How it all started for me- Part Seven

So it was the late 90’s, that a new company was coming into play now and they were HaT Industries from the USA. They made their very first couple of Napoleonic sets in 1996 with box sets 8001 of the French Mamelukes and set 8002, Prussian Dragoons and set 8005 Prussian Uhlans. Today they are a very keen player in plastic 1/72nd figure scale and some of the sets they have produced lately, are very well detailed.

 

The first time that I saw the HaT figures were in late 2001 in the Model Zones model Shop in London. The shelves were packed with HaT latest figures. As well as more new Napoleonic sets there were also Ancient figures too. Again it was something new and fresh for the gaming table. While taking a good look at these new sets, I found a box of set 8003 British Rocket Troops that came out that year. I was to learn later, on via their web site, that there were much more on offer. I brought one box of Rocket Troops and a box of the Prussian Dragoons. Once home I had a really good look at these and on the next day, I went back to the shop and brought another box of Prussian Dragoons and two boxes of Prussian Uhlans. The Rocket Troop figures were well sculpted while the Dragons and Uhlans were like the old Airfix style moulds. But over the years they have grown in to a reputable company and with the number of Napoleonic sets available now, which we never had as a young war gamer but if you are starting up in this hobby today, you will be over whelmed with what’s on offer to you. HaT are also doing a very good range of French wagons at the moment including Light and Heavy Ambulances, six horse limber, baggage and pontoon wagons with the possibility of some Prussian wagons in the future.

 

I am now a very keen HaT collector and with new sets coming out each year, I don’t think that I will ever finish my Waterloo Army. There are many other and new companies coming out with plastic figures all the time and that the variety of figures and periods is now endless. Two companies that produce Napoleonic figures for more for the 1812 War are Strelets and Zvezada, both are Russian companies although Strelets were first produced in Russia but then moved to the Ukrain in 1998. Not keen on these but then again they are not for the Waterloo period.

There are far too many figure sets to write about but please go and look on their web sites. I have now collected more than I have painted, but that is the beauty of this hobby, it never ends.

 

 

My attention is now to the terrain on the gaming table and again this has grown so fast over the last ten years. If you follow this blog then you will know that I have been collecting the Hornby derelict farm set and also the Conflix fantasy buildings that don’t look out of place with my Napoleonic armies. New scenery is always being made and when I look at some of my old stuff it does look very old now. But until that time of when I can have my own war gaming room, then I shall hold off on buying these at the moment.

How it all started for me - Part Six

The 90’s really had a big impact on our hobby and my wallet as we saw the plastic figure companies take off with the Napoleonic Wars sets. Although we lost the Italian company ESCI in the late 80’s, Revell and later on Italeri started to bring out news sets for the hobby.

Revell produced the French Grenadiers of the guard in greatcoats Set 02570 in 1992, the first plastic set of figures in greatcoats and the British Infantry Set 02571. 

In the following year in 1993, they brought out another two new sets. The French Mounted Guard Chasseurs cavalry, Set 02576 which had 17 mounted figures including an Officer and Bugler with horses and one standing figure in dark grey plastic. The other set was the British Foot artillery Set 02577. This set had three cannons with crew plus one limber. There was also included a small section of accessories. The one I liked most in this set was the stack of muskets. All of the set was made in a light grey plastic.
 

 

In 1994, Revell gave us another new set, which was the British Life Guards Set 02578. This set had 17 mounted figures which included an Officer and Bugler again made in a light grey plastic. Then in 1995 Italeri produced the Scots Greys Set 6001. This was a new set which again included an Officer and bugler but had a total of 18 mounted figures, much better than the now old ESCI Set 217. They also gave us French Line Infantry. Although most of the poses were from the ESCI Infantry set, there were some new ones poses in the mix.

In 1996 both companies brought out some more new regiments. Revell gave us the Prussian Infantry Set 02580. This was the first time that we have seen Prussian line infantry and the British Rifles Set 02581 which gave us the 95th rifles. Both sets in light grey plastic. The British Rifles was the last ever set from Revell although they re-issued some Italeri sets, French Hussars, French Dragoons and the French Horse Guard Artillery. Italeri made the French Carabiniers heavy cavalry Set 6003. These were made in cream plastic and with 17 mounted figures it again had an Officer and Bugler. They also brought out some Highlander Infantry Set 6004. This was the second complete Highlander set since Airfix back in 1996. Then we had a set of Austrian Grenadiers and line Infantry, Russian Grenadiers, Prussian Cuirassiers and French Hussars Set 6008. These were made in a light blue plastic again with an Officer and Bugler.

We then had to wait till 1998 before was saw any new sets of figures from Italeri who were by now the only company still making Napoleonic figures.  Set 6015 gave us the French Dragoons. Made in cream plastic we not only had the Officer and Bugler but now a standard bearer. 17 mounted with horses but slightly bigger is size, but once painted up they look just as good as the past sets. In 1999 another first for the plastic company was a French Staff Set 6016. Our armies did by then need commanders other than NOC’s so this set was a welcome back then. A nice model of Napoleon on horseback with some mounted and on foot Marshals to accompany him on the battle field. By the end of the 90’s there were  few more plastic figure companies that had stated to produce sets but one of them was an American company called HaT Industries. They were to make a big impact on the war game hobby world.
 

 

How it all started for me - Part Five

In the late 70’s a brought myself my first war gaming table. It was 8ft x 5ft and it was made of 1/2 inch chip wood board. The only place that I could set this up was in the master bedroom which gave us plenty of space to move around. This was archived by moving the double bed into the centre of the room and taking the headboard off to lay the table flat on the base of the bed. This is where the club members of the CWA would come along to my house on a Sunday to play our campaigns and other battles.

I painted one side of the board grass green for summer and the other side white for winter. We could set up over 1,000 figures on the table with still plenty of room for them to move around. Unfortunately the board has long gone as I had no room for it in the house that I moved into and live in now. 

We had to wait for another five years before any new Napoleonic figures appeared in the hobby/toy shops. In 1984 an Italian company called Esci made two new sets. The first was the French Imperial Guard and in the same year British Infantry mixed with highlanders. Then in 1985 they brought out two more sets the Scots Greys and the Polish Lancers. In the following year six more were added. A mixed box of Prussian/Austrians, French Line Infantry, British Hussars and Horse Artillery with no limbers and French Foot Guard Artillery again without any limbers and Russian Infantry.

 

 

All these sets brought new life to the club and many of the above sets gave the club members a wider choice of figures to collect. This is when I really started to paint up my figures and I would also help the club members to paint theirs on club nights. During the club years, we were able to purchase cheap figures from a toy shop in Welling, Southeast London, where we could buy boxes of figures from a company called “A-Toys” for a pound each. These were actually Esci figures in the box and they were very popular with the club members at the time. The last Napoleonic set for Esci to bring out was the French Cuirassiers in 1987.

So we now had figures available to us from two plastic companies A-Toys/Esci and Airfix, but in 1988 I had to pack up the club that I had been running for ten years as my work was taking over my personal life with working late on press night which was in fact our club night.

So I then became a solo wargamer and in 1992 Revell moved into Napoleonic’s and made two new Napoleonic sets. These were 02570 French Grenadier Guards in greatcoats and 02571 British Infantry. Now these sets were very more detailed than the old Airfix figures and better made than the Esci thin ones. So the 80’s was a really good year for our hobby but the 90’s was going to be even better.

 

 

 

 

How it all started for me - Part Four

We had to wait for another three years before two more Napoleonic Waterloo set’s came out of the Airfix stable in 1975 and they were the French Imperial Guard which for the first time came out in a grey plastic and the Prussian Landwehr infantry, made in a blue plastic.

These were the very last set’s to come from Airfix as there was a decline in sales on all of their kits. Even after all these years I still think that these were the best we ever got from Airfix in that the detail was better and largely free of flash. I remember buying two Imperial Guard boxes and three Prussian but it was very sad that they never continued with the Waterloo series when the hobby started to take off again in the 90’s.

It was in the late 70’s that I started to get into wargaming again and started to paint my Airfix figures with the old Airfix paints. First I started with the French Line 1^st and 2^nd Fusilliers and then the 1^st and 7^th Curassiers. In those days I only had the books from the local library to get the information that I needed about the colours of the uniforms by looking at the pictures but even after all this time, today I still have these in my ranks. So started a long and painful years of painting my Waterloo armies on and off when the mood took me. 

In 1978 while I was serving on the tenants association and a question came up about the use of the estates community hall. At that time little was going on in the hall except for a play group during the day and a judo class one night a week. This got me thinking about running my own wargaming club and with the approval of the tenants association my idea was put into action. A monthly newsletter from the tenants association was sent out with news of the wargaming club. It started life as the Coldbath Military Modelling Club as the committee wanted a more wider appeal to the club and not just kids playing war!

So on a cold Monday night on the 20th November 1978 we started our very first club night. We had just five people that walked through the door at 7pm and the night really was just to get too know one another and what we hoped to do in the club. That year we had just three meetings.

In the following year the club changed its name as the committee had now stopped meeting. On the 2^nd July 1979 I changed the name to the Coldbath Wargaming Association. (C.W.A) We had a total of 23 names on our books and we had a total of 42 meetings. In March I made a club magazine called “ATTACK” and sold 11 copies to the members. I published a total of 10 issues that year. We had our own tuck-shop for drinks and snacks and even had some raffles giving, Books, Figures, Terrain and model kits as prizes. Also in March I started our GENERALS TABLE. This was a club competition where it was all about playing little battles over a period between Jan-Nov and winning points in the games. Our very first winner was Tom Casey picking up the very first trophy. We went on our first club outing to SELWG show at the old Grove Park HQ in South-East London.

How it all started for me - Part Three

The last time that I talked about how I started this great hobby of wargaming on this blog, I started to tell you about a film that changed my hobby from stamp collecting to wargaming.

It started back in 1970 and I was 14 years old when the film “Waterloo” came out. I can still remember this great film even though it is not historically correct. I remember that my dad took the family to see this film in London at the Dominion Theatre in Tottenham Court Road. I still have the ticket for that day and the colourful programme that I brought with all the information about the actors and how the film was made. The film lasted for over 4 hours and that was edited down from the original 5 hours. Although there was a small break half way through the film, the hours flew by and when I returned home all I could think about was all of them wonderful colourful uniforms and masses columns of soldiers.

This was the film that changed me, but up till then the 1964 film Zulu was my best film ever but is now my second best, the reason being that Airfix did not produce any Zulu War figures which was a great shame. But even by 1970, Airfix had only produced two Waterloo sets of figures and it was not till 1971 that they brought out the French foot artillery set again in cream coloured plastic.

So my French army had Heavy cavalry and now Foot artillery. The poor old English had just the Highlanders but that was all to change in the following year.

But before then, I really started to enjoy the hobby as it was about this time in the summer school holidays that me and a group of friends began a campaign of 20mm Airfix soldiers out in my back garden in Eltham. The two armies had about three generals a side, one being in complete command. Two maps of the garden were given to the two commanders with the path around the garden being a large river. The figures were mainly WWII but I included my Waterloo figures and even my WWI soldiers that I still had for my army. As the campaign grew some started to get really serious about the game and started to buy up loads of Airfix soldiers and their plastic complete lorries and tanks sets that were around then. It was great fun and for a long while after the game, my dad used to find soldiers now and then when he was digging in the garden.

In 1972 it was a boom year for Airfix and for us Napoleonic wargaming/collectors. For it was in this year that Airfix brought out four new Waterloo sets. The first two to come out was the British Hussars and French Line Infantry. At least the armies are now beginning to look even on both sides. The British Infantry were next to come out followed by the British Royal Horse artillery. All four sets came out in their famous cream coloured plastic.

How it all started for me - Part Two



I can remember watching many war films as a youngster and one about the First World War. It is in that year that Airfix brought out the English and German figures for WW1. It was 1966, the year that England won the world cup, and again with just a one box of each (very easily pleased); I would spend many hours playing with these where the English troops went over the top. A hard thing to do indoors but once again I found that the garden was the biggest battle field I could ever want.

In the same year they made the French although I never had this set. In the following year Airfix made the Americans and in 1968 the Royal Horse artillery. Both of these I had in my collection. One of Airfix’s down falls was to be their cavalry sets as the horses would always pop out of their stands and this set was no different. By now I was losing interest in my Tempo toy soldiers although I would never part with them.

My Airfix collection was now starting to build up.

In September of 1968 I started in my Secondary School and once I had settled in and made some new friends I found that I was not the only one that were still playing with their toy soldiers. In our History classes again we were told about the First and Second World Wars but also something new, the Napoleonic Wars.

It was in that year or the following year that I had a mate Robert who had a sand table in his loft. Robert invited me over one sunny day to have a look at his collection. His mum would buy him a few painted and ready to go on his birthday and Christmas. Here he would play with his metal Napoleonic figures marching up and down the sand hills. He did not have any rules for playing so we made up a few with figures moving at such a distance and rolling a dice to see if we killed anyone. It was great fun but it did not last for long as his mum stopped him having friend’s coming in.

Still in 1969 Airfix brought out their first Waterloo set of figures, the Highlanders and they were quickly followed by the French Curassiers. They were made in the old cream coloured plastic which I still have today in my collection. I had one box of each to start with and then but it was not till 1971 two years later that Airfix brought out the French foot artillery But before then a year earlier in 1970 a big film came out in the cinema which made a big turning point in my life and a start to a wonderful hobby of wargaming.

How it all started for me - Part One

I just thought that I would tell you about how I ever got into the wargaming hobby and what I have collected over the years as a gamer.

So far back as I can remember I have always loved playing with toy soldiers. When I was very young I started to collect the Timpo plastic figures 54mm scale ranging from The Crusaders/Knights/Romans, Cow Boys and Indians through to the American Civil War and to the British Guards for the Queen’s Birthday parade. I had nearly 100 of all sorts of periods and as you do when you are little, had big battles with each and every one taking part on our front room floor or hall way. We did not have any green fields or rivers to march across and what were trees and bushes. We had slippers and table/chair legs for cover then.

Then by pure chance one Christmas in 1962 I had a couple of Airfix 1/72 box soldiers of the ACW Union and Confederate infantry sets. I can remember in the summer months of making battlefields in my Dad’s flower beds making sure that I did not kill any of his beloved flowers which he grew with pride. To this I then followed with the Artillery set and then in 1965 the Union Cavalry set.

It’s hard to imagine back then but Airfix was the only company producing HO/1/72^nd scale models at the time. I must admit that at that time of my life, I did not know how Airfix would affect my youth into manhood.