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 