Spring Campaign in Flanders, and a storm is comming

A delightful day was spent in the countryside yesterday, where we held our third encounter in the C18th Funny Little Wars campaign.   The weather was unseasonably fine and bright such that we could almost have played the game outside in the garden......almost but not quite.

The scenario chosen to playtest was the storming of a fortified town as a prelude to full blown siege operations.

The "Pragmatic" Army have occupied a town and their Command are in the Main Square to oversee the laying of guns and supervise the engineers who are hastily putting up barricades and revetments.  This is the centre of their line and the guns have good clear fields of fire.

To the left the newly arrived Regiment Royal Ecossais hold the strongly walled perimeter of the churchyard, on their extreme left (out of picture) a regiment of Dragoons is posted on a low hill.

On the right of the "Pragmatic" line more French infantry and a regiment of  dismounted Dragoons take up position behind the barricades among the outlying houses.

The "Army of Observation" have arrived on the outskirts of the town, after a careful reconnaissance their Command confer and decide on an immediate attack before the fortifications can be completed or enemy reinforcements intervene.

A full view of the table at the opening of the game.  The main attack will be delivered on the right flank where the open country will allow the cavalry to deploy supported by three regiments of infantry.  At the far end of the field a single regiment of infantry and a battalion of Bozniac Pandours will pin down the enemy's left flank while a company of Jaegers and a composite battalion of Grenadiers will make a demonstration against the enemy centre.  Two mortars are also sited in the centre which will pound the town to Rubble!

The Game is afoot.

Plastic Warrior Show 2013

The 28th UK Toy and Model Soldier Show, better known as the Plastic Warrior Show will be held on Saturday 4th May 2013 at a new venue, the Winning Post, which is about a 5 minute drive from the old hall which will be closed until September 2014 for redevelopment.  Full details of the show and travel directions are on the new Plastic Warrior blog here: Plastic Warrior

This show is generally considered to be the premier event for collectors and wargamers of 54mm plastic toy soldiers with dealers attending from all over Europe and the Americas,  vintage and modern plastic figures in smaller scales HO/OO are also included.  In the past this event has also been used by manufacturers such as Replicants, Barzo and Armies in Plastic etc. to showcase new products.

Russian clay toy soldiers for wargaming

There seems to be a thing in Russia for making toy soldiers out of modelling clay I don't know if they are soft like Plasticine or they harden like FIMO but I am in awe of the patience and dexterity of the people who make them.  The sort of thing I'm talking about can be seen on this website showing a wargame of the Battle of Wachau 1813 with 45mm figures, or in this magazine article about the collection of Sergey Kiselev who sculpted his 30mm wargame figures over a period of 31 years (the photos belie their size until you see them standing next to a zippo lighter). 

Links to these sites have featured on various blogs and Yahoo Groups before but I don't recall where or when so if I should have given credit to someone else for finding them in the first place my apologies but I can't remember who you were.  Anyway my reason for bringing this subject up is that I came across this video by accident, enjoyed it and felt I should share it with a wider audience.

As I am still a bit of a blog virgin it is also an experiment to see if I can add videos to this site.  Posts here have been sparse lately as I have been on a bit of an end of year creativity bender, doing lots of conversions and painting, when you feel the urge you have to follow it before it all wears off. 

Oh yes........... a Happy New Year to all, now enjoy the film.

All I can say is they must have some awful long hard winters in Russia!

Reprinted Book - Collectors Guide to Plastic Toy Soldiers 1947 - 1987

Just before Christmas I received a note from long time collector and toy soldier dealer George Kearton to say that his book  COLLECTORS GUIDE TO PLASTIC TOY SOLDIERS 1947-1987 had now been revised and reprinted, and here it is:

I should declare an interest in that I was a regular customer of George's when he was selling toy soldiers back in the 1970's and more importantly that I have not actually seen the new revised edition (well not yet anyhow) but here is what I wrote about the original on my old website back in 2002:

"This is an identification guide showing nearly 900 figures from over 80 manufacturers worldwide, there are 43 black and white plates covering categories such as the Ancient World, Robin Hood, US Cavalry, Napoleonic Wars, First World War, Arab World, Pirates, etc. The size and clarity of the pictures has been criticised but this remains probably the best reference resource for plastic figures that there is. Published in a limited edition of just 1,000 copies.  Long out of print but the author is considering a reprint."

Here is what George told me about the additional content in the revised reprint:

"The book has new covers (picture attached) and the following new material:

A new introduction

A very kind appreciation/retrospect by Peter Cole

An article "Grumpy Old Soldiers" which I wrote for Plastic Warrior some years ago.

A piece about my toy soldier museum from 1984, courtesy of Old Toy Soldier Newsletter.
A copy of one of my original mail order lists from the early 1980's listing over 700 items !
The price is £12.95p plus post and packing. It's available through ebay if people search under my user ID 69birley"

Edited by John Curry who is well known for his History of Wargaming Project, the revised addition has 82 pages, ISBN 978-1-291-08553-2.  There has long been a demand for this book to be reprinted and at this price I consider it offers very good value.

C18th dioramas by John Jenkins Design

With my current kick for the 18th Century growing stronger I was pleased to see these rather fine dioramas on the JJD stand at the December 2012 London Toy Soldier Show.

A lively set to, which I assume to be Culloden but could be any of the clashes from the Jacobite Rising/Rebellion.  The very thought of painting tartans fills me with dread but I can't help feeling that I'm being drawn in by the wonderful animation of those Highlanders.

These Prussian Grenadiers could have just jumped straight off the canvas of the famous painting DieSchlacht Von Leuthen by Carl Rochling, inspiring stuff, I just wish I could get my humble Frederickians to look that good!