My hobby has again been sustained by a supply chain. In my case 2021 has seen my ebay activity trail off while I have increased my buying with a few hobby companies.
Thank you to everyone (in no particular order!)
- Cronwallis – ebay supplier from Oz who provided some rare 1/72 plastic figures for my Fauxterre Napoleonic Mythical Realm. Also I secured a supply of Russian Napoleonics who will see life as my Milan Guard – one day!
- Model Hobbies supplied a lot of Napoleonic 1/72 figures and many Waterloo 1815 figures for my Wars of the Italian Unification project
- Black Forest Hobby were a source of some hard to get figures and rulessets
- Other ebay suppliers included ms-plueth (dutch/belgians), model148 (for peninsular war types) and rasweetrampwp who provided some WW1 belgians which I morphed into Neapolitan Chasseurs circa 1860.
- buchunversum supplied a very valued book – Funcken 19th century army uniforms with german text – britain/prussia/france 1815 to 1850. Crucially it shows the evolution of french and german uniforms from shakoes and breechs to pickelhaubes, kepis and trousers.
- SHQ provided 20mm metal napoleonics
- Hannants provided numerous 1/72 plastic figures mainly for my mythical napoleonic armies
- Caliver books provided invaluable titles for my new interests in european wars between 1848 and 1866. The Schleswig War of 1848 was probably my most satisfying buy – I just did not expect such a gem of a book. (see lead image for details). America in Algiers circa 1820 was a complete surprise!
- Irregular Miniatures have supplied some very useful 20mm figures for my Italian and French forces fighting over Rome in 1848 and all Italy in 1859
- Warrior Miniatures have provided 25mm troops for what will be my Fauxterre post Napoleonic forces
- Wargame Vault supplied me with “A Gentlemans War” skirmish rules in pdf format.
- Perry Miniatures provided their Carlist Wars ruleset
- Paul Meekins Books supplied a 100 year old copy of a trilogy on Garibaldi’s wars
- Games Lore supplied 5 Parsecs from Home sci fi rules
On the high street I bought figures and kits from Antics in Plymouth and Monk Bar models in York while Wonderland of Edinburgh supplied many sets of 1/72 figures including Crimean era
I managed just two shows where the following traders provided some excellent material.
- Pendraken for bases
- Colonel Bills for 20mm WW2 metals
- Dave Lanchester Books who have provided some really excellent source books most recently on 19th century sea warfare and Vichy France at War
- I have written up about Fiasco 2021 traders here and Recon 2021 show traders here.
Operation Hight Street
For some extra fun I have tried where possible to run my sideshow WW2 wargame project by buying in person at shops/traders. It has not been easy. Yet I have bought quite a bit of material from those few trips I did manage.
So I hope our hobby suppliers continue to prosper and provide us with figures, scenery, rules and other materials to enable us all to enjoy a hobby that lets you escape into your imagination.
Thank you
The Wargaming Erratic 
6 replies on “Supply Chain 2021”
Enjoyed reading this! 🙂 A good haul and a nice tribute to some unsung heroes!
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Thanks john as you say quite a haul, before I had a blog everything just merged into one continuous stream. So it’s quite interesting to reflect now and again.
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A lot of familiar names there that provide an essential service. 🙂
That book has caught my attention. I’ve read about the second war but not the first and now you’ve piqued my interest!
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High Marvin, like you I was aware of wars leading to 1870, but never really took much notice of 1848. As a child Waterloo ended one era and then you jumped to Crimea and by then your in the 1850’s. I hope you find something of interest in 1848 when essentially everything was still very much like the napoleonic era🙂
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Good on you for thanking the suppliers of your ‘habit’ once again.
Great to see Bruce ‘Cronwallis’ and Andrew at Military Hobbies mentioned at the top of your list. I use their services a lot. Both wonderful, helpful fellas who provide a great service.
I followed your lead on this in 2020, making a similar post. Since then I have made a point of letting all suppliers know when an order has arrived and thanking them for sending it (I previously did it with some, usually the smaller operators, but not all). It’s a small gesture, but people are really chuffed to receive the acknowledgement.
Regards, James
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Thanks James, I think your last comment is so important.
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