Sunday 5 December 2010

Napoleonic Warships - Airfix "Victory" Conversions

While waiting for day 4 of the Adelaide Ashes test to start, I noticed that the blog has acquired its 111th follower. If you are not au fait with the great traditions of cricket, you might not now that scores of 111 are refereed to as "Nelson" and multiples (222, 333 etc) as double Nelson, treble Nelson etc, and are viewed with great superstition as likely to cause a wicket to fall. One test umpire (sadly no longer with us) would officiate standing on one leg until a further run was added.

No-one seems 100% sure why this tradition has grown up (cricketers are a very superstitious lot) but it seems to be called Nelson from the erroneous belief that along with one eye and one arm Nelson had only one leg. So the combination of a Nelson of followers and the Ashes made me think a naval episode might be appropriate.

This article reflects an earlier time in wargaming where you made the best of what was available, rather than having vast ranges of wargaming kit available. I have a soft spot for the small Airfix Series 1 ship kits, and i have even half heartedly started on a long considered project using the Golden Hind, Revenge and Mayflower models to create Royalist and parliamentarian fleets for Prince Rupert's later career as an Admiral.

There might be something in this Nelson stuff - Kevin Pietersen has just got out.



8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh heh, I want a wargamer tie!

Vintage Wargaming said...

Drip dry and not a natural fibre in sight, I suspect...

MSFoy said...

The ties would certainly help wargamers identify each other, in the days before 1980s heavy metal teeshirts and ponytails were regulation.

Not quite sure on what occasions the ties would be useful - on the bus? - possibly. At wargames conventions? - unnecessary, I would have thought. Very smart, though. Must keep an eye open on eBay.

Tony

Vintage Wargaming said...

No doubt Battlegames will offer the Old School Wargaming tie in their online shop. At least it could have kept your trousers up...

Paul´s Bods said...

I´m going to get a pair of those ties and use them as braces :-D
Cheers
Paul

ironsides said...

Very usefull kits we used to use these and the Heller models a lot, on another topic do you know anything about the Iwaszco hard plastic brits noted in the add next to the tie?

Cheers

Vintage Wargaming said...

Ironsides - I think almost certainly this would be Bish Iwaszco selling the Almark/Charles Stadden designed hard plastic British infantry - if you click on "Almark figures" on the labels list on the left of this page, it will take you to an article illustrated with these figures and conversions of them, and a link to The Old Metal Detector blog where there is a further post on the plastic and metal figures in the range.

ironsides said...

Hi the Almark Brits yes thats what I thought likely, my information though is that Almark didnt produce these till 1972 so that would suggest that these werent Almark stock, previously to this time (1969) the "Almark" figures were in the Triang battle game, so perhaps Bish Iwaszo had these produced from the Triang? moulds, rather speculation I think but just a thought...

Cheers