ALY MORRISON'S "BUTTERFLY" ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF WARGAMES AND TOY SOLDIERS

Monday 19 November 2018

Miniature Warfare & Model Soldiers...

I picked up this copy of Miniature Warfare & Model Soldiers... Volume 5 Number 2 May 1972... on eBay...


I never actually owned any copies from volume 5... so it was nice to have a read and visit the past.


One article really caught my eye...


An American Civil War Wargame Army For Beginners... by A. Mason.


I have scanned it so that you good readers can hopefully enjoy it as well.






The thing that I love about this article is that the information and advice is in my opinion as relevant now as it was back in 1972...


My basic starting point for an army is 8 infantry units, 2 cavalry units and 2 artillery...


I love the costing up at the end... £2.89 for two whole armies... I wish....


Here are some pictures to increase the nostalgia...










And yes... I am tempted...


All the best  Aly

40 comments:

  1. Love it Aly - love the relevance of a well written and researched article which aims to make a period easy to understand and game.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Carlo...
      It’s interesting that it is just one page with no photos... yet it manages to fire the imagination...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  2. I had several of those Airfix sets back in 1972.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My first set was the Grenadier Guards... then the Union Infantry...
      They fought each other constantly...


      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  3. Excellent interlude--the addition of the shots of the Airfix packages really brings it home (and brings back memories). This approach from '72 resonates well today (as you suggest).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Ed...
      The article enthused me to look at the miniatures on line... but it doesn’t come over as a mere marketing ploy...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  4. I had all these Airfix sets too Aly, although I don't recognize these boxes - I think I must have been next generation....the cost IS incredibly low - even adjusted for inflation (see below) By contrast, I remember when I first started buying Minifigs metal figures around 1978, they were 8p each!

    Took this from the Bank of England site:

    What would goods and services costing

    £ 3 in 1972 cost in 2018

    Show amount

    £37.63

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suspect that as the Airfix figures now have “vintage” status they will cost a lot more...;-)

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  5. Great find of an article and very tempting to create some armies with the available plastic figures.

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    Replies
    1. Yes it is indeed very tempting...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  6. Those boxes take me right back to my childhood. I liked the way you could have a peek at the contents. At our local Post Office Mrs Thomson had infinite patience even if you were just buying a single plastic knight. Time to choose was given happily. I recall these Airfix boxes up on racks waiting... not to mention the kits in polly bags.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those classic ‘window’ boxes are so evocative... I am surprised no one has tried to replicate them...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  7. A wonderful, nostalgic find Aly! Takes me right back to the 1960’s and my Airfix ACW armies!

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    Replies
    1. Cheers David...
      It’s fairly obvious that we are all of a certain age/generation...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  8. OMG ! that takes me back ! I remember those boxes in Woolworths . I started my first 'proper' wargaming with them using Donald Featherstone rules .

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    Replies
    1. I remember Woolworths in Edinburgh previewing future releases beside the Airfix racks.... it used to drive us all mad with impatience,excitement and frustration...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  9. It was these figures and 'Charge' that got me going in wargaming.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was Featherstone for me...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  10. Pretty much all been said above but "Wonderful!". Those were "my" Airfix boxes. Don F suggested 20 men + 2 officers and the same system of grouping poses. Oddly my 1/72nd plastic are now in units of 18 all ranks but mixed poses with a common theme.

    If I do my calculations right and buy mostly the cheaper brands of plastic (esp Imex) it looks like you could do these armies for about 100 UK pounds or about twice the equivalent price which is actually pretty good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was looking at some of the current brands ... I think Stelets are the only ones quirky enough to come close to Airfix... but Airfix win out on pure nostalgia alone...
      They are currently rereleasing some of their Classic kits and miniatures...it would be nice if they revisited the ACW...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  11. Interesting article Aly - I bought 6 boxes of airfix confederates from the "Timmer" market in Aberdeen when I was a primary school lad. I had just read an article in War Monthly about the Siege of Port Arthur which I found in my classroom (proper stuff to read in those days, none of your mamby pamby nonsense) and with my local library's copy Featherstone's "Wargames" set out to start gaming....
    I've never looked back!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My first look at “Wargames” was in my local library along with Little Wars...
      They had me at hello...
      I was also given a book on WW2 tanks as a school prize... I can’t imagine that happening now...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  12. Nice trip down memory lane, a common theme develops as I had a box of each as well, might still have them a in a box somewhere. Never got the cavalry or artillery as I then collected Napoleonics instead. Look where I have ended up nearly fifty years later 😀 the nice thing is we can now play the games we always wanted to or aspired to as kids.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes...as I have said before... I am currently reliving a childhood that my parents couldn’t afford give me...
      Oh!... and I also make toy soldiers for a living .
      I don’t suppose we will ever grow up....:-)

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  13. A grand post Aly, but I suddenly feel very old.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Phil...
      At our age you have to be careful... that warm feeling might not just be nostalgia...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  14. Nice post,mid seventies I guess, I had those Airfix civil war types,long gone although I'm pretty sure I still have the Airfix ACW guide,I really liked those little books,entirely black and White tiny images,it was the ECW Airfix guide with it's photos and AAR plus army lists for WRG that got me hooked, long ago in the last century!
    Best Iain

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Ian...
      I’ve still got a few of the Airfix guides... I love them...splendid little introductions to the hobby.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  15. Great find Aly. Like most of the commentors I too had these, my first wargames figures, and in 1972 as well. They cost me $NZ0.48 a box about 25p at the time). I had thousands of them and kept them untl the early '80s. I have no idea what happend to them in the end.

    Nostalgia is a wonderful thing...although Frank Zappa thought differently: he thought that the world was more likely to be destroyed paperwork and nostalgia than it was from fire and ice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The thing about nostalgia is that I get the feeling that I’ve seen it all before...
      Mr Z is right about one thing though... paper work... whatever happened to the paperless office we were promised?...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  16. Wonderful stuff. Reading that article was as close as I'm ever going to come to experiencing time travel. How far we've come since the 70's - but how much we've lost in the process. I can't imagine the youngsters of today being able to afford to get into the hobby to any degree let alone being happy as I was with the fairly amateurish figure conversions mentioned in the article. The clincher for me was the mention of sticking the figures to a base with bostick. I wonder if that stuff even exists any more?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have come a long way indeed... but although these articles my seem a bit amateurish nowadays... they are brimming with sincerity.
      I think you can still get Bostick... but I suspect it may be solvent free now...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  17. Aly,
    I managed to get a full set of Miniature Warfare from John Tunstill himself. Those Airfix boxes bring back so many memories and of course I got into the period through Airfix and refighting the campaign from the magazine of the ACW in Ireland - the Storming of Mullinger I can still remember.
    Now feelining nostalgically enthused.

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    Replies
    1. I picked up volumes 1-4 from John a few years ago... they are still a joy to read.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  18. Interesting article, thanks for sharing, my favourite book or the Period is Wise's 'Battlegaming', and this is very much in the same vein.

    Interesting also that the author makes the point you need to paint the Rebel artillery but says nothing of the Union force, suggesting he was [still?] buying the all-blue set, helping nerds like me date it's availability!

    H

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Hugh...
      It was a pleasure...
      I’ve just been on your Airfix blog... a man could get lost in that... splendid.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  19. Thank you for the article , i was too on airfix nostalgia ...as i found WWI airfix in Peronne WW1 museum a few weeks ago !

    how do you plan to paint them ? will you use the famous brown liquid ?
    and basing ?

    i can't wait to see the result !!
    best regards
    paco

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Paco...
      It appears we are all children of Airfix....

      Ah! To paint then I would first have to own them... sadly Airfix discontinued many years ago....and I am not sure I can afford the vintage eBay prices...
      I only hope they get rereleased age one of Airfix’s classic ranges...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  20. Thanks for sharing the Article. To me Airfix ACW are the only figures or what ACW figures should be, however good any new figures are. Animals aren’t the only things to imprint on what is around them as youngsters. Airfix nostalgia - I think it’s just imprinting from childhood ...
    hopefully as you say the Airfix classics range will be extended one day.

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  21. It was a pleasure...
    I think I will always have a soft spot for the Airfix ACW range... they were also the basis for a number of my early conversion attempts...

    All the best. Aly

    ReplyDelete