Old rules, Airfix stuff, etc

OK. last post Rick asked me if I'd made any interesting rules finds...

Before that, might be an idea to give a bit of history. Although I'd been making Airfix kits and messing about with a version of wargaming since before my teens I didn't actually know what I was doing. Got to Uni in Bradford in 1970 and discovered metal figures... Train Shop Supermarket in Bradford, Northern Garrison in Knarsborough (bus ride from Bradford, change at Harrogate).Did this for a couple of years then...

Decided it might be an idea to find out more about real wargaming. So I did the obvious. Put an ad in the Student's Union newsletter saying I was starting a wargaming club. 

First person through the door was a Mansfield lad called Pete Harris. Later on Pete wrote the Tercio ruleset used in quite a few Nationals. The first pre-Tercio set was a run of 20 copies we had printed off by the club. Pete also started his own club - though his call to arms was a bit more visual than mine - he put out posters. Pete was one of these people who liked doing re-enactments. Thus he founded a university chapter of Sir John Lambert's Regiment of the Roundhead Association.

The following year Ian Beck arrived. Which is how I found myself helping to organise the North East Regional Finals... mainly by booking the room and being described as the Regional Treasurer. Didn't mean a lot - Bill Robertson (Nottingham) and Pete Morrison (Halifax) did most of the real work.  This was when I first met quite a few Manufacturers like Bill Lamming, as well umpiring a game involving Peter Gilder.

The convention was also the first outing of Ian's Chariot Racing Arena, including about 2,000 converted Airfix civilians acting as the audience. I must confess I had nothing to do with this other than playing the game. No idea what happened to the arena - last time I saw it was in the attic of his parent's house in Halifax. The rules were printed using a Banda - a spirit duplicator. Bet not many people these days have heard of them! The other typed (plus some handwritten comments) photocopy is of the Halifax club's amendments to the WRG 4th Edition rules - actually played a game using them once. Against Ian. He won. I've got a funny feeling I could possibly be the only person to own a set of these that wasn't a Halifax club member. Though over the mid to late 70s I went there often enough!

Lots of other rule sets. These three are just part of them. Alan Cook was another Mansfield lad who joined the club and was also later responsible for rules used in the Nationals. The middle rule set was by Dave Millward. Although Dave was a really good player he's probably best known at the time for his feud with Phil Barker. Only knew Dave from conventions. The Pike and Pistol set were by Ian Shaw. Ian was in Liverpool Wargames Association, of which I was secretary. It's still going today, and at least one of the founding members, Ronnie Bate, is still there.

Also found my original 70s set of Featherstone rules... not a lot I can say about that. Met him a couple of times at conventions - really nice person. Think I'd spoken to him at at least two conventions before I found out who he was!

Also found the missing Airfix magazine articles I'd cut out! This is just a selection...

So, that's about it from that box. Lots of other rule sets and things in it, but gives you an idea.

Hovels and other stuff.

When you basically go through and sort everything in attic, eventually everything you've got will turn up...

So my factory painted Spanish buildings are now 'found'. To be fair, I thought I had a couple more houses and a few walls... or maybe that was just wishful thinking...

This barn was another Hovels factory painted building. I don't know why I bought this - think I just liked it...

My terrain purchases back then tended to be very haphazard. A 15mm Medieval butter market and couple of couple of Iron Age buildings. These (and everything else) painted by yours truly. I can't remember who manufactured any of these pieces.

I didn't have all that much 15mm Russian stuff - church looks nice!

My English village was a bit more extensive though.

It includes a few Olde English style buildings - quite a reasonable village though one of the buildings is a little the worse for wear.

There is quite a difference in size between the finished 15mm bridge and unfinished 20/25mm one.

For this set I have a good selection of walls, though again a couple  will need to be refurbished a bit.

 

Feels strange at the moment. It feels as though I'm getting a lot 'done' but haven't managed anything in the way of painting, games casting in ages... and could still be a while before I do. Meanwhile, found a load of rules and things, also picked up a few Persian cavalry on ebay (order hasn't arrived yet). Perhaps it's a February thing (most hated month) and it will all change in March.

Finally, finished latest sparabara unit

 To be fair, timewise it's about two weeks for 48 figures and I usually work on a 24 figure unit a week. So even with a few days 'off' from painting I did still hit the average painting time!

The filler used for bases is starting to get a bit past it's shelf life - lumpy, hard to work even when thinned.

I've gone for a very simplified painting style - the base red is about 3 coats of spray paint and I haven't put any patterns/edging on the robes.

Likewise the shields have been left plain with no designs apart from the bronze edging and boss.

The only figure with any real pattern is the officer with a leopard print cloak.

So this is what could really be called a 'mass produced' line regiment. Quite rough and ready, designed purely for gaming in a large army with very little effort being made towards 'quality'. Very much a T34 equivalent!

From Steven - Sengoku figures

 Latest set of photos from Steven. I'm basically putting them in with his text:

Hello, I haven’t sent any photos of figures for some months now. I’ve been steadily painting the 15mm Sengoku figures from Alternative Armies you got for my birthday. I just finished. I tried to paint them quite well so it has taken ages. Whilst not a strict rule, the heroes tend to be painted in brighter blues and yellows, whilst the monsters tended to have more red or various muted browns and greens.

I still have the ones you got me for Christmas but I will take a break before tackling them. Besides, my WW2 collection is feeling neglected and the panzer grenadiers are calling for attention.

Photos are below. As ever, my photography skills let me down, but I have used the battle map Sarah got me as a background (which is more green and less grey in reality), which is something of an improvement.

Figure 1 All the figures. Heroes vs monsters

 

Figure 2 The monsters.

 

Figure 3 The heroes

Figure 4 A small phalanx of goblins with polearms, supported by some archers

Figure 5 Close-up of some of the goblins. I was quite pleased with the detail on conical hats. There is no detail sculpted on the figures' hats - it was painted on freehand

Figure 6 Kappa with a selection of strange weapons. My favourite is the one on the left with the detail on his weapon (again, done freehand as I started the descent into madness) and his armour.

Figure 7 Oni (Japanese ogres)

Figure 8 Tengu. Some real-life birds with black plumage have a blue tint to them, so I used that as inspiration instead of doing a typical grey highlight. If any of your readers are aware of 15mm Tengu by other manufacturers, I would love to know. The Sengoku rules include hero Tengu too, which I’d prefer to be a different figure.

Figure 9 Weird Japanese ghosts. I find these pretty funny. Left to right - a demonic umbrella, a ghost Geisha with extendable neck, and a paper lantern ghost. Actually, the Geisha is one of my favourite models

Figure 10 Snake demons. I drew inspiration from real-life poisonous snakes for the middle figure with the black, red and white bands. The flat snake on the right was awful to paint and I'm still not really happy with it.

Figure 11 Spider and centipede demons. The middle figure creeps me out. My skin was crawling the whole time I was painting it. The paint schem was inspired by red-kneed tarantulas, whereas the purple guy on the left is rather more fanciful

Figure 12 The Guild Hunters pack (plus a random follower). Top-left is one of my favourite figures - the kimono pattern worked well. Also pleased with the top-right figure - the shiny effect on the helmet is a further development of my non-metallic metal technique

Figure 13 Japanese school girls because why not? Unfortunately, some of the less impressive sculpts in the range. The middle one looks like a wizened crone, not a teenager

Figure 14 Miko maidens and monks. From some google research, I think they are painted fairly accurately. Miko maidens seem to have red and white uniforms and most pictures of monks show them with dark brown robes

Figure 16 Another view of the dragon. The scales took so long to paint. The face is clearer here too. I think the eyes came out well