Gilder on Diversity

Here we have an extract from a letter sent by Peter Gilder to Wargamers Newsletter printed in issue 91 (October 1969 i believe). The background is the spat that rumbled on for some time between the London and Southampton 'sets' of wargamers (Featherstone vs Tunstill, seconds out...), but the real reason i post this is the insight it gives us into PG's hobby philosophy - his rejection of standardisation is music to the ears of this dyed in the wool individualist....

Thanks to Clive for supplying this scan.

Great Gilder Set Pieces 2

If you own a copy of Curt Johnson's 'Battles of the American Revolution' (and if not, why not?) then you'll already be familiar with this image - Gilder's the death of Rall at Trenton. I'm sure Rob will be delighted to see Garrison Prussians to the fore (lovely figures that i still prefer to the Hinchliffe Hessians or SYW Prussians). The rebels are a mixture of standard Hinchliffe figures and Peter Gilder 'specials' that have never been commercially available (well, not yet anyway....).

I scanned this image from the cover of Battle magazine from August 1976 (i wasn't going to risk breaking the spine of my copy of Johnson - it's a holy relic).

Great Gilder Set Pieces 1

I was drawn into wargaming by the toys, rather than, for example, a great desire to replay the antics of Napoleon, Wellington, or any of the great generals (though i have managed to mimic the win/loss ratio of George Washington rather well). As a young (and inept) military modeller i was captivated by the photos of the Peter Gilder collection that were published in Military Modelling magazine from time to time, and when i discovered that a cousin had been collecting 25mm Napoleonics i was sold.

This is one of my favourite shots - Napoleon and entourage from June 1975. Unlike some classic Gilder shots i don't think this one has been widely used elsewhere - i can't remember seeing it in any other magazines or books.

Rematch

August 1972 and Charles Grant takes a look at the next batch of Hinchliffe Napoleonics.

Again this comes to us courtesy of Clive.

Grant vs Gilder

Whilst it might sound like an intriguing episode of Celebrity (Wargamers) Death Match sadly this post is merely an article from the February 1972 edition of Military Modelling. In it Charles Grant takes a look at some of Peter Gilder's earliest work for Hinchliffe Models - 25mm Napoleonics.

This is another article sent to me by Clive- thanks Clive.

Bill Gaskin 2

More Gaskin collection pieces courtesy of Mike Siggins. The quality of these pretty much speaks for itself, so i'll shut up....

August 2010 Edit: When he originally sent me these images Mike did suggest the figures may have been by Phil Robinson, and Phil himself has just confirmed this. Phil also tells me that the majority of his command figures were Suren (though often converted) remounted on Gilder horses.

Bill Gaskin

If you've been a regular reader of Wargames Illustrated, or attended Partisan, then Bill Gaskin will need no introduction from me. His AWI, ACW and vast Napoleonic collections have been the subject of much drooling over the last couple of decades.

His current collection, whilst superb, sadly lacks shinyness but these early pieces (now in the collection of Mike Siggins) score top marks for composition, painting, and...gloss finish!

Apart from a single Steve Hezzlewood designed Hinchliffe X Range horse i think all of the above are basically Connoisseur figures.

More to come from Gaskin and Siggins.