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

Sunday, 2 December 2018

A bit more nostalgia... Miniature Warfare 1969

Greetings...


So here are another couple of images from Miniature Warfare...


These pictures inspired and influenced me quit a lot in my youth... (actually looking at them now still gives my wargames butterfly a flutter) they are all from Volume 2 1969


My father bought me a subscription to the magazine for my birthday... I was 12 years old.


This was the first time I saw miniatures representing troops from the Franco-Prussian War...I spent a considerable time poring over the images... even at my tender age I recognised that the miniatures were mostly conversions...
The artillery and cavalry looked like the were based on Airfix ACW... the others I wasn't sure about(even now I am not certain...)


I set about trying to make my own... mostly with ACW Union Infantry and French Foreign Legion... because that's what I had ... latter I got hold of some WW1 Germans and of course the first thing I did was paint them blue...


I was also given some copies of the Airfix magazine which had articles by Bob Gibson on converting figures into troops from the 7 Weeks War...this led to more creative butchery...


Of course none of these toys have lasted the test of time... plasticine dries up and nothing glued polythene... they probably did however kick start a process that led me to the career I am in now... and I still have a love of 19th century warfare to this day.














The credit on the pictures is Andrew Brown.
I have always assumed that they were his toys and I would love to know a bit more about him and his armies...


All the best   Aly
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35 comments:

  1. The Good Soldier Svjek2 December 2018 at 15:58

    Waves of nostalgia there !

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 08:01

      Yes indeed...but it’s also a piece of my own wargames history.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  2. Jonathan Freitag2 December 2018 at 16:09

    Excellent tale from the Nostalgia bin, Aly! I had a similar influence during my "formative" years.

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 08:04

      Thank you Jonathan...
      It’s interesting when you come across something and you can say...’that’s what started me off’

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  3. Phil Robinson2 December 2018 at 17:04

    Goodness, I actually owned a copy of that, bought in Rhyl whilst on holiday. I remember the 7 week war articles, I still have the Franco-Prussian articles from the same magazine. Those were the days.

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 08:09

      Those Bob Gibson articles still stand the test of time... I have some photocopies in my folder on the period the information is concise and fairly accurate... all packed into 2-3 pages.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  4. WSTKS-FM Worldwide2 December 2018 at 18:07

    Neat to see all of these old photos! We really are spoiled for choice in 2018 relative to how things were at one time. And yet I occasionally think that our modern hobby lacks some of that old charm in some indefinable way(s).

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 08:15

      Much as I enjoy the charm and inventiveness of our past...I wouldn’t want to give up on all the benefits of the modern hobby... imagine not having super glue.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  5. Phil2 December 2018 at 18:20

    Souvenirs souvenirs...great!

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 08:17

      There is indeed nothing wrong with a trip down memory lane.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  6. Ed M3 December 2018 at 02:51

    Full of character and color in glorious black and white—love the wood grain on the table. Old Skool, indeed!

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 19:20

      As I recall... the whole world was in black and white...
      I can’t work out whether it’s a table or floorboards myself.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  7. rross3 December 2018 at 07:07

    Yes, I remember trying to "convert" some Airfix figures using plasticine and some kind of varnish - it never seemed to work the way it did in the magazines! In all honesty, I prefer the beautiful high quality figures we are blessed with today - nostalgia is all very well, but a lot of the early metal figures were pretty dire in quality!

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 19:26

      Hi Kieth...
      Yes ‘Banana Oil’.... I remember asking about at our local hardware store... the owner hat no idea what I was talking about... it think it was just a legend.

      And yes wargaming and toy soldiers are the best they have ever been.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  8. Wellington Man3 December 2018 at 07:30

    I can't help thinking that some of those are Hinton Hunts. They have that look about them. Wasn't there a WW1 range?

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    Replies
    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 19:28

      I am not sure if there was a WW1 range ...but some of those figures do look a bit Hinton Hunt.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
    2. Vintage Wargaming4 December 2018 at 22:07

      The staff officers - the two German ones on the ends of their picture and the French one on the left of his are definitely on Rose horses- they are very distinctive. The French and Prussian Infantry on the last page do look HH from the bases - the most likely candidates for conversions would be the Crimean Range. There was no Hinton Hunt WW1 Range - maybe you we’re thinking of the Jacklex one?

      Delete
    3. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 22:23

      It was the bases that made me think that they were Hintons...
      Looking now at the firing Prussians in the last picture... they do have bit of a Jacklex look to them...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  9. Mark Strachan3 December 2018 at 09:23

    Many of my early figures had plasticene parts too. How much more creative we were when there was so little real wargaming product available!

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 19:30

      Things have certainly moved on... give me Green Stuff any day.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  10. Jay White3 December 2018 at 18:09

    Wow, very interesting. How far we have come in the hobby ... amazing when you think of it.

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 19:33

      We certainly have come far... the good thing about nostalgia is that it makes you realise just how good things are today...;-)

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  11. Matt Crump3 December 2018 at 19:07

    Splendid look back, very slightly before my time, but I do like looking at ‘proper’ old Wargames. Despite my obsession with terrain my battles still have to work and that goes back to these sort of games. I often find myself looking through older Wargame books marvelling at the effort that went in converting figures.

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 19:42

      I think you can find a lot of inspiration in these old books and articles... the thoughts on rules systems , history and scenarios are in my opinion as relevant today as they were then...
      Some of the tips I picked up on converting miniatues have been developed by me over the years into sculpting techniques that I still use to this day.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  12. pacofeanor3 December 2018 at 20:20

    Horses are from airfix US cavalry !

    very nice !!!

    regards
    paco

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 19:43

      Yes I think the horses are Airfix as are the artillery.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  13. Vintage Wargaming3 December 2018 at 23:33

    Aly I have many posts from Miniature Warfare, with John Tunstill's permission, on Vintage Wargaming

    You can find them using this link:

    http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.com/search/label/Miniature%20Warfare

    Among my favourites were Stuart Reid on the Jacobite Rebellion and John Tunstill's own series on his ACW Campaign, based on a map of Ireland. other highlights were George Gush's series on the ECW, and lots of good stuff from others including Peter Gilder, Paddy Griffith, and John Sandars

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    1. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 19:45

      I have a number of these issues myself... they make excellent reading considering their age.

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  14. David4 December 2018 at 06:32

    Simply don’t understand this nostalgia business for what clearly were not the good old days. Give me up to date every time! But, if it floats your boat, fine!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Aly Morrison4 December 2018 at 20:10

    David...
    There is nothing wrong about a touch of nostalgia ( remembering and sharing a moment that sent/set you on a certain path is a decidedly human thing to do).... there would of course be something wrong with wanting to turn the clocks back to 1969.... sexism,racism,low wages,no personal computers, no internet..... NO BLOGGING.
    Paint that took a decade to dry... glue that never seemed to dry...paying for your toys with a postal order (that’s so old fashioned that it didn’t even come up on predictive text) by ‘snail mail’ and having to wait another decade for them to arrive (I think it was an average of 14-28 days)... I actually believe that it is easier to buy ‘vintage’ toy soldiers now than it was to buy them new in 1969.
    We are as far as wargaming is concerned in the best of times.... this doesn’t stop me loving shiny ‘old school ‘ toy soldiers... or reminiscing about the past with my grumpy old friends...;-)

    All the best... Aly

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    1. Unknown5 December 2018 at 11:32

      Indeed, as I said, it is fine if it's your thing. Can't myself see any point in vintage figures or in shiny toy soldiers, but that's just me. Your list of things from 1969 is certainly true, though mail order on the whole has hardly improved. 😉

      Delete
  16. Mark Strachan6 December 2018 at 09:28

    Ah the mention of postal orders sure rings the nostalgia bell with me. Prior to the 1980s the most common way to transfer small amounts from NZ to the UK was to purchase British postal orders, but we had quite draconian restrictions on foreign currency and you could only buy £2 worth at a time. I can remember that a regular monthly order for me was £8 (when figures cost 7p) and I would organise my drive home so that I could pass four post offices to buy my four postal orders in a single day. Thankfully by 1980 credit cards came into common usage.

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    1. Aly Morrison6 December 2018 at 21:01

      It is rather bizarre that we used to just send money out into the unknown confident that we would get something in return...
      Now a days we expect a tracking number and a money back qaurantee...

      All the best. Aly

      Delete
  17. caveadsum14716 December 2018 at 22:25

    Nice batch of nostalgia!(I am happy to have all the mod cons though!)
    Best Iain

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    1. Aly Morrison8 December 2018 at 13:10

      I agree Iain...
      But it would be nice if our toy soldiers only cost 7p each.


      All the best. Aly

      Delete

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