Keeping A Journal of Ideas

Moleskine Journal notebook that I carry with me everywhere

 Here is a quick little idea for your consideration, carry a small notebook with you when you travel or are on the go. I purchased a small Moleskine journal earlier this year so that I could keep all of the ideas, that I previously jotted down on scraps of paper or in the margins of my daily newspaper, in one place. I have a daily work commute, via train, of one hour each workday, so this gives me a lot of time to do some reading, check on various forums for hobby news, or write in my journal or on my blog.

I have posted a couple pictures of pages from my notebook to give you a better idea of what I am talking about. The first picture, below, depicts several pages of notes for an after action game report following our recent Battle of Kolin game. You can be as elaborate or as bare bones as you care to be in your entries. I take a little bit of inspiration from Neil Cogswell and the illustrations that he included with his Horace St. Paul books. So I try to populate the pages with hand drawn maps containing two dimensional drawings of the terrain or troops whenever I can. This seems to give the entry a little bit of "life" to it.

[It seems that Blogger application will not let me change the justification of the paragraph and the space between the two pictures above is center justified, rather than left or right. So I'm skipping to the bottom of the page where I already had a left justification set up]

The bottom picture illustrates some record keeping from my Mollwitz game. I recorded the casualties for each unit so that I can see which units carried the brunt of the fighting. Eventually, I will record the results in a Unit Diary that I'm keeping for each battalion in my Minden 1:20 ratio Austrian and Prussian armies. I am also starting a Battle Journal to record the results of each battle. This idea is inspired by Charlie Grant's article in the current Wargamers' Annual Summer 2015 Special booklet. Each battle will be assigned its own number (1, 2, 3, etc.) and when a unit participates in one of the battles, the battle number will be cross posted to the Unit Diary so that I can refer to either journal as needed.

The right hand page, above, contains some simple jotting down of ideas and which regiments to add to my Austrian army ahead of my Battle of Kolin game at the 2016 Seven Years War Association Convention in March 2016. I know how many regiments are needed for the game, and I know that I am a few regiments short, so some of the painting will be farmed out to my nephew Alex. I have also scribbled down ideas on how I want to brigade my Austrian regiments.

At other times, I might be contemplating which figures to add to the Minden and Fife & Drum figure ranges, so I will write down ideas in groups of 16 figures (16 is the maximum number of figures that will fit into one master mould, so when Richard Ansell sculpts figures, he works in batches of 16 figures). There are an infinite number of combinations of figure ideas for those 16 mould slots, so you can imagine how many times I jot down a "what if" group of 16 figures almost every other day.

At other times, I might be reading about some battle and an idea for converting it into a game scenario will pop up in my head, so I write the idea down in my journal.

The Essence of The Hobby

Minden Miniatures from the collection of Charles S. Grant. One could spend hours gazing on this tableau.

I found this paragraph on Barry Hilton's League of Augsburg blog:

League of Augsburg Blog

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I work on the assumption that some of the emotions and thoughts I experience are common to several, perhaps thousands of others. When I am working on a wargaming project or painting a range of figures I get a very deep sense of engagement with the activity. It is all I can think about. In idle time I am making lists and planning what to buy and paint next. I search out information, make little painting schedules, all the time trying to beat my self imposed targets. I look at the models again and again, set them up in rows, watch the collection accrue into something more substantial and marvel at the sense of joy I obtain from doing it all. I often tell myself it's the best work I have ever done.

-- Barry Hilton

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1) Getting a deep sense of engagement with the activity-- Guilty as charged. Once I start on a project I get very focused and zero in on the project to the exclusion of other historical periods. If my home library lacks books on the subject, I start firing off orders to Ken Trotman or On Military Matters or Caliver Books to remedy the short fall.

2) In idle time, I am making lists and planning what to buy and paint next -- Yep, that too. I have a one hour train commute to and from my job and I often find myself pulling a small Moleskin journal out of my briefcase and start drawing up army lists and orders of battle and deciding how many figures should go into a battalion, etc.

3) I search out information, make little painting schedules, all the time trying to beat my self imposed targets -- my journal has lists of painting schedules. For example, if my new army will have 12 foot and 4 cavalry units in it, then I jot down a weekly or monthly painting schedule to figure out when my new army will be completed.

4) I look at the models again and again, set them up in rows -- This has developed into a very bad habit. I will set the troops out onto the game table for either a review or for an actual game. I will move around the table examining the various units, stooping down so that my eyes are at table level for the best view of the regiment. I can do this for an hour or more. It becomes a problem if I pay a visit to the game table late at night, and before I know it, the clock reads 1 or 2 am in the morning. It can make for a tiring day the next day. Lots of coffee or Diet Coke are the only remedy. Kids, do not attempt to do this at home on your own.

5) watch the collection accrue into something more substantial and marvel at the sense of joy I obtain from doing it all -- This is the fun part, watching the army grow. At first it is only one regiment of infantry. Impressive but lonely. Then a second and third unit are completed and I now have a brigade. Once the brigade is ready, I will paint a couple of field artillery pieces and crew. Then one brigade becomes two brigades. Now the project begins to look like a Wargame army. I can see light at the end of the tunnel and develop a sense of what the final product will look like.

I think that Barry's paragraph correctly encapsulates what the planning and building aspect of the hobby are all about. We all make our little lists and while away spare time thinking and day dreaming about the whole thing.

It brings to me a sense of calm, contentment and accomplishment and sometimes I actually think that this part of the hobby is more enjoyable than the gaming part.

What do you think? Please feel free to add a comment at the bottom of this thread and let me know what you think. 

Heading Into A 3-day Weekend or Oh Be Joyful!

My latest acquisitions from E-Bay.

Americans have a national holiday this weekend (MLK Day) so most of us have a three day weekend.

Hmm, what can I do to take advantage of the extra time?  Normally, I would hunker down in the Man Cave for three days and not be seen again until Monday evening. However, just 5-weeks from my wrist surgery it is still a little too tender to do much figure painting. I can go in 15-20 minute spurts, but that is all. So while I would love to finish off those dozen Volontaires de Saxe that are sitting on the painting table, it would be a minor miracle if they were completed.

If it's a miracle, it's a Kalinsky 10 point O miracle, Colour Sargent Bourne.

Aye, and backed up with a bit of pain threshold.

So I still have not answered the question of how to spend this time. As I cast my eyes around the Man Cave, what do they settle on but this?

Trenton! It seems like this would be the perfect time to play the first solo test of the scenario. With a little bit of negotiating with Mrs Fritz ( I have a surplus of favor chits in the ledger), I envision the conversation going a little bit like this:

Me: "well my Dear, it's off to the Man Cave with me! I've got the Battle of Trenton to fight and General Washington is depending on me."

Her: ( rolling her eyes) " Chin chin and all that, do go on playing with your Little Men."

Me: " what ho?" thinks I . This is turning out better than I had imagined. "why thankee, Dearest."

Her: "Just as long as you remember that you have to take Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe and four of her friends to the cinema on Sunday to see "Paddington Bear."

Me: (thinking to myself) well that wasn't all bad.

Spring Cleaning, Fritz Style

My cleaning, prepping and terraining desk. Before clean up.

When you are in a painting funk, such as the likes that I have not seen in a long while, what can one do to further the hobby and be productive in some fashion? The answer is to look for alternative things to do such as terraining the bases of figures that you have ignored for too long, or cleaning and priming some figures to have on hand for the inevitable day when you break out of your painting funk, work on some terrain pieces, or....

Clean up your work area! The dreaded "before" picture is shown at the top of the page, while the "after" picture is shown below.

The "after" picture. It looks much better.

Actually, the above "after" picture still requires a little more work on the left hand side of the work area, but for all practicle purposes, the table is cleared of the clutter and is ready for some serious work. Note, I paint at a different table, but more on that at another time.

Now I finally feel like actually doing some work, now that my work area is picked up. It is kind of depressing to work in a 12-square inches space, surrounded by mangled castings with arms and heads chopped off, or half assembled cannon and limbers. When Burnham Wood is closing in on you, you don't feel like working, but rather, you feel like running away to hide.


I doubt that I will have much more time over the remainder of this Memorial Day weekend, but the painting area, reading area and game table area will be next on my list of things to clean up.

The painting table, as shown a year or two ago. Things are back to this state again.

It seems like the game table looks nice about 30% of the time and then it looks more like a repository for junk the other 70% of the time. I half expect the crew from the American Pickers television show to show up at my door asking if they can "pick" through all of my junk. When that happens, well... you know that it is a sad day in your wargaming life.

There must be some irrefutible law of physics that says that junk and clutter will always seek to fill the vacuum of an empty game table. You KNOW that this is true.

The gaming area and table are a disaster. Again, an older picture, but this gives you an idea of how things look today. Not a good thing.

This is how it should look, when I am on top of my game.

My reading area, in better times.

Now having looked at the last two pictures above, I feel a little bit of inspiration coming on to clean up the rest of the basement game room. The painting can wait for another day. I suspect that part of my painting funk is due to all of the clutter, so once I clean up the rest of the room, just watch battalion after battalion of figures come flying off of my brushes.

I hope that you are all having a happy Memorial Day weekend. Do pause for a moment and give thanks to all of those who served in any country so that the rest of us can lead peaceful, normal and happy lives.

How It All Began

I think that my grandparents gave me my first box of metal Britains Guards that they had purchased during a trip to London. I must have taken a shine to them immediately because thereafter, I was sure to receive more small red boxe of the figures for my birthday and Christmas. I added plastic Heralds ACW figures and Swoppets ( I really looked those WotR figures that they made). My armies were rather modest, probably 50 to 100 figure in all.

One year I gave a box of Guards to a friend (Tom Platt) for his birthday and he got hooked. I was particularly envious of him when his grandmother bought him that 200 figure Changing of the Guard set, which set me permanently behind him in the arms race. We would set the figures up on the floor and stage our battles, using a form of free kreigspeiling rules that we made up on the fly. Tom and I usually combined our metal forces into one Royal army while all of our collective plastic figures were the hoard of Bad Guys. Tom was the King, since he had the largest forces, and I was one of his generals.

I also discovered Airfix HO scale plastic WW2 figures and Rocco Mini Tanks equipment around age 12 and we would fight North African battles in my backyard sandbox. My teenage years and college saw my interest in toy soldiers wane and I didn't really think about them much until about 1980, when I was visiting London. I happened to stumble upon the Under Two Flags store and saw a large display of 54mm British colonials in square, fending off a hoard of Dervish. Having a bit more pocket money in my young adult days (age 30 perhaps), I bought the whole display and shipped it home. Over the years, I added more forces to my 54mm collection.

Then circa 1985-86, I wanted to repaint some Steadfast metals with a darker khaki color, so I visited a local store called The Hobby Chest to buy some enamel paints. It was there that I saw an advertisement for the Little Wars war game convention. It sounded interesting so I stopped in at the convention and was flabbergasted by what I saw: toy soldiers and a hall packed full of convention participation games. I did not know, until then, that the war game hobby even existed. The first game that I saw was Hal Thinglum's massive Isanhlwana game in 25mm. I was gobsmacked by what I saw and I stayed there for a good hour just watching the Zulus overwhelm the 24th. After that I roamed around the hall and watched a few games, Napoleonic games looked complicated even then. I then saw an interesting little game featuring soldiers wearing tricorn hats: French vs British. It was the SYW and the figures were the RSM range with the game being hosted by the owners of RSM. I vaguely recalled something about Frederick the Great of Prussia fighting the Austrians, but that was about all.

However, I knew in an instant that this is what I was looking for. The fellows at RSM got me started with a couple packs of British and French infantry, and as I ordered more figures over the phone , I got to know the proprietor Dennis Smail better. He invited me to drive on down to Lexington, Kentucky any weekend and play in a game. It only took one game to sink the hook firmly in my mouth and after that, I made the 400 mile trip ( one way) to Lexington once a month. I was totally enamored with the RSM figure range and soon I had two large Prussian and Austrian armies. I thought that the RSM figures ( made by Steve Hezzlewood ) were the most elegant toy soldiers that I had ever seen.

Via Dennis, I started attending the annual Seven Years War Association convention where I met Bill Protz and a host of other Wargame luminaries in the states. I acquired as many Christopher Duffy books that I could get my hands on, as his books were the only English language books on the topic. I also managed to acquire the Holy Grail of SYW wargaming : a copy of Sir Reginald Savory's book "His Britannic Majesty's Army in Western Germany during the SYW".

Bill Protz eventually burned out on publishing the SYWA Journal, so I took over the reins and published the journal for the next seven years, before I too burned out on the task of publishing a quarterly magazine. Along the way, I invited Christopher Duffy to our annual convention, offering to pay his airfare and hotel from the magazines budget. This started a long term association that Duffy has had with our group spanning more than 20 years. The ultimate highlight was going on two battlefield tours with Duffy and some 18 or so members to walk the battlefields in eastern Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Time to wrap it up here, but the next big event was seeing the figures that Richard Ansell was creating for Frank Hammond''s Minden Miniatures range. These were like modern day editions of Steve Hezzlewood's old RSM range. Again I was hooked and in a long roundabout way, I ended up acquiring the Minden range from Frank last year , to augment my Fife & Drum AWI range and now the future is all blue skies and sea shells and balloons.

The Fritz List

The other day I was musing (as I am wont to do) about what I would do hobby-wise if I were to have an unlimited amount of time to do everything and anything. Unfortunately, I did not win the millions in the recent Power Ball Lottery, so I am left to ponder the ideal rather than to live it out.

First of all, I would form a company and hire all of my wargaming buddies as employees so that they would be available for gaming all week, if need be. So their job would be to play wargames from 9 to 5. Hmm, I like to sleep in so if I'm infinitely rich, I guess that the games would begin at 10 AM or Noon and go on until dinner time.

When I wasn't gaming, I'd be making terrain or painting. Here is my wish list of things that I would like to paint sooner rather than later:

NAPOLEONICS:

British 45th Regiment (84 figures)
42 nd Black Watch (110 figures)
88th Connaught Rangers (84 figures)

2nd Regiment Garde de Paris (2 btns of 72 figures)
1st Regiment Garde de Paris (2 btns of 72 figures)
85e Regt de Ligne (2 btns of 72 figures) in Bicornes
2/25e Regt de Ligne (1 btn of 72 figures) in Bicornes

Oh heck, let's just do 8 x 72 French in shakos as well since most of my French are wearing Bicornes.

20 more Vistula Lancers ( Fritz loves his lancers!)
10 more 20e Regt Dragoons

1806 Prussians: I have about 10 battalions of 60 figures to paint and one each of cuirassiers and dragoons and hussars to paint.

1805-07 Russians: I have about 8 x 60 infantry to paint, and could use some heavy cavalry and light cavalry, probably 5 or 6 regiments of 48 figures. Oh, and some Russian lancers too!

SEVEN YEARS WAR MINDEN PROJECT

1 x 30 Josef Esterhazy Hungarians
4 x 30 "German" Austrians to be determined
1x 32 Austrian cuirassiers
1 x 32 Austrian hussars
Gobs of artillery (too much for my personal Prussian tastes)

2 x 32 Prussian cuirassiers
1 x 30 fusiliers IR49
1 x IR 6 Grenadier Garde
1 x IR 2/15 Garde

4 x 30 Prussian musketeer regiments, to be determined.

BAR 1:10 SYW ARMIES:

120 DR5 Bayreuth Dragoons ( he, he,he,he) :)


That would be enough to keep me going for the next year, at least. Yes, that will do.

Some Thoughts on Manners

Manners. You either have them or you do not.

Courage. Like manners, is something that you either have or you do not.

In the early 21st Century, there is a distinct shortage of both manners and courage. You see it in your daily life, maybe in the way that customers treat the waiting staff in restaurants or fast food stores. You see it on the highways of this country, often in the form of one vehicle cutting off another vehicle which in turn, is followed by an exchange of bird flipping by both parties. Taken to the extreme, we call this "road rage".  I know of one acquaitance of mine who was actually shot and killed  as a result of a road rage episode. For what purpose?

You see people in public shoving food in their faces, speaking loudly on their cell phones, oblivious to the fact that everyone around them can hear every word of their conversation. You hear their music blasting out of their head phones. Hardly anyone opens doors for seniors or women anymore. Fewer still seem to have any idea as to what table manners are. Table manners are a dying art form, sad to say.

Things are worse on-line

The paucity of courage and manners is even greater on the internet. People who lack the courage to say something  negative to the object of his/her derision face to face, think nothing about being uncivil or rude to another person since they have the safety of their anonymity of their keyboard and the internet.

You see it often in the comments sections of on-line news sites or political opinion sites (for both the Left and the Right). I can not believe some of the rude, dishonest and untrue things that people will post on the internet. It is particularly rampant on Facebook, where many "friends" seem to delight in posting disparaging "stories" culled from their favorite Liberal or Conservative web sites. Do people really believe that they are going to change other people's minds by posting their personal political propaganda on a Facebook page? 

Let me put it to  you this way: I've been married to my wife for 15 years and I have yet to convince her, on any point, that my political opinion is correct and hers is, well, incorrect. If I can not change my wife's opinion, what makes me think that I am going to change your opinion by posting some canned political propaganda on Facebook. I think that you, the reader, know the answer to that question.

This is largely why I am staying away from certain wargaming internet forums for awhile, i.e. I am tired of having to deal with the cowards and the ill-mannered in an area of what is supposed to be a hobby for me. A hobby is supposed to bring you some entertainment and relaxation, and not aggrivation.

My friend Stokes S. says it much better than I can, so I have copied his thoughts about manners on many online discussion forums. You can find his thoughts on his new blog: "The Average Guy's Guide To Classic Style".

Average Guy's Guide to Classic Style

In many online discussion forums, some of which do not necessarily concern clothing, there are a lot people who view manners and dressing decently as somehow false, stiff, and unnecessary.  What a sad state of affairs that is.  How can basic polite behavior and consideration for those around us be bad things?

The truth is that there is nothing at all fake about coming across as a nice and agreeable individual, whether at work, at a ball game with friends, or enjoying a glass of lemonade with the family on the back porch.  As average guys, let's strive for better standards in our personal interaction with others -- including our behavior at the table -- and the way we dress.  It's just the right thing to do. 

If we make an effort to remember and practice the things our families hopefully taught us*, good manners and proper decorum will not come across as insincere and forced.  They will, instead be what they should.  Natural, easy, and comfortable.  Like a well worn-in pair of loafers.  You don't even have to think about them, but they are there.  You wear 'em all the time without a second thought.  They're just part of the scenery.

Making a good impression with people -- friends of long standing and new acquaintances both -- is not about tacky and ostentatious displays, obnoxious bragging, or making others feel bad about themselves.  Demonstrating a certain level of basic respect for people, occasions, and settings is, however, vital when it comes to leaving a favorable impression with those we meet.  Even if you're knocking back a few cold ones at the campsite with your old college buddies after a day of fishing on the lake. 

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At the end of the day, I think that it is much easier being nice to people and respectful to others, even if you don't agree with them. It really does not take a lot of effort to be civil and nice.

Or as Abraham Lincoln said in the movie "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure":

"Be excellent to each other."

I Am Boycotting The Miniatures Page

The 18th Century Boards used to be the epitome of politeness and gentlemanly behavior, but of late, things have changed as a minority of people that visit the boards have a harder and unpleasant edge about them. I will not tell you about some of the "behind the scenes" things going on, but I have decided that the best thing for me is to simply not visit TMP for a long while and reduce my level of aggrivation. Let me say that the majority of the people on TMP and friendly and I enjoy interacting with them.

I will still keep my banner ads on TMP (as I have no beef with Bill, he is a good egg), but I will not be posting or visiting the site for at least the next 30 days.

Going forward, any information about Fife & Drum, my pictures from our wargames and other eye candy will be posted only on my blog.

Fight To The Last Man

I am reading Jac Weller's book, "Wellington in the Peninsula 1808-1814" at the present and came across an interesting statement regarding Marshal Massena's military acumen with regard to knowing when "enough is enough".

"Messena and his professional army now had almost a year's experience fighting Wellington, but had accomplished nothing. He had the good sense at both Bussaco and Fuentes de Onoro not to continue unsuccessful attacks indefinitely and expose his army to total defeat. both Marmont at Salamanca and Napoleon at Waterloo were to make this error." (Page 168).

Think about that for a minute and recall how many wargames you have been involved in when one or more players make some senseless, crazed attack because they either have nothing left to do, having destroyed their own command in attacks, or because of some artificial game deadline that looms, i.e. the "it's 4:30 and we've got one more turn syndrome".

A couple of weeks ago, when we opened up our Peninsula Campaign, we were nearing the end of the game when suddenly the French commander on their right wing called off his attack and pulled his troops back to the ridge. He later told me that he did not want to destroy his brigade and it was apparent to him that the battle would not be won or lost in his sector of the table. He was right, of course, and I tip my hat to him for playing the game straight rather than immolating his brigade for mom good purpose.

It is an interesting concept, don't you think? Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments in the comments section of today's blog posting.

Jim's Rule of Fours Revisited

An example of "Jim's Rules of Four" -- two Prussian infantry brigades of four battalions. Minden Miniatures. Click picture to enlarge the view.

Many years ago I wrote an article in the old "Historical Gamer" magazine about my thoughts on how many units or maneuver elements that the average player could handle in any type of a Wargame . My hypothesis was that four was the magic number (plus a battery of artillery )

An army general might be able to handle four corps without getting overwhelmed; a corps commander could handle up to four divisions; a division commander could handle maybe three brigades plus his divisional artillery; a brigade commander could handle four regiments. So whenever I design Wargame scenarios for convention play, I tend to limit the players to four maneuver elements and I try to target four players per side . Anymore than that and the players and the game judge have too much going on in order to keep things tight and under control through out the game.

Last evening, I happened to be reading Charles S. Grant's "The Wargame Companion" and he set out his thoughts as to what constituted the ideal Wargame army:

8 battalions of line infantry
1 battalion of light infantry

3 heavy or medium cavalry regiments (dragoons or cuirassiers)
1 light cavalry regiment

2 artillery pieces

3 battalion generals and 1 army commander

This is Jim's Rule of Fours in practice! You divide all the infantry into two brigades of 4 battalions, there are four cavalry regiments and it all boils down to having three commands in this typical army. One of the infantry players can also command the artillery whilst the other takes the jaegers to augment their commands.

I find that I frequently consult the "Wargame Companion" for ideas and inspiration and recommend that you should too.

What Lies Ahead in 2013

I am a little bit disappointed that I was not able to hit my target of 100 blog posts in 2012. I fell short with only 90 posts by the end of the year. I started out 2012 fairly strongly, but then tailed off the production during the Spring and Fall months. In the end, however, I decided not to post just for the sake of posting and increasing the count, but simply post an article when I had something to say.

Now that we have turned the page on 2012 and enter the New Year, I am starting to think about the wargame projects that I want to tackle over the next twelve months. These include:

Seven Years War BAR sized Armies (1:10 ratio)

British Cavalry - 2 to 4 squadrons of heavy Horse or Dragoon Guards

British Artillery - a pair of 12-pounders

Austrian Cuirassiers - add another squadron of Hinchcliffe cuirassiers to bring a unit up to 60 figures.

Croats - one never has enough Croats.

Austrian Artillery - add a couple of 12-pounders and 6 crew per gun model

Prussian Musketeers - add IR13 Itzenplitz to replace the same unit that I sold two years ago

Prussian Dragoons - perhaps start on the 10 squadron Bayreuth Dragoons (120 figures)

Prussian Pontoon Corps - I have two Berliner Zinnfiguren pontoon wagons

Seven Years War - Minden Figures (1:20 ratio)

Prussian cuirassier regiment - 32 figures

Prussian fusilier battalion IR49 - 30 figures, second battalion to complete the regiment

Prussian hussar regiment - 32 figures, kolpaks, so probably HR1 or HR2

Austrian cuirassier regiments - 2 regiments of 32 figures

Austrian hussar regiment Baranyay (green dolman/pelisse, sky blue breeches

Austrian supply wagons to go with each artillery piece

BAR Napoleon - Peninsular War in 1:10

British 88th Regiment (Connaught Rangers) - Elite Miniatures -- 84 figures

British 42nd Regiment (Black Watch) - Connoisseur Miniatures -- 100 figures

French chasseur a cheval regiment - 36 figures in three squadrons, old Elite Miniatures.

American Revolution (AWI) in 1:10 ratio - Fife & Drum Miniatures

British infantry regiments - 3 regiments of 32 figures

Continental infantry - 3 regiments in hunting shirts (20/24 or 30 figures each)

British 16th Light Dragoons - 36 figures, once the figures are sculpted and in production,

Odds and Ends

Claymore Castings  Otterburn range - I would like to paint some of these terrific looking castings. Maybe 1 to 2 "battles" of 24 figures of Scottish infantry and some mounted knights once they become available. A friend plans to start a Medievil campaign in 2013 and I would use the figures for this project.

That seems like a fairly ambitious list of things to paint. It is more of a wish list than a road map as I doubt that I can paint that many figures in one year. Well, I used to be able to paint that many figures in one year, but I think that Mrs. Fritz would not approve. I quite agree with her on that score.

I also want to start doing some more solo AWI and SYW battles using my 1:20 ratio armies of Fife & Drum and Minden Miniatures, respectively. I will probably take the AWI collection to several conventions in order to stimulate some figure sales, but the SYW collection will not make it into the public arena for awhile, I am afraid.

Fife & Drum Range: I am guessing that I will be able to add two more sets of 16 figures over the course of 2013, depending on Richard's schedule. In that event, I would add some AWI cavalry to cover the British 16th Light Dragoons as well as some Continental cavalry in various head gear. The second set will likely see either more American militia, some special figures and more horses, or I could go with 6 to 8 personalities for each side.

I would like to be able to make it to Historicon in 2013, both to host some AWI games and to have a dealer booth at the show.

It looks like a very busy year ahead for me, to say the least.

What I Really Need Is Time

It is three in the morning here in Hesse Seewald and I am waiting for a coat of grey primer to dry on some of my new Fife & Drum Continentals so that they will be ready for painting later on this afternoon. A few more minutes and then I can flip the figures over and give them one more spritz on the other side. Then it will be off to bed.

At any rate, since I seem to have a little bit of time to waste here, I was thinking how ironic it was that I am always seeking more time to do hobby related things, and for once I seem to have all the time in the world. Alas, it is not being spent on the moving of troops across the wargame table.

Many years ago, circa 1986 or so, I was just entering this hobby and I had ideas that I would always be setting up games or scenarios on my table and having a go at it solo. As my collection of figures grew, mostly in the Seven Years War period, I should have spent more time solo gaming and less time starting new historical gaming periods. However, the bug of Napoleonics caught my attention, and then ACW came along after that. With each new historical gaming period, I was spending more time at the painting table, building new armies, and less time doing any actual gaming.

Mind you, I was doing plenty of gaming with my group - probably once or twice a month, but the plan for solo games fell by the wayside. Fast forward to 2009 or 2010: I had disposed of my vast Napoleonics collection (around 10,000 28mm figures), the AWI and ACW armies were long gone, and I had even sold off my Dark Ages collection and terrain. My intention was to pare the collection down to primarily one period: the 18th Century, with a focus on the SYW.

Taking a page from John Ray in the UK, my plan was to build up my new SYW armies with a lot of detail and depth to include a lot of vignettes on the battlefield as well as more camplife dioramas. That was going alone fairly well, but then I found myself side tracked by another foray into Napoleonics (the Peninsula War this time) and then the AWI, as I started the new Fife & Drum range of figures. All of these wonderful plans have diverted my attention from the core SYW collection.

The Minden Project of Austrian and Prussian armies is about 75% complete at this time. I feel like one more solid push could get me over the finish line and then it would be off to the races with some free kriegspieling or what have you. I would like to do at least one solo game per month and get really granular with my Austrian and Prussian armies.

Typically though, my plans have been diverted again. This weekend, I find myself getting ready to paint more AWI Continentaals so that I have some sample units to show to the public, and hopefully gin up a few more sales so that I can plow the proceeds back into more AWI figures. Then it will be on to Peninsular Napoleonics as I need to get some more things completed before our first rules play test on November 1st. So that will keep me busy.

So I find myself once again without enough time to work on the Minden Project, much less game with the armies. I still need the following items:

Prussian cuirassier regiment
Prussian hussar regiment
Prussian grenadier battalion
Prussian fusilier battalion
2 more Prussian limbers and supply wagons

Austrian cuirassiers
Austrian hussars
A few more Austrian dragoons
1 Hungarian battalion
2 Austrian limber teams and 4 supply wagons
Austrian general staff and senior command

All of the above just covers items where I have the lead figures on hand. I just need, you guessed it, MORE TIME.

Oh well, those Fife & Drum figures should be ready for one more coat of primer, and then it is off to bed for me.

Good night everyone (3 AM right now).

SYW Potpouri

The death of Captain von Kleist vignette. Foundry casualty and Minden Miniatures jager. Oh, and a couple of Silfor tufts too.

I was working on another battalion of Austrians for my Minden Project game at this year's SYW Association Convention and think that I might have finally hit the proverbial wall in this hobby. It is the first week of March and there are three more weeks to go before the convention. So should I go all out balls of fire painting to finish all the things that I would need for the game, or should I just give up and run the game some other time?

A good general knows when he has pushed his troops to the breaking point and if he is smart, then he backs off so that he does not destroy his army. I guess that I am a good general, because I decided that there was no way that I could finish all of the artillery support wagons and limbers, two more battalions of Hungarians, and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh, I could probably pull it off, but at great cost to my personal life. So I threw up my hands and said, "I quit!"

I don't want to end up like the unfortunate Captain von Kleist, above; so I have cancelled my games at this year's SYW Association convention. In fact, I am not even planning on attending the convention at all. Furthermore, I am going to take a long break from running convention games at all. Too much work and not enough appreciation for what I do. I have been running games at this convention for 25 years now, and everyone of them was a beautiful game with well painted figures, superb/realistic looking terrain, easy rules and fun scenarios.


You won't have to look at anymore cruddy games like this at the SYWA convention. This was my game at the 2010 convention.


Or this stinker, a skirmish game, that I hosted at the 2009 SYWA convention.

I think that I have set such a high bar for myself that people have become rather blase about my SYW presentations, to the point where they pay them no heed. With that in mind, I feel that it would be best not to attend the convention and give my armies a rest. I will let others pick up the colours and contribute to the convention.

Are we gamers, painters or collectors?

The wargaming hobby has a number of different facets to it. I started in the hobby back in 1985 because I was captivated by the visual splendor of watching a SYW game hosted by the original owners of RSM Miniatures. I couldn't paint worth a lick, but I really enjoyed playing wargames. So I started out in the hobby as strictly a wargamer.

After awhile, I had the desire to start painting some of my own figures and so I started out with Austrians, figuring that guys in "all white" would be easy to cut my teeth on as I learned how to paint. Over the next 25 years my painting improved. The more figures I painted, the better my efforts became. In fact, I can almost say that I now prefer painting figures to actually playing in wargames. I certainly spend a greater proportion of my hobby time painting figures than I do in running games at conventions these days.

At some point along the way, I made the mistake of painting a few Napoleonic figures and ended up with thousands of them. One of my friends started ACW armies at 1:10 using the original Dave Alsop-sculpted Old Glory figures. Ah yes, those were the glory days in my hobby life. So I built up some huge 28mm ACW armies at 1:10 ratios. Then I ventured into the ancient world with Late Romans versus Barbarians. I had evolved into somewhat of a collector of wargame armies. I was acquiring armies and figures, but I did not seem to be gaming with them very often.

The ultimate thing for me was the appearance of Frank Hammond's Minden Miniatures range of SYW figures. The lifelike sculpts of artist Richard Ansell were just the thing that I was looking for. I had grown tired of figures that were charicatures of the human body. No more over-sized heads or baseball mitt hands or 'strong faces' for me.


A Minden dragoon officer painted as a Jager officer. I acquired this figure from Ioannis to add to my collection.

At about the same time, I became acquainted with John Ray and I really admired the way that he could stick with one historical period (in his case, the AWI) and really develop his collection in great depth. I then realized that this is what I wanted to do with my favorite historical gaming period -- the Seven Years War. So I resolved to start all over with my SYW armies and rebuild the Austrians and Prussians using the superb Minden Miniatures. Not only was I going to paint battalion of infantry and vast regiments of cavalry, but I was also going to work on historical vignettes, as inspired by such people as Phil Olley, Barry Hilton and the master, John Ray.

So that is how I evolved into a collector of historical miniatures. I intend to foresake wargames at convention settings, but continue to play the occaisional game with my gang up in Brown Deer, Wisconsin. So I have not given up gaming completely. You will continue to see battle reports and glorious photos on this blog, but you won't see me running convention games for awhile.

I will continue to work on my Minden Project, but now that I no longer have the pressure of artificial or real deadlines, I can enjoy the painting part of the hobby and add more units at my leisure. So you will continue to see the progress of these armies as I add to them and as I drill down and work on more vignettes. For example, I would like to develop the camp scenes in even greater depth, add a cavalry encampment with stables and the cavalry regimental commander's headquarters tent, etc., a pontoon train and a number of other bits and pieces that occur to me along the way.

So for now, I am a painter and a collector and my hobby will be something that I pursue at a slower, more measured pace to ensure my own relaxation and enjoyment, rather than a frantic arms race with paint brushes and tin figures.