There was a serious error on the resubscription code for #126; the company used by my printer to prepare MWAN for the bulk mailing and make labels did not include it; rather, they included some post office code. Hopefully, this will not happen again. I am sorry for any problems it caused MWANers.
I have really been enjoying doing "hobby stuff" the last few weeks. I've been working as a consultant two or three days a week and although I can not devote myself to my hobby during the rest of the time, I have found more time to spend in the basement than I have in years! I have found this very relaxing and rewarding!
I've been working on several projects - first of all, I sat down and determined what I need to have painted to complete my 20mm ACW project. I have all of the figures except some standing cavalry horses to be used with horseholders stands; I just didn't know how many mounted officers should be painted as USA or CSA. Now, I've got that all figured out and the project is nearly completion. I am hoping it will be finished by the summer time.
Lastly, I've spent most of my time organizing my 15mm ECW/TYW project. Over the years, I've accumulated many figures for this period and wasn't quite sure what I still needed to get. First of all, I went through and separated them: the Scots Army and Polish Army were boxed separately; it then made it easy to box all of the infantry separate from the horse and artillery. I noticed that my Polish/Eastern Renaissance Army had lots of mounted knights with lances. These were obtained from Essex, Irregular Miniatures, and Donnington Miniatures (they have a very extensive TYW line, by the way), and although it seems to me that I have lots of mounted knights with lances, they must have been used considerably in the TYW. Can someone with some knowledge of the period drop me an email about this subject? Thank you!
While viewing the artillery, I decided to differentiate medium from heavy artillery. What I'd done in the past is to mount the crew and gun on two different sized metal bases, which made this task easier. The size of the metal base depended upon the size of the gun. I counted up the heavy guns and realized I had 14 of them; thus, it was easy to keep the crew size at four for heavy guns, and then to go back and remove one crew member from each of the medium guns with smaller metal stands. This gave me a surplus of artillery crew - a good thing - as I had a considerable number of guns, limbers, and limber horses.
Now, I can really understand, for the first time actually, that it is not necessary to have limbers for the ECW/TYW period. From what I have read, once a gun was unlimbered and placed somewhere, that is where it stayed during the battle. However, I can not budge from my need for "orderliness" on the wargames table. If it is a "gun", there must be some means of transportation on the tabletop! The Scots Frame Guns have two crew members with a pack horse on the same stand -- these are "very light" guns. The "light" guns have the same. These are like "galloper guns." The gun is harnessed to the horse rather than to a limber. Medium and heavy guns have a limber and horse/oxen team and many have a "handler" figure. I've toyed with the idea of having a two horse/oxen team for heavy guns and one for medium guns, however, I decided against obtaining additional two-animal limbers. See, I'm not quite as inflexible as I seem!
I've been painting guns and limbers and will soon start on limber horses. I've been using the black primer method where I spray paint them black and then take a stiff brush and apply the base coat of paint leaving some of the black showing. I'm not good, by any means, at this, but it satisfies me.
I've got a neat 15mm ECWperiod warship with naval guns and have been wondering how I would mount the gun crews. I am currently thinking that I will paint the figure stand and metal stand the color of the ship's deck. I will have two gun crew figures on a single metal stand to man a single naval gun. I suppose I should have some armed ship's crew as well; hadn't thought of that till now! Ummmm! I picked up the ship thinking that it would be useful for coastal actions against a coastal fort though I haven't found one yet.
I do have quite a few ECW field fortifications and I suppose these could do the trick in a pinch! Does anyone else do 15mm ECW ship actions? If so, I'd sure like to hear from you as to how you do it (rules and organization as well as where you obtain the ships). I think the one I have is from J&T MINIATURES. Reminds me that I'd like to pick up one of Joel Gregory's 15mm ACW paddle-wheel gun boats for use in a Shiloh 20mm game. I would think I could get by with a 15mm gunboat for 20mm figures, wouldn't you?
Also separated the ECW/TYW horse by type and realized I have six units (12 figures on three stands) of Cuirassiers. These have been built for the TYW as they seemed to have lots of cuirassiers in TYW battles. I suppose I could use some more. Donnington has a very nice line of TYW figures, as I've previously mentioned, including Finnish horse. I can't recall the name of them.
I'm waiting for my Highlander ,'mobs" to be painted; when they are done, I'll be ready to do a campaign using Chris J. Hahn's campaign rules previously printed in MWAN. I have one such unit at the present. I recently based and terrained several units of Irish Musketeers. They are the among the few foot units without pikemen with a few units of Eastern Renaissance foot being the other exceptions. I did put together a number of foot stands - nine figures to a base - of musketeers only. These, I envisioned, would represent "detached" musketeers who were then grouped together and sometimes placed between units of horse. They are not, as I have the rest of my musketeers, place in a firing line three figures deep, but rather, dispersed on the single metal stand.
Lastly, I finished basing and terraining my mounted officers. The Army commander has three mounted figures on a stand; there are a number of two-figure stands representing commanders of the flanks and center; and lots of single figure stands representing brigade commanders. I also have two "coaches" each with two mounted figures - a trumpeter and a flag bearer, to represent a "King." Because baggage trains were so important, I have lots of wagons, ox carts, water carts, etc., to represent such encampments.
I hope to finish the 15mm ECW/TYW project in the year 2003. I am sorely tempted to pick up some of the new PETER PIG ECW figures available from BROOKHURST HOBBY, as I have figures from probably every other 15mm ECW/TYW manufacturer.
In the back of my mind, I keep thinking it would good to have more ship models for sea battles. I've thus resisted the urge to pursue this vigorously. The other "need" which I've resisted thus far is to find a "coastal fortress" for ships to attack. Does anyone know of a 15mm producer of such a structure?
I recently received an e-mail from Stuart Asquith who reported that his hobby involvement had been nil for some time until he received some Spencer-Smith miniatures and this event had encouraged him to do some serious painting. Brings back memories of reading Charles Grant's book on SYW wargaming in which he used the Spencer-Smith figures unmounted.
Makes me wonder how they all stood up on the tabletop! I used to read and reread this excellent book and look at the pictures of what I envisioned as huge, unattainable sized armies. Now my 25mm SYW armies far outnumber Charles' armies some twenty-five (or more) years later! Number One, where has the time gone; Number Two, we (I) are so spoiled in this grand hobby! We can get anything we want in any scale. There are so many manufacturers for each period/scale that we have such a choice. Charles used his SYW Spencer-Smith figures for the SYW as well as the AWI. It's a little sad to think that we just wouldn't do that nowadays, would we! Can't we even use the SYW Prussian fusilier infantry in mitres as AWI Hessians? No, I would submit that their gaiters are different in the AWI than they were in the SYW. Oh! We can't even use Napoleonic era British in stovepipe for the 1813-1815 European campaigns, can we! I can't! Is there something wrong with this picture?! Anyway, I used to dream about the Spencer-Smith figures (30mm though probably much closer to 25mm, if I remember correctly). Many years ago, I order some of them and was disappointed to find out they were covered in plastic flash; I wonder if the molds have been redone since that time. Does anyone know?
I've said this before some years ago, but when our local wargaming club was meeting on a regular basis, and local member Greg Principato (remember this, Greg?) was talking about having a line of "plastic" 30mm SYW figures designed for him, it sounded so exciting! Exciting, I am sure, because it reminded me of Charles' book and his figures. I've even entertained this notion over the years! What would you basically need as to figures? Well, nowadays you'd need historically correct figures with multiple poses for each type. At the time, I thought you could get by with one "musketeer" enlisted man type, an officer, standard bearer, and drummer. This would suffice for both sides. The musketeer would be in a march attack position and the figures could be painted for both sides. As to cavalry, you'd want a Hussar, Cuirassier, and Dragoon, and for artillery, a gun, limber, horse team, and an artilleryman with a rammer, one with a ball, and a third standing perhaps at attention. Who would purchase this limited figure range today? Nobody! That's who! But, does the possibility get your wargaming blood boiling? I'll bet it does! In all of us, there is, I believe, a yearning to return to those days of "yesteryear" when we could in no way afford the armies we dreamed about. We were able to paint everything we bought because we couldn't afford much; we were pleased (well, reasonably so) with the limited number of figures available for a period; we turned to "conversion" to fill gaps in a figure line; and we were spitting proud of our painted armies when we put them on the tabletop!
It is, I am sure, a natural thing to view our beginning hobby years with a high degree of nostalgia. Normal to think we were "happier" then, more personally "satisfied" and "excited" by our hobby involvement, and, in general, we like to view that period as a more "simple" existence. Over the last fifteen years or so, I have become a "collector", not a "wargamer." I hope to move more toward the "wargamer" end eventually, however, if we think of it, our beginning years in the hobby were probably prior to having children, and perhaps, before we were married. We had more time than money, and we had just discovered an entire new world of playing with the toy soldiers which we'd all loved as children! And to top it off, this hobby was fairly acceptable; perhaps not to the general public, but certainly to the other enthusiasts we encountered.
Our jobs were not as demanding and we simply had more time. Many of us, including myself, found such a sense of excitement in reading for the first time about European conflicts, what was going on Africa or India during the American Civil War? We never learned about that in school! Everything was new and, as such, exciting! There may have been one "old-timer" in our local wargames group, but the chances are all of us were roughly at the same stage of hobby involvement - NEW! Every meeting brought new information about books, painting information, tactics, history personalities, and once in awhile, a new figure release or a new figure company! Is it not easy to understand why we feel as we do nowadays compared to when we started? It is to me. I'd like to hear your thoughts on the subject - drop me an e-mail.
Its been several weeks since I wrote the above and since that time, I managed to do some serious painting for the ECW/TYW finishing off about fifteen guns, twenty-five or so limbers, nine limber horses, and basing all the guns and limbers. I also took the time to organize the project so I now have a much better idea of what I have. Its been a lot of fun and it is very nice to be back in the "hobby groove" again!
I moved on to my 20mm Peninsular War project and went through my Kennington Miniatures order to organize them. It is my intention to do a FIRE N' FURY Napoleonic variant type of approach using Bill Gray's rules which are available on the internet. I had hoped to organize the "units" so that they could be used for another rules set. The Kennington figures can be purchased at a lower price by buying them in °units" or "armies" as opposed to individual figures so that's what I did. From what I can tell, the infantry for all countries are sized at 24 figures while cavalry come in eight and twelve casting units. Thus, my organization is somewhat set by my purchasing. What I'm looking at is building British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese armies. I've supplemented this period with Qualiticast (available in the states from Brookhurst Hobbies) figures which are also very good and just a little bigger than the Kennington, but I think they fit together well.
I figure I should be able to build my "units" - infantry in this example - four figures to a base; six bases to a unit. From what I have seen of the FnF variant, the Napoleonic infantry brigades are "around" six bases each, give or take a few, but they seem to average around six. Therefore, I should be able to use this organization for both FnF and "another" of Napoleonic rules, don't you think? I'd like to hear from anyone who has done this sort of thing with Napoleonics!
MWANer Andrew Preziosi would like us to know the following Listed below is the URL for a sneak peek at our upcoming booklet: The First Sikh War Order of Battle Booklet: http://www.khvberpassgames.com/ The book is nearing completion and should be going to the printer by the end of the month/early December. If interested, we'd appreciate it if you would be kind enough to spread the word about the book (and KPG) via your publication. (We are very sorry, but due to the fact that we're a shoe-string company, we cannot afford to send out free review copies at this point in time). For more information about the rest of our books and games, please visit our website at: http://www.khvberoassciames.com/
Ian Hinds would like us to know that the "November and December List of Wargames Figures, Books and Games has now been posted on the Web Site at www.HindsFiquresLtd.com if you want to check it out yourself or let your Wargaming friends know about it, there are abundent new collections for sale. The Site also contains the range of Veni Vidi Vici Transfers, these can be bought separately or to accompany the armies you may buy secondhand. Lastly, I would like to remind everyone that we buy as well as sell, so if you have figures to sell please let us know."
I heard that OLD GLORY released a 10mm Napoleonic line and checked out their website for details. The line seems quite extensive and I am sure it will grow even more. I know I've mentioned in the past that of all of the figure scales, I suggest 10mm would be the ideal scale to use for large wargaming. Everyone's table would be adequate for large battles, there is a growing number of 10mm buildings and terrain available, and now with OLD GLORY's releases in this scale, there are more figures. Several MWANers have done articles on 10mm figure availability and it would be worth well to check your back issues to check out other available figure lines in 10mm. Since many MWANers appear to be in my age bracket (57), I am not sure about our ability to paint figures that small any more. I recently painted up some 20mm Confederates using the black priming method and felt cocky enough, following that, to try my hand at 15mm ECW mounted Dragoons and was very disappointed at the poor job I did. Perhaps it is a matter of trying harder and staying with it a little longer, but I just can't see the detail on the figure, even while wearing magnifying glasses. 10mm would be even more difficult, I assume. If any of you out there have purchased the Old Glory 10mm figures, I'd like to hear from you!
New Publisher
I had this issue of MWAN all ready to be sent to the printer when something happened within a very short period of time which necessitated taking it out of the mailing envelope and rewriting a portion of the editorial to allow me to make the announcement that effective with the next issue (MWAN #128), Don Perrin will be taking MWAN over. I will be staying on as an Associate Editor which is something both Don and I wanted to have happen. I've published MWAN for almost twenty-three years and although I remain enthusiastic about our hobby, doing what is necessary to keep MWAN what it is has just plain worn me out Long-time MWANers will remember the other two times in my life when I felt this way and I am very appreciative of the support you gave me through those periods. This time, however, is different for me. I know it is time for me to step down. Despite that, I feel very good about this decision for a number of reasons the most outstanding one being Don Perrin. Before today, I'd never met him. During the last week, we've been e-mailing each other about our philosophy regarding publishing and I am of the opinion that Don's view of MWAN pretty much mirrors my own. What I am excited about is Don's professional background and his plans to improve MWANrs visual aspect, something I've never been that concerned about because I knew I didn't have the skills or the interest to do so. I am also excited because I found Don to be a "gentleman" and I don't use that word lightly. You can be assured that Don will honor everyone's current subscriptions/advertisements. For now, however, resubscriptions should continue to be sent to me.
There will be much more about this transition in the next issue from both Don and I. Till then, thanks to all of you for your past, present, and future support of MWAN. It is much appreciated! Kindest Regards from HAL!
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© Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum
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