkish War.)

I'm always glad to plug Irregular because I think that Ian Kay and his jolly assistants are some of the best folks in the hobby--friendly, funny, and as efficient as Prussians: mail off your order on a Tuesday and two weeks later, sometimes to the very day, there are your troops.

Anyhow--this was just a thank-you and I can see that it's mushrooming. Is everybody in wargaming as chatty?

I just checked out Gladiator and will add the Russians to the list, although I can't think of anyone off hand that makes Turks, I will have to look at Irregular and Rank and File, there are plenty of Pathan types around. Jihad, I cannot find and cannot say I have heard of them before. However, I will ask around.

As to chatty subscribers, well unfortunately you all are few in number, about 15 percent of subscribers write in at least once a year, and I know there is loads of other stuff to be doing. I really do appreciate your letters, please keep them coming.

Mark Keigwin

With regard to the Intelligence portion of Heliograph #124 and the creation of a slave caravan for the tabletop, I send a passage I copied down from Résultats Scientifiques des Voyages en Afrique by Edouard Foa, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1908. On page 140 he describes a slave caravan he ran into around 1896:

“…61 slaves, men and women, not counting the children; they were bound in different ways, some with ropes, others with the gori (yoke devise used to restrain captives two by two). Besides this sort of yoke, the weight of which exceeded 25 kgs, all had bundles of food or the baggage of their watchers, 18, on their head. Among these (18), I only counted 4 Arabs; the others were black moslems, resembling Swahilis in features and dress.”

I used this as my model.

This is a great description. Thank you, Mark. I took three females and three males, not counting the ones from Eureka, these are naked figures from Foundry, glued three each to 21/2 inch pieces of card, painted them, then got some 7mm split rings and small chain from Michael’s and attached the chain to the rings and the rings around their necks and painted that, they look great, very un PC, but I don’t care. I an keeping the Eureka figures as individual figures so each time I use a slave caravan I can make it appear different.