Smoking Marlborough...

Hi folks.

I've been as busy as ever, and believe me when I say that Wednesday was a day from Hell. True I was 'only painting figures' but when you do twelve hours under studio lighting, sitting in a bad position without noticing, you do find the tube of Voltarol is your friend.

That said, I've been busy planning and actually initiating those plans.

First up, I increased my pre-order for the Battlegroup: Northag stuff from Plastic Soldier Company, so that I can now muster a company of British and Soviet infantry with transports, the same of armour as well as recce and support elements.

The models are 10mm scale which I think looks 'just right' aesthetically for these types of forces and allows you to use N scale buildings form continental model railway manufacturers.

Since my old friend and adversary across the table, Roger is like me, a chap who will always tend towards buying two opposing forces, it was only natural that I do that here.

We've also got rather excited about 15mm Renaissance using Mike's Models figures after Roger bagged a rather nice lot last week on a certain auction site. We are seriously muling the idea of going East with it so that as well as the usual Poles, Muscovites and Ottomans, the Moguls and Hindu armies of Calcutta and Orissa. These are LARGE armies which will look striking in Mikes Models castings with their striking and stylised sculpts.

They will also work well on a traditional sized 8x4 table which is something I am starting to warm to again, because I think we sometimes lose perspective when we see games on long narrow boards crammed with 28mm figures, many of which don't enter combat because the games ten to become focussed into localised mini battles.

Now, I hold my hand up to running 28mm Renaissance battles on 24 foot tables with several thousand models, but I do believe that the aesthetic of a similar number of 15mm models on a nice (but smaller) table just looks 'right'. You get more of a god's eye view.

My wife decided that she rather liked the look of Marlburian uniforms (she loves painting fancy stuff like that) and I naturally gravitated to 28mm before pulling myself into check and remembering the points I just laid out above.

Thus, I planned to spend 2020 commissioning some Marlburian figures, but then, whilst looking for something totally different, I found these:

Yes, of all things, out of the blue, I found over 1100 pieces of 15mm Marlburians, comprising:

British army 

13 Battalions of infantry 316, 5 Regiments of Cavalry 66, 2 canons, 8 crew, 2 Commanders total of 392 figures.

Dutch army 

6 Battalions of infantry 133, 1 Regiment of Cavalry 12, 3 canons, 9 crew, 1 Commanders total of 158 figures.

French army 

11 Battalions of infantry 223, 8 Regiments of Cavalry 63, 4 canons,12 crew, 4 Commanders total of 306 figures.

Bavarian army 

4 Battalions of infantry 84, 1 Regiment of Cavalry 12, 2 canons, 4 crew, 1 Commander total of 103 figures.

Battle Map Autumn colour 1200 x 600 (not used as new).

Book Black Powder 2 (as new), Book Marlborough's battle fields, Book Marlborough's uniforms, Book Paper soldiers uniform ref. 4 books.

Hills with Trees various sizes, 3 scale Resin painted period houses, unpainted River sections, painted and flecked road sections.

They are quite tidy but I'll probably slowly re-base them and apply new flags. I will be leaving them in the nice shiny gloss because, well, it's just 'right' isn't it?

Rules-wise, I am thinking of the two side War-games Holiday Centre rules which were printed in War-games Illustrated in the 1990s.

I'll add more units as I see fit and according to whim, because the armies are already very useable.

And the price?

Well, the start price was £200 but the seller was taking offers. He turned me down at £500 and would not post, which was a problem as I don't drive and they were 180 miles away.

So, I had to pay for a man with a van which I finally got down to a cost of £75

The seller was saying he'd take £600 which was very reasonable and to be honest I could have taken a risk and bid, but that would risk being sniped at the end or the seller pulling the lot.

However, I resisted my impulses and declined.

Ahh this point the seller said he'd accept £500 and so I was in like Flynn.

The result is an army which has cost 51p per piece including delivery (which should be in the next 30 minutes as it happens) and not taking into account anything else in the lot.

So, all things  considered I am am a rather happy man.

TTFN