Derby Loot

Hello again.

After my belated post on the Derby Show, held on the weekend of 7th and 8th October, I thought I would muse on the things I went for, what I missed and what I bought from the show.

Perhaps unusual for me, I had actually made a definitive list of what I wanted. I reckoned I wanted two further regiments of French foot for the Seven Years' War in America/ French & Indian War. I also wanted another three British regiments for the same conflict. All five regiments, along with some half a dozen individual French figures, would come from Eagle Figures. I then planned on visiting Redoubt for some Highlanders and Light Infantry, together with a British gun or two. That would see me right for my FIW needs, I felt.

I also went with the express intention of boosting my 10mm Crimean War project, mostly with Russians, but I also wanted to check out Magister Militum's offerings in this arena, so that too was a definite. Most importantly in this project, I wanted the uniform book by Laurence Spring on the Russian Army, which Caliver Books had stocked at previous shows but I had not so far purchased a copy of.

I had planned to get the new "Ghost Archipelago" book, and possibly a few figures, new in from the "Frostgrave" people, but learned that it was not yet out (at the time of the show). Also, I wanted some Chinese Pulp-style characters for something I had in mind for the reasonably near future.

Anything else would be ad hoc.

So, what caused me to part with my money on the day?

A large selection of Eagle Figures SYW castings, which will bolster my FIW ranks considerably. I managed to get a whole single pack of British command from Redoubt too - their stocks were rather low, so I missed out on Highlanders, etc. The book looked interesting, so I picked it up from Paul Meekin Books.

A host of the desired Crimean War figures from both Pendraken and Magister Militum, along with a range of bargain books from Paul Meekin again. Almost £80 worth of books for less than half that! I now have a miniature British Light Brigade, the Heavy Brigade, the Guards Brigade, a Russian Light Cavalry Brigade, two brigades of Russian infantry and whatever the Pendraken packs hold. Quips that I want to host Balaklava in one-to-one scale are wholly unwarranted!

THE book I had set out to get, covering all aspects (I hoped) of the Russian army. A flick through showed just how much I did not know, such as Russian cavalry regiments having identically coloured horses within each regiment. I have started my first regiment of dragoons with their horses and had painted around half of them chestnut, with a view to doing the rest bay with the odd grey. NO!!! All chestnut now, which makes them either the Tsarevitch dragoons, Prince Emil of Hesse's dragoons...there are a few options! Flags are described too, so I can hopefully get them right as  well.

Related to my Crimean War interests, these two books were nice to have. The very new Osprey offering covers the Piedmontese but also other Italian forces in the unification struggles. Gringo 40's were at the show with some wonderful-looking troops for this conflict...The large, hardback book features loads of uniforms in colour for conflicts ranging from the Crimea to the Boer War (the 2nd one, featuring Spion Kop, etc). Ideal I felt not just for my Crimean interests, but also my latent ACW, 1859 and 1866 collections, all of which are awaiting their turn in the spotlight.

I have a passion for the Wargamers' Annual series, so this was a must-have. My currently dormant interest in the Thirty Years' War also meant I had to have the book on the Bavarian army too. Returning my 30YW figures to the tabletop is long overdue!

A hefty dose of whimsy! All looked interesting and "Bolt Action" may well see the light of day with my First World War figures, although I do have a 28mm Japanese army in the "To Do" pile...

And finally, more whimsy and necessity. I always need bases, but the Goblin Spider Rider and the two LOTR trolls were just "shiny".
 

So, I got a lot of what I went for, bought a lot of stuff on top of that, and still missed out on a few things.

1. No Highlanders or Light Infantry for the FIW.
2. No FIW British artillery.
3. No Fu Manchu or similar for Pulp games.
4. No "Ghost Archipelago".
5. Rather stupidly, I did not stock up on magnetic sheet and steel paper. I used the last of my supply of the latter yesterday! D'oh!

But, that was what I call a successful show overall. Whilst I felt there was too much crammed into the hall, some games not really "on the money" in my opinion and it was a bit of a pig to get to from where Nephew Nick and I live, the trade was lively, the money well spent and the Winter reading and projects well stacked up.

I really should take stock of the mass and bulk of my "To Do" list, however, and curtail my expenses going forwards. That may well mean I curtail one or two show visits for the next twelve months and Derby may well be one I miss next year. We shall see.

G

Crud 3 - Revolting Revolutionaries

In an all too common Mathematics faux pas, I posted "Crud 4" before "Crud 3"...

So, the "Revolting Revolutionaries", aka "Crud 3". I put these together ages ago and wrote an article for Battlegames magazine (issue 14 or 15 I think) about wargaming the Freikorps and their enemies in 20mm, in which several of these figures featured.

My Late WW1 Germans needed some opponents other than the Late War French I also own, so, inspired by the likes of Hans Fallada's "Kleiner Mann - Was Nun?", a text I had to study in my youth for German A Level, set as it is during the Weimer Republic, I set to in my favoured 20th Century wargames scale, 1/76th, or 20mm to you and I. During my studies, I encountered the likes of the Spartacists, the Freikorps, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, rampant inflation, the rise of the Nazis and all that other period stuff.

"How different was that?" I thought.

I already had a good grounding in the sort of period figures available for The Great War, but needed a more civilian feel for my Spartacists. Cue some Irregular Miniatures Spanish Civil War figures, some It Figures Volkssturm, Partisans also by It Figures, Great War spares from the likes of It Figures, Irregular and Tumbling Dice, lorries, wagons and the like from whoever makes them and away I went. In short, if I felt it would fit the bill, in it went. The whole thing was a sort of wargames curry!

They will not stand up in a straight fight against the Freikorps, but that is why I like scenario games so much, because they do not necessarily have to! One memorable game saw them defending a station building, eager for the arrival of some explosives so they could blow it up, whilst being assaulted by the Freikorps. In the last turn of the game, they left out the back door whilst the Freikorps tried to get in the front and BOOM!!!!

I really must get these figures out again soon. Happy memories...

G

Ex-British army Mark IV by Emhar fronted by a mixed selection of anti-Fascists/ Communists and an ex-French army 75mm gun. The two figures with armbands are It Figures Volksturm, the others Irregular Miniatures SCW. The gun is from Tumbling Dice.

The Tumbling Dice 75mm and crew. The crew are also TD, French WW1, with a head swap from a WW1 Russian nearest to camera holding the shell. Captured equipment would have been quite common, hence the foreign kit, including Adrian helmets.

The big lorry is from Irregular, the figures a mix again, the Hotchkiss from It Figures. The smaller lorry is a Model T Ford built from a kit made by Polish company RPM and marketed as a WW1 Ambulance. The standard bearer is an identical figure to the one in black, but an arm bend did the trick to make him something else.

In addition to the politically-motivated civilians, the Red ranks also have a few ex-soldiers in their ranks. These are again It Figures (no longer available?), their armbands a simple strip of sticky label painted an appropriate red. The portee is Irregular Miniatures again, its crew a mix of Tumbling Dice and Irregular I think.

It Figures Russian sailors, painted blue to represent their German counterparts, with an It Figures Maxim. These, with the ex-soldiers, provide a bit of quality to the Crud.

Irregular Miniatures wagons, the red one converted with card panels to represent a delivery van of some sort. The teamster is another conversion, having had his sidecap shaved down and scored to represent hair. A civilian paint job completes the disguise.