Friends well-known in the military collecting world, such as Roy Belmont-Maitland of Tradition and Neville Dickinson of Miniature Figurines, together with others, tell me that my editorial is the first page they read, being eager to see what crusade is being pursued in that particular month!
A Victor K2 tanker of No.252 Operational Conversion Unit. RAF Marham, refuels two Lightning F6s of No. 11 Squadron from R.A.F. Binbrook. (Photo: Peter Stevenson, MOD, Courtesy of Ministry of Defence).
I am pleased that my intentionally out-spoken comments and criticisms are of such interest because I have always believed it to be the duty of the Editor of an independent journal such as this to point out failings in our hobby without fear or favour. Believe me can assure you that, in spite of being published by Tradition, Wargamer's Newsletter is still independent -- ask Roy Belmont-Maitland if you need confirmation!
I have never made any bones about my belief that wargamers as a whole are hard to please Aida often unreasonable and subsequent events relating to an earlier situation bear me out. In the July and September issues there were letters from wargamers bitterly complaining of the manner in which 20mm wargames figures had disappeared from the market and in my July Editorial I made the point that it seemed their complaint was more about the prices of figures than anything else. At the time I explained that the price of metal and general overheads had risen at a far greater rate than the prices of the figures sold by the majority of commercial manufacturers. However, a number of wargamers came forward to offer painted armies of 20mm figures to supplement the forces of those complaining about non-production of figures in that scale. I am now told by Chris Scott, who offered a large quantity of well painted 20mm figures, that he has been offered 2 1/2p each for them! A joke is a joke but blow a pantomime and how anyone can reasonably expect to get painted figures (to any standard) for about a third of their original price as metal castings seems to me to be the height of unreasonableness. It is always difficult to value a painted figure and in most cases the unfortunate seller rarely gets much more than the price he paid for the original casting although it would be more fair to suggest that a painted figure is worth at least its original price as a casting plus 50%. So it seems that I was right in my July Editorial when I said that rather than complaining about lack of 20mm figures, the complainees were agitating about their price!
Still on unreasonable wargamers - if any reader was written me a letter and not received an answer then I can tell him without any hesitation that it is because he did not enclose a stamped addressed envelope. There is rarely a day passes without a letter arriving here, invariably asking questions that require answer or for samples of the Newsletter, etc., and without any stamped addressed envelope or any means of coping with the high postage charges that prevail today. I am afraid that I can no longer reply to letters asking questions unless the sender is sufficiently thoughtful to enclose the return postage.
Recently I have been building a rather large and extensive terrain for my son's model railway - tunnels, roads, bridges, rivers, etc., etc., and I have greatly enjoyed doing it. There is very little difference in mod-I railway terrain and wargames terrain but very few wargamers take the trouble to build up table-top battlefields that in quality, authenticity and realistic apppearance match those of the model railway enthusiast. A wargame is far more enjoyable when fought over a realistic terrain and I have never ceased to urge that fact upon my fellow wargamers. A rather interesting thought occurred to me whilst making this terrain, particularly when my son sent trains round to see if the tunnel mouths were large enough or if the points worked or if the curve of the rails was too great, etc., etc., and numerous halts and derailments occurred. These I. found to be a source of great irritation and I suddenly realised that one of the greatest boons of wargaming is that there is nothing mechanical about it, all our little men are moved by hand so that we are not plagued by faulty connections, lack of power and the other things that turn mechanical trains and vehicles into frustrating immobile objects. In the past, when comparing the merits of model railways with wargaming, the point has been made that it is the mechanical and mobile aspects of model trains (and racing cars I suppose) that makes that hobby superior to our wargaming. I can now strongly refute such suggestions and completely reverse the argument by saying that wargaming MUST be better than the mechanical hobbies because we do not have to rely on power nor suffer the frustrations when it is missing or faulty!
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© Copyright 1975 by Donald Featherstone.
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