It's been an exciting time lately for me! So many ideas and periods running through this little mind of mine. I've written of my interest in the Franco Prussian War in 15mm as of late. I went through all of my old wargaming magazines (isn't that fun?) and marked off articles concerning the FPW - I finally made it over to a local store with a large xerox machine and copied hundreds of pages of articles. Glad to get that out of the way. The very next day I receive a huge package in the mail from Bob Burke, one of the authors of THEY DIED FOR GLORY within which he'd included dozens of articles on the period! Fun Stuff! That's not all - Len Brewer, a long-time MWAN'er who has been doing some major painting for me - came down on a Friday night and spent the evening! We stayed up late looking at my collection and talking about wargaming and then early Saturday morning, after I'd made bacon, eggs & toast (my favorite meal!), we drove down to EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS for Len's first visit. Had a great time! We both spent more than we had intended - actually, I only intended to accompany Len and not purchase anything at all - we had a really good time on Len's visit; it was especially good to sit around talking wargaming and showing my toys to someone else. A good time! OK, OK, even if I haven't painted a single figure for months doesn't mean that I can't buy more wargames figures!! Does it???? Actually, I haven't bought so many figures and accessories in years. Damn shame, isn't it! Hey, check out your local stores for painted houses! I recently stopped at a card discount store and was amazed to find a wide selection of 15-20-25mm beautifully painted houses for prices from $6 to $15; bought two really neat factories for the Franco-Prussian War and several houses. While at Carson, Prairie & Scott (Department store) I saw a collection of eight buildings (15mm) painted - great stuff and $5 each! Got address for this place but not for first place even though I asked clerks to find it for me. Can't believe what quality stuff like this is available! You know what's exciting for me lately? Planning new periods - not stopping at one, rather, just planning one and ordering the figures and then reading another book or seeing another movie about another period and getting excited about that period! I'm just a spineless creature with no self control! Speaking of movies, I've been renting lots of movies lately. Years ago (very early 70's) while in graduate school, my wife and I went to see THE LAST VALLEY with my favorite actor, Michael Caine and Omar Sheriff. I loved it; my wife was severely depressed! I'd been unable to find it since that time but two weeks ago at my local video store, I found it! It's about the Thirty Years' War and a good one. Watch this movie and you'll be running off to your local figures store to buy ECW 25mm figures for skirmish wargaming! Caine plays a mercenary Captain with about 20-30 followers who finds a valley that has been untouched by the war(s) and is persuaded to spare the village and spend the winter. Excellent movie! Also rented CROSS OF IRON with James Colburn and Maximillian Schnell, without a doubt the best war movie ever made; perhaps some of the Vietnam movies have been better, but it is a good one! Think I'll rent it again. If you haven't seen CROSS OF IRON, rent it! Gets me really going on the Eastern Front in 20mm. Also went to the library and got Paul Carell's excellent books HITLER MOVES EAST and SCORCHED EARTH, both of which I last read in high school (graduated in '64 so it's been awhile). I'd forgotten how good these books are. Also lucked out and got WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT 1941-45 The German Soldier in Russia by James Lucas - hey, great book! Gives you so many ideas for wargaming scenarios as do the first two. I had no idea what the German assault guns were like and how they were used! Unbelievable! Or the Nebelwerfer units - do you know there were 125,000 men in Nebelwerfer regiments? Do you know one of these regiments serving on the Russian Front was rebuilt three times from scratch? My good friend, Dwayne Warneck, who helped me take out my inground pool (bless your heart, Dude!), lent me a huge box of WWII materials which I have been studying. Dr. George Dullaghan, an MWAN Eastern Front nut, needs to get busy on his computer and pump out some articles on the subject! Come on, George! What a period of history! John Bruce of FIGURES, ARMOUR AND ARTILLERY, has a great range of 20mm WWII figures - Germans, UK, USA, Japanese, and Russians - dropped me a line and stated the following: "I note your developing interest in WWII. This is quite natural and, please, don't be afraid to tell others, come out, as it were" So, John, I will "come out", as it were. Actually, this period has my blood boiling! Last Sunday, Clem Clemens and a model railroader friend of his, took me to Wheaton, Illinois, for the monthly train show - hundreds of dealers at tables hawking their goods. I was telling Clem about my need for HO scale buildings for the Eastern Front project and Clem talked me into going to find such items. There were thousands(!!!!) of model railroaders and hundreds of dealers - all railroad scales you could imagine. Not a lot of buildings, but I did locate some of them. I called my good friend Clem over to a table where I had picked out a bunch of items; two HO large buildings under construction so they could be used for destroyed buildings and three other kits which Clem said he would attempt some serious "kit bashing" and make a Russian factory out of, and some other minor items. Clem says to me, "Let me handle this - I'll get you a good price!" Now, if there is anything I refuse to do is haggle! I hate haggling! Simply shouldn't be done! If I want something bad enough, I will pay the price. If I don't, then I won't buy it! I give Clem my approval and he walks up to the clerk with a swagger and his arms filled with kits. "I'll give you forty bucks for this lot; not a penny more," says Clem resolutely with a glance over his shoulder where I stand with my head down and hands behind me. The clerk looks it over, adds it up on his adding machine, and says, "Well, that's fine, Sir, but I'm afraid it only comes to thirty-eight dollars though if you want to give me more, that's fine!" Hey, thanks a lot, Mr. Clements! Let me do my own purchasing, if you don't mind! Well, this kind of takes the wind out of Clem's sails, but he did, much to his credit, get me a great HO Russian locomative for $10 when it had a $15 price tag on it. If anyone knows where one can get HO rolling stock that looks like WWII German/Russian stuff, let us know! I also stopped by my local hobby store and looked over their 1/72nd plastic kits. I didn't see many vehicle kits - I guess I prefer metal vehicles anyway - but I did see a fair number of 1/72nd WWII Russian, Japanese, and German planes. What do you 20mm WWII garners do for planes? Do you use smaller scale planes? I'd be interested in hearing what other peopledo for this period! Couple of address changes you may wish to be aware of. THOROUGHBRED FIGURES moved to 3833 Buckhorn Place, Virginia Beach, VA 23456 (804-471-5918) and STONE MOUNTAIN moved to PO Box 594, Broomfield, CO 80038. STONE MOUNTAIN also sent me their new catalog. I know I've mentioned it in years past, however, they do a really good job on their catalog and this one is better than ever ($4 will get you a copy). Also 3-D CONTOURS has moved to 4210 O'Ferrall St., Hattiesburg, MS 39401. Recently I received an update from GAMA re the NY lead ban problem. It stated that the "Commissioner of Health has withdrawn his emergency order that attempted to ban the sale of our industries metal miniatures." Johr Brewster of THE EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS also called several days ago tc state that the bill concerning lead in NY was changed to allow leas figures. Hopefully this is in the best interests of everyone concerned. I recently received more painted 25mm figures from Len Brewer when hE came down to visit me. Len uses the black undercoating technique and it does look good. Mike Pierce sent me three 20mm WWII figures using this approach and they look very good. I did prime a bunch of my wargamer buildings black and will see how this works re painting. Anyway, the French-Indian War figures look great! OLD GLORY Indians, Rangers, British Light Infantry, French & English line Infantry, British Grenadiers supplemented with DIXON, WARGAMES FOUNDRY, and FRONT RANK. Included it this group were a fair number of WARGAMES FOUNDRY Indian Mutiny and NV, Frontier figures. I bought lots of British Mutiny figures as well as 1880's/90's British so I could use my Pathans against each. They are nice figures, no doubt! I really like the British Naval Brigade gunners anc riflemen from the Mutiny period! The Pathans are great and are prefect for black undercoating! What gets you interested in periods? I think I asked this last issue though nobody has responded! That's got to be a first! I got out my cope of FIRE AND FURY about a month ago and the more I read, the more I likesc it, so I picked up a pack of OLD GLORY 15mm ACW figures and would like to try a black undercoating technique to see how this works. I used to play little ON TO RICHMOND with Dan Rakowski and never liked having the brigade be the smallest unit on the field; however, now, there's something about it that really appeals to me! I figures it out last night and the three corps of the Confederacy at Gettsyburg can be represented by 37 brigades consisting of 288 stands and 30 guns! I think I would do five foot figures to a stand. The same thing happened when Dave Waxtel sent me a copy of THEY DIED FOR GLORY! Now I've been buying 15mm Franco-Prussian War figures! THE JOURNAL (see Steve Dake's Wargaming Magazines for address) has to be partially responsible for my interest in 20mm WWII wargaming. This publication, by the way, has become one of my favorites - Mark Bevis - editor - does a fantastic job! If you have any interest in any period after 1900, you have to get this publication. Imagine a post 1900 MWAN anc you know what THE JOURNAL is all about! They have great columns or buildings, figures, and vehicles as to what's new. Believe me, there's a lot of 20mm stuff available in the UK! I see where IRON BRIGADE has added to their 25mm French Foreign Leqion line with a Hotchkiss heavy MG, pack team for it, 75mm field gun, c5mrr howitzer and crews, and a pack team for the howitzer as well as mounted infantry. I have a bunch of their FFL lewis gunners which are nice. I'll have to get some of these for my collection. Speaking of FFL, I've been planning on doing a large solo FFL game where the French army is moving in a large force through a valley and is ambushed by the Arabs. For years, I've thought of doing this since I read an article by Jack Scruby in his old publication about a Colonial action like this that he fought. I'm just going to have to take the time and do it! Would like to take some photos and do an article on it someday! Went down to the Radiology Department today at the hospital and found Tom Fouts, the director, who is a fellow wargamer. I got some large X-ray sheets from him - they are like a very thin semi-clear plastic which is quite flexible. What I'm going to do is to paint the whole surface some shade of blue or blue-green to represent water. When the paint is still wet, I'll drop static grass over sections of it so that you can see the water in some places. This will be used to represent a swamp for my 20mm WWII gaming. I've got some WOODLAND SCENICS field grass (8 grams for $1.25) and plan on cutting this in half and using it for "swamp grass". I'll probably cut out irregularly shaped sections of swamp to use. Will let you know how it turns out! Do you have any thoughts on wargames judges wearing uniform apparel for their games at conventions? I have to admit that I used to be really against this; however, while in Seattle last spring, I got a FFL officer's kepi and wore it during my FFL games and had a great time! I have a tricorne that I wear for my SYW wargames. Does this make me look as crazy as I actually am? Gosh, I would hope not, uh! Does anyone else do this? What about providing music at conventions for your games? I find this offensive if it is loud, however, if someone is doing a game with highlanders and plays pipe music, I have no complaint! I love the pipes. Recently, I took Annie (14 and a young lady now!) to the local music store so she could look for some CD's. When I asked the clerk if they had any bagpipe music, she was mortified and very quickly moved away from me! I can see some serious problems coming up in the near future when she has her date over and her Dad is in the basement with his toy soldiers! I've been taping SHARPE'S RIFLES off of the Public TV station on Sunday nights. I love the books - however, I do have to admit that I fell- asleep very soon on during both of the shows thus far so I've never seen a complete segment. Boy, if ever there was a series that lends itself to skirmish wargaming it is the SHARPE series of books. REDOUBT has Sharper and Sergeant Harper, each in two different poses in 25mm for their Peninsular range. Tom Fouts sometime ago gave me a copy of a set of Napoleonic skirmish rules which appeared in THE DRAGON, I believe, of all places. If anyone wants a set, send me a buck and I'll copy it for you; it's just your usual three or four page set of rules. Several years ago, I bought several hundred 25mm FRONT RANK Napoleonic French when they first came out as I had intended on doing the Peninsular War in 25mm so I could use PLAYABLE NAPOLEONIC RULES, which I think is a very interesting set of simple rules. I also got a bunch of English and Spanish odds and ends from REDOUBT so I could represent a ragtag group of British - line infantry, Guards, Highlanders, rifles, etc., during a retreat. Still think this would make a great game. Fifty to seventy British and Spanish, including guerrillas, defending a church and yard from a battalion of French line' infantry! Just got off the phone with Steve Dake who has done WARGAMING MAGAZINES, WARGAMING CLUBS OF AMERICA, and prior to that, BITS & PIECES for MWAN since #36, 32 issues! I don't think Steve has missed a single issue during that time - that makes him as complusive as I am, I'm afraid! Not good, Steve! Actually Steve submitted his retirement papers and requested his pension (Hey, Steve, I was only joking when I sent you a copy of SOAP OPERA DIGEST! I didn't want you to review it). I checked MWAN's Policy & Procedure Manual under the retirement section and you know what, Steve? To qualify for a pension, one needs to accumulate a total of 33 columns! If you forward me your twenty bucks for this volume, Steve, starting with the September--October '93 issue, I'll continue your MWAN subscription for the year. Don't forget, make the check payable to me! I can understand Steve's situation; it's difficult to write a column over a long period of time when it has a narrow, very well defined format. Steve did agree to consider continuing his association with MWAN in the form of some sort of regular column and I'm looking forward to seeing what he puts together. In the meantime, I'm looking for someone who would be capable of continuing the WARGAMING MAGAZINES column. Please remember that doing a regular column is not an easy task. If someone is interested in hearing more about it, drop me a line expressing your interest. Thanks, Steve, for your contributions for five and a half years! Back to MWAN #67 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1994 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com