Did you notice the back cover of MWAN #88 with Wargames Foundry sculptor Michael Perry's artwork of the Sikh War? Wasn't that something? Done three weeks after losing his right arm in a re- enactment accident! Last week, I showed it to one of my ex-patients, a professional artist who suffered a stroke three years ago, and he was just amazed at Michael's ability and asked me to be sure to let Michael know that he greatly admired his work and understood what went into it. Congratulations, Michael! 

I'm trying something different with this issue; I've gone from a 12 point print to a 13 point to see if it makes any difference. If you have any feedback, please let me know. I'm going to have to talk with Rinck Heule again about how to utilize the "white" space at the bottom of each page. We tried doing something about it before and it fumed out that the side margins were too wide. Has to be some way of working with it. 

What have I been doing hobby wise? For Father's Day, I received the three- volume set of the American Civil War by Shelby Foote and have been greatly enjoying it. I didn't think I'd have time to start reading it, so I just started looking through Volume 1, and couldn't put it down. Just finished it the other day and started on Volume II. Excellent reading and, of course, got me going on the ACW again! 

Based eight regiments of 15mm ECW foot figures thus far. Put them on the tabletop along with Andrew Dolye's (3-D Contours) rivers, tree groupings, and a medieval bridge over a river, and period buildings painted by Fred Bultman of Royal Oak Miniatures, and it really looks good! As usual, I used static grass but started using the metal stands from Wargames Accessories (MWANer Jeff Lista) and primed them all black prior to glueing any figures on them. For glue, I started using Walther's GOO again available at most railroad hobby shops and found that it adheres very well to metal. 

My long time friend, Len Brewer, came up from Central Illinois this weekend and brought his Russian tractor factory from Scenic Effects. What a model! Billed as 20/25 mm in size, they are correct. He put some of his 20mm WWII figures in it and I put my 25mm Russian Front figures and they both fit very well. This is a large factory with separate Administrative Building. As Len says, it provides the gamer the chance to have a game with just the complex and a small area around it. Very outstanding detail! 

Curt Murff stopped by the other day to drop off his column "Bits & Pieces" and brought along a photo album of terrain pieces he's done. Excellent work and a lot of fun to look through. 15mm and 25mm models of Hougomount; a Russian tank factory in 25mm (I really liked that one!); hills in various scales; a 20mm trench on a hill that he made for me some years ago; and much more. Curt has moved about ten minutes away from me and we are hoping to get together at some point in time! 

I've been looking for a 15mm "walled city" for my ECW project - I'm looking to do an ECW campaign and you have to have a fortress/walled city, don't you? Well, the other day, I called Brookhurst Hobbies after seeing an Ian Weekley ad for a medieval castle; trouble is, the ad (not Brookhurst, but Weekley's ad) showed an illustration (without the item number) along with a listing of his products. I tried to figure out which item number it was and ordered it from Brookhurst. Haven't received it yet, but hope it is the one that I want. If so, it will be perfect. Also ordered a medieval castle from TCS ($32.00) - I know I say this all of the time, but if you haven't seen their catalog, you've got to drop Leo two or three dollars for a listing of his products. Amazing number and variety of buildings and terrain items. I have his "Sudan" type fort which Howard Whitehouse put on a base and terrained for me and it is just fantastic! It's not big, but I just want something to "represent" a city/fortress and this should do it. 

I think I've just about finished purchasing 15mm figures for my ECW project. As I mentioned sometime ago, they are based on Howard Whitehouse's IRONSIDES rules and as such, all units, horse and foot, have three stands. Foot have one 9-man pike stand (usually with standard) and two 9-man musketeer stands (one of which has the foot officer, drummer or fiber, and sergeant) in three ranks. I've never done three ranks previously and I have to admit that the effect is quite impressive! Horse are mounted four to a stand (one rank), again with three stands to a regiment. All regiments are the same size and a roster system is used to denote different sized units. I like this approach. Although I will have a lot of units - around 50 regiments of foot and perhaps 30 of horse with 21 guns - since each unit is only three stands, it won't take long to move them on the tabletop. In addition to the ECW, it is my intention to utilize them for the Thirty Years' War as well. I want to augment this collection with more ECW and TYW figures from Matchlock Miniatures available from Caliver Books in the UK. 

They have several poses for "trained band" pikemen and musketeers, as well as a listing of TYW figures. I'd like to see some of the TYW figures; my understanding is that for the TYW, pikemen wore more armor and the uniforms were a little more fancy. 

A small tip reusing static grass; I've gone to using two containers of static grass for terraining figures/bases. The first one is used only for 25mm; the second for 15mm. The reason being is that it seems like I get larger "clumps" of static grass falling off the stand immediately after "dunking" it in the static grass with 25mm, then with 15mm. When these "25mm" clumps of static grass get on the 15mm stands, it doesn't look right to me. Not quite on the "Ian Weekley" modeler's tip yet, but give me time! 

I've also been mounting my 25mm WWII Russian Front figures and adding to them when something new comes out. Battle Honors USA (346 River Street, Coopersville, MI) just added nine packs of Russian Front figures; 15 figures to a pack. There are three of German and six of Russians, including Russians in winter gear. That gives me 135 more figures for this period and I'm sure Steve Dake has already finished painting them for his collection. I was looking around for buildings and found two 20mm buildings from Village Green which are just perfect for the Russian Front in 25mm; they were already painted as well! I'm waiting for my Hovels 25mm Russian buildings to arrive for this period. 

MWAN #100 will be coming before I know it! Actually, the July- August, 1999 issue. I'd like to do something special and would appreciate some input from MWANers as to the subject. It would be good to decide before the beginning of 1998 as that would give me just over a year to put it together. 

Another issue that I've mentioned several times within MWAN is that of recognizing figure manufacturers within the hobby as GAMA has done for years via its award system. GAMA, however, covers the entire hobby of miniatures, boardgaming, cards, and fantasy. I'd like to see something done just for historical miniatures. I'd like to purpose that MWAN undertake such recognition but I don't have it defined very well. What I'm suggesting is that we put together a "committee" of perhaps ten MWANers who are in a position to be aware of new releases during the year. They would serve to nominate figure manufacturers from that year and their nominations would be provided to MWANers who would then cast their votes. MWAN would be responsible for purchasing an engraved plaque to be presented to the winner. I would like, due to expense, to start with the "Best Figure Line" of the year - one award, which could, perhaps, be expanded in the future. I'd like to open it up to suggestions from MWANers and also ask if there are individuals out there who would be interested in serving on such a nominating committee. Please let me know. 

MWANer Richard Borczak was kind enough to send me a number of Jack Scruby's old magazines. It crossed my mind that MWANers might enjoy reading selected articles from them. Prior to Jack's passing, I had obtained permission from him to reprint anything I wanted from his magazines. I'm hoping to start doing this soon. Thanks,-Richard! 

Just got off the phone with Vince Clyant of THE LONDON WAR ROOM; Vince has lots of ideas for unusual periods of history! We discussed a Spanish mid 1700's or so scenario with his 25mm Spanish Lancers (London War Room) and GUERNSEY FOUNDRY/OLD GLORY American Plains Indians; how's that for an interesting scenario? Check out his 25mm Spanish Bourbon line in his ad in this issue. Good skirmish ideas! 

Speaking of 25mm Spanish, I woke up early this Sunday morning at 4:00 and primed three 37-figure units of Vince's Spanish line infantry. Also put together Hallmark's 15mm "Gentleman's Coach" for my 15mm ECW project - it will serve as King Charles' coach. Beautiful little model and actually quite easily assembled, even by me! As long as I had the superglue out, I glued FREI KORPS 15mm Scottish frame guns together - eight of them. I plan on putting each frame gun and the two gunners on a stand along with a pack horse which I obtained from FREI CORPS 15. I ordered some MATCHLOCK MINIATURES ECW gun crew from CALIVER BOOKS the other day and am anxious to get them. Also ordered several "trained bands" in "fancy armor" from their "character" line; Irish and Scottish musketeers; a bunch of pikemen in various headgear; and wounded musketeers. They nice thing about MATCHLOCK MINIATURES 15mm ECW line is that they offer so many types of headgear. They now offer pewter pikes which I am anxious to see. I also order some ECW casualty figures (musketeer, pikeman, horse and rider) from DONNINGTON MINIATURES of the UK; plan on using them as morale markers for Howard Whitehouse's ECW rules. Will let you know what they are like. Speaking of the ECW, I've been doing lots of reading on the subject as of late and I find the CALIVER BOOKS ECW publications really useful. Being the typical American, I've never understood much about the ECW. I've read Stuart Reid's "SCOTS ARMIES", Volume I - Army of the Covenant, and Volume 2 - The Royalist Armies and found them to be very useful! My Scottish Covenant Army will consist of 14 regiments of foot; four of horse; one of dragoons; eight frame guns w/2man crews; and an unknown number of guns. I should also mention that last week while going through my ECW castings, I realized I was short a number of figures so I placed a call to Johnson Hood of WARGAMES on a Monday morning and had my figures by Thursday when I got home from work! I especially liked the Scottish pikemen as they are in a variety of headgear. 

Hey, does anyone know where I can obtain 15mm standing horses (without riders)`to be used on my dismounted dragoon stands? I require about nine of them as I have one regiment each of dragoons for the Scots, Royalists, and Parliamentarians. If I purchase packs of ESSEX horse and just use the horse figures, I am left with the riders. Then I run into the problem of ordering more packs so I can use up the riders and this could go on forever! 

For my ECW project, I picked up a number of wagons (14) from HALLMARK (from Emperor's Headquarters in Chicago), ESSEX (Wargarnes, Inc), and FREI KORPS 15 to be used for baggage trains for my wargames. Each wagon has a "handler" (FREI KORPS 15). I also have a "Firelock" unit of nine figures for each of the three armies whose function it was to guard the baggage. It seems like so many successful charges during the ECW ended in the winner looting the baggage train. Anyway, I always like to have wagons for my historical periods. 

I would like to request that if anyone has any figures (painted/unpainted) which they do not have a need for and wish to donate them to someone who could use them, please drop me a line and let me know what they are. I will put you into contact with someone who would greatly appreciate them. 

If anyone receives a copy of MWAN with incomplete/missing pages, please let me know and I shall mail another to you at no cost. This does happen occasionally. 

In submitting articles/letters, if you could include a computer disk (I use Word Perfect 6.1 ) along with your "hard" copy, I would greatly appreciate it as it makes my life much easier; if you can't do so, don't worry about it as it will get in MWAN although it might take a little longer. 

My preoccupation with my 15mm ECW project has me, of course, thinking of campaigns. I have to admit that I admire Jon Laughlin's approach to the hobby. You will remember that several years ago, Jon concentrated on "playing", not "painting and collecting," and has since that time developed an elaborate "campaign" system which has expanded to a "play-by-mail" project. His articles and letters concerning the campaign are interesting. Makes me think back to a theme sometime ago in MWAN re "if we could have only one period/scale", which one would it be and why. I suspect we would all enjoy our toys a lot more than we currently do as there is such a tendency to "jump" into another period as soon as we finish one project. Of course, this is a large part of the hobby's attraction for us, and may well keep us involved; however, I do daydream at times about this subject. 

While thinking about campaigns, I pulled out my set of WARPLAN S/5 and put together a six by six (the map sections come in 6" X 6" geomorphic pieces which one pieces together to form the map. This is actually a terrific system; each 6" X 6" section is numbered and by consulting the booklet, one can find out the names of the towns/cities/terrain features contained on each square. They even have smaller black and white pieces with gummed backs which can be cut out and pieced together to allow one to have a smaller representation of your map. Of course, nowadays, one could probably take the' large map - which I plan on doing - to an OFFICE MAX copy center and reduce it in size! WARPLAN S/5 provides a simple set of campaign rules; the set that I have is set in the Horse & Musket period. The only drawback I can see is that there are an awful lot of roads on each 6" X 6" section; more than I suspect one would have for this time period. This system would, however, provide the means for a quite interesting campaign. I also have a copy of THE KING'S WAR, an ECW boardgame by Charles Vassey which was published by THE PIKE & SHOT SOCIETY some years ago, and can also be used for campaign purposes. I may have mentioned this sometime ago, but if any MWANers are aware of boardgames which lend themselves to campaigns for miniatures, please drop me a line detailing the system. We are always on the lookout for this type of thing, aren't we! 

At the expense of boring you, I will mention that I have, over the years, routinely made copies of any wargaming articles dealing with campaigns, periods of interest, rules, wargame rules ideas, etc., and keep them in file folders. When the file gets large enough, as it has for the ECW, SYW, and NWF, I transfer the information to large plastic sweater boxes (obtainable for four to five dollars in many stores) and include any catalogs or figure listings applying to that period of interest. Makes it very easy to refer to when I have a need to do so! I also have purchased 8 1/2" X 11" notebooks for each period of interest and neatly enter all ideas/plans on the period. In this way, I can easily maintain information in a single accessible place. Compulsiveness can be a real plus at times, can't it! 

If I can just take a little space here and elaborate upon an issue I mentioned in MWAN #88 - that of manufacturers and suppliers informing customers of the status of their order. This would appear to be such a simple idea, but yet, I can attest to the fact that when it is not followed, customers get rightfully upset. After years in the hobby, it is clear to me that there are very few places which consistently provide poor service and it is an amazement to me that they can remain in business. The vast majority of places provide quality service to us and well deserve our support. I am pleased to see more MWANers writing in to mention particularly good service from a company/supplier. I will again mention that if you are having a problem with anyone advertising in MWAN, please let me know and I shall forward your letter to the place concerned with a request that the matter be investigated and resolved. It is important to remember that there are always two sides to a story; thus I do not make any judgements unless I see the same thing happening over and over again with the same place. In that event, I have, and shall continue to do so, discontinued their ad in MWAN. 

I would like to acknowledge the contribution(s) of David Barnes to MWAN. David does the wonderful reviews and even more wonderful illustrations of figures. MWANer David Love has been preparing Mr. Barnes' column and does a great job of it! Thanks to both of them! Rich Black, I believe, is MWAN's longest running columnist, and also deserves our thanks. Major Bill Harting has recently joined him in putting together the Conventions column. I remain impressed with John Stafford's column and vast listing of wargames clubs as well as Russ Lockwood's "Magazine Review". David Bonk and Curt Murff are consistent contributors; Howard Whitehouse remains extremely entertaining, and it is good to see Father Aelred and Steve Dake back in print again! I can't forget John Butler, who for many years has maintained MWAN's subscriber list and provided me with address labels. If you add our newest contributing editors Charles Sharp, Rich Barbuto, and Jim Purkey, one can see we have a lot of talented people who take their MWAN responsibilities seriously! Thank You! 

There remains several other groups to be thanked for their contributions; the many individuals who find the time to write for MWAN, MWAN subscribers, and last, but not least, the many advertisers who have supported this publication over the last sixteen years! Thank you very much! 

Well, I finally did it! Forgot to include an ad in MWAN#88; first time ever! I apologize to James McCarron of MUSKET MINIATURES - at least I did remember to review the figures I ordered from him! You think you have a fail-safe system going for you but it was bound to happen sooner or later, I guess! I thank James for his understanding! 

Something I've started doing is when I paint a unit, I add an "extra" figure and paint it up for "display" purposes on my bookcase at work. I enjoy looking at them and its surprising how many times someone will come in my office and express an interest in the figures. I always offer them one they are especially interested in and they seem to enjoy it as do I! 

Has anyone done any "winter" terraining for wargames or dioramas? I've seen a few pictures in WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED that look very good but I've never seen such a setup in person. If anyone has attempted this, I'd like to see an article on it. 

I'd like to again remind you that I could use some good color photos for the front and back covers. Please remember to describe the events/scale/figure(s) within the photos and mention the photographer and painter(s). 

Thanks for your continued supported of MWAN!