I have recently returned from holiday in the English Lake District and, while it is lovely countryside, I find myself distracted by considerations of matters which have nothing to do with surrounding scenic beauty. As the rest of tourist humanity gazes with contented serenity on the pastoral scenes before them, my head is full of lines of march and how I never seem to make enough allowance for the restrictions imposed by natural obstacles. Walking in a straight line for any distance in single file is rare enough to make one wonder at the disruption which would be caused in a column of soldiers.
Something as simple as a large boulder lying in the line of march would be sufficient to cause the whole column to swerve to the left or right of it, since the chaos which would follow in the organisation of the column from flowing round either side of the boulder would result in a greater loss of time. In any future ambush of column manoeuvre I will try to give more weight to the consideration of the effect that unexpected minor detours will have on the column. The Lake District is of volcanic origin and the hills rise steeply from the floor of the dales, severely restricting cavalry movement to clearly defined routes. The valleys in the north of England are called dales, and in Scotland they are called glens. So, if you are ever asked, "What is the difference between dales and glens?" you can answer, "About two hundred miles!"
What follows now are some reflections on the collecting aspect of our hobby. It is a reasonable assumption that you will have started on any given period in one of two main ways. Firstly, you may have purchased or been given or otherwise obtained, figures in the period which sparked an interest, or, secondly, the period itself will long have held an interest for you which has been sharpened by seeing or reading something in MWAN or elsewhere. By whatever method you arrive at it, you will now have reached a point where an amount of research is obligatory if you are to satisfactorily proceed with your interest.
The research should enable you to determine what figures and terrain you will need to carry out your chosen project. An unfortunate side-effect of this research, for me, is that it also shows what you do not have. My chosen period is the European land campaigns of the Seven Years War, with large, but finite, forces involved. An initial frenzy of purchase activity follows which, unless you are very careful or lucky, leads to the possibility of some duplications. In the case of Prussian line infantry, this can often be resolved by changing the design on one of the regiment's two flags, creating a second acceptable regiment. While, at this stage, the volume of figures obtained is of paramount importance, this ought to be tempered by consideration of what will remain acceptable over the long term. I failed to take my own advice in this matter, and am now faced with taking unpalatable decisions regarding unit replacement. These decisions are made difficult, not by the figures themselves, since they are clearly not of the same standard as their fellows, but by the affection in which the memory of their purchase is still held.
While, in some cases, this could bring a tear to a glass eye, a degree of self-control and ruthlessness will have to be applied if the quality of the total collection is to significantly improve. The whole matter has been brought to a head by the pending completion of the Prussian army, and a review of what there is has shown some discrepancies in terms of quality. It is at times like these that, were I of an envious disposition, I would regard with a great degree of envy those of my colleagues whose projects call for small numbers of figures, or who are sufficiently talented to carry out their own painting. In either event. a uniformity of finish could be readily achieved and the matter of unit replacement need never arise.
There is, moreover, a further constraint on the collection, in terms of storage space. Quite apart from the disproportionately large amount of space taken up by various seldomused terrain pieces, the actual figures in the collection are housed in some 44 foolscap file boxes, totally filling the large cupboard they live in. I have recently completed a change of ratio for all of the armies - from 55:1 to 40:1 - to allow for an average 16-man battalion, and from the amount of work involved, a further ratio change is not an option.
Before the `Union of Figure Painters' decides to double its membership, I should point out that, while the total amount of painting work should be considerable, it will not be issued in one large block of orders, but rather as smaller, financially manageable, amounts. I shall have to compile a list of the Prussian units which ought to be upgraded, in order of urgency of replacement. I can foresee many a happy hour engaged in this activity. The whole issue, of course, need not be addressed until all of the armies are completed.
When sufficient money is available to start on the Prussian list, the expenditure has to be weighed against obtaining a missing unit of, say, Austrians, and the choice only gets difficult when all of the armies have all of the units that space allows. Then I will be faced with many happy hours of deciding the priority of replacement. What a hobby! Decisions, decisions...
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© Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum
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