Hand-Built History by John Boadle

Last century a slightly younger and spritelier von Peter himself would wait with baited breath each month for the arrival of Wargames Illustrated at the local news agent. Such mind tickling articles; so many advertisements for companies never heard of – e.g. Calpe Miniatures; and such wonderful pictures.

One of the names that often came up in the credits for the pictures was a John Boadle.

Above: and the caption read …

Front cover photo: John Boadle of the Coventry Wargames Club is responsible for the superb painting and modelling of the troops and terrain pictured here. The figures are from Front Rank Figurines 25mm. SevenYears War. More of John’s collection in tuture issues,till then our French readers can revel in the sight of the British surrendering.

That John Boadle now has a blog – Hand-Built History – and the little introductory burble reads somewhat along the lines of …

This is my blog, to showcase the modelmaking and gaming stuff that I’ve built over the years. I was for some years a professional modelmaker building scenery for many well-known figures in the hobby. More recently I built artillery master models for North Star and Perry Miniatures. Please note though, I am no longer taking any commissions for work at all. Everything you see is in the gaming scale of 28mm, ie 1/56, unless otherwise noted. At some point I aim to add tutorials to pass on the techniques picked up over the years. I hope what you see is of interest or even inspires you to have go yourself.

Currently Hand-Built History is getting a new post almost daily as John is updating the blog with pictures and details of old creations. In the future we may see step by step details of the creation of models.

Above: Napoleonic French occupying a John Boadle creation. Presumably John is quite happy with this picture as it is currently used as the heading picture on his blog

And one more John Boadle creation picture to round out the section …

Above: This time from half of the the back cover of Wargames Illustrated #19. The editor Duncan Macfarlane had obviously had a photo shoot with John Boadle and was keen to use the photos collected. The caption …

More of Coventry Warmer John Boadle’s Seven Years War collecton, featured on last month’s front cover. Front Rank 25mm. Figurines.

Found memories were made of these

Seeing the work of John Boadle reminded von Peter himself of a series pictures in Wargames Illustrated of the Scimitar Wargames Group’s Seven Years War project. These mesmerised the impressionable von Peter himself.

Above: from Wargames illustrated #14. To keep the buildings theme going two photos of some of the buildings created by Pete Duckworth. If the memory of von Peter himself is to be trusted  – hmmm -the fenced backyards were cunningly contrived to hold infantry units.

Above: von Peter himself must have spent hours staring at and dissecting this photo. Happy memories. From Wargames Illustrated #37. The accompanying caption …

An Austrian column winds its way out of camp. 25mm Front Rank figures professionally painted by Andy Taylor from the author’s (Richard Madder) collection. Church scratch built by Rich Madder (-using a door handle as the cupola), as was, of course, the camp described in this article.

The pictures are “clickable” for a larger and clearer view.

Enough.

Until we meet again …

Salute
von Peter himself