Garratt On Gilder

From John G Garratt's 'Model Soldiers for the Connoisseur' (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1972), p228:

"Peter Gilder, by contrast [to Charles Grant] believes that beautifully painted models need an appropriate setting. He is especially skilful in making naturalistic terrains and employs many types of house of the period approriate to the campaign in progress. His collection, comprising over three thousand Stadden, Gammage and Hinton models, all of the Napoleonic period , is delightfully painted and serves not only its primary purpose but at the same time is a delight to the eye."

Interestingly there's no mention of Gilders first wargaming love, the ACW. As you are probably aware Mike Ingham has a lot of the figures Garrat mentions currently for sale - details from Clive.

If you are a model soldier fan then i highly recommend Garratt's book. I suppose it's largely a 'state of the hobby' circa 1972. As you would expect it's profusely illustrated, but the real value for me is the many biographies it contains of makers (including the odd barbed critique of their work) and collectors. The international array includes Hinton, Higgins, Suren, Stadden, Grant, Gilder, Sweet, Morschauser, Eriksson, and many more. Interestingly Gilder is only mentioned as a collector - which suggests Garrat's information to be a few years out of date by the time of publication, either that, or Gilder's sculpting is overlooked as 20/25mm was not Garratt's primary interest.

Griffith At Gettysburg

The late Dr Paddy Griffith is one of the key individuals behind my enduring (but largely unfulfilled) interest in the ACW. His books are fascinating but, long before i had read any of them, he took part in the first ACW game i witnessed (albeit via the TV screen) - the game played during the Gettysburg episode of Battleground. I remember the game looked spectacular and it was the terrain in particular that really struck me as something to aspire to. And wargaming was now on TV, presented by a famous actor, so it was clearly a serious adult pastime worthy of the many hours i was destined to devote to it in the coming decades....oh yes....

Despite playing with 'his toys, his terrain, and with his rules' Peter Gilder was given a sound thrashing by the other PG as they played out a highly condensed Gettysburg scenario. After winning a largely irrelevant cavalry melee on his left flank Gilder made his main thrust in the centre - Griffith's front line was brushed aside as Gilder's Rebs won the heights but his elation was to be short lived as he was then confronted by Griffith's reserve ('the Iron Brigade armed with breechloaders') and hit by enfilading artillery. A couple of moves later Gilder's centre was in tatters with his infantry brigades either dead or fleeing and the game was up.

Incidentally, the terrain was the same board used in the Callan movie, although by the time Battleground was recorded Edward Woodward had purchased it from Gilder.

The 'high point of the Confederacy' - Gilder's Rebs crest Cemetery Ridge but are shot to pieces by Griffith's reserve infantry and supporting artillery.

Not only did Griffith take part in one episode but he was also a Historical Consultant (along with Dr David Chandler and Charles Wesencraft) to the series. At this point in his career Griffith was Senior Lecturer at Sandhurst, where he also ran the wargame group.

Thanks to some very generous individuals i am slowly pulling together more information and images, so i hope to post more on Battleground in due course.

Inspiration

In recent years i've become addicted to tinkering - every new unit has to include a few conversions. Inspiration often comes from illustrations, and the Company of Military Historians 'The Era of the American Revolution' title is a source i keep returning to.

You may remember i featured the Culpeper Minutemen some time ago, i'd thought i'd put them to bed as a small 18 figure battalion but hadn't reckoned on the generosity of 'Mr MWAN' himself - Hal Thinglum. Last year Hal sent me a box of Hinchliffe figures that contained a number of riflemen and i recently used those to boost the Culpeper battalion up to it's 1775 paper strength. More rank and file meant more command figures so i took the opportunity to create my own miniature version of the officer illustrated in the COMH book. I took a Hinchliffe militia casting, replaced the head and left arm, converted the voluminous waistcoat into a hunting shirt and added a few other details such as an officers sash and fringing to the legs. A lick of Humbrol Midnight Blue and i'm quite pleased with the result.

The new drummer boy is also a conversion - the Foremost British Napoleonic drummer getting the Miliput hunting shirt treatment.

Recently i was able to pop down to the WHC and Mike Ingham was good enough to let me poke around the shelves for a couple of hours. Having had a good gander at literally hundreds of Doug Mason creations (not to mention those fantastic and ingenious Gilder buildings and terrain features) i am now armed with a stock of great conversion ideas to pillage for my AWI armies.

More Gilder Era Figures From The WHC

Again these British rifles come to us courtesy of Mike Ingham. Somewhat dusty apparently they've been languishing in a cupboard for years. The officer and kneeling figures are current Hinchliffe, the standing firing chap is more of a mystery - Clive reckons he's a 'first edition' Hinchliffe, and he's probably right (similar style to his more modern colleagues, just smaller and thinner ....that's the figure, not Clive).

Incidentally i think the first time i heard of the WHC was via a small piece in a Sunday supplement (probably the Sunday Times) c. 1980 - i remember that article being illustrated with a rather atmospheric shot of a British rifleman. It's a shame i no longer have that cutting.

Cossacks!

More vintage Hinchliffe from the WHC courtesy of Mike Ingham. Here i think we have early Hinchliffe cossacks (i've not seen this figure before, and it's not in the current catalogue) on current range ancient Hun ponies. Mike inherited these from Peter Gilder in 1988 and they are still in regular use at the WHC (which could make them veterans of over 35 years service).

Incidentally Clive has posted images of Garrison and Hinton Hunt figures from the WHC collection at The Hinton Hunter and The Old Metal Detector recently.

More vintage WHC Napoleonics soon.

Vintage Hinchliffe From The WHC

Mike Ingham (owner of the Wargames Holiday Centre) was kind enough to send me these images recently. They form part of a substantial collection of vintage, original 'Gilder era', figures that Mike had unearthed.

These particular chaps are 'first edition' Hinchliffe British Napoleonic heavy dragoons - the trooper was remodelled (and significantly enlarged) in the late 1970s but the officer and trumpeter remain in the Hinchliffe catalogue to this very day.

More vintage Hinchliffe from the WHC in due course.

Hussars!

If you are familiar with the Connoisseur Napoleonic range then you'll know that some troop types are lacking some rather basic variants - for example, in the case of French Hussars there is a trooper and trumpeter, but no officer casting. I suspect Peter Gilder simply ran out of time to add all of the figures he would have liked, but every cloud has a silver lining and this one encourages you to be creative.

John created this Grand Manner unit some time ago, it's been notoriously camera shy which is why i've had to make do with the rather dodgy pictures above (note to self: a glass topped table is not a good venue for toy soldier photography). An impressive result when you consider that only two basic castings were used (the aforementioned trooper and trumpeter) - a great example of what can be achieved with a little greenstuff and imagination.