Miss Caroline Allison Koos

"I have to work against terrible obstacles in my own home. My aunt is terribly opposed to the little folks and dislikes them much. This is most unfortunate as I care for them so much. She does not understand the value of, for instance, the Mignot and Vertuni figures. And that they are collector's items and always were. Some model soldiers are, of course, toys, all be it admitted, but the Mignot figures and the Vertuni figures never were. I am certain that they were never intended for that purpose in life and I am sure that I did not go to collecting as a child with expensive Vertuni figures. No indeed. I feel that they are like little little statues and should be considered as such."

Ed. To each his (or her) own. Mine, however, are toy soldiers! Creatures with exalted titles can be offensive at times, and I don't want several thousand little tin men looking down their noses at me -keep them in their place I say!

Thomas Ceveney

I am interested in the period around the 30 Years War and the English Civil War, for which I an new engaged in making up some 30mm infantry. I am also very interested in the Napoleonic era, for which I am making up a British Amy with some of the more colorful units shown by C.P. Lawson in Vol. V of his uniform history.

Ed. We've got some articles on these periods hidden away in the files somewhere. The English Civil War comes up shortly. Hope we are able to keep you interested.

Hagar Palmer

My bag is WWII board wargames, and I am interested in WWII miniature games as wall. The problem is, I can't find decent rules, data on weapons, organization, order of battle, and maps.

On the mapboard, I went to recreate the North African theater on a company or battalion scale. But I can't find decent information on maps for that area, order of battle, replacement rates, etc. Do you have any ideas an where I can buy or get the info?

On the miniature side, maps and OOB is not so important -- make your own) but weapons, organization, rules are -- can you help me?

P.S. Do you know where I can get Modern War in Miniature; a 69 page book with a Softcover, by Michael Kerns?

Ed. We have some table top rules coming up for WWII in the sand. I've only see Kern's book in the Library of Congress where I was supposed to be doing Historical research. There was also a hardcover version, I think. Perhaps one or another of our readers can help you locate the book.

Charles Hunnefield

I have a few more questions that I would bother you with. Are you going to have articles on the Afrika Korps Panzer Artillery? Did they use 100mm or 150mm howitzers and how would you arrange for table top? Also, are you going to deal with Afrika Korp infantry for the table top?

I noticed in reading Volume I Number 3 that Dave Geisz has a military version of the VW jeep--could you please tell me where it can be purchased> I was wondering when some manufacturer would finally got around to one and also the German staff car in HO. Minitanks and Airfix have given us the ingredients to make up the Afrika Korps now if they would only give us the ingredients to make up the British 8th Army such as the Matilda IV, Stuart, Lee, Grant, Crusader, Valentine tanks, not to mention the Fiat-Ansaldo tank.

Could you people please use your influence in getting Minitank and Airfix to produce these tanks?

Ed. Influence? Charles, I'm afraid you have the wrong outfit. At any rate, volume I Vumber 6 and Volume II Number 1 should have answered some of your questions. Also see Reconaissanee for this issue re the M-3 Grant. Those who are interested may petition Aitfix about expediting the delivery of the latter. As for the Italian types, I would suggest getting the Aare Pubs Profile on the Fiat Ansalse (if that's what it is) and setting out to scratch build it or look for the nearest mini-tank chassis. Even easier is the Semovento assault gun, which is built like a pill box on tracks and mounted a 75mm gun. We'll try to help out on these matters, but building Italian tanks is a specialty item concerning which I have no really authoritative info at present. Scale Modeller did a little feature on that, but we're not yet in the habit of telling how to do it.