Wednesday 31 March 2010

Featherstone Snaps The Stars


I'm posting this today (rather than tomorrow) just in case you think it's a Photoshopped wind-up....

Another gem from uber-blogger Clive - Don Featherstone caught Frank Hinchliffe and Peter Gilder (together with Tradition's Peter Beaton and Osprey's MD Tony Bovill) at the launch party for Osprey's 50th title in September 1975. In front of them Hinchliffe British and French Napoleonics face off on one of PG's terrain modules.

As Clive suggested this could be a still from The Sweeney (or perhaps back stage during the shooting of the Beastie Boys Sabotage video).....dig the threads Pete!

Tuesday 30 March 2010

Words of Wisdom 2

Mr Preece's recent dilema put me in mind of these sage words from George Gush ('A Guide to Wargaming' by Gush and Finch):


Be warned: once one embarks on super-detail and elaborate painting techniques, some strange psychological force makes it almost impossible to return to simpler standards, so one is condemned to lengthy sessions of painting for ever!


(To be fair to JP one of the things i admire about him is his apparent ability to switch between painting styles and levels of detail as appropriate for the particular project - not something i seem able to do other than using a shiny finish for vintage figures and matt for modern ones. And then there's the fact that he has 10,000 painted figures....).

Thursday 25 March 2010

Great Gilder Set Pieces 5


Peter Gilder's version of the premature demolition of the bridge over the Elster on the 18th October 1813. You'll find this on the cover of 'The Campaign of Leipzig 1813' - the second, and last, title in the short-lived Osprey Wargames series.

The Wargames series was similar to the current Osprey Campaigns series - you got an overview of the campaign and combatants, and a section on wargaming (which was always frustratingly short). Neither fish nor foul i suppose Osprey were trying to please both wargamers and history buffs in a single short volume; i much preferred the more wargamer focused approach of the similar Knights and Bellona series. Four years later Gilder's 'Let's Fight Leipzig' series in Miniature Wargames perhaps completed the picture begun by this Osprey title.

Of course where the Osprey series did score highly was the illustrations, and not just the half dozen Gilder set pieces in each volume, but also the numerous line drawings and sketches of relevant equipment and locations - in general they were well chosen and useful.

As for the toys - the majority of the figures in the foreground are obviously standard Hinchliffe 25s, but the figures in the background are intriguing - they must be 15mm, or perhaps System 12? Can anyone identify them?

Sunday 14 March 2010

A Brief Charles Stadden Interlude




They are not shiny, they're not even wargame figures, but they are by Charles Stadden - so well worthy of inclusion.

These images are just 3 pages from the slim 'Model Soldiers' volume published by Tradition (strictly speaking Belmont-Maintland Publishers Ltd) in 1967. Text by JBR Nicholson and photography by the doyen of model soldier snappers - Philip O Stearns.

All the figures illustrated are 54mm, and would probably be considered a touch naive by the standards of today's top modellers, but they retain a real charm that certainly appeals to me. More from this book anon.

Monday 8 March 2010

Words of Wisdom 1

This tickled me - from AIRFIX magazine guide 19 'Model Soldiers', Martin Windrow (or was it Gerry Embleton) spoke thus:


Like a gun, a modelling knife is neutral; whether it works for good or ill depends entirely on the moron holding it.