I dream of Banana Oil.

My last post regarding the poorness of the latest Wargames Illustrated seems to have created a bit of debate, although the alternative views are not on my comment pages but on other blogs [which is a shame, because we need debate]

   I think I should clarify one thing that I clearly failed to get across on my 'observations' re WI.

 I DONT look back on the early 1970's and 1980's as a great time for wargamers, well it wasn't for me. [ but a great time for music]
  Clearly I was younger then and had other priorities, like money, work, family etc, but wargaming itself was a constant struggle, due to a lack of information, dreadful one man wargames businesses that struggled to fulfill any orders you sent for [ postal orders, remember them] crap paint, poor glue,and as for wargames magazines well until Miniature Wargames came on the scene you had to subscribe to Military Modelling to read the odd page about the hobby.
 The Newsletter had gone as had Miniature Warfare so there was a real shortage of wargaming reading. As for the shows, well they were 'interesting' in the widest sense and in some very strange locations, so nothing new there then.

Anyway like all hobbies nowadays it is a buyers market with everything one could desire at the press of a button, so that has to be better doesn't it? However what I was actually attempting to say in my post was that I am very happy to re read my old magazines even after 30+ years, simply because they still contain information that I find of great interest whether it is a scenario or a refight of an obscure battle. A good example is an article Paul Stevenson wrote in Practical Wargamer about Union Zoaves with Bob Marrion coloured drawings, Oh! that WI should produce a piece of similar quality.
 The last few years worth of WI would never justify me returning to them to re read an article. That was my point. In fact I actually give them away after reading, to would be young wargamers.

 Another criticism leveled at my post was that if I dont like the WI, then dont buy the damn thing, which is a logical point except if I didnt buy it as many wargamers now state they do, then another wargames magazine would go under which is the opposite of what I want. So I foolishly still buy it.

   Also another point was that I should contribute an article to the magazine if I'm not happy with the content. Well over the years I actually used to do that, but then I realised that younger wargamers should take up that mantle, but guess what, innovators like the excellent Andy Callan [ remember his hair roller armies] seem to be as rare as hobby horse sh##.
  Instead we are fed numerous reviews/ advertisements regarding the latest rulebook, figure range, and just how innovative they all are, usually by someone with a vested interest in the said book, figures etc.
 So perhaps I should simply just stop buying all the magazines and sit like a miserable old git thumbing through my well read Newsletters and dream of banana oil, except I never used the stuff.
  [ I always hated the smell of it, that and patchouli oil ]

 Oh and by the way, here's my latest Zoave regiment, painted and based.  [Half plastic/half metal. and not a figure under ten years old ]