Sunday 21 May 2017

Plans, Howitzers & contemplating Hinchliffe ECW's.

Sunday Morning again, the Sun is shining and over on the beach it's lovely and calm. I just watched a very skilled water skier making several fast runs up and down, looks great fun. With the Election looming and uncertainty over just how Brexit will pan out we have decided to hold off our planned move until end of Summer here, we are still going to Spain, but the house won't now go up for sale until September 1st. With that decided we invested in a garden hot tub (Laz-y-Spa) and I have been busy repairing and repainting the old garden shed to house it, it will go with the house sale as an additional feature, but meantime it's a little touch of the Spanish lifestyle we are looking for here on the Kent Coast and the kids and Granddaughters all love it!



Had a break from painting the Travel Battle figures this week and returned to my Flames of war collection. I painted up a couple of German Howitzers that I had for some time and I'm pleased with how they turned out, metal Battlefront models, they will add a bit more indirect fire ability to my German forces. Version 4 has done away with the need for separate command teams, one gun being nominated as the command gun instead, so I marked this with a red square on the front and rear of one model.
10.5cm leFH18 Howitzers.

The table is back up in the hobby room, the board size of 4' x 5' 6" fits comfortably in there, as it's only 9' long x 7' wide the slightly reduced length allows me to pass by without dragging any models off the table! I intend to play out some 'Flames of War' games as and when I feel like it.






Finally for now.
I have been looking for another project to add to the FIW & FoW collections that are really both about finished now save a few bits and bobs such as replacing the Tigers. The Travel Battle sets will continue to get painted slowly as I must admit to finding it a bit of a strain on my old eyes. I tried ACW's in 28mm but they are just not doing it for me I'm afraid, wonderful figures but I really need something fresh and different. They do paint up well, but I'm calling it a day now on this one.



One thing I have long had at the back of my mind is to do my very own 'Nostalgia' project using Hinchliffe 25mm figures. My first 25mm collection back in the day was English Civil War and to this day I still admire that range, especially the cavalry, the first figures I painted was a unit of  Haselrig's 'Lobsters', inspired by an article in one of the magazines. That would have been around 1977 - 78 -ish when I was living in a bedsit in Blackheath, London, my parents having moved down to deepest Kent and I was serving my printing apprenticeship at Municipal Mutual Insurance, Great Queen Street, Westminster. In those days it was common to have a couple of pints during the lunch hours and my Manager introduced me to Courage Directors Bitter as part of my education, having guided me away from drinking lager and lime! Anyway, I digress, the picture was cut out of the magazine and put in a frame on my wall, amazingly I found the very image on the web and as you can see from below it was indeed an inspiring image.

I have checked out the Hinchliffe range, now owned and sold by Hind's Figures and they do indeed still look good to me. I'm going to place a small order so I can see them in the flesh, but research on the 'Unfashionably  Shiny' blog has indicated just what can be done with them, along with figures from Peter Gilders collection, as used in the 'Battleground' Edgehill edition which can still be viewed HERE albeit somewhat blurry. The figures are old true scale 25mm castings, in the slim style of that time.

Borrowed from the 'Unfashionably Shiny' blog is this wonderful image of Gilder designed figures, just look at the animation. These are actually from the 'Foremost' range and sold under the heading of 'Prince Ruperts Charge'


I'll be back with more on this once my samples arrive.




11 comments:

  1. Lee that sounds like a fantastic project!

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    1. Ian - if the quality of the castings is as good as they used to be then I will do it!

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  2. That's a pity about the 28mm ACW figures, they look great! Be interested to see how 25mm ECW army turns out.
    Best Iain

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    1. Iain - the Renegade 28mm ACW's are good quality castings, but I find the range somewhat limited in pose and variants. Very few facial variants, all the 'marching' arms in the same position, stuck to the side of the body etc. At £1.50 per figure they are not cheap and I feel that the Perry Plastics are probably a better option with far more variation.

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    2. Can't wack Perry plastics for price! If you are going for George Gush WRG rules have you still got your copy? If not I'll happily send you mine, I like it as a nostalgic book but I won't be using it to play a game.
      Best Iain

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    3. Iain, I'm in the process of trying to track down a copy, I'm sure I still have mine somewhere but can't find it! If It don't turn up I would be delighted to take you up on that offer:)

      Many thanks,
      Lee.

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  3. I'll be interested to see what you do with an ECW project. What rules do you intend to use?

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    1. CK, as a full on nostalgia project it would have to be the WRG rules, I played so many game with them and always enjoyed them, especially fun was the Royalist A class horse going off in an 'Uncontrolled Advance' the moment they got anywhere near the enemy!

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  4. 1. Hot tub cooler than soldiers, so you are now a cool Grandad.

    2. FOW - have you seen the new 'soft plastics' that Battlefront are going with, I think they are starting with their N. African British.

    3. Shame about your ACW. they are beautifully painted, but before you abandon them, consider remounting them 6 to a single base in two ranks of three on a 50mm frontage x 40mm deep. THree bases to a unit might work with your table size and look armyish ... that is what I am hoping for myself anyway.

    4. Fully get it about the TravelBattle. I am painting but took a week out, finding it harder or at least less pleasurable than I thought I would. I have found though that ink is your friend with these chaps. It has settled down to a place in the painting queue now, rather than being at the top of my agenda.

    5. ECW with Hinchcliffe - just a nice thing to do I think. I am pretty sure that Steve-the-wargamer on his blog has recently given some TLC and rebasing to his collection and they look good.

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    1. Hello Norm - Thanks for the comment and suggestions. To reply to your points re American Civil War I have just been reading through your hex based ACW rules and I really like them, some great ideas in there. I especially like the use of the Game Clock, something I have not encountered before, it adds a whole new dimension. I'm printing off a copy as I type this, you now have me thinking I could play this game with my hex mat and 28mm figures. I bogged down due to lack of a set of rules that inspired me and I did not want to go backwards, but rather find something fresh. Mmmm....just maybe I should stick with the ACW's?

      Travel Battle on the back burner for a while, I'm in no rush to finish it but I will.

      I'll have to look into Battlefront's 'soft plastics'.

      Hot Tub - I have not been in it myself but my wife, daughters and granddaughters enjoy it, yesterday was a full house as it was a nice warm day, I prefer to paint soldiers to relax!

      I'll give you some feedback on the rules, but first impression is that you have captured the fluid style of ACW combat very well. I like them a lot.

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    2. Thanks, I would appreciate that.

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