Saturday 19 June 2021

Much-travelled Veterans

I have once again been the recipient of  a lovely piece of generosity, this time from no less than  Ross Macfarlane of 'Battle Game of the Month' fame. 

 

Back in March, I showed a picture of my 15mm Thirty Years' War period French troops, including some 1980s vintage Minfigs and Mike's Models/Essex.  Ross spotted that picture and  commented as follows: 

if you're interested, I believe there are some 15mm 17thc Highland mercenaries lurking in my cupboard. Old strip minifigs painted in my cabin on HMCS Ottawa in 1977 and a few of their friends that haven't seen action in ..maybe 40 yrs? I think they would be happy to cross the ocean to see action, checkout the local damsels and whiskey etc.

Let me know and I'll send the provosts to round them up.

Well, that sounded very interesting, and of course very generous of Ross. He sent a couple of pictures (including the one above)  which looked even more interesting, and I was happy to accept his kind offer.  A bit more description from Ross :

I'm not sure how many there are and suspect a careful inspection would find the occasional scrape or broken something (eadily fixed or possibly excused) but they are escorting some obviously  not highland cattle and some carts. There are some conversions in there Heritage mounted napoleonic landwehr lancers now wearing bonnet and plaid though they seem to gotten tired of carrying their lancers. 

 Anyway, they are 49!! Years old (how is that possible) but have been sleeping in a cave for decades now after many victories over the Sassanachs so hopefully they have earned some lenience and maybe even gloss varnish if suitable .

All very good stuff, and lovely to have a bit of provenance. I hope the sea wasn't too rough during the painting sessions all those years ago..  I also liked the cattle, wagons etc, those are bound to come in handy - the troops come with their own supply train and food 'on the hoof'! Most appropriate for 17th Century forces. 

I was able to reciprocate to some extent, as I had a set of good old Airfix 1:72  ACW Artillery which Ross liked the look of,  so back at the end of March we wrapped and posted our respective parcels, and the two contingents began their journeys between Suffolk and Nova Scotia. About a week later Ross confirmed the ACW gunners had reached him safely, and I waited for the Scots to arrive.. and waited.. After several weeks, sadly I became resigned to the poor wee chaps ( and livestock ) being lost and/or binned somewhere in the postal system ( being low-value items, we had agreed not to waste money on expensive delivery tracking ). No loss to me, I suppose, but it was very sad to think of them being dumped somewhere.  However I should have had more faith in them, because one day in late May (2 months on!)  I arrived home to find a parcel from Nova Scotia on my doorstep - hurrah!  Labelled as 'By Air', by the way - they must be using some slowish 'planes these days... but they got here in the end.   

So now I am pleased to introduce these much-travelled veteran Scots. 

the full complement on parade
 

I think these must inevitably join my forces as  Macfarlane's regiment, a much-travelled and battle-hardened body of men on hire to the highest bidder - initially augmenting the forces of the French and/or Bernadines in their campaigns against Bavaria and the Empire.  As you see, the regiment brings its own artillery and a troop of horse,  and those wagons and livestock, which turns out to include  cattle,  goats and a faithful hound.  

the supply train
I think those will be very useful,  I forsee some sort of convoy escort/ambush scenario  being played out.  It's making me think of the game described in  George Gush's  brilliant little 1970s   'Airfix Guide' to the ECW.

regimental artillery
 

As described, there is an interesting mixture of figures, indeed I think mostly Minifigs early 'strip mounted'  15mms of 1970s vintage, mostly musketeers but some sword and axemen, officers and even a bagpiper! And I like the  painting - even some colourful tartans being worn ( sadly I think Humbrol's tartan paint range is long discontinued ) .

They make me think that for a bit more inspiration, perhaps  I can use this:

 

'The Lion of the North. a tale of the times of Gustavus Adolphus'  by G.A. Henty ( 1886 ),  which follows the adventures of Munro's regiment in the Swedish service.   The style is, well, rather Victorian, and I suspect his views on Empire, race and nationalism may look quite dodgy these days ( I think in this case,  the muscular  Protestantism of Gustavus was thoroughly approved of ). But I'll give it a go sometime, bearing all that in mind, and I think there might be some good  scenario ideas..

Meanwhile,  I need to get the wee men onto proper bases - I think I will resist glossy varnish at the moment, I think they look fine as they are. Once that is done, they can take their place on the battlefield for the first time in a long while, albeit quite a distance from their original home - just like  their real-life counterparts from the highlands, campaigning in  far-off  'higher Germany'.  Let's hope they fight as well as they look.  When they do get into action, you can read about it here, of course.

Many, many thanks of course to Ross Macfarlane for a terrific piece of wargaming generosity, very much appreciated! 

Keep safe, and well, everyone.

16 comments:

  1. An excellent addition to your forces. I really look forward to seeing them in action.

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    1. Thanks Alan,and of course all the credit goes to Ross. I think they have given me a 'nudge' to get the 30YW armies into action.

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  2. Now that's a fine addition, and no mistake! Splendid - great to see these boys coming out of the closet (so to speak) and getting ready for war again. I wonder where they got to, on the journey? Maybe they had to isolate for a while?

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    1. Cheers Tony, I am very pleased to have them. You make a good point - perhaps there was a quarantine period? If only they could speak..they would probably say "see two months in a padded envelope, an' no whiskey to be had - never again, d'ye ken?!"

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  3. Ahhhh GA Henty! We had a shelf full which were eagerly read. Now there was an early influence full of role models I never quite managed to live up to.

    Anyway I was tremendously relieved when the box showed up. I imagine the time was spent hurrying up then waiting, as is life as a soldier, which is much better than lost in the line of duty. They seemed pretty excited at the chance of seeing action again. I think it was 1979 when they first saw action fighting for Montrose, the King, and me under Gush's WRG rules.

    May they serve you as well.

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    1. Thank you so much once again, Ross! Indeed I assume the journey involved 99% boredom and 1% panic, as every good soldier would recognise.
      As it happens, I was thinking maybe Gush's WRG (or Terry Wise's) rules might be quite a good place to start, for old times' sake..

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    1. I was so pleased when the parcel finally turned up, I had assumed they were lost, and that seemed a great shame! Now they have made it all this way, they deserve to be used quite soon, so do watch this space..

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  5. A fine wee force! I never got further than acquiring a couple of strips of light cavalry from that Minifigs range. The intention was to do the French Wars of Religion. Hope to see your 15s on the blog soon.

    As for Henty, I bought one set in the SYW last year (I think). The historical characters (Old Fritz and Marshall Keith) were quite well-drawn. Much less one-dimensional than the fictional characters. An easy read though. Enjoy!

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    1. Thanks, yes they are fine indeed! I did acquire some of the early 15mm 'strip' Minifigs, a couple of my regiments are made up of them - I think they are probably pretty similar to the 25mm range from the same time, maybe they manaaged to scale them down. They have a certain old-style charm.
      I think you have probably summed-up Henty quite well; I will try to give the book a go. I was interested that he'd actually chosen the subject, I always think the 30YW is the biggest European war that no-one knows anything about.. C.V. Wedgewood was my way in to an undiscovered world.

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  6. Hah - the book brings back memories of childhood as I came across a copy in the family bookshelf circa 1976 and read through it - a very stirring tail based around Scots soldiers going off to fight in the TYW. Not sure whose it was originally but assume it had been in the family for 50+ years since the late Victorian era - wish I still had it today!

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    1. Thanks rross ! The book has had such a positive response, I had better read it now, for sure. I was quite surprised to see that a popular novelist had tackled the subject, so it intrigued me enough to pick it up from a bookstall in a local antique shop. I hope it's good!

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  7. Wonderful figures. What a great link-up between you and Ross. Always great to give 'surplus' figures a new home.
    Regards, James

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    1. thanks James, yes it was great of Ross to offer these figures, and I was very happy to accept! They will most certainly be put to use - in fact they have given me a 'nudge' to do some Pike and Shot gaming..


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  8. What a great set of figures, you defo need to get some Pike and Shot action on the go now Dave. I remember having that Airfix ECW guide but I remember very little about it now.

    Ahh, Henty. I remember that our school library had an entire shelf of Henty books that I worked through fairly systematically. Like you say, the style is extremely dated now, but that never bothered me at the time; to be honest I probably spoke a bit like that myself.

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    1. Cheers Dave, they are indeed great and will nudge me into some Pike and Shot gaming, I'm sure. I still have the Airfix ECW guide and it's quite good, I think. Never found Henty in the old days, I was perhaps busy reading far too many 'Biggles' books! But I will give this one a go, interesting to see how he deals with the 30YW setting. The only other fictional version I can think of is 'The Last Valley' , although you might count 'The Three Musketeers' at a pinch - my French have a squadron of Musketeers.
      Hmm, I wondered where you picked up your writing and speaking style from.. !

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