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“You can’t handle the Old Skool!”
Airfix Warriors from the dawn of time have at it…
“You want black and white?”
“You can’t handle black and white!”
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125271/aknej58di1ondxse29604my6twvq4gvp.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125271/zfddm9jo6u9je98ujufqku0ocx9fxdwx.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125271/dehwrjvir8uqfgujlu5pqs2f97tsjc2t.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125271/f43wlm5re4cw047o17qoq2l2vuszn1r0.jpg)
1973-ish!!!
Same little chaps, 1982-ish…
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125272/kx067wbq3umb5pviwsovhk7z4e5t5oex.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125272/xdlwbvna6mzqisowyt9zdn2a9djpplfb.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125272/vkt2898qo2kgmb7aptyp0clwdpwynw65.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125272/wjmdbx3f5e2mznvkk0n8tx0l1vm40gp1.jpg)
::)
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They had a lovely makeover and rebase I see. Notice that apart from the odd plastic tree, you stayed with the lichen though lol
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I love Old School. It’s the one I attended. ;)
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Happy memories of Airfix. The paint never stayed on my figures and riders never stayed glued to horses.
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I've spent decades trying to forget that feature (and the regiments with twelve different poses, and the ridiculous inaccuracies...oh, I love the modern age of wargaming, where my armies look like something!)
You're welcome to nostalgia trips.
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You're welcome to nostalgia trips.
:P Listen to old misery guts... :P
Who can forget the halcyon days of Highlanders winkling out truffles at bayonet point, minuscule Curryasars being chased about, by 'Land of the Giants' British Hussars. To be fair I have caved in over the ridiculous cannon in the Airfix French Artillery set, these have been replaced by proper ones from Newline Design..
and better for it, looks the extremely rare and hard to find, Airfix Old Guard Foot Artillery set.
::)
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Airfix Old Guard Foot Artillery set :-*
It is the only one I never found to buy and paint!
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Meanwhile back at the Napoleonic Wars. Ten minutes ago in The New Emporium by the Seaside…
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125312/m8hlgp43undp9j8l4ezl73b1fxjoi1tm.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125312/ei3byjjqjjefnzer82zv0571ugd9qf9c.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125312/yktuyl3ueqiwwkyyryziqz0fit5w36pl.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125312/jwndukkfkvvbg1vodgo5im6i6iytke58.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125312/l2nhddzw5vunmcsismmie3ul6vypy3mi.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125312/ljo1d1cjdm52f7dhr489sdy7dlwkebei.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125312/yukp6kqmuabj29pdrxatbayjnlteflo6.jpg)
:-*
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No CGI has been used in this production...
::)
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Hay, don’t nock the figures. Back in late 60’s early 70’s when you got a tanner pocket money, it’s all we could afford. With occasional mini figs or hinchcliffe bought as presents.
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When I was 14, I was paying a visit once per month to my godfathers.
Beyond the wish to see them, there was an utilitarian aspect ;)
My godmother was giving me 20 drachmas.
With 10 more I was sparing from the bus tickets, returning for one week home on foot, I could buy one more Airfix soldiers box!
Oh, sweet memories... :-*
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Wow, the paint stayed on and the figures attached to everything!
Never could get that to work.
I did eventually have a bunch of [unpainted] Romans and Britons held on to bases with a mechanical bond of glue all over the base and the Romans' shields melted on with a hot pin. But they turned out to be from a vintage of really crappy plastic recipe, and eventually the ankles all crumpled to dust like Christopher Lee in a sun beam.
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The good old days, when if you couldn't convert it from the AirFix Robin Hood set
(with the help of Bob O'Brien's 'Romans, friends & foes' series in AirFix magazine)
you just didn't have an army for your WRG ancients game.
I do remember making a Macedonian pike phalanx out of the French Cuirassiers
(top half) & British highlanders (bottom half), piano-wire pikes & drawing pin
shields. All on two bob a week pocket money.
Eh! Nostalgia, it ain't what it used to be.
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Many years later, when using Zvezda and Hat figures, found one way to keep the paint on: Miracle Dip AKA Minwax wood floor stain and finish. My Teutonic Knights have had a horse's tail snap off in combat but all the paint is still on. There's another way with some kind of primer I hear, but back in the day my Airfix dragoons peeled when you looked at them. And the horse came out of their bases. I had some Airfix infantry figures painted as Bavarians, I think. With their peeling paint they passed every morale test and always formed square, even though they were bog-standard troops. There were various strange non-game related stuff that I put up with too: the strange ways of youth.
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What a treat for the eyes and the heart!
Nice to see I wasn't the first to think of replacing Hussar heads with French infantry heads to make Light Dragoons. These days the acrylic paint is more forgiving than the old enamels and a quick coat of diluted PVA after painting but before varnishing will keep the paint on. No guarantees on those poor Hussar horses' ankles though - not easy staying upright when you've got ballerina legs and a 25 stone rider!
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YES! That is a wonderful trip down memory lane. My first armies were US Civil War AirFix and I still have them and am planning to use them in a game later this year.
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We had ACW union painted as Prussians otherwise the British napoleonic were all Scots highlanders as they had not released British line infantry yet.
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Nothing wrong with Old School, brings back a lot of memories for me too. 1972, I saw my first ever painted Napoleonic Airfix figures at school, there was actually a school wargame club run by a teacher! That was it, hooked for life :) Great pictures. Should add that when I joined SELWG around that time it was Airfix Romans and Britons to WRG on a snooker table upstairs that caught my attention.
Young wargamers today eh, they don't know how lucky they are!
Lee.
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Lovely stuff. I sold off all my old Airfix Napoleonics and Ancients a while back. The paint stayed on if you put a good layer of polyurethane over the top. Later I also found that artists' acrylic makes a great undercoat as it stays flexible. Keeping riders on horses was OK, but keeping horses attached to bases was always a challenge. Sadly many of them succumbed not to flaking paint but to the plasticiser not working any more and they went all brittle and snapped off at ankles, shoulders and almost anywhere else.
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Great to see the old photos. Thanks for posting
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I love Old School. It’s the one I attended. ;)
Me too. Pity I was expelled.
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Sadly many of them succumbed not to flaking paint but to the plasticiser not working any more and they went all brittle and snapped off at ankles, shoulders and almost anywhere else.
I had some Romans that started falling apart - and the paint flaked too.
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Just for the sake of good old memories, here are my RHA and AWI transformed to SYW Austrian Artillery
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Ah, the old Washington's Army figs, so cool. I think HaT are bringing out SYW things in the near future.
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The Washington's Army pack came out while I was still at school (many.many years ago)
at about the same time WRG brought out their Horse & Musket set of rules. The figure
scale changed from their usual 1 fig. = 20 men, to 1 fig. = 50 men. A school friend,
my first wargaming buddy (Steve O'Leary if you are out there still) worked out you could
represent the entire (regular) army of the (newly formed) USA with just one packet!
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One of the last, and best, Napoleonic sets Airfix brought out was (1975?) the Old Guard. But for many a year we'd all ready got 'em, courtesy of the AWI British Grenadiers...
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=105509.0;attach=73419;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=105509.0;attach=73420;image)
:-*
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All this proves one thing to me: wargaming is in our DNA. Even if there were no tiny soldiers at all, we would invent them out of nothing!
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It's true is that. I recall reading in one of Donald Feathersone's first books. How he spent a month or so painting up his Franco-Prussian (converted from ACW figures using nail varnish coated plasticine!) Armies while watching the Olympics on TV!
:-*
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Ah yes, the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. But I think the figures were 1859 Austrians. At least in my memory they were.
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B.M. Before (I could afford) Metal. I wanted a unit of the, then, new
WRG unit type...SUPER HEAVY CAVALRY!!!!!
A weekend of gluing rolled out Plasticine onto AirFix horses, embossing
scales all over them & setting it with Banana Oil, saw me field my first
Palmyran regiment.
God they were sh**e, but I loved them, even when the riders were looking
up the noses of a Hinchcliffe light cavalry horse. It didn't help that my opponent
based his troops on quarter inch thick hardboard, while mine followed the god
Barker's instruction & were on top of best quality beer mats (obtained by my
lovely Dad).
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Ah yes, the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. But I think the figures were 1859 Austrians. At least in my memory they were.
I think your memory's better than mine Andy...
that sounds more like it!
:?
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Thanks. I haven't read the book or article in question recently, and don't know why it's stuck in my mind, but if I recall the context correctly, Don was describing setting about a new project; he wanted another mid-century European army, but was uninspired by Russians, and selected the Austro-Hungarian Empire instead. Finding no suitable range of figures available, he resorted to conversion, with suitable distraction from the tedium. Other than the substitution of epoxy putty for Plasticine, and, generally speaking, hard plastic 28 mm figures for soft plastic (i.e. Airfix) ones, I think it's fair to say that nothing has really changed that much in the subsequent 50 years.
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Enough of this meander into a half remembered Yesteryear. Meanwhile back in the TARDIS to...
Yesteryear...
The British must capture the strategically important high ground to their front while denying the road junction to the French, who must in turn deny the hill to Wellington’s men and also take the crossroads…
Both sides begin to deploy and advance. Serious first blood goes to the French as their Grand Battery takes the Black Watch under a heavy fire, they waver and His Grace the Duke of Wellington, rallies them. A splendid volley from the Highlanders stops the 1st Grenadiers of the Old Guard in their tracks! The Emperor personally gallops up to join his ‘Grumblers’.
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125631/9uyjsnr8vgm7rf78yv61m005iyxft5ez.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125631/izzw3h7zozjxg5jz8fn2ui10sbel6mwo.jpg)
Wot’s not to like about a looming point blank volleyfest!!!???
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125631/h1qmpwal155efr98353fxtff9sp00oyc.jpg)
In the swirling Cavalry fight the Curryasar General, Marcel de Tosspot, is cut down by the 10th’s Colonel, Harry Faversham, who’s lost wot passes for his wits and joining the fight like a common Trooper.
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125631/70prkh3xyj2wx2ltcrlprq3c3r5230tx.jpg)
lol
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Love these figures! Can recognize their poses from far away!
Nice pics! Thanks for sharing!
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Most of the collection was created the summer of 1972 in the six week holidays from proper Skool! Our kid built the Airfix Old Guard in 1975, I think?
Like Andy says the more things change the more they stay the same...
if you've got some real Veterans get 'em out and play with them!
:-*
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Most of the collection was created the summer of 1972 in the six week holidays from proper Skool! Our kid built the Airfix Old Guard in 1975, I think?
Like Andy says the more things change the more they stay the same...
if you've got some real Veterans get 'em out and play with them!
:-*
It is worth it, indeed! We manage to get them out and play about half a dozen times per year...
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DtheD, next time take some piccys.
:)
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With all my heart, on the first occasion!
For the moment: Do you recognize
1 These Prussian bombardiers?
2 and 3 These Austrian Generals?
4,5 and 6 These Austrian gunners?
7 These Bavarian grenadiers?
:)
Some are Airfix of course, some are not :D
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And one more, French Napoleonic from the battle of Montmirail
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Magnificent stuff there matey!
I well remember seeing an 'Old Skool', demo game with Spencer Smith 30mm figures, some years back. I've often wondered what kind of reception a giant Airfix Munchkin, Battle of Waterloo would get at a show?
:-*
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“There’s something wrong with our bloody muskets today!”
His Grace the Duke of Wellington growled to an aide. A devastating exchange of close range volley fire had broken three of his Battalions. Peering into the battle smoke, His Grace, was unable to discern no similar disaster befalling the enemy…
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125788/k8u8s14cly2rncwlg3ehl0s7wtr1o68g.jpg)
“Vive L’Empereur!”
Echoed around the field, a tad premature as it turned out, as the British 10th and 15th Hussars drove the French Cavalry back in rout. His Grace ordered the reserves into the breach in the French line…
“Hard pounding Gentlemen!”
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/125788/0rxmstatlc3ed7p6218bycy2ncr37y5z.jpg)
:o
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The ‘pounding’ proved too much for His Grace, hit on the bonce by a spent ball he was carried from the field. Demoralised the British units gave ground till only Harry and The Coldstream Guards were left, they held the road doggedly till night came, then fell back leaving the field to the victorious French.
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/126060/b1jnm8qx2tlhxre1xvjgw7isg7und2i8.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/126060/5bxxbc96qjis6c2tv9w51997sjwrzw7w.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/126060/tmifir0ds8bk32y4qyxopzuw5qgcprze.jpg)
:-[
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I didn't notice any reference to the rules used. It naturally goes without saying that these are either from one of the sets / books published by the founding fathers of the hobby, or a self-penned set scrawled onto one side of the proverbial postcard. Kindly confirm.
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An extremely advanced version of 'One Hour Wargames' rules. So advanced it now fills over half a sheet of A4!!!
:o
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Can't say I'm familiar with it, but I suppose it must be alright.
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"Wellington's centre is broken. Inform the Emperor it is time to send in his Old Guard!"
:o
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“Gordon, I desire the Highland Brigade advance to the crest.”
“As you wish Sir Thomas. Piper Major… Scotland For Ever!”
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/126118/ex7zxdbrohm67kbv1at9u04z5toolg74.jpg)
(https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/126118/v1jmx25o3eg9c2ob5kcyy10nfdizf1iz.jpg)
:)
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Excellent conversions, still enduring the test of time! :-*
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Wish I could convert figures that well Din. The senior Occifers are white metal figures, Gordon's had a head transplant though!
:o
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Got it!
Sorry for the poor quality of the picture:
Years before. Volley and Bayonet. Brienne.
Airfix soldiers from French line and Artillery and one converted Napoleon, dressed with a stucco coat :)
P.S. The empty space on the base is for a small base of skirmishers to sit.
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Love it!
Hard to imagine innit, a whole generation of wargamers have grown up, not knowing wot an Airfix Sowjer, even looks like!!!???
:'(
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Airfix French Line Infantry fighting ESCI lancers painted as Russians.
A great part of my army was ESCI... And of my colleagues as well.
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Ligny (VnB, played on the 13th of June, 2015)
One can see in the middle the famous French marching soldier found in the Airfix French Line Artillery box.
Here they are painted like Prussians.
Given that there are several more on the table, not shown, imagine how many artillery boxes had been bought :D
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I'm sure your grand battery was impressive - mine had only nine pieces - but no amount of 4-pdrs equals the psychological and material effect of the emperor's belles filles. One of the drawbacks of old school, perhaps.
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Sergeant Thomas Atkins, the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot, at the Battle of Waterloo...
:)
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Absolutely love this but then 1/72 is my preferred scale of play, especially for Napoleonic period. Good to see so many Airfix and similar coming out of the woodwork.
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G, all my collection is Airfix. Over the years I've been tempted to bin 'em and get 'proper' Napoleonic figures. Not doing that's one of the few things I've got right!
(https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=280266&d=1632650389)
(https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=280270&d=1632651371)
(https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=280272&d=1632651858)
:-*
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Lovely Old School!
Keep calm and keep Airfix!
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Lovely to see good old Airfix chaps in use today!
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Lovely to see good old Airfix chaps in use today!
Yep - it is! Well done there, Master Haversham! I have some of the Airfix chaps in both my 20mm/1:72 AWI and War of 1812 forces.
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I can well recall the abominations I created on a schoolboy budget.
Union infantry with plastic sprue shakoes for French Line
Guards Colour Party as Old Guard.
WWI Germans with paper false fronts added with plasticene plumes as Coldstream Guards
Confederates with similar scrathbuilt shakoes as 33rd Foot
WW1 French inexplicably painted white as "Austrians".
Happy days.
Airfix did go on to produce some very useful and accurate sets
Though with the occasional oddities like skipping/prancing bren gunners.
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I can well recall the abominations I created on a schoolboy budget.
Union infantry with plastic sprue shakoes for French Line
Guards Colour Party as Old Guard.
WWI Germans with paper false fronts added with plasticene plumes as Coldstream Guards
Confederates with similar scrathbuilt shakoes as 33rd Foot
WW1 French inexplicably painted white as "Austrians".
Happy days.
Likewise Harry, my conversions included:-
WW1 Americans as ECW Musketeers with WW1 French as Pikemen,
Top half French Cuirassier on bottom half of Napoleonic Highlanders
with piano-wire 'pikes'& small drawing pin 'shields' as Macedonians,
not to mention the hordes of Bob O'Brien (Romans Friends & Foes)
inspired conversions.
As you say, 'Happy days'
Though with the occasional oddities like skipping/prancing bren gunners.
Other examples:-
British Paras shooting up into the air! Must hate their Sgt. lol
Napoleonic Brits swinging a musket, by the bayonet! :o
Roman Legionaries running along waving both shield & pila :?
Not to forget the Ox cart wheels on the ancient Briton's Chariot.
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Harry, you have inspired me to go back to my Airfix roots, get rid of every other manufacturer on my plastics shelf and I'm now in the final stages of a Napoleonic Highland Infantry project, using all Airfix stuff. I'm doing it for a (hopefully) magazine article in sprucing up the old Airfix lovelies to tackle some of their issues, like lack of water bottle and haversack, lack of sergeants, etc.. It's taken a long time and a lot of work, but the more work you put in, the more you are following the old Airfix creed of converting existing models to get what you want (as per their modelling magazine). I've vowed to use every model in the Highlander box at least once (with some help from the British Line Infantry legs) to create a full battalion.
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I look forward to seeing that Cubs,
I am certain that you will nail it.
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Yep, that article will provide all the inspiration you'll need...
for the next 50 years!
:-*
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Back in the day, 60s that is, you could build massive Napoleonic Armies, financed by the brass from yer paper round. In them days of yesteryear, you were a bit stumped in the Cavalry department. All you had were heavyweight Hussars on spindly legged horses, and even dafter dwarf Curryasars! How then, did you depict the Scots Greys charging to glory, like in the film? Major surgery and a dodgy paint job, that's how!
(https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=295177&d=1678452752)
(https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=295178&d=1678452776)
;) ::) ;)
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That table looks fantastic Harry. I like the look of the basing you have used, any chance more close ups and how you have organised them?
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We used to convert 'merican Civil war cavalry with plasticine Busbys, and into dragoons/lancers with a fore and aft crest. They mostly came off after a few years playing ::)
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That table looks fantastic Harry. I like the look of the basing you have used, any chance more close ups and how you have organised them?
Thank you Sir.
Warbases provided the large bases with the 'dice of death' recess in the top right corner. Number one concern with Airfix munchkins is defeating the muskets/swords from going bald every game, after battling this problem for fifty years, even I gormed I was on a loser! Don't believe anything you read about weird and wonderful ways to get the paint to stop on bendy plastic swords and muskets. I've tried 'em all, none work. The only way to win the fight, is to base the little bleeders, in such a way you never touch 'em, hence the big bases.
As for close up piccys, I'll try a few, but... they're Airfix, painted in the 60s and early 70s, they look crap close up!
This bloke's not to bad though...
(https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=120408.0;attach=166743;image)
:o
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Latest edition for the Airfix Waterloo collection. Dutch/Belgian Battery, on the outskirts of Papalotte...
::)
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Cracking work on the artillery Harry, they look super, they were on of my favourite sets from yesteryear, good to see them again! :)
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Thanks for that, I've got a few more gunners coming to the painting table. Including that bloke getting an hernia, humping the cannonball...
now all I need is an Airfix 'Farmyard' set!
lol
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Hey Folks!
I'm new to L A F and love it!
I'm a huge fan of 1/72 plastics and have owned some of them for well over 50 years. I've uploaded my 'Quatre Bras in 20mm Scale' – the motion picture!
It's Quatre Bras done in 1/72 plastics from lots of manufacturers and using the excellent Volley and Bayonet rules.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaVEfld0wZfyMZh8Idlt3zQV8DLZJcaqB (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaVEfld0wZfyMZh8Idlt3zQV8DLZJcaqB)
I hope you enjoy it.
There are other battles there too, including Molwitz played using Volley and Bayonet.
All the best!
- Jeff
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"SCOTLAND FOREVER!"
:o
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(https://thumbs-eu-west-1.myalbum.io/photo/1k0/d753d2c2-b750-44ca-bbf1-a51cb32759d6.jpg)
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Merry Crimbo Cubs!
:)
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Lovely, this is, I tell ya!
I have some of those very same Airfix fellers in my War of 1812 armies (and my AWI armies as well)... :D
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Simply splendid ..that s the true tabletop Wargame :)