My painting of my 15mm Malburian project has hit a dead end the last few months. I have a two-gun battery of Dutch artillery sitting on my painting desk half finished and I've had difficulty working up the motivation to finish it off and tackle another unit. I had picked up some Dixon figures to fill in the gaps in my collection and usually this functions to motivate me to do some painting but "no go" thus far! It always seems so difficult but once I sit down and start painting, it goes pretty easily. Perhaps I need to do some reading on the period - that usually gets me going again! I took a week's vacation the week of Christmas and enjoyed it greatly; my mind, however, flipped from one new project to another: 15mm/20mm/25mm Peninsular War, 15mm Sikh War, 15mm Indian Mutiny, 10mm/15mm Zulu War, 15mm SYW, 10mm ACW, 15mm FPW, 15mm RCW, 15mm WWII, and probably several I've since forgotten! I found this rather disconcerting after several days as I already have collections, had collections, or have sta rted purchasing figures, in all of the above periods in different scales. I did take the "leap" and obtain 15mm SYW figures even though I have collections in 6mm, 20mm and 25mm. Doesn't make much sense, I know, but my "downfall" is that I am so swayed by toy soldiers. If a new line/scale comes out, or if I look at an old range through different eyes, I immediately start envisioning those figures on the tabletop. I know I am not the only one who does this sort of thing and even though I may spend a day daydreaming about a period after getting out figure catalogs and then decide not to do anything about it, I have still obtained a great deal of pleasure from the activity - I love to plan and organize periods like this! The "danger" is when I take that step beyond "daydreaming" and actually make purchases. Over a year ago, when I decided to do 15mm Malburian, it was because (1) I wanted another 15mm European period for my extensive 15mm European building collection, and, (2) ESSEX had come out with their 15mm Malburian line. I considered 15mm SYW but decided against it because of my 6mm/20mm/25mm SYW collections. I had planned on farming some of the figures out for painting but thought I would paint the majority by myself after trying out the old paintbrush again and realizing I could do a "reasonably" acceptable job after eye surgery. Then the "obsession" with 15mm SYW returned and I gave in to it with the thought in mind I would farm this period out and hold off on the Malburians. All right - not an unreasonable decision to put off one collection in favor of another. However, it didn't end there; how do I work in 25mm Peninsular War, 15mm Sudan, which I also made the "move" and pulled out nearly 900 or so unpainted ESSEX castings and purchased another 500 or so to "fill in the gaps", and 15mm Peninsular War which I ordered a Spanish army for. 15mm WWII was again pushed back and rearrangements made. I'll paint the 15mm Peninsular War Spanish myself! Well, we'll see about that, uh. It has been a great deal of fun though! I had expected to pay considerably more for MWAN postage with the postal increase in January. When the price of stamps increases, there are always more significant price increases for other types of mail and I found this to be true. MWANs going overseas more doubled in price(!) and there was a smaller increase for hobby shop shipments. However, the most important area, that of bulk mail, did not increase significantly, which was good. Therefore, although I may have to increase the cost of direct overseas subscriptions, there will not be a need to do so for US subscribers. UK subscriptions can still be obtained via CALIVER BOOKS. My last editorial re lack of a website allowing for advertising of historical miniatures brought about several e-mails informing me of "Bartertown" (www.bartertown.org/~) Go to trading and then historicals. Mark Brown informs us that there is a new 25/28mm Napoleonic manufacturer, TROOPER MINIATURES (www.trooperminiatures.com) producing an extensive range of Prussian 1813-14 infantry and Landwehr which is supposed to be very extensive as to number of poses. Fidelis Models (www.fidelismodels.com; e mail: fidelismodels@home.com) has added a number of new products for Rocco Minitanks, Heiser's Models, Military Depot, and terrain features (crater sets, concrete and covered log bunkers, and fortifications). HOMEGROWN MINIATURES (www.angelfire.com/biz6/homegrownfigs) is a new company producing 25mm and 54mm ACW miniatures. Check out the WARGAMES DIRECTORY (www.wargamesdirectory.com) for an interesting listing of wargames figure manufacturers listed by period and scale. MWANer Wes Rogers states "I am running a sort of semi-online Napoleonic campaign" - check it out at http://www.angelfire.com/walrogersw home). SKYTREX Ltd (www.skytrex.com; email: sales@skytrex.com) has released a Meridian "Trafagar" range of 1/700th scale Napoleonic ship kits. They have a cast metal hull, mast and spars with etch brass sails and rat lines. There are eight British, four French, five Spanish, and five American (frigates) available presently. They state they will expand in 2001 to include brigs, sloops, bomb vessels, amphibious craft, merchant ships, and troop transports plus harbour accessories and fortifications. Also new are 15MM WWII 1/100th vehicles, CALIVER BOOKS, 816-818 London Rd., Leigh on Sea, Essex, SS9 3nH, UK (phone/fax: 01702473986) has extensive lists of books for all periods of history. TRUE NORTH PRODUC-1-IONS (e-mail: JacksonD@DFO-MPO.GC.CA), PO Box 579, Merrickville, Ontario, Canada KOG-1NO is releasing more 15mm and "'tween Wars" items for Russians, Poles, Dutch, Hungarians, French, and Romanians. In addition, 15mm Napoleonics have been added for Russia and France. There will also be new releases for the Realmwerks 1/144th scale aircraft for Russian, Germany, USA, Poland and Netherlands. The PERRIN MINIATURES and RANDFORMS are no longer available from David Jackson; contact Perrin Miniatures, PO Box 1106, Williams Bay, WI 53191 (www.perrinmins.com). GALLIA 15mm figures can be accessed at www.warrioronline.demon.co.uk/gallia /index.htm). WARRIOR MINIATURES can be found at www.warriorminiatures.com. The SEVEN YEARS WAR ASSOCIATION website is at www.sywaiournal.com. Avalanche Press Ltd., PO Box 4775, Virginia Beach, VA 23454 (phone: 800-5649008; e-mail: AvichPress@aol.com; website: www.AvalanchePress.com) offers a number of boardgames: The Great War at Sea 1898 The Spanish-American War, Second World War at Sea, Panzer Grenadier, and other WWII, WWI, and Napoleonic boardgames. MAGWEB.COM (e-mail: magweb@magweb.com) has developed a pre-paid "hit" card which provides you with access to the 80 magazines and 18,000 articles available on MAGWEB.COM. For $5 you can get 100 hits and for $20, you get 500 hits. This allows non-subscribers to try out the service. WARGAMES, Box 278, Route 40 East, Triadelphia, WV 26059-0278 has add 15mm redesigned Parthians, 15mm Huns, and 15mm Napoleonic Portuguese including militia. Their Hovels line released 15mm WWII buildings including a coal compound w/shed, ruined building, and chemical/oil storage tank. In 20mm, bunkers, cottages, log barn, ruins, planked fencing and corners. In 1/2001h scale, an obelisk, Sphinx, Great Pyramid, and Queen Pyramid. 4", 5" and 6" palm trees are available. From their 25mm DIXON line come 25mm French Foreign Legion and Dahomey warriors (14 total packs), 25mm THE ARMY OF HENRY VIII and Flodden (1513), 25mm small Riverboat/cargo steamer ($99), large Riverboat/coastal steamer ($119), and a 24-gun pirate ship ($149.95). IT MINIATURES has more releases in 20mm for WWI Middle East actions including British and Arab infantry and cavalry. Chris Denman, the webmaster for THE PIKE AND SHOT SOCIETY would like us to know about their web site (www.pikeandshot.co.uk/index.html); their journal, THE ARQUEBUSIER offers much concerning the renaissance period (e-mail: ciden man@cwcom. net). ULTIMATE MINIATURES (e-mail: ultimateminiatures@earthlink.net) reports they located some of the "lost" Jack Scruby molds for the "Napoleon in Egypt" series in 25mm. There are a total of 15 figures available. He mentions they have a total of 1600 Scruby figures in production and another 800 masters without production molds. You can be added to the COMBINED ARMS email list by notifying Joe Kelly (combined arms@yahoo.com). Joe has added rules sets including CROSS OF IRON, PANZERKNACKER, and TAKE COVER. His website is: www.combinedarmsinc.com). AB FIGURES (www.abfigures.demon.co.ulk/ news. htm) is stocking the MMS WWII AFV's as well as CROMWELL'S MODELS. MWANer Rich Borg, who developed BATTLE CRY FOR Hasbro/AH, had two other games published in 2000 - HERA & ZeusKosmos and Wongar-Goldseiber, both in Germany. I keep getting e-mails and letters about how much people enjoy his BATTLE CRY game! Way to go, Rich! Congratulations to North American LONE WARRIOR Editor/MWAN Associate Editor Rich Barbuto on his book NIAGARA 1814: AMERICA INVADES CANADA (available from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble)! Received a new listing of 15mm/25mm painted figures from GAJO, 930 Mellish Drive, Lapeer, MI 48446 (810-664-5655) run by George Johnson who is always looking to buy/sell painted armies and military books. Very fair prices and outstanding service! THE MINIATURE SERVICE CENTER, 1386 Portofino Dr., Yuba City, CA 95993 carries the ICON line of 28mm WWII and Zulus (formerly Harlequin) as well as African animals. MSC also carries the REDOUBT ENTERPRISES line and new from REDOUBT is the TROJAN ADVENTURE with figures, fortress, and soon, a Trojan Horse. For SPACE 1889 gamers, SCHELTRUM MINIATURES, PO Box 10231, Aberdeen, AB12 3TT,UK (www.mammoth miniatures.co.uk) is offering a number of Victorian Sci-Fi items which look very interesting; ether ships, tunneling machine, British steam tank, Confederate submarine, as well as figures. I assume they are 25mm. Thanks for your continued support of MWAN; I appreciate it very much! Please consider submitting an article, letter, or review. I can take attachments via e-mail and your e-mail letters are easy for me to transfer to my files. Enjoy our hobby! Back to MWAN #110 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com