NAM - (FA#10)

As I hadn't had any thought towards this week's post I desperately risked life and limb to recover a box of what I thought were my 54mm western buildings, only to find it was a box of my Vietnam forces.
Here's a selection from the rather diverse forces I have.

On patrol (Bit twee - Ed.)

These tanks are Pershings, from what I recall, probably not used in Nam, but were the only tanks I could find (and afford) to use at the time.Whilst I'd bought them, my friend Nick painted them and added stowage etc.

The underside showing its cheap origin.

They were bought along with a lot of other suitable armoured vehicles in a Hammersmith department store (on one of my many visits to the Original Games Workshop) for the princely sum of 25p each!
They were originally made by "Airfix", made from Polyethylene, and came completely assembled even though they had 'clip-on' tracks and push-on turret.

I bought a lot of AFVs

The AFVs had to have a slight conversion to make them look more US than UK and the circular hatch was cut to a rectangular one, though some were left as mortar carriers with the original hatch left in place. Th e small commander s central cupola was openable - a nice feature for such a cheap kit.

One converted into a command vehicle.

Showing the underside.

My metal ACAV

The USA fielded ACAV (eventually in the war and the only model available in metal at the time cost a fortune (to me at least, as an impoverished student.) and so I never increased their numbers.

Cheap plastic on the left and metal ACAV on the right

Mortar carrier conversion

The whole AFV force. (note the one with open rear ramp and hatch)

It couldn't be NAM without some US grunts and I have about a company's worth (at 1:1 scale), made from various manufacturers:

{Plastics - Airifx or Matchbox, I forget which)

Close up (obviously)

Another close up of the above.

Metals (maybe Skytrex ?)

Metal originals, sculpted by my friend Nick

How they appeared on discovery - note the unit markings on their bases

The plastics -aarggh

 Along with the US, I had to have some VC, though they were very few in number as they rarely appeared visible in our games, mine were  a mix of plastics and metals (the latter again sculpted by Nick)

A platoon of VC

A selection of my civilians - mostly converted from "Atlantic" Ancient Egytians!

In addition to the figures shown, I have many casualty figures, more civilians, some Nuns, a News team, helicopters (of course),  fixed wing aircraft and probably  a lot more I've forgotten about !
I made some very shoddy buildings from scrap and a jungle from tissue paper and barbecue sticks - it may not have looked pretty but some good games were played over our coloured sand terrain.

All the figures were 20mm - even the chunky metals 9yes there was scale creep even in the 70's) and the whole project was made as cheaply as possible.

So, maybe it's not an army, but it was certainly forgotten and no doubt there's more its and pieces of it in various boxes in places I've forgotten.

That's it then for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit and I hope you've found something of interest and as always your comments are truly welcomed and very mush appreciated.

Fortress (AB#4)

Another week wherein ll I did hobby-wise was dig out some old stuff that hasn't seen the light of day in many years !
This fortress is now about thirty years old, looking very much the worse or wear and of course never used in a table top game.
It's made almost entirely from polystyrene (the old ceiling tile stuff) and hence is very fragile and having been moved many times from room to room it does show a lot of damage. In addition I've also managed to lose the entrance fortification that sat in front of the gateway.
The photograph at the top is heavily photo-shopped and I've included the buildings shown in last week's post too, so it does look like a city in a Vauban-style fortress (at least it does with my failing eyesight. The figures that can just be seen are 28mm pirates (either Redoubt or Foundry).

It is big !

It's huge too, the photograph above shows the important dimensions, all in inches and it also shows the damage to it, as other than the background the rest hasn't been photo-shopped.
It needs a 60 inch diameter circle of table to fit it on!

The side of the bastion is about 6", to accommodate two gun models.

Aerial view with above bastion in centre bottom.

Close up of Gateway, with pirate on guard

Looking much better when filled with houses.

The wall between the two bastions is about 9" long, accommodating two battalions

28mm Pirate firing over the parapet, whilst a smaller 30mm civilian watches

Another view with the whole set-up lying on a double bed  (just)

The while model was built in a bit of a rush, in case one was needed for the campaign I was running (it was never used . It's built specifically for my figure bases, so all the ramps are 1 1/2 inches wide as are the wall firing steps. The bastions are designed so that 6 cannon can just about be fitted onto a single bastion; mine have a base of 3" frontage and about a 4" depth.
This was the first of several large models I've built over the years,  another "star-fort" with six bastions was made for a friend, with accompanying siege lines and was about 6 foot in diameter!Sadly no photographs of that particular model survived.
Mine is designed (badly on reflection) so that it can be taken apart and various parts can be abutted onto a table edge for a game ( a bit like my "Pony Wars' " fort (LINK))
And that's it for another week in my nostalgic tour of gaming "in the old days", when armies were painted and terrain was made and all of which would never be used !

Thanks for taking the time to visit, here's hoping that you've found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

I'll also be trying to catch up on my backlog of blogs to visit as time and real-life allows!

Old Cardboard (AB#3)

     A Church (obviously)

First off these are really card, not cardboard and were bought at a local shop more than 40 years ago!
The alternatives at the time were generally "Faller" plastic kits, railway models (Airfix and Triang mainly at the time) or make your own.. At the time, the latter alternative wasn't on my agenda  and if you saw my early buildings you'll understand why.
The came in a see-though flat pack and from my pecuniary outlook were very expensive.
They're small, probably 1/87th scale (suitable for 15mms) and are generally of an 18th century central European style and did include some famous buildings if memory serves.
There was one two or three models dependent upon the size of the model(s).
The photographs partially show a ruler for size and an 18th Century figure (a John Ray original -about 32mm tall).
The figure is slightly larger than my own forces and although obviously not in scale with the figure but these buildings were the mainstay of my collection for Seven Years War games with my "30mm" figures.

The church again ( again  a bit obvious)

Here's the photographs:

The tallest building I have

View with ruler -it's on about a 3" square base.

Another larger building (probably based on a real one)

Rear view with ruler - approx 3" square base. 

A shop of some sort

Very small, but perfectly formed

Another, with annoying turrets

Rear and side view

One of my favourites

Rear and side view (dust still in evidence)

Yet another  (bored yet ?)

Extra boring rear and side view

Another great building imo, dust included !

These have some very good ideas for scrath-building

Great as a farmhouse

These models imo are also useful as for painting, there's that much detail on them.

Another townhouse with a damn turret

Note the damage to the gable end top ! (they are a bit delicate)

Most were reinforced with balsa, but not duplicates I'd accidentally bought !

Making anything that looks like a city in a larger scale would occupy a huge area on a table and as I wanted to have a city within a star/Vauban fort (about 5 foot in diameter) a smaller scale was the only way to go. For small villages, three or four building would suffice and occupied enough ground to be an impediment and were much more in keeping with real 18th century battles that these were used for.

The whole ensemble, occupying about a two foot square)

These are neither forgotten or abandoned buildings, as they've been used in many many games, but not for over twenty years iirc. They were however, lost to me and did take a while to find and dust down !

That's it then from me for another week, one in which again I've managed to achieve nothing save for doing this blog!

Thanks for taking the time to visit and I hope you've found something of interest in my museum of curiosities (see last week's comments for  explanation).

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.