Wargames Illustrated 300th Edition

I've got half a day free to paint today but I feel so ill I don't think I'm up to it which is really frustrating.  Maybe I'll have a Lem-Sip and see how I feel after that!

I went to Dorking Models yesterday as I have been having difficulty getting the plastic model filler I use for the bases of my figures.  Dorking is an excellent old-style model shop but really for plastic kit builders and railway stuff. They do sell 1/72 plastics and have an excellent selection of those as well as AFV models in the same scale.  I'm sort of surprised they don't stock 28mm plastic figures but there is probably no space left for them (and it's probably just as well they don't!).  Anyway, I picked up a couple of tubes of Humbrol's plastic filler, which is my favourite (the Revell one is a little bit too runny for bases).

You know you want it

While there I popped into Smiths and got the 300th anniversary edition of Wargames Illustrated.  This really is an epic issue and reminded me, in a way, of those huge anniversary Playboy magazines from the seventies. As Guy would have said, when he was small, about a large book "Isha fudder!"  Lots of interest for me in there as they have articles on the Spartans at Thermopylae,  Spartacus (part of a series on last stands), Romans in Mona, a truly epic Saxons v British battle, a Dark Ages skirmish, Agincourt, the British Army from 1670-1704, ACW, Isandlwana and much more.  Proportionately, not too much Flames of War, although I think from their advert in this month's issue they have just openly identified their target market for the first time.  I've always had a vague thing about doing WW2 gaming, particularly in North Africa, but, from what I have seen of it, FoW suffers from the Warhammer 40K problem of too many tanks too close together and doesn't even purport to give a resonable recreation of WW2.  I suppose it is directly designed to get children to move on from W40K to historicals and that's probably a good thing but it looks wrong visually for me.  On a normal sized board I would imagine a WW2 game as having no more than 40 figures a side and maybe one tank.

Still around...and even doing some painting

The eagle of the 45th in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards museum in Edinburgh Castle

I've just been catching up with everyone else's blogs and realised that it is ages since I have posted.  This is largely because I am working on a new contract which is taking up all my time and am trying to avoid taking on some international trips. However, it looks like Serbia and Dubai are on the cards in the next two months and maybe another couple of long haul trips as well.  I did fly to Edinburgh recently and fortunately it was smooth flying in both directions so I'm not too stressed about it yet.  

I managed to visit the small but interesting military museums at Edinburgh Castle when I was there and was amused to see the uniform of the late Field Marshal Sir John Stanier on display there. About twenty years ago I was on a flotilla holiday in the Ionian with my girlfriend and future parents in law and Sir John was on one of the other boats.  He tried windsurfing for the first time but fell and got stuck between the board and the boom, face down in the water.  In classic Baywatch style I dived off our boat and extricated him.  He was jolly grateful and I was plied with huge glasses of Sangria as a thank you on board their yacht.  Too late I discovered that the Sangria was made from red wine and gin rather than lemonade (they didn't have any lemonade).  Swimming back to our boat was, as a result, somewhat enervating and it was lucky I didn't need a lifeguard myself (Erika Eleniak, please, not Pamela Anderson).

They had some very famous battle paintings of Scottish regiments in the main war museum in the castle including Closing the Gate at Hougoumont by Robert Gibb and Alphonse de Neuville's Tel el Kebir depicting the Black Watch.  It nearly made me want to paint some highlanders.  Nearly.  They also had the eagle of the 45th Regiment captured by Sergeant Charles Ewart of the Scot's Grays at Waterloo. I was very excited to see that!  I don't think I've seen an actual eagle before.

I have had to clear nearly everything of the workbench as I needed the space for actual work.  I now only have one set of figures on it and managed an hour or so on them today.  I'm hoping to do some more tomorrow.  They are plastic and I am actually enjoying painting them for a change.  Other than Lord of the Rings I haven't ever painted more than a couple of figures out of the two dozen or so boxes of plastics I have picked up.  For this set, however, I have seven figures well on the way and another 17 on the go.  The odd thing is that I never considered buying these but was passing Orc's Nest with a friend and she made me buy them.  I have had to go and buy a load of books on them as I had very little information on them.  It's going to be a unit of about 26 figures and I don't know whether to put them on here when the unit is finished or just put on the first half dozen when I get those done. Hmm.

Away from these, the big temptation at present is the fact that Warlord Games are now selling Conquest's superb French Indian War range in the UK.  I actually have the first eight packs or so of these but never painted them because it always looked like the line was about to fold.  Now, however, I have no excuse.  Now where on earth is that one I started four years ago?

First unit of Bolsheviks

It's always a surprise when I actually paint a complete unit in one go but here is my first unit of Bolshevik infantry.  They are destined to be opponents for my Chinese warlord army once I have completed a few more units and some support.

Increasingly I am thinking about using these in a campaign similar to my Zambezi Campaign, with  a number of scenarios involving Chinese troops and bandits, White Russians, armed archaeologists and perhaps some other motley forces (Mongolians?) that might (but weren't necessarily actually) roaming around Central Asia in the nineteen twenties.  To this end I painted a  senior officer and tidied up a female Russian I painted some time ago.

Further development on this will be on my long neglected Pulp blog but it will certainly involve some of the vehicles and aircraft I have been collecting for the last five years or so.

I really enjoyed painting these Copplestone Castings figures and have enough for another unit of Russians so may base these soon.  I had terrible trouble trying to find early Soviet flags on the internet so had to resort to painting this one myself.  It is the first national flag for the USSR which was used until the hammer and sickle flag was introduced in 1923.

Something for the Weekend...by Angus McBride

Other than model soldiers the Legatus collects vintage men's magazines, particularly from the seventies.  We were intrigued by this illustration, therefore, from Mayfair's January 1975 edition, which we just picked up on eBay.  This was a particularly fine issue featuring a very undressed Lesley Anne Down who, alone, made my forced, family-driven viewing of Upstairs, Downstairs bearable (once Nicola Pagett had left the series).

The luscious Susan, photographed by Clive McLean (whose wife Stephanie was the first full-frontal Penthouse Pet and would eventually marry Barry Sheene - in fact they met for the first time that year)

The style of this illustration to a story about a London club called "The Shiny Nun" (hence the wimples) looked rather familiar and, on closer examination, the "McB" signature confirmed my view that it was an Angus McBride painting.

Queen Zenobia from Rome's Enemies 5: The Desert Frontier

Now McBride often included some attractive looking women in some of his military illustrations for Osprey  (such as his sensuously enticing Queen Zenobia here) but I hadn't been aware that he illustrated for the likes of Mayfair. 

I wondered if he had done any more such pictures and then, lo, in the very same issue we have this saucy cartoon of Romans and an octopus (all very Hokusai).  What a very talented artist he was!  More research is obviously necessary!

Since I wrote this post and as it still gets a a lot of hits I have added a Post on more of his work for Mayfair magazine here.

Some thoughts on Dux Britanniarum

A few thoughts on the new Too Fat Lardies Arthurian rules, which I picked up in Orc's Nest today, can be found on my Dark Ages blog.

Twenty Questions

Another one of these questionnaires has started to circulate and it means I can sit and answer it as I can't paint figures at the moment as I am stuck in Edinburgh.  It's not dissimilar to one I did not so long ago but this is a little less wargames focussed.

1. Favourite Wargame Period and Why? 

The 300 Spartans

Ancients, certainly.  Or Dark Ages.  Or Colonials.  Probably Ancients.  This is down to Airfix Romans and Ancient Britains, Terence Wise's An Introduction to Battle Gaming and films like Spartacus, The 300 Spartans, Helen of Troy and The Fall of the Roman Empire which I watched when I was small.  It all started up again with Gladiator and I went and bought a lot of Peter Pig 15mm Romans and Germans before switching to 28mm.

2. Next period if money was no object? 

Perry Miniatures.  Yum, yum!

Hmm.  It's quite hard to think of a period I haven't got some figures for.  Possibly the Hundred Years War if I could get someone to paint all the heraldic devices.

3. Favourite 5 films? 

The incomparable Virna Lisi in How to Murder Your Wife.  Yum, yum!

This is a tricky one.  It's easy to make worthy or trendy choices but I have based mine on the criteria of those films that I come across half way through, whilst channel hopping in some hotel somewhere, but carry on watching until the end even though I have seen the film many times before.  In no particular order:

The Ipcress File

The Pink Panther

Raiders of the Lost Ark

How to Murder your Wife

Zulu

The fact that they all have sensational soundtrack scores is probably not a coincidence.

4. Favourite Book and Author

This is the edition I have

I don't really have a favourite book or author as some people do who often read and re-read a novel.  I  hardly ever re-read novels (I have too many unread ones) but regularly (every ten years or so) re-read Clive Cussler's Raise the Titanic.  Sadly, Cussler has become a parody of himself and I suspect his contributions to his recent novels are small but some of his earlier works (including Vixen 03 and Night Probe (especially)) were very enjoyable.

On the wargaming front it has to be The War Game which I covered in my previous "playing favourites" questions post.

5. Favourite 5 TV series?

January Jones in Mad Men.  Yum, yum!

Again in no particular order.

The West Wing
Mad Men
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Las Vegas
Bergerac


6. Great General, can't count yourself? 

Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abderrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi as Hannibal

I have a great admiration for Hannibal and one day I will finish my Carthaginian army!

7. Favourite Wargame Rules? 

The Sword and the Flame, probably, followed by the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings rules.


8. Favourite Sport & Team? 

Mr Walter Payton

I've never been fond of watching or playing team sports.  If  I had to choose it would be the Chicago Bears of the early eighties.  

 9. If you had a use once only time machine, when and where would you go? 

1920s girl.  Yum, yum!

On the assumption that you could get back again that would be easy: the age of the dinosaurs!  If you had to go back to a period and live there forever then probably London in the nineteen twenties.  On the same salary I am on now, of course!  Steam trains, open topped roadsters, big liners, flappers with short hair, cocktails in The Savoy. Spiffing!

10.  Last Meal on Death Row? 

Alubias rojas con Tolosa.  Yum, yum!

I would never be on death row, of course, but if I was framed by the government of one of the dodgy countries I have to visit then it would be the following:  Fois Gras as an appetiser with a nice sweet Loire, like a Moulin Touchais Anjou 1959.  Pasta with grated fresh white truffle and a Gavi di Gavi (probably La Scolca as served in La Scala).  A sausage based stew from Northern Spain with beans, pork and chorizo (often known as Alubias Rojas con Tolosa) with a bottle of Vega Sicilia Unico 1966.  I don't eat puddings but some nice cheese (I'm very fond of Ossau Iraty from the Basque region of France at present) would be good, served with a Chateau Palmer 1990.  A very large Nardini Grappa Bianco to finish. At this point I wouldn't care if I was on death row.  I see that American prisons are stopping the last meal request due to outrageous demands from condemned prisoners so maybe this would be a last meal before an asteroid hits the earth!

11. Fantasy relationship and Why? 

Yum, yum!

Hmm, I went through all the usual suspects and nearly plumped for Scarlett Johansson on the basis that I met her in Las Vegas once and she was very nice.  Instead, I am going to choose one of my old girlfriends V, as she was at 22, who I would very happily go back to on the basis of her voracious and experimental attitude to sex.

12. If your life were a movie who would play you? 

Yum, yum!

I'd like to see what Sharon Stone would do with it.

13. Favourite Comic Superhero? 

Janno leads the team in The Red Death - a classic Trigan Empire story

I'm afraid I cannot understand the whole comic book thing at all. Comics are for children.  The only comic I ever read was The Trigan Empire in Look and Learn magazine so I will choose Janno from that although he was far from a superhero.  I see that The Trigan Empire is being shopped around Hollywood at the moment.

14. Favourite Military Quote?

"Mass, not driblets" General Heinz Guderian.   A philosophy that applies to much more than tank warfare.

15. Historical Destination to visit? 

I've always wanted to visit Pompeii.


16. Biggest Wargame Regret?

Selling all my American Civil War Ospreys about seven years ago.  I'm having to buy them all again now.


17. Favourite Fantasy Job? 

The Imperial Hotel, Delhi.  About as perfect as I have experienced

Travelling the world, Staying in great hotels and writing about them.  Wait, I already do that!   Full time would be nice, however.

18. Favourite 5 songs? 

Yum, yum!

1.  Pelea de Gallos by Lola Beltrán
2.  Dancing in the Dark by Diana Krall
3.  Not for Me by Ella Fitgerald
4.  The Power of Love by Laura Branigan
5. Close your Eyes by Doris Day and the Andre Previn trio

All of them, needless to say, also have strong associations with particular young ladies.


19. Favourite Wargaming Moment? 

My pirate crew enter the jungle

My wargaming is notable for the number of times I lose, so any win is a shock.  I particularly enjoyed a rare victory over Mike Lewis of Black Hat Miniatures in a pirate game.  This was the X-marks the spot scenario from Legends of the High Seas. 

 20. Miserable git question - what gets you upset? 

Get out of the way!

Oh dear!  Nearly everything!  Here is a small selection from my other persona's blog which is regularly filled with rants!

• People who read magazines in newsagents (particularly at stations).  It's not a library.  Buy it or get out!
• Christmas decorations going up before December.
• More than one olive in a Martini.
• People who wear rucksacks on public transport.
• People who carry large golf umbrellas in town.
• Cows.  That's why I eat so many of them.
• It's the most wonderful time of the Year by Andy Williams. 
• People who walk really slowly in the street.
• People who walk around with those silly coffee cups with the baby drinking cup lids. How pathetically addicted to coffee (a disgusting drink, anyway) do you have to be to not be able to wait until you get to work before you can have one? Get up earlier in the morning to drink one before you leave home! This also applies to people who eat breakfast or put on make-up on the train.
• Women who start looking for their underground tickets in their handbags after they have arrived at the ticket gate.
• New eco friendly lightbulbs.  They're rubbish and are consigning us all to a life of Stygian gloom. Thanks Brussels.
• Carrier bag rationing at supermarkets.  I don't care about sea turtles unless they are in a nice soup.  Just give me as many bags as I want.  I shouldn't have to beg!
• Drag a bag suitcases.  They are a menace.   Drag a bags are for air hostesses only. 
• People who wear big headphones in public.  You look like someone from Stingray!
• Old people shopping in supermarkets at the weekend.  Go during the week!
• People who wear Bluetooth (what is Bluetooth, anyway?) earpieces if they are not a taxi driver.

Shopping, shopping, shopping!

Oh dear, the lead (and plastic pile) has had some substantial additions over the last couple of weeks.  I've been very good about not buying much lately but the fact that I have actually completed a few figures has engendered a mad rush of purchases.

First off is Gripping Beast's "limited edition" Skraelings for Saga.  I saw these at Salute but they had run out of them so when I saw some on eBay I had to get them on the basis that they may disappear before I got them (which I am sure was Gripping Beast's cunning plan anyway).  I've always wanted to do Vikings v American Indians but could never find any suitable figures.  I'm not sure how historically accurate these are as they appear to be standard woodland Indians but with stone axes and spears.  I'm not sure they would have had buckskin leggings a thousand years ago but they are very nice figures at the bigger end of 28mm.  The only slightly disappointing thing about them is the comparatively limited number of poses which means quite a lot of duplication: not very good for skirmish figures. Still, I've based some and will try to get one painted in the next week or so.

Next up I went into Orc's Nest and they had a set of the new Victrix plastic Hoplites in there so I had to buy a box of those.  I haven't made any yet but they seem to be somewhere in size between the old Immortal (now Warlord) ones and the large Artizan (now Gorgon) Spartans.  I suspect that once painted they might all actually go with each other quite well.

Unfortunately I seem to be having meetings in and around Pall Mall quite a lot lately so Orc's Nest is never far away.  My latest trip into its gloomy depths saw me emerge with a box of Warlord's British Crimean infantry.  I had bought a set of eight of these some time ago and started to paint them but stopped when, annoyingly, I broke off one of the figures bayonets.  They are very delicate and I will have to watch this in future.  I had held off buying any more of these as it looked like they had abandoned the period but latterly we have had some wonderful cavalry figures appearing and the promise of plastic Russians.

Other than these boxes I took advantage of the newly reduced Foundry postage rates to get some African askaris for my Zambezi project, some AWI minutemen and a pack of naked Amazon hoplites for my Argonauts project.  In addition I bought the latest Hail Caesar supplement which covers the Dark Ages.

Jill St John demonstrates that the best figures are not necessarily made of metal or plastic

I was making my way back from Orc's Nest towards the National Gallery (I often arrange meetings in the excellent cafe there) when I took a short cut around the back and found a cinema book and DVD shop I hadn't seen before called, with great originality, The Cinema Store.  It had an excellent collection of film books and I picked up a series on Bond girls which had a lot of stills in it which were new to me.  It also sells Playboy (I have 546 issues in my collection), which is getting increasingly difficult to buy in the UK since W H Smiths stopped stocking it.

Orc's Nest is close to Foyles which has the best military history section of any bookshop I have been to.  Last week I picked up this book on uniforms of the America War of Independence.  I don't know how accurate it is but it is quite inspirational and has some excellent illustrations both modern and historical

Foyles used to stock pretty much all of the Osprey's but their selection, especially of the Men-at-Arms series, is much depleted these days so it's off to eBay mostly.  I picked up the Campaign Boston 1775 book, which is going to be the subject of my initial AWI units, for a good price.  I bought it for the battle of Bunker Hill (or Breed's Hill as it rightly entitles it) but notice that it also has a good account of the North Bridge action, featured as a Black Powder game in Miniature Wargames some months ago, which is what got me thinking about AWI skirmishing

I have been going to Oxford quite a bit lately and had another day there last week.  I picked up the new Osprey on the Roman Republican legionary as I am contemplating painting some more of these to go with the two small legions I have already.  Even better I had amassed enough Waterstones points that I didn't have to pay for it!

Go Bradley!

So now all I have to do is find somewhere to put all this stuff!  I did get a bit more done on my Back of Beyond Russians and they may be finished by this weekend, with a bit of luck, although I am spending quite a lot of time watching the Tour de France at present.  I can now paint and watch the Tour, however, as I have discovered I had a big problem with my internet connection.  Guy kept shouting at me as every time I went on the net it would crash his Xbox game.  He did a connection speed check and found we were getting a connection speed of 498K instead of 4-6MB.  It turns out that my useless ISP hadn't changed my line when I switched from dial-up to broadband so all this time I have had terrible connection speed without really knowing it.  It was only when Guy started playing online games that the problem became apparent.  A stiff letter is now being drafted.  But now I can watch live TV online and paint at the same time!