John Sandars Saturday

I have decided to declare today John Sandars Saturday, and post various items of interest I have been digging out over the last few weeks.

On the back cover of his book Introduction to Wargaming (Pelham, 1975) his publisher's About the Author states:

John Sandars has a wealth of experience in modelling and wargaming to put into this book. He started by modelling ships and soon became interested in military modelling in general. His scratch-built vehicles and figures from the desert campaign of the Second World War have become famous.

He plays many forms of wargaming and has become well-known as the creator of a special game simulating desert fighting. He has recently retired from the navy and lives in Portsmouth.

Among the posts today are a two part series from Miniature Warfare in 1970 on devising a set of rules, which may be seen to be initial thoughts towards his later book. It was always a source of frustration that the book doesn't actually set out the rules completely. In 1988 Dave Tuck and Richard Marsh recreated them in an article in the Solo Wargamers' Association's magazine, the Lone Warrior. Doug Crowther tracked these down and provided a scan which is available on Henry Hyde's Battlegames Magazine site as a pdf to download (6.5 mb). The scanner has cut off one or two words but the document is serviceable one, if you are interested in these rules.

On the Rapid Fire website Richard Marsh and Colin Runford acknowledge the inspiration of John Sandars. For many this inspiration included his modelling and scratch-building, and his series of articles in Airfix Magazine (and later Airfix Magazine Guide) on the 8th Army in the Desert.

Other posts below include some photographs of his work, an article on photographing models in a pre-digital age, and an account of an infantry action in the desert.