HELMET Soldiers

"Small Wars" have always held a fascination for me, and at risk of denigrating the sacrifice of those who fell in such conflicts, their appeal seems to be something around understanding and involvement. By that I mean, I can more readily comprehend the causes and course of such wars and feel some empathy with those involved.That's why I am drawn to the War of 1812, with apologies to those the other side of the pond,(compared to the wider Napoleonic conflict this is a small war), The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, and, as seen in the picture - The Jacobite Rising of 1745.

I have been interested in this era for as long as I can remember, seeing the film on Culloden made by Peter Watkins for the BBC as a schoolboy in 1964 probably kick started that enthusiasm. Since then I have collected two sets of 25/28 mm armies, one from Minifigs, and the second by Front Rank. A real bonus has been the increase in the amount of reference material available, especially on the Jacobite forces, through authors such as Stuart Reid. When I began painting my Minifig troops back in the late 60's much of the resultant colour scheme was based on (un)educated guesswork, remember the BBC in 1964 was still broadcasting in black and white.

A couple of years back I started to produce figures for the Rising in 1:32 plastic, reasoning that the Timpo "Napoleonic" Scots were a cinch to turn into Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highlanders- as usual I grossly underestimated the amount of time involved, but at the same time enjoyed the challenge. So again the madness took over and I sought bout suitable figures from beyond the confimes of Timpo, so the pictures contain men that started out as Marx Vikings, Accurate War of Independence Militia, Imex ACW, A Call to Arms English Civil War, Armies in Plastic Ansar, Barzo French and Indian War and others......................

The imminent release of the Regulars in the new F&IW range from Armies in Plastic will, i fervently hope (fingers massively crossed here) provide the basis for some "British" Regulars and Irish Piquets - The "Wild Geese". That being the case and if God is kind, the '45 will be my ext projest in the New Year, failing the it's back to the Polish Winged Hussars for me..........

I plan to use Imex AWI artillery for most of the gunners and still have the challenge of making suitable figs for mounted dragoons, but this is a small war so I won't need too many will I????

Anyway more news later,

Cheers

Eric