Salute 2016, Part One.

Well, I'm back from Salute, after a very long weekend, and its fair to say I'm knackered.
 Salute is a beast of a show and I have learned one needs to pace oneself before during and after the show. Needless to say I forgot that advice, and hence my feet and back hurt, and my wallet has been strangled dry.
 So overall impression, I thought it was a huge success, especially given this years theme of Steam Punk? which I confess I know nothing about. Anyway I will start at the beginning.
 London has excellent public transport and I was able to get from North London to the Docklands in record time,ie 08.15, to find there was already a queue, to get into the show!
 I managed to blag a chair off a kind Salute worker, and ensconced myself in the waiting excited masses. [ Can you tell I'm taking Creative Writing lessons]
 I found it interesting to listen to the people, mainly men aged 25- 35 talking in a language I didnt know, about all things sci fi, fantasy, skirmish game, etc etc. I couldn't fault their enthusiasm or excitement, so great really. Once the place opened the masses were handled really professionally and the South London team should be applauded.
 Right, minor quibble, where was the seating area so punters could get a break and talk a bit? There was nowhere to sit in the hall, and when I tried to rest against a wall, I was told that I was blocking a fire exit? I got the impression, more traders were in the hall this year, so can only assume the seating had to go, however I still think there was enough space to create some areas.
 Right onto the show.
As I am a historical wargamer, I will start with these games, and I was pleased to see Dave Brown of General de Brigade fame? staging an ACW with his new rules due in the summer. I have to confess that I have ribbed him a lot since we first met, which he has taken in a great spirit, but I confess I do like his new rule systems and find them fun with a fair degree of accuracy thrown in.

 I can only apologise now, for some of the images, but the figures were great and it was a lovely game to look at and watch.

 It seemed that a lot of the historical games were in one area of the show, deliberate, I dont know, but I was very keen to see Ian Smiths 40mm Napoleonic, I was not disappointed, as it was a beautiful work of art, and I dont think that is an exaggeration. He is a lucky so and so.

I thought the cliffs were brilliantly rendered and must be about the best Ive seen at any show.

 One of my favourite regiments, the Neuchatel batallion, Ian painted the officer.

  The three daft lads who presented the game, Tony and Shaun, showing just how close they have become during the weekend.

Ian Smith showing the audience how to wear a smaller than average tee shirt correctly. Well done Ian.

I will provide hopefully in part two, some better qualitity images of other games that caught my eye.

Saxon cavalry and a review of the allies..

 In between other distractions I have managed to complete,another unit of re painted cuirassiers, this time as Saxons. I had to find a couple of spares from my scrap box to complete the unit, but they dont look too bad.

 I thought it would be nice to put all my Saxon cavalry together just to give me the incentive to paint some more. The figures are Eureka, and of course Hinchliffe.

 I couldnt help then having a look at my Hanoverian cavalry, just in case I needed/ to paint up some more. Its funny, well at least to me that all of the figures, were designed between 30 and 40 years ago and in my eyes still look wonderful.

Peter Gilder, In the Grand Manner, Part One.

Just to show any readers that I havent forgotten about the Peter Gilder ambition to create some sort of readable record of the great man, I thought I should start the damn thing.
 I would like to thank, Doug Crowther, Harry Pearson and Clive Smithers, for their time and patience in attempting to provide me with some information and potential starting points.
 If the idea falls flat on its face, at least I have had a couple of pleasant hours talking to some wargamers that I have wanted to actually speak to.
 But I digress.
 I would also like to state, that this initial outline, is made up of secondary sources, because frankly the great man seemed to have a transitory early wargame career.
 I can confirm that Peter Gilder was employed as a pie machine salesman for a company known as Alberken who were based in Newark Nottinghamshire. [ Its strange that even then, Newark had a wargames connection ] Gilder was working for the company from about 1964, and was employed by two men, called Albert Horsefield and Ken Watkins. [ For those of a younger age, every cafe and canteen used to have a glass fronted display in which pies were put. These were heated by lights, and were a hazard to any greedy boy who decided to touch them.]
 For some reason, Alberken decided to diversify into making painted toy soldiers which they sold in wonderful red coloured boxes, obviously emulating Britains.

Having now seen some of these figures in the flesh, they were a little crude but have a charm of their own. They measured about 22mm tall [ early 25mm figures?] and were a tad stiff, but then this was the early 1960's.
 Although I cannot confirm the assumption, I think it would be fair to say that Peter Gilder helped design the castings. I do remember an early interview with him in a wargames magazine, where he stated that because he had injured a leg and was in hospital,so he turned his hand to making soldiers as he was bored.
  From the excellent Vintage20mil site, the figures are described as similar to the Hinton Hunt Napoleonic's of that time. Knowing a few anecdotes about Peter Gilder I think it would be fair to say he may have plagiarised a couple of figures from Hinton Hunt, prior to him developing his own style. But then without being too judgmental, there wasnt that many figure ranges about so an aspiring sculptor would want to check out the opposition.
Albeken Figures didnt exist for too long, due to a fatal accident of one of the owners, and in 1965, they were taken over by Neville Dickenson who founded Miniature Figurines based in Southampton.
 It was the original intention for Peter Gilder to continue sculpting the Miniature Figurines ranges, but Gilder never produced the figures that were expected, and the pair parted company. [ I believe acrimoniously.]
 In 1967 Peter Gilder began designing wargames figures for the legendary Frank Hinchliffe, who was making wonderful metal scale models of artillery and the like.
 Hinchliffe however could not sculpt the human form and Peter Gilder stepped in to start their wargames ranges.
 A common thread running through our early wargaming beginnings, is how feuds and acrimonious disputes flared up amongst the pioneers of wargaming. There seems to be two clear camps about Peter Gilder, one is that he was a generous and brilliant friend, and the other which seems to be he was a bit of a chancer. Personally its not important, hell even Peter Young used to cheat when wargaming!
 Anyway, Hinchliffe was formed selling the new wargames figures ranges, and lets be right, anyone who wargamed in the early 1970's would either buy Mini Figs or if they were lucky Hinchliffe. Their rivalry was pretty intense as they jockeyed for the growing market.

    I hope to get a lot more detail when I visit Salute in a couple of weeks, where I intend to blag some time with Duncan Macfarlane et al. I also hope to get permission to use all the images that featured in the original Miniature Wargames magazine, that Gilder was instrumental in founding.

 Some kind people have offered to send images of the Gilder collections that are now scattered across the world. I think that it would be a great idea now I have started this thing. So send them to robbie3rodiss@msn.com

Acknowledgements, Thanks again to Doug Crowther, Harry Pearson and Clive Smithers for their time, also check out the great Vintage 20mil site for a potted history of the early wargames ranges.

Just to make everyone aware, I have created a purpose built Peter Gilder blog; check it out and contribute at pginthegrandmanner.blogspot.com 

The Battle of Leipzig 18th/20th March 2016

Well I'm just back from my birthday present from my long suffering wife. She kindly obtained a position at the Donald Featherstone Memorial Weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre.
 I have wanted to attend the weekend ever since its inception, and when I saw it was intended to refight the Battle of Leipzig, there was no holding me back. As Henry Hyde of Miniature Wargames has a very big input into the weekend, it would be extremely churlish of me to steal his thunder, especially as there will be a printed article in the magazine. Henry [ as he is known to his acquaintances] also created a live feed? and tweet also? where the weekend can be viewed.
                                             
                                             

 What I will say was it was an extremely enjoyable weekend, with wargamers from all walks of life getting together to have some real fun. I finally met Dave Brown of General de Brigade fame, who supplied a new set of Napoleonic rules to try out on us, and I hope he took some notice of what I advised he changed in the draft. Actually the rules were very easy to pick up, and I must admit I had worried that we would be using Gilder's Grand Manner rules, which I really didnt enjoy, ever.

 As for the battle, I think I was at my most dynamic, well apart from the series of ones I managed to throw at some very important times. Luckily I redeemed myself by some brilliant tactical decisions which I shared with everyone present.

 I managed to blag one of my favourite commands, ie the Saxon heavy cavalry, painted for Peter Gilder by Mark Allen. The photographs do not do them justice. The Austrians above were some of the many I had to face, they were so very impressive, en masse.

 Probably my finest moment, when I sent my Saxons, against the Russian Guard artillery.[ I wont say what happened here, read the article. ] I wont say who won either.

                                     

 An added bonus was being able to talk to several players who knew Peter Gilder, and had been able to buy various units from the Holiday Centre prior to it moving.
 Mark Freeth, the owner of the centre, who was a perfect host,was also a mine of information regarding the Gilder era. Clearly  I would thoroughly recommend any wargamer who loves wargaming to make the pilgrimage to the centre. This was by far the best of my several visits. A wonderful, but very very tiring weekend.

                Below are a few eye candy shots from the weekend, Gilder's innovation at its best I think.

 Henry Hyde has now put some of his many photographs up on his account at,  https://facebook.com/MiniatureWargames

Von Rochow Fusiliers

 My Saxon Seven Years War contingent seems to move in fits and starts. I have now completed the Von Rochow Saxon Fusiliers, and I must admit I am glad to see the back of them. I decdied to use GW Ultra Marine Green, for some reason. This would have been fine, but I discovered that I only had a very small amount of the colour left, and nearly ran out of the paint. I dont know if GW still do the colour, but it is a very nice dark green, so I hope it is still about.

 The figures are Black Hussar Prussian Fusiliers, and a pleasure to paint. Well they would have been if I hadnt been fretting about the green.I particularly like the officer figure, who stands very jauntily with his partizan. I have now started work on a Saxon line regiment, from Eureka Miniatures, which are also very nice, but smaller than Black Hussar.  For any pedants on Saxon uniforms, I painted them in their 1750 uniform, which meant they were resplendent in red trousers.