Mark Stevens

I continue to enjoy “The Heliograph”. It was especially nice to see your review of the old Scruby figures. I never liked his 25mm and got rid of any that I had but many of the 30mm are not bad.

I have painted some of the figures that you show.

The British artillery Officer 1543 is probably from Scruby’s Tom Cox Sudan Line. These are nice figures - a bit stiff with a “toy soldier” look to them but clean figures with good detail - better then on a Scruby’s. I have a unit of British infantry firing - the weapon is clearly a Martini-Henry - unlike the poles that Scruby figures carry. 1531C Indian Lancer is a Holger Ericsson figure. He is the Swede who sculpted many of the old SAE figures. I painted a unit of these for Larry Brom and although the detail is not great these figures are impressive with a good paint job - ready to charge those Pathans.

Scruby also had some nice work - 1527 kneeling Gurkha and 1529 advancing Punjabi infantry have decent detail and look good painted.

The 30mm will mix well with 28mm figures by Redoubt, Icon, Foundry and Old Glory. I would also highly recommend Stadden and Suren 30mm.

I have a company of the 99th Foot for the Zulu War - one platoon of Stadden’s and one of Suren’s. The Stadden unit won a silver medal at Historicon the year before last. I bought a unit of Senegalese Spahis from HLBSC at Historicon. These are very nice figures. Uniform information comes from the Funken book of the 19th century French Army. The Spahi wears a white sun helmet with a brass emblem on the front (a crescent?). He has a short jacket red with brass buttons and a white trefoil on the cuff. The sash and baggy pants are medium blue. The trousers are decorated like the Zouaves with a line of black lace front and back and a trefoil design on the thigh. Boots are black and leather equipment and horse gear is reddish brown. The sword hilt is brass and the scabbard steel. The officer would wear medium blue kepi with gold braid, medium blue trousers with red seam stripe, and red jacket with medium blue cuffs, black hussar style braid and gold sleeve lace. I hope this will be of use to someone. Keep up the good work.

Thank you for the encouragement Mark. It is always appreciated. I agree whole-heartedly about the Scruby figures. And I thank you for the Spahi info as it will come in handy for my new FFL units.

Chris Nelson

It has been many years since I last purchased figures for Space 1889 but I found that Elves are very useful as Martians made by different manufacturers. Also RAFM, which made the original figures for GDW, had figures in their Canadian and US Civil War Naval range that worked out quite well. RAFM also made the Lizardmen from Venus and I believe that you said they are again being sold.

When I first got the figures I tried figure out what to use for Martian flesh color. I decided to use the Armory’s Asian flesh color. I painted them that but as time has gone by I decided that they look weird with a sickly yellow-green color. I looked at some of the color illustrations on the Role playing booklets and decided that they needed to be repainted. I decided to use Howard Hues’ Asian flesh because it looked correct. So far I have gotten about 1/3 of the Martians repainted and once that is done I will have to redo the clothing.

For flags for the Martians I thought that it might be a good idea to use some of the Elf flags or banners.

I will check with Vince at the London War Room regarding the Parroom Station figures that you mention.

It is surprising that Space 1889 didn’t catch on as it really combined all of the elements of a colonial campaign. If one really looks at the Martian Campaign - one can see elements of the Northwest Frontier, India, Egypt, Sudan, China and others. Anything is possible and there are no limits to what can happen in the continuation of The Great Game between powers.

I am surprised that Space 1889 didn’t catch on. I think the concept was sound but that some of the rules were too much, too detailed. I do think that there are more Space 1889 players out there than one would think. A couple of years ago when the subject first came up nearly 25 percent of the readership were Space 1889 players. A few like Ron Telucky sent in photos of some of the most beautifully constructed cloudships I have ever seen.

Jeff Johnson

Thanks for issue #127 of The Heliograph. It's always "a fun read" and I like the directory of colonial troop suppliers. It was good to see the full information on Mark Copplestone's new Africa line, too.

On page 4 of this latest issue you commented "Hey! Why doesn't Osprey have a book on the FFL???"

Good News has arrived.

Osprey did indeed print a good title on the FFL. It was number 17 in the Men-At-Arms series, and was first issued in 1971. It's been out of print so long that it had disappeared from the Osprey listing. (It was issued back in the good old days when a new Osprey book cost $ 3.95.)

This year Osprey has reissued a number of these early titles, including the FFL volume. Titled "French Foreign Legion" the book was written by Martin Windrow with color plates by Michael Roffe.

Details on the reissue titles are on the Osprey website, and this title is now listed as available by Wargames in Triadelphia, WV. Other online stores may have it as well. Since these older titles are being reprinted in limited quantities, this is a "get it while you can" item.

The book provides the usual full Osprey coverage with line drawings, maps, black & white photos and eight pages of color plates, with three uniforms per plate for 24 total. The period is 1830's to 1970.

I hope that this info will be helpful.

Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving holiday!

Thanks for the very nice comments Jeff. Soon after I received this email I went to the Articles of War web site and looked up the FFL. They have about twelve different titles. Anyway I ordered the MAA #17 French Foreign Legion.

Scott Hanson

Attached is an article on my card system that I use for my Russo-Japanese War games. The rules were published in MWAN #100. If anybody wants them, they can EMAIL me and I will send them a MS Word document.

My current period is the 1820's Greek War of Independence in 15mm. I still have some Greek Foreign volunteers and Egyptians to paint up. After that, I plan on doing the 1860's Fenian Raids into Canada in 15mm using a modification of my "Fight Da Moro's" rules published in the Heliograph.

After that, I plan on gaming the Ashanti Wars in 25mm. As a bonus, the British Figures will be OK to fight the Abyssinians (Ethiopia) in the late 1860's. Unlike other people, I started gaming in 6mm and went to 15mm. The Ashanti's will be my first 25mm period.

I plan on writing a Moro Scenario for the Heliograph, but it should work for other colonial periods.

One problem with Colonials is it is very hard to think up new scenarios other than "Attack on the Native Village", the "Natives ambush a column in the jungle", etc. Though not purely but I think it has a lot of the same features is the French and Indian War, especially if you do it skirmish style. After a while, it's hard to think up new scenarios. My friend gamed it in 25mm.

I think that's why some people turn to campaigns like you did. I used to enjoy reading your Swansea News on your campaign.

If you think you would be interested in an article on the lack of different types of scenarios for colonials, let me know. Maybe I can call it "The Problem with Colonials" but I've had fun with all of my colonial periods: Zulu War, Spanish-American War and Moros.

Blake Walker

Hi, a quick question about the 25mm Old Glory Zulu range... Would the figure scale be compatible with 28-mm Redoubt figures? I'm thinking about adding some more Zulus on to my collection and thought I might be able to use the bags of Old Glory figures with some Redoubt and Icon Miniature command figs. Didn't know what you thought about that.

Nice to hear from you again. I have not held the Icon figs yet so I'm not sure of them. However, I think all three will fit together especially since you will be using Redoubt as command, as they tend to be slightly larger than other 28s. Remember not everybody is exactly six foot tall. My cardinal rule for mixing and matching figures is simple if they are proportionally accurate and close to the same height it makes no difference.

It wouldn't be too outrageous to have a 26mm and a 28mm fig in the same unit as long as they were proportionally correct (i.e., body size as well as equipment). I would not mix Ultimate Miniatures 28mms with other 28s because they are not proportionally correct, their heads and helmets are wrong sized. I hope this makes sense; generally my answer is yes I would mix them.