In the vein of other contributions to MWAN, I thought I would sit down and list all the things I am interested in, and where I have got to, if anywhere! I know I like reading about what other garners are up to, even though it often just makes me want to cry - others seem to be so prolific. That other Brother In The True Scale, Mad Charley Elsden, produces more figures a month than I do in a year, and all in the sublime 54mm too - how do you do it Charley? So, here goes with my ramblings for your delectation and delight. I'd love to hear from anyone who shares any of these, sometimes arcane, periods - email address at the end. The names that keep coming up are the others guys, and gal - we have one female member.
The Classic Old West Cowtown and Gunfighter Era:
54mm - all based around our own Pima County, New Mexico Territory, in the 1870s, 80s and 90s. This is a "first love" for all of our group, and we always play at least one game in this period whenever we meet at my place in the Derbyshire Dales - we just don't do enough of it. I have the 54mm Western Town from all of mine and Doc Bell's [one of our group] buildings, dozens of clap-board and adobe [though Wild Al, another gang member, has most of the latter] buildings, which have been sadly knocked about over the last 35 years, so they are now Work-InProgress [WIP - a phrase which appears all to often in this list!]. Duke Millard and I did some work on rebasing all the old buildings in "Sundance Wilson style", ie on textured base-boards, with the buildings together in "Lots", and with loads of superdetail on the bases and around the buildings. In our games we always spend time putting these extras on before a game - having them on permanently will speed things up, and will actually look better. Some are repainted and on bases now and I need to pick up on finishing them. Al Winsbury has done this to the adobes and they look GREAT.
120mm: there are some excellent larger figures for the period - the OK Corral would look sooo good in this scale - Duke, Doc and I have talked about it and how good it would be. Now Doc has bought me Wyatt Earp and Billy The Kid in the Action-Man size figures, but I must resist going that way.
The Foundry figures keep making me think about 28mm too - but I mustn't.
The Earlier Spanish Borderlands: with Presidiales and Apaches and Comanches, from mid 1500s through 1600s and 1700s to mid 1800s. We've done this in 25mm, with the Comanches and Usares de Texas c1806, which is great fun, but have nothing in 54mm yet, which seems amazing. I want to expand the 25mm using the figures from the London War Room, who make some nice Presidiales and Spanish militia. I aim to add Regular Dragoons, Apache and Pima allies, more Comanches and some Broncho Apaches on leather armoured horses too.
The Mexican Revolution: with the US Intervention too. We have a 54mm minicampaign going, based on a patrol of US Cavalry from the Pershing Expeditionary Force, and characters from the film The Wild Bunch and a series of pulp paperback novels called The Gringos. We also have Rurales, of course, some mean hombres.
Again, we don't play this often enough - our poor guys are stranded down in Mexico and don't even get to fight now and again! I have some Mexican Villistas/Zapatistas/bandidos from assorted heavily converted Britains, Timpo and unknown makers figures, complete with a bugler and a flag. I also have some of Les White's metal Mexicans to do up. This is a real favourite of mine, I must get back into it. There are some nice 28mm figures out for the period too!! Mexican-American War: We did some games a few years ago in 54mm, and more recently in 15mm and even more recently Duke and Tex have some 25mm figures they are working on. Its Mexico so I like it! I have some 54mm figures WIP. It ties in with the Texian Revolution, of course, and we did a few games in this too - we did our version of the Alamo many years ago called "Remember Cadero!" and it would be good to get back into it in any scale, but especially 54mm. I've always wanted to do some Mexican cavalry - now the Italeri Hussars are out...!
French Interventions in Mexico: one in 1836 [The Pastry War] and again with Maximillian in 1861-5. We've done the latter, and Wild Al had a campaign going with most of us involved. Another great period, and we have a lot of 54mm figures now too - Zouaves, F Legion, Juaristas, Imperialists, Contras etc, including Max and Carlotta and Flashman! I'm actually researching the Royal Marines in Mexico, when they raised a Mounted Troop - yep, real Horse marines! I've always fancied the 1836 one too - French Naval landing parties, Marines et al. We also have a load of Foundry 28mm figures for a big Camerone demo/participation game. Les and I have done a preliminary game at Partizan.
Plains Indian v Plains Indians: 54mm -Doc and I have had some good games with just Indians and we had a fun game at Ted's place with an Indian mounted clash and some special rules which rewarded Indian style behaviour. The rules are very much WIP still, but produced some good moments. I still remember the Pawnee in Dances With Wolves - wouldn't that be good in 54mm?!
US Cavalry on the Plains: 54mm- we have an on-going campaign which is in the doldrums at the moment, yet it was a great source of games. This could be a prime contender for another game soon, but with everyone making their own characters, Cavalry and Indian, mounted and foot versions. We're working our way through the 1870s and have done Fetterman and the Wagon Box fights. Lucky Pete has started some super Sioux/early Comanche, but activity seems to have fizzled out on this period at the moment.
AWI: 54mm - Bunker [Breed's] Hill, was one of our demo games that not just us thought was good - it won the Wargames Illustrated Best Demo Game award! It was also an excellent game, which not only looked quite spectacular but also played well. No one who was there will ever forget Duke and Al's rendition of "The British Grenadiers" which accompanied every British move. We've done some good smaller skirmishes too - the Loyalist Raid on Millard's Hole, which we've played twice, once in the snow, and Cherry Valley. I love the amphibious landings, with the Rangers in whale boats and the Royal Navy rowing in the British and Hessians in landing craft. I have Continental cavalry WIP and want to do some British Light Dragoons to fight them too - now the Helmet figures are around again, and Irregular do reasonably priced metal riders, maybe I wont have to convert them all. I have some Jaegers on the go too, plus some Grenadiers to add to the Hessians. The figures are Preiser, a German maker, and are hard plastic "multi-pose" style. They make up into very nice figures.
ACW: 54mm - a real love for me. We've done demos of Gaine's Mill and the Louisiana Tigers, Gettysburg and the magnificent Antietam/Sharpsburg. Having been to both battlefields twice now, I'd like to do Gettysburg again, and do some of the other aspects of the 3 days we didn't do, like Buford's cavalry defence on the first day, Culp's Hill, the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard etc. I have 25mm figures WIP too, and have tried to get involved with Sundance's group and their ACW games. All these ACW 54mm figures coming out are manna from heaven. I am also interested in the War in the West, and would like to do some of these battles too - in both 54mm and 25mm. The Foundry "Guerrillas and Bushwhackers" Range are great - I have converted some to Red Legs and played a few games with them at the Foundry Fortress in Nottingham. "Ride With The Devil" - what a great movie - and just full of scenarios for skirmishes!
WWI: 54mm - a passing fancy only - a trench raid. Figures and a trench system which are not even WIP.
WWII: 54mm - a long time fancy of mine has been to do American Paras. I have always fancied a scenario with them at a crossroads holding up a German advance. With all the new Conte and 21st C figures and vehicles out this one has "come of age" and 3 or 4 of us are working on stuff. Lucky Pete has undertaken to mastermind a campaign set in France/Germany, and I have just invested in the Conte 54mm ruined French church - superb. I have WIP also for the Russian Front, or rather Stalingrad, after reading Bevor's book [a must read for anyone interested in the period] in 1/35th scale for both sides.
Colonial: - the current big buzz, since the Armies In Plastic [AIP] figures hit these shores! We have amassed a large force of British, to which I have contributed mightily. I have 21's Lancers [massacred first time out and now bolstered with a Maxim!]; Cameron Highlanders; 1/Derbyshires; Highland Light Infantry; Madras Pioneers; 127th Balooch LI; 4th Punjab [Wilde's Rifles]. For the other, "Navite" side I have raised FuzzyWuzzies [metal Irregular figures; Ansar [ditto]; Camelry [a figure we had made & cast especially for us]; Cavalry [assorted Arab and Saracen types]. But what about:
American ie Spanish-American War , Cuba and the Philippines. This has always been an interest of mine and I have a mass of info on uniforms etc. 54mm figures are now available from Armies In Plastic and I have done some American infantry [for our Boxer game] and want to do some more. Pete has done some too. Ted and I have the San Juan playset with a Spanish block-house, and figures for both sides, but mine is not even WIP. I'd love to do some Moros - had a great 25mm game fighting them at Historicon - they are some mean bastards and take a hell of a stopping. More figures to come too, I believe, so this is a real possibility.
Spanish in North Africa from the 1850s through to the 1930s. We have Arabs, just need some Spanish colonial types, so I am raising a Spanish Colonial force for our campaign for the c1890s period. The infantry, from AIP
French - not so much the classic Foreign Legion in North Africa [which I do have some 54mm figures for] but rather the earlier conquest of Algeria in the 1830s. I have been working on Bryan Ansell at Foundry to do a range of 28mm figures, but no success so far. They'd be fairly easy in 54mm to convert from Napoleonic figures I guess. I would also like to get into Tonkin etc, and the later fighting in North Africa between the World Wars.
Italian - Chris and Ted have Italian Colonial troops and Abyssinians, and we did a great refight of Adua, in which I managed to keep true to history and got the Italians slaughtered!
Boxer Rebellion - we did a big game for the anniversary, with a superb terrain by Ted of the legation buildings, and figures for the French, British, American and Japanese legations taking on AIP Boxers and Tiger men. It looked wonderful. Les and I brought some of the troops over to Historicon this year and did a game too.
17th Century: Tangiers - oft spoken of, never ventured into. The snag was the amount of conversion needed - but Irregular may have come to the rescue?
ECW: here we have started, the idea being "en masse", like 25mm but in 54mm, not the skirmish type game we usually do, using the Warhammer ECW rules. Massed pikes and musketeers - it's going to look damn fine. The Call To Arms figures are ideal but cavalry are the problem - but again, Irregular have come up with riders at a fair price - and with Maros dismounted figures, it's a real possibility at last. Roundway Down here we come - and to hell with Hazelrigg's Lobsters! I am raising a Scots army, just to be different, and Duke and Les are in on it too.
Mountain Men: 54mm and a campaign that has lasted about 20 years! One we all love, I know. Again, more games would be good, but we don't meet often enough, is the problem. We have a lot of figures now, real characters, and bits and pieces too, like the keelboats. We must have another game soon, and get the "Chronicles of Nazareth Hawkins, Mountain Man" going again.
Sci-Fi: Crazy C made a comment about this - along the lines of "it's a long way from the Old West to the 41st Century!" and he's right. But I have always read Sci-fi and been a bit of a Trekker, so its not so odd. We are doing:
28mm Warhammer 40K - our own world of Viridian Prime and its chronicles. Mostly Games Workshop stuff, but lots of conversions because that's what I love to do, and other makes woven in to, like I-Kore [ex Target]. I have WIP, mainly Sisters of Battle, Mercenaries and to come Dark Eldar; Duke has some figures already done from previous encounters with the period/scale; Lucky Pete was supposed to be building a humongous spaceship out of an old vacuum cleaners!
200mm Necromunda Rex - our take on GW's skirmish game with scratch-built figures. Tex and Duke's entirely scratch-built terrain is tremendous, Dukes figures are great, and mine, well modesty forbids, but they have to be seen to be believed! We were asked by GW to put on a demo game at their Black Library Open Day at GW Galactic HQ in Nottingham for which I built 3 specially commissioned figures [Kal Jerico and Scabs, his sidekick, and a pitslave boss], which Duke painted, and again at their gigantic Games Day, where our stuff was a bit hit with the crowds.
Probably some missing but it will do for now. If you want to get in touch, email botch.blake@virgin.net.
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© Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum
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