How 3 Decades Of Inspiration Came Home To Roost This Christmas. Or 'A Christmas Miracle At Fackham Hall'

Many years ago now, when I was but a callow youth, the venerable John Armatys - a true 'Gentleman Wargamer' - asked me, one Wednesday if I’d be interested in playing a Marlburian game with him, using his 7YW Prussians, and a wonderful and carefully block painted British Marlburian army, on which, IIRC, John had carefully painted all the grenadier mitre caps for the various regiments.

That army was an inspiration. I loved the simple but so neat finish (please understand that’s not a backhanded compliment to John, I loved it) and down the decades, I’ve looked everywhere and crossed my fingers that I might find a similar army. I have owned some exquisitely detailed armies, but the point was, the state of the art for me was an army like John's. 

I almost got something similar when Stuart Asquith’s collection came up in the early 90s via Terry Wise and his regular sales list - always a joy to read - but was literally a phone call too late. Back then we couldn't afford a phone, so it was off to the call box around the corner I jolly well went. And as I said, I was literally a call too late.

Well, the other day, after being ‘hit’ for a tyrant's ransom in excise charges on some terrain from Poland, I remarked to Kayte  that these things happen for a reason and that things would I was sure, balance up. 

The next day, I was browsing Facebook, passing the first day of my month-long Christmas holiday and fighting an urge to go into my freshly cleaned studio (if I do that, I end up going back to work and that defeats the object of a holiday) given that I had managed to get finished three days earlier than planned, and before the round of restaurants and stately home visits with which we fill our holidays instead of going away (we have 4 Scottish Terriers and Kayte’s health is not what it was, so being able to sleep in our own bed and close to a decent hospital has become a driving force) begins with a brass and choral concert today.

Please don’t snigger at the thought of me at a Christmas concert. Despite appearances, I was brought, not dragged up, and the  rebellious image was something cultivated as a defence  - albeit, too effectively I fear.

 

Anyway, I digress.

I ‘dropped’ on someone selling what looked to be a largish Marlburian collection at £1.50 for infantry and £2 for cavalry. It looked to be 8 file boxes and perhaps in need of some cavalry, but there was that ‘look’, that wonderful precise and clean look. 

 

An added bonus was that it appeared to be mostly Wargames Foundry with a splash of Stratagem/Trent models. Now, I don’t need to spell out to you that, that was significantly below bare metal price.

So, I said straight out that I’d take the lot, subject to a figure count and total owed. And this was where the Hides theory of reciprocal fate, was proven. The seller,  a shop in Doncaster (I swear it’s the ghost of Terry Wise behind this) sent me a list yesterday of 14 file boxes totalling 1070 foot, 325 cavalry, 16 guns and 8 wagons. 

 

And the asking price was £2367 for what was 99% Foundry with the rest being Stratagem and a single unit of Minifigs grenadiers which, have a charm, so they won’t be reassigned to overseas service. They were kindly delivered last night:

 

I was awake at 05:15 this morning (an improvement on 3AM yesterday) so I went downstairs and grabbed a box from the pile:

 

 

 

And, I am about as happy as I ever could be.

I have owned some seriously gorgeous armies over the years, painted by myself or others, but when it comes to tricorne era stuff, and particularly Marlburian, I have craved an army like the one John Armatys had about 3 decades ago. Like so many, I used to get a little thrill when I saw Asquith's stuff in Practical Wargamer. Clean and neat figures work so well with this period and well executed 'block' painting is not easy. In fact it's probably a greater skill than detail painting as the lines have to be much sharper when you are working with single colours.

There's basing to be sorted out, and I think I'll replace the flags, but that's just putting my stamp on it, so that when I leave this mortal coil, it will hopefully find a loving home in tip-top fighting condition.

So, thank you John Armatys for inspiring me. I'd better dig out those Wargames Holiday Centre fast play rules.

Merry Christmas,all and TTFN