I found these excellent metal figures at Irregular Miniatures (a prolific UK figure manufacturer).
These are from their 20mm range for Garibaldi Wars.
I based them high so they would work alongside my 20-25mm 1/72 figures.
You can easily get French post Crimea as that uniform pretty much ran until 1914.
I use Field of Battle Piquet basing of 4 bases per battalion. This also neatly matches Neil Thomas rules for the 19th century european wars. I also like to have the officers separate so they can gross up to show brigade commands. Piquet also allows strong and weak battalions, 3-5 bases is possible. Neil Thomas does not like command explicitly on show, so there are no issues there.
The reality is that between 1815 and 1854 the French had uniform changes like so many cups of tea – sorry that should be coffee of course.
The Funcken shown is an excellent book that shows the colourful story of French fashions from shako to kepi and breeches to pantaloons!
Wargame shows in the UK are destinations for buyers. Wargamers love to buy at shows. Traders dominate proceedings and given the hobby has been off the high street for decades this is understandable.
So VAP is always a show that involves some buying. For my virtual VAP I have dug out some previous VAP show purchases – not even used – there’s a surprise – NOT!
Not a lead mountain more like a timber mountain. First up the previously bought items are two bridges.
First up is a 15mm scale “corduroy” bridge by 4 ground
The Corduroy bridge is easy to put together although the parts are small and easily damaged if not carefully removed from their frame.
This will serve as a small bridge in my 1/72 20/25mm battles.
The stone bridge in 15mm by 4 ground
The stone bridge is more of a scale item so will look out of scale in 1/72 20/25mm encounters. Unless of course you simply accept the lack of scale compatibility!
The stone bridge takes my element bases so that is a plus.
two useful bridges allow me to “bridge” across to my purchase the other day.
Ian Kay at Irregular Miniatures very quickly supplied some of his mid 19th century figures in both 25/28mm and 20mm.
These are Austrians – a general, cannon plus 4 gunners, two frenchies!!? several austrian infantry all bought as a taster.Arranged around Waterloo1815 1859 Austrians (confused? you ought to be) are Garibaldeans to the left, Piedmontese Line Infantry to the top right and yes some Belgian WW1 infantry bottom right as a tester for 1866 onwards Austrians.
All these purchases are to test my liking for the figures and their matching qualities with my 1/72 plastics.
The dainty Waterloo1815 Austrians were savaged by the Plastic Soldier Review. I quite like them though. The Garibaldeans are slightly smaller while the PSS Reviewed Lucky Toys equivalent (grotesque?) are hitting 25/26mm and with bulk.But not bulky enough to work with the other austrians which are proper 28mm chapsI am going to give these 28mm figures a go. They feel very suitable for a “little wars” type game without the live ammunition! Perhaps even a deliberate “shiney” finish?
I thought I might console myself with a virtual VAP this year via this site. So first up is something about traders.
Vapnartak is run by York Wargames Society volunteers and has a sizeable trader attendance. The York Racecourse site allows plenty of space although the organisers always ensure we all just about fit in!
In more recent times breakout space has improved yet I get the impression the number of traders remains unchanged? Maybe some of the games space has reduced. I am not sure on that.
The traders I have most often shopped with over the years have included
Caliver Books – no links at present
Dave Lanchesters Military Books – no links at present
Caliver Books have always given me a steady supply of books and especially rule books.
Currently preoccupied with mid 19th century warfare, I plan to use Brent Omans Piquet bought from Caliver Books.
I have also dipped into their figures occasionally plus the odd terrain purchase. At the show Caliver are the nearest thing to a street general wargames store before they became gaming cafes or just cafes and now just empty buildings!
These cast and painted buildings from Caliver Books have proved their worth in 2020 in my Saxon, Norman, Viking and Roman Britain outings.
Dave Lanchesters books have been a great source of the older Ospreys and I have often picked up Pen & Sword or Helion publications at great prices.
Many of these Ospreys have been bought at Dave’s store at various shows, all sadly missed.
And Dave has some really excellent condition out of print books.
Irregular Miniatures provide simply a vast range of figures and items that is staggering. Always something tempting to buy.
No pic, I hope to have some news in another post in Irregular.
Magister Militum, Westwind/Forged in Battle and Museum Miniatures have been my preferred 15mm suppliers – mainly ancients.
Forged in Battle command pack, detail is excellent.
All their figures have character despite their small size. I owned some 6mm Naploeonics back in the day but never got the bug so 15mm is as small as I go.
Museum Miniatures “Red Guard” drive off some pesky out of production Corvus Belli Cathaginians. Museum Miniatures got me into 15mm.
Funnily enough Peter Pig is another 15mm supplier yet it is his rules I have loved over the years – RFCM (Rules for the Common Man) remain the only other ruleset for pick up games I automatically think of for WW2 outings aside from my house rules based on the venerable Don Featherstone offerings. OK I do own Too Fat Lardies rules which really are the most engaging game rules in my view. However I have to be in the mood to play them!
Peter Pigs Bloody Barons have also found out my interest in the past although the figure scale has been 28mm or even Mike Tittensor’s SOA Bronze Age deriviative that saw 1/72 plastics take the field.
Peter Pig gave excellent pre game rules in their Wars of the Roses ruleset.
S&A Scenics have given me some excellent scenery of the “precise” kind and which give a nice “gamey” feel to a table top.
That clipped grass and trees from S&A Scenics just cries out for some shiney victorian era soldiersS&A Scenics do offer some nice crossover trees as well
In stark contrast Last Valley offer you trees and hedgerows which do feel very realistic to me. I like both – and yes use both together on occasion!
Last Valley make some nice pieces that often appear in my games.Many a time this last valley copse has held a unit or some piece of armour
Sally 4th have offered various companies products and I have often bought the Foreground pre coloured laser cut wood kits along with original citadel paints.
The detail on these buildings is so fine it is wasted in the gaming context at 3 feet or 1 metre. Mind you Foregrounds view on chiminies just does not chime with the rest of these exquisite models!
Dice are always in demand even if I don’t need them. The Dice Shop does what it says!
Pendraken Miniatures have also yielded some nice dice and I invariably get my bases from them. Alas their delightful figure ranges are just too small for me.
you can never have too many Pendraken bases in store!
I have a soft spot for 1/72 or small 25mm or large 20mm (take your pick). So Tumbling Dice have supplied some nice Dark Age figures.
Scale has always been a problem – Lamming 1970’s 20/25mm norman/saxons bookend 4 Tumbling Dice 1/72 true scale Saxon/Norman foot command figures
Last but not least are Magnetic Displays although I always remember them as Coritani. I buy their paintbrushes and occasionally paints. While their range of terrain features are always compelling and Renedra plastics have often figured in my purchasing, I always obtain spear reinforcements from Trevor & Paula who I just find are simply the most helpful and engaging of traders.
You always need a store of gabions and versatile bridges! Yes this is very old stock I rediscovered – which means I have too much stuff.
And of course there was the “infamous?” bring & buy scrum alley where pitches were offered on a time restricted basis. I could never make up my mind if it was any better than an ordinary bring and buy, except it crucially saved the wargames club members acting as intermediaries – double handling cash and items.
I managed to make some purchases. I never bought bad due to the selling mechanism so thats a good thing.
Whatever your wargaming activity I hope you are able to support your favorite traders despite the pandemic and the decimation it has caused to so many people in so many ways.
“The Supply Chain” is a bit like “hospital beds” a term overly used and missing out the crucial part – “people”. No hospital staff and well beds are useless. The same goes for all suppliers, despite the digital/AI/automation hype, people are still the crucial aspect of suppliers and the services they operate. Their work, largely hidden, is what makes our modern world go round.
Even my hobby activities rely on supply chains, as I do not make my own figures or write books I want to read for that matter.
right now I am gathering some reading material about Italy in the mid 19th Century
My supply chain for wargames has been of necessity online for about 10 years. Although when I think about it I was “online in the 1970’s because if you wanted certain figures you could not buy them at your local store.
I remember back then you could buy the “centre companies napoleonic british infantry” provided that was roughly 5 of each in advancing pose only (hinchliffe I believe) – that was all they had.
So I discovered direct postal sales long before “online” was even dreamed of. And in those days I did not go to shows either, having no means of transport. And anyway I don’t think I was even aware of them as a shopping opportunity.
I bought all my Warrior Miniatures by post in those days. and I still have a few.
So this is a big thank you to all the “people” who provide my miniatures, paints, scenery, brushes, books and the like. Either at shows (remember them) or by post (online).
In some ways nothing has changed although I seem to remember the cost of postage was truly massive to my mind back then – and I was trading in metal too.
superb service from Hannants to drive my latest project – the unification of italy…..
In alphabetical order some of my popular “suppliers” have been
Abe books – various out of print book editions
Antics online – for 1/72 plastics
Colonel Bills – for coat d’arms paints mainly at shows
Coritani (Magnetic Displays) – scenery, paint brushes mainly at shows
e Models – for 1/72 plastics
Hannants – for 1/72 plastics
Irregular Miniatures – 1/72 metallics
Lancashire Games – 1/72 metallics, scenery, rulesets
Models for Sale – for 1/72 plastics
Model Hobbies – for 1/72 plastics
Pendraken Miniatures – for mdf bases
SHQ – 1/72 metallics
Too Fat Lardies – rulesets
Warbases – for mdf bases
Wonderland Models – for 1/72 plastics and kits
World books – various out of print book editions
Tirelessly working to give their customers great service.
Currently reading this great summary of a complex story – needless to say garibaldi looms large yet the story is kaleidoscopic!
So thanks to them all for allowing me to pursue my hobby even in the midst of a global pandemic.
wishing every one a safe and secure christmas and a better year for all in 2021
Many years ago, although it seems only recently to me, I bought several titles from the Warhammer Ancient Battles booklist – they included Siege & Conquest – all about the siege; Chariot Wars; the WAB basic rule set itself; The Chinese Warring States and all that plus Shieldwall. A fairly random mix you might say which is correct.
I never really bought into Warhammer or Games Workshop after I returned to wargaming in the late 1990’s. I dropped neatly into 15mm and DBA. The 600mm square tabletop battlefield, relatively small metal mountains that could be painted and a simple ruleset that was popular all fitted my constrained interests and time.
And yet despite plenty of enjoyment 15mm became a compromise and once the restrictions on table size were removed I returned to the idea of 25mm (old style) which I suppose is my roots. Despite buying some 28mm figures that size has failed to ignite my interest.
I have discovered that 20mm/25mm or 1/72 is the figure size that appeals to me: Sufficient in size for each individual warrior, painting repays in the visual look while the table top is of the order 6′ x 4′ or 1.8m x 1.2m which is my limit.
And my 25mm wargaming odyssey has taken me back to the past with 1/72 plastics displacing metals but in the modern style from prolific manufacturers such as Zvezda, Strelets, Hat, Ceasar and the occasional Orion, Mars, Emhar and ok even vintage Revell. But it is not all plastic – tumbling dice miniatures have offered up some really nice figures to compliment the plastics. And so to have SHQ, Newline and Irregular Miniatures.
One thing I have done since returning to the hobby is read and that includes reading rulesets. In fact reading them more than I play them!
You need only one ruleset to play wargames for any one period. So I can’t explain why I have dozens. Yet rulesets are personal statements. In their way they seem to me someones interpretation of history albeit through their take on gaming mechanisms. So they are still history books in a way and thats how I consume them.
I only have historic wargames rulesets – fantasy wargaming is something I left behind in the 1970’s – Sci-Fi I could never get my head round.
And fantasy was for me doing dungeons and dragons in the 1970’s before it all took off. And yet my historical interests have always been tempered by an interest in historical fiction. Not the Sharp novels ilk. More a case of a parallel universe where so much is instantly recognisable yet the story lines, characters, countries have different names.
Each to their own as they say.
Well being inclined to Anglo-Saxons at the moment I dug out the Shieldwall book which I kept because like Chariot Wars it felt like a well researched and back then a well designed package. I never played the WAB ruleset with Shieldwall. Just maybe I might give it a go now.
Of course it is approaching vintage (25 years plus) and oldhammer is probably in the Oxford dictionary as a particular type of old wargamer already.
The constant theme though is to enjoy reading history, enjoy imaginative history and paint miniatures and if with a fair wind play some games. In short it is escapism – taking pleasure in playing with imagination.
The Wargaming Erratic 