The terrible events of last week have certainly been felt by all of us and we can only hope that some good can come out of what is a senseless, horrific act of unadulterated evil. I personally believe that something positive will happen; it is unfortunate that it takes a tragedy of this magnitude to set the stage for effecting change.
Many MWANers are either on active service or in the reserves. Although all of us will have sacrifices to make to support our government in whatever it is they choose to do as regards a response, it is those in the military who may be required to make the supreme sacrifice. Experiencing reductions in personal "liberties", and changes in our nation's economy is one thing, however, laying your life on the line is quite another. I am sure you join me in sending all members of our military forces our very best wishes for their safety.
Any active duty MWANer can have his subscription renewed at no cost by notifying me of that fact.
Actually, I don't personally feel like continuing this editorial by talking about our hobby. However, I have received emails from people during the last week informing me that the receipt of their copy of MWAN provided them with an opportunity to "lose themselves" for a short while and they expressed appreciation for this. Thus, we'll carry on as usual, as much as possible.
ECW
My hobby pursuits have taken me back to my 15mm ECW Project prompted by Chris Hahn's fine ECW campaign rules. I've long wanted to do a campaign and the ECW/TYW is certainly a fine period to do that. I sat dc n and went through my 15mm ECW/TYW collection to determine if there were any "gaps" I needed to fill and realized that I hadn't finished the Highlander portion of the project. You may remember, I am using Howard Whitehouse's IRONSIDES rules, which I like very much, and my "unit" sizes are 27 foot figures in three ranks, 12 horse figures in two ranks, and one gun/4 crew with limber and either a limber horse rider and walking figure by the limber horse. All foot and horse units are on three stands (9 foot/4 horse per stand). I have several Croat musketeer units which I mounted in two ranks on longer stands and irregular foot are mounted in a "mob-type" formation, again on longer stands. I made a trip to The Emperor's Headquarters and picked up a whole bunch of Essex and Hallmark 15mm Highlanders. I sorted them out by pose and found that I had over 50 different poses, which will make for wonderful looking 11 mob-like" Highlander units. It is amazing how many different poses you can get just from those two manufacturers. From Essex, check out the ECW as well as the Malburian ranges which contains a nice pack of Scots/Highlanders mounted Generals.
I also went to my local hardware store and purchased another piece of 4' X 8' tempered hardboard and cut out sections (around 13" X 19'~ to be placed in the bottom of my large plastic storage boxes and lined the hardboard sections with selfadhesive magnetic strips. This allows me to store thirty-two 15mm ECW foot units (96 stands/864 figures) in a single box! You can purchase the plastic storage boxes sometimes for under five dollars so I find them to be a real bargain. They are very easy to stack as well. Sometime ago, I did the same thing with my 25/28mm SYW collection which probably numbers over 4,000 figures. Since I had the figures mounted on double-tempered hardboard and didn't want to remount them on metal bases (as I've done for all of my other collections), I just cut out the hardboard and placed it in the plastic box without using magnetic strips. Works out well. These 4,000 + figures are in approximately a dozen such storage boxes stacked three or four high and take up very little space.
I am attempting to put the finishing touches on my 20mm Franco-Prussian War project and organized all of my units into brigades, divisions, and corps. In this fashion, I was able to identify what figures/equipment I still require to fill out all of the corps. I found some large hard plastic cafeteria trays which had been discarded and r use them to hold troops which are headed for the tabletop. This also allows me to set out periods on the table where I can easily break them down into corps, as described above, and move them to my storage shelves easily and quickly. For wargames, I can have the units set out on the trays ready to hand to players to set on the tabletop. Sometimes I amaze myself as to my extreme cleverness!
I just made what I believe is my last order to BROOKHURST HOBBIES for the wonderful B&B 20mm FPW line. Quite a few guns - Bavarian, Prussian and French foot guns; nine battalions of French line infantry to complete a French Corps; the two remaining horse units I don't have Wurttemburg Reiters and French Chasseur d' Afrique (never liked their uniform!) more engineers and pioneers, and quite a few mounted command figures for both sides. Ch, you probably have considered this, but if you are doing the FPW period, and are looking for French mounted officers, you may wish to consider using some ACW mounted officers in kepi as they work very well and give you a little more variety.
I continue to be attracted by the 20mm scale - ever since I saw Dick Larsen of Seattle put on a 20mm ACW and 20mm Spanish Civil War game out west. There seem to be many more offerings in this scale and IRREGULAR MINIATURES continually expands their already large lines with more and more periods in 20mm. Speaking of 20mm, I spoke with Hap Jordan yesterday who reported that he has sold his 20mm SYW and Napoleonic lines to Chris of OUTLAND GAMES, 1061 Bertram Ave., Dayton, OH 45406 (e-mail: outland@erinet.com). I have to thank Hap for producing this fine line of SYW figures I've never seen the Napoleonics - I know this has been a labor of love for him and I'm sure he'll miss it in the future. Hap stated he is expecting more masters in for both periods. Perhaps Chris could let us know when the lines will be available.
I've also been amusing myself by making lists of my periods of involvement and scale(s) and debating as to which I should pursue. I don't know why I find this activity so pleasurable! The count reached fourteen periods/scales, which seems, even to me, a bit "excessive", bordering on 11 greediness!" After reducing them, it seems like it only takes a year or so to get right back up to where I was! Too many fantastic items are available in this hobby of ours!
AVALANCHE PRESS LTD., PO Box 4775, Virginia Beach, VA 23454 (800-5649008; e-mail: AvlchPress@aol.com: www.AvalanchePress.com) has released WINTER FURY - The Battle of Tolvajarvi, 1939 ($29.95), a board game. Speaking of this conflict, Clem Clemens lent me WINTER WAR, a Finnish movie on the Russo-Finnish War. Worth seeing if you get a chance.
J&T MINIATURES has a new e-mail: gregorys@tds.net.
HEISER'S MODELS INC., PO Box 6187, Lakewood, CA 99714-6187 (e-mail: heisermodels@earthlink. net has some new resin kits: T-60 1941 Russian light tank, T60 1942, T-60 Model 1942 unarmored
turret, T-38 1938 Russian amphibious light tank. Each are $14.50.
Bob Bowling of RLBPSB (rlbpsb@earthlink.net) is now carrying Copplestone Castings.
Clem Clemens reports he has obtained items from the following: THE SCHOLAR'S BOOKSHELF, 110 Melrich Rd., Cranbury, NJ 08512 (www.scholarbookshelf.com); BELLE & BLADE home video, 124 Penn Ave., Dover, NJ 07801 (phone: 973-328-8488; www.belleandblade.com) I would add they have an excellent selection of videos; and the HISTORY catalog from THE SCHOLAR'S BOOKSHELF. I believe BELLE & BLADE offer THE WINTER WAR video. In the move, the Russians are always wearing the Russian Civil War fur caps with the red start on them while the Finns are wearing the German steel helmet although I believe their version was a little different than the WWII German helmet, being closer, in fact to the WWI German steel helmet. However, I am clearly no expert on the matter so don't take my word on it. However, if you do Russian Civil Wargaming, it would seem quite easy to pit them against the Finns in 1939.
If you are looking for the old GALLIA 15mm figure lines, check out WARRIOR MINIATURES (www.warrioronline.demon.co.uk/gallia/index.htm). The WARRIOR catalog is on line at
www.warriorminiatures.com.
MWANer Mark Brown reports there is a chat room website for SYW, Napoleonics and ACW at lacewars@yahoogroups.com.
Check out the COMBINED ARMS INC catalog (see ad in this issue for address); www.combinedarmsinc.com; e-mail: combinedarms@yahoo.com. Well done effort and many interesting items in 20/25mm. They are really expanding their new 20mm Vietnam line.
OLD GLORY has a new web site (www.Oldgloryminiatures.com.); I noticed they have a new Vauban Brick fort but I am not sure if it is 15mm or 25mm.
Sudan
Just theother day, I received the first batch of painted 15mm Sudan items from my good friend,
Len Brewer, who has been painting for me for years. Several Egyptian infantry units, an Egyptian irregular infantry foot unit, several units of Dervish riflemen and melee-armed, lots of guns and limbers, and many water carts and ammo wagons - you have to have supply wagons for the Sudan! Even a Hicks Pasha figure! I'm anxious to get down to the basement and terrain them. My
intention is to base the Allied foot six to a stand (three horse) and probably ten native
foot/stand (five horse). I am going to terrain them with "Lake Michigan" sand and
then use Elmer's White Glue and drop on some Woodland Scenics terraining items. This is what I used for my 25mm NWF project and the stands look very good (to me, at least!) and they are extremely simple to do. If there was a period which begs for a campaign, it is the Sudan! My interest, as you may remember, is the Early Sudan
when Gordon Pasha tried to deal with the
rebellion. Lots of Bashi-Bazouks stationed
throughout the Sudan in tiny forts/towns
and a growing number of Dervish! Egyptian
columns making their way through the
desert being followed by thousands of
Dervish who select the time and place of
the deadly encounter. Hicks Pasha with his
ill-trained army facing wave after wave of
fanatical tribesmen; the British Camel Corps
column attempting to save Gordon at
Khartoum; British and/or Egyptian gunboats
making their way up or down the Nile
stopping at small villages for firewood to
continue their voyage; detachments of
Naval Brigade gathering firewood; the list of
possibilities goes on and on! Colonial
wargaming at it's very best! Native
bashing? Perhaps; but we've all seen the
natives inflict terrible casualties on the
British in games, haven't we! The reason for
my heavy interest in supply wagons/pack
camels and mules is that the British and/or
Egyptians must ensure their supply train is
safe - if they don't, the Dervish don't have
to defeat them in an open battle. You can't
go anywhere with supplies in the heat of the Sudan!
I am growing anxious to get my Sudan "desert" table covering from Howard Whitehouse along with Sudan scenery and buildings. I may have mentioned that I purchased a 6' X 20' (or so) "tannish" felt piece from a local fabric store (had to special order the color) and sent it to Howard so he could "terrain" it so it would look like a desert. He did this for me many years ago and I was very pleased with the result. However, I somehow "lost" it when we thought we were moving.
I would like to develop a set of rules for the Sudan in 15mm based upon Howard's SCIENCE VS PLUCK, which if you haven't seen, is worth getting and reading even if you aren't into the Sudan. Howard writes in a style only Howard can do! Entertaining and exciting; gets you really more interested in the period!
Has anyone purchased any of the OLD GLORY 15mm Sudan line? If so, I'd love to see an in-depth review on it. Seems very extensive with a wide variety of figures and figure poses. I've never had the chance to study the individual figures within the bags. I'd be curious as to how they fit with other Sudan 15mm lines such as Essex.
MWAN is coming up on it's 20th year of publication having started in September, 1982. Hard to believe! Had someone told me back then I'd still be going in 2001 and shown me a copy of a current MWAN, I would not have believed it! Reminds me that I am indeed a very fortunate fellow having had the opportunity to interact with so many people throughout the years who share a love for our hobby - playing with toy soldiers. If I have figured it correctly,
MWAN #118 should mark 20 years (19 years x 6 issues = 114 plus 4 issues published the first year = 118). I am reminded, however, that MWAN has a long way to go match Donald Featherstone's 214 issues of WARGAMER'S NEWSLETTER or Duncan MacFarlane's record between the two publications he has done over the years (possibly more than 214). I don't know where Dick Bryant of THE COURIER stands regarding number of issues between THE COURIER and the "old" COURIER, but it has to be quite a few and Dick may well be the record holder as to number of years having served us with a wargaming publication. Oh well, perhaps we are all crazy, uh!
What types of rules are you using out there for WWII 28mm wargaming? I've got my collection mounted on single stands, except for heavy weapons which are mounted two or three to a stand. I would like to set them out on the table but I don't know what to use for as far as rules. I don't want to do a "skirmish" type of game; something between skirmish and larger scale gaming. I've got all of the RAPID FIRE books and sometimes think I could use their approach for WWII 28mm; has anyone tried to do that? Len Brewer swears by this rules set and someday, I'm going to take part in one of his games. Len has a huge collection of 20mm WWII covering the Russian, European, and Pacific Fronts. In addition, he's had Curt Murff construct many destroyed buildings and terrain items for him. I'm looking forward to seeing it all on the tabletop!
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© Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum
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