By Len Brewer - ARNHEM: DEFEAT AND GLORY I recently received the following book as a gift from a gaming friend. ARNHEM: DEFEAT AND GLORY. A Miniaturist Perspective by G.S.W. DeLillio. This book deals with the Allies' ill-fated "Operation Market Garden" in September of 1944. The text of the book is a very good account of whit the allies wanted to do and what exactly happened. The best part of the book is that all of the pictures used in this book are taken with 20mm miniatures and accessories. The figures are set in exciting and realistic looking scenes of the fighting between the British Airborne and the German defenders. This book is in the 8 1/2" by 11" format. There are 164 pages with 110 color photos, charts, maps and diagrams. This book is a great addition to the World War II gamer and Historian. Available for $35 at your local bookstores. The author is currently working on two new books dealing with the "D-Day" invasion in the same format. Very highly recommended. By Hal Thinglum - Volley & Bayonet Fioure Movement Trays - Timothy C. Wright, 425 North 13th Street, Springfield, IL 62702, sent some very well done resin movement trays for the popular Volley & Bayonet rules set. These are three inches square, made of resin, and the area holding the figure stands is two inches square. The back has a raised section for application of the unit name and there are two "pegs" on each side of the unit name area to mark off morale status. I don't have the prices on this items, but check with Tim. For those who like movement trays, this is an excellent idea! By Hal Thinglum - J&T MINIATURES BICORNE 25mm COLONIAL LINE - J&T Miniatures, 31216 County Road 112, Pequot Lakes, MN 56472 (phone: 218-568-7447; e-mail: joe1@Jandtminiatures.com; web page: http://Jandtminiatures.com/) has many interesting items which I've used over the years, however, when I saw they had a new listing - 25mm Bicorne Miniatures - including a Colonial line, I was very interested to see what they looked like! I was not disappointed! The line is quite extensive and even more helpful, contains figures unobtainable elsewhere. There are 1896 Italians, Abyssinians, Sudanese, Fuzzies, and an extensive Northwest Frontier line, which really attracted my attention! 1879-80 British infantry, Highlanders, Indian Sikh and Dogra/Bombay infantry, and a real find - Afghan regular infantry from the Kabul Regiment (1879-81) from the Second Afghan War. In addition, there is a nice selection of NWF tribesmen both mounted and on foot. Bags are $4.00 for four infantry/two mounted/artillery packs of three figures and one ammo box. You can also purchase bags of 24 foot/$20; 6 mounted/$15; or two guns/2 sets of crew for $15. These large bags usually come with command figures. The Afghan regular infantry are about 27mm from top of base to eye level and are standing at attention with rifles held against their right leg. Very nice looking figure; no flash to speak of; and good detail. The bad news is that they do not offer command for this pack and I am not sure where to obtain at least an officer figure. The FOUNDRY is the only company making such figures, in addition to BICORNE, and they are currently unavailable. If anyone knows of a source, please let me know. I also got some Bombay Indian infantry for the Second Afghan War -there was a unit of them at Maiwand. There are two poses of infantry: at ready and loading; nice poses! There are four command figures: two different officers, a sergeant, and bugler. I like these figures a lot! The at ready and loading mix well together in the same unit. Also obtained some NWF tribesmen to fill in some gaps in my collection: there are two packs of mounted tribesmen - one with spears (not included) and the second with sword. I am not crazy about the horse poses - one of them seems to have three feet off the ground and seems to be all legs. There are no pose variations within packs. There are five packs of tribesmen on foot (kneeling firing, kneeling loading, lying down firing, advancing w/sword & shield, casualties lying dead, and a great command pack of foot and mounted leader and a nicely done standard bearer. The mounted leader does not fit on the horse very well and will require some filing. In addition, BICORNE offers an "equipment" range which I found very interesting: 7 pd mounted gun, ammo boxes, Abyssinian MG/crew as well as pack of the Royal party, and a shepherd with a flock of sheep/goats and dog ($6.50; which I received and like very much; the animals are grouped very closely together and will be easy to paint while the shepherd is sitting on a large boulder); and Arabic desert market stalls with merchandise and figures ($41.50 but the individual stalls can be purchased separately as can the people. The stalls and merchandise are all metal; there are no instructions for assembly but this is a very useful pack of items for the NWF. The people are also useful: leader/elder, woman & baby, two children, man carrying sack and blind beggar. I really like to have items like this for my tabletop! A most interesting line and highly recommended! If I could add, I would highly recommend Joel Gregory of J&T Miniatures; he offers imported items at extremely reasonable prices and is a very pleasant person to deal with! BACCUS6 Peter Berry of BACCUS6 29 Highcliffe Drive Sheffield, S11 7LT UK I have been designing and selling BACCUS6 figures for the last few years on the basis of being a part time enterprise. The last few months have seen a huge increase in demand for my little men to such an extent that I have been hard put to keep up with orders, bring new releases out and do all the numerous jobs required. As a result, I have decided to take BACCUS to the next stage in its development and run it as a fulltime professional operation. What will this mean? I hope only good things. Orders will be filled more quickly. I should get time to design all those figures that you are patiently waiting for. I intend at some time to supply to retain/trade outlets, so that you will be able to buy any BACCUS products locally. I also have plans to develop new products - I have a few `pet projects' that have always remained in the background because of a lack of development time. While it is a big step for me personally, I could not have contemplated this without the knowledge that I have a solid and loyal group of customers out there who have not only proffered their money, but their advice, their enthusiasm and their support. A very big "Thank you" to all of you! Let's see what the future will bring. Back to MWAN # 121 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com