A Treasured Letter

I never met him.
But, a couple of years ago, when I produced The Classic Wargamer's Journal, I received a personal hand-written letter from him congratulating me, and encouraging my efforts, and saying how pleased he was to receive the journal.
It's correspondence I will treasure.

You know who I'm talking about of course.

All any of us can wish for is to live a life that is significant.
And the legacy we leave is testimony enough to that.

Do not mourn that Don Featherstone has passed away.
Do not mourn his death.

Celebrate his life.
And give thanks for his significant legacy.

Paint a figure. Read one of his books. Have a game. Or simply raise a glass.
That's what Don would have done; I'm sure of it.

Gallery page added

In order to put a few pictures of my favourite Classic Wargaming units into one place, for ease of reference for visitors to the blog, I have created a Gallery page... see navigation bar above.

 

Toy soldiery, marching about. What's not to like?!

Thank you to those who have commented on this flurry of posts and updated pages of late. Your interest and friendship is most valued.
Best regards.

Phil
 

Spurlash Down

Here is an action played out as a Demo Game at Claymore in 2010.
It was one of the most enjoyable day's wargaming I've ever had - a small, simple, engaging little scenario. In fact, I would go as far as to say it is a perfect scenario to aim for if you are starting out building two balanced Classic armies of Horse, Foot and Guns.

See navigation bar, and click to go to the full report...

There's still more to come over the days ahead...

Mollwitz

Following the success of the Sittangbad Demo at Partizan in 2006, the next year we put on Mollwitz, with an expanded team - with the addition of Charles S Grant and Stuart Asquith to "The Wargamers".
See the Mollwitz Demo page (navigation bar above) for a photo record of the day...

 

I'm enjoying updating these pages - a cathartic way to spend a few hours on a week off. Thanks for your indulgence in continuing to visit, and comment.

Still more to come...

 



Hyboria and The Asquith Collection

I know... I'm spoiling you!
Latest pages added (again see navigation bar above):

Tony Bath's flat figures from his Hyboria Campaign...

 

 

and a few of Stuart Asquith's units.




This blog is rapidly becoming an online museum of Classic Wargaming curiosities. No bad thing perhaps...
More still to come.

Phil

Scrapbook and Homecasts

Yes, yet another update - I'm on a roll... spurred on by your comments!
So, today I added a couple of new pages - The Classic Scrapbook, containing sundry photos, and the Prinz August homecasting page.

Below: Three men in a wargames room...see Scrapbook page.

 

 

Below: Prinz August 40mm homecasts

There's more to come...

Sittangbad Page Update

This afternoon, I spent an enjoyable couple of hours revisiting my pictures and notes on the Sittangbad refight, and have updated the page (see navigation bar above).
I've loaded more photos, particularly of the buildings I made for the game, and hope you'll enjoy this record of what was a terrific project to be involved with.

Above: Eisenburg Village.

Below: one of the Sittangbad town houses. All were made in the "lift off to reveal ruins" style.

More updates coming soon... I'm going to set up some more pages filled with Classic loveliness!
Phil

Here is the news...

Just because it's been quiet around here doesn't mean nothing is happening in my hobby life!
I'm going to be adding lots of material to this blog over the coming days/ weeks...stuff I've got in my photo archives that will bring things up to date.

First, I've moved the Battle of Raseinia page which was previously part of this blog onto John Ray's webpage (A Military Gentleman) - see links -  pop over there to have a look at what John's been up to and news about his book.

I've added a fresh page to this blog - Blasthof Bridge (see navigation bar above).




As I said, I'll be adding more classic stuff on here to fill up the blog, and then I'll be heading out with a separate and new blog for my next big project in a few weeks time.
Watch this space...

Meanwhile, I've also been keeping an eye out for other people's efforts, and if you want to see some good action currently going on, in true classic style, head over to both Tin Soldiering On blog (see links) where there's a refight of Blasthof in full flow, and The Wars of Cheese and Wine (see links) where a great little campaign is being played out.


All the best for now
Phil

Russians Unorthodox - Charge Anachronism #137

It has always amused me to look through pictures in Charge and wonder where the figures came from, and to identify the units. Come on, admit it - we all do it, don't we?
Don't we?!! Maybe just me then!

Now, as we know, Charge! is more a generic Horse Musket tome than a strictly 18th century set of rules. In fact, it's loose approach to matters of historical "accuracy", it's naivety, for want of a better term, is part of the charm.

There are of course a number of anachronisms that stand out - the use of Napoleonic British Royal Horse Artillery alongside the Prussian infantry of Frederick the Great's army being an obvious example.

Also, note the use of the Pavlov Guards throughout the book... some to play the part of the Garde Jager regiment, as shown here in previous posts. These Stadden figures are still available today. And they also appear in the rather neat marching pose in the book too - first seen as the Electoral infantry at The Battle of Blasthof Bridge.

So, as well as having the more active poses playing the part of Garde Jager in my own collection, I decided to add some of the marching fgures as a separate unit...
and I present here the first company of The Constantinov Regiment:

I chose the unit name as it appears in Charles S Grant's Wargame Companion as a unit having been in Brig Peter Young's collecion, though which figures were used is not known. Anyway, the name sounded suitably Russian to me, so what better than to have Pavlov Grenadier figures representing.