We are now well past the halfway point of January 2015. Yikes! von Peter himself remembers being told as a young boy by his maternal grandmother that the older you are the faster time passes. A very sage observation but she never warned the awkward youngster of the sheer brutal speed that time could attain!! So quickly on with this the second post of 2015 before the first half of 2015 passes! 😃
Thankfully Christmas 2014 keeps on giving. A box of newly minted Calpe French has been receipted into stock and a second of new French and Saxons is looked for in the coming weeks. Despite the best attempts of The family life is good! 😃
An ANZAC endeavour
Some of the dear readers may have heard of Sir Peter Jackson the movie guy. Said Sir Peter Jackson has quite an interest in militaria and has a business relationship with the Perrys going back several years. All of which helps to account for his and their involvement in a project to create a Gallipoli diorama constituted of 4000 x 54mm figures as created by those Perry twins.
The Perry twins and helper packing the first consignment of figures
Sir Peter will provide the figures and diorama but the whole show would look much better if the figures were painted. This is where the assistance of the humble Kiwi wargamer has been requested.
See Sir Peter Jackson needs Kiwi war gamers for more details of the project and the call to arms paint brushes. Also keep an eye on Roly’s Dressing the Lines blog for the announcement of the dedicated support site for the project. Even the Perrys have come clean on the project.
Prepare to man your guns brushes.
Some of the Kiwi and Turkish models comprising the first consignment
Perry Miniatures Heroes of Waterloo vignette
Speaking of the Perrys …
A Perry Miniatures newsletter included the above image and proudly proclaimed that …
This is the first of series of vignettes depicting episodes during the Waterloo campaign for this anniversary year.
Sergeant Ewart and his associated French victims are a very nice set but perhaps of limited use on the gaming table. Then again the set is advertised as a vignette and a diorama so scratch that observation.
Any thoughts on what the other sets could be? Perhaps Wellington meeting with Blücher?
Front Rank Russian Reinforcement Pack update
Speaking of Perry Miniatures one of their competitors Front Rank Figurines has added a little more detail to their upcoming Russian Reinforcement Pack release(s) via there newsletter …
Alec is now working on Napoleonic Russian Reinforcement Packs to add to our Russian 1812 range. These new figures will include more Line Infantry variants, plus infantry in 1809 style shakos, PLUS the long awaited Russian Guard!
They should be available late Feb/early March 2015 – look out for our newsletter!
von Peter himself will be watching for these with interest. At some stage he may very well be needing those two extra Russian grenadier battalions to complete his reserve brigade of Colonel Acht.
New AB Figures website
Speaking of miniatures manufacturing companies … well here’s some news on another one …
AB Figures – makers of …
- a large and expanding selection of 18mm Napoleonic
- a select selection of 18mm Ancients
- 15mm American Civil War
- 20mm WWI – one pack of British Tank crew
- 20mm WWII
figures has a new website.
The Napoleonics and WWII are best known to von Peter himself. Truly great figures that put some larger sized figure manufacturers in the shade.
AB Figures French dragoons. Remember that these guys are 18mm in size. Nice painting Nigel Fun-nell. Wonderful composition and basing von Peter himself!!
A third Russian building
Another Russian Hovels building has dropped out of the bottom of the production line. A little larger than the proceeding two. Yes – von Peter himself is still on the job sloshing around paint, glue, flock etc.
Father Disputin – wild ancestor of a certain Rasputin – looks for the faithful with one eye while looking very closely for heathen invaders to bless with his pistol. The latest addition to the village is the middle building which is a little larger than the other two. The headman’s house until something better comes along.
Game at Greg’s
Not only is von Peter himself still painting but he has even indulged in a game. So … Roly’s wife was talking to Matt’s wife when it was discovered that their husbands were both children at heart and played with toy soldiers. Roly then met Matt and discovered that Matt basically lived across the road from wargaming Greg … and had done so for many years. So much for that friendly neighbourhood then!
Matt plays 40k and Fantasy and was interested in some historical wargaming. So a game of Napoleonic Black Powder was played at Greg’s in the throes of being renovated house. Greg & von Peter himself provided the leadership for some of Greg’s Russians vs. Roly with von Peter’s Bavarians and Matt with some of Roly’s French.
The game involved much looking up of the rules – it had been a while! – and the forces grinding each other to a standstill. von Peter himself had cunningly got a battalion on the Bavarians flank as a game winning masterstroke but the battalion repeatedly ignored the pleas of their commander to charge the open flanks presented to them. The only reason that they eventually got involved in the game at all was that a Bavarian battalion turned to face and charged them!!! Needless to say this would never have happened had von Peter himself taken along his own Russians. Much more reliable troops!!
von Peter himself snapped a few photos of the game in progress but they were all rubbish and not worthy of this here blog or the dear readers so no picture(s) . Sorry.
More of Matt’s hobby activities in a future post.
The Army of the Kingdom of Italy 1805-1814
Speaking of the game at Greg’s there were no Italians on the table but that could soon change. What a perfectly desperate linking sentence!
The The History Book Man have released their latest e-book – The Army of the Kingdom of Italy 1805-1814. From the announcement email …
THE ARMY OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY 1805-1814 The original paperback edition of this title was published in 1977 with a revised edition in 1982 and was reprinted 13 times finally going out of print in 1984. The new e-book edition has been completely rewritten with all new colour illustrations, many from contemporary or well known sources and finally uses the original colour illustrations never used in the original editions.
Now 389 pages with almost 800 colour illustrations
As he has ranted before regarding this series at £3.99 plus postage von Peter himself considers the value for money equation is hard to beat for this cd.
von Peter himself has a copy on order for the benefit of The son & heir who has a battalion that he wishes to paint up as Italians. Yes he has extracted yet more money from the old man’s coffers. Well done The son & heir!
Passchendaele
This post started with a reference to New Zealand’s involvement in WWI so what better way to end it? And certainly this section should not be construed as a naked grab for the model railway market … though should they have the good sense to pay a visit or two who is von Peter himself to turn them away?! 😃
On a hot summers day shortly after Christmas The family piled into the car to visit some friends in the back roads of the Wairarapa – a province to the north of Wellington, New Zealand. On the return journey The family ended up driving alongside AB 608, the Passchendaele memorial locomotive as it pulled an excursion train around the countryside. Many were the cars that had stopped so that there occupants could cast admiring glances and take photographs of the locomotive from an era past. There seemed to be a level of general excitement and appreciation amongst the human onlookers … unlike the cattle in paddocks adjacent to the rail tracks who were high tailing it away from the snorting belching monster just as fast as they could. The problem with your modern day bovine is that it has no sense of history!!
That’s all for now dear readers. Don’t forget to click on the images for larger and clearer views.
Until we meet again …
