Minifigs S Range AWI 3s and 4s Massacheusetts Light Company

What collecting I hve been doing recently has focused on Minifigs S Range. Good honest figures i like nore and more each tinme I see them - and a tragedy that they should have been dropped for the misshapen chunky dwarves we now know as Minifigs and to which I attribute the blame for all the exaggeratedly big headed and handed miniatures of today....

Most of this collecting has been centred on the AWI, SYW and Hundred Years War ranges.

This has enabled me to fill in many of the gaps in pictures on the figures of these ranges on my Lone S Ranger blog. The latest are these rather distinctive AWI Massacheusetts Light Company figures.

If this piques your interest, have a look over at the Lone S Ranger blog. If anyone has examples or photos of any of the figures for which I do not have pictures, I would be particularly glad to hear from you.

I have also been busy painting around 200 medieval figures from the variios Hundred Years War (HYW, Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt) ranges. At some point I may put up some unit pictuires.

Mike Blake on War of Independence Uniforms, Weapons and Equipment 2 German Infantry from Almark Modelworld January 1973

The second of four articles in the series by Mike Blake, from Almark Modelworld January 1973.

As the article on German Military Semaphore Signals 1939-1945 doesn't run over the page, I have left it in as a bonus.

Mike Blake on Airfix AWI conversions, Almark Modelworld November 1972

First of a series of four articles (the rest to follow) by Mike Blake on converting Airfix figures for the American War of Independence.

Ground breaking stuff for the time, in one of my favourite magazines.

Redcoat - review from Battle Magazine April 1977

Some interesting views on boardgames, campaigns and supposed differences between British and US wargaming in this review by Tony Bath (I think).

Thanks to DC of Unfashionably Shiny for the scan.

Redcoat - The Newest Concept in Wargaming ... 36 years ago

A suitable post for Independence day, I hope. I came across this brochure recently. People may remember there was quite a spate of wargame activity in 1976 over the bicentennary of the American War of Independence/American Revolutionary War. I don't remember ever coming across these rules this side of the pond (and I don't think Empire ever achieved the same foothold over here as in the US) so I can't comment on them, but I thought the brochure might be of general interest.

The Battle of Greenhill Farm 1776

Another battle report by Dave Barnes, this time a fictional AWI battle, which appeared in Wargamer's Newsletter #173 in August 1976.

By Request #2: Operations around Boston Part I

The first article of two by D Zmarzty, from Miniature Warfare & Model Soldiers October 1973.

By Request #3: Operations around Boston Part II

The second article by D Zmarzty, from Miniature Warfare & Model Soldiers November 1973.

By Request #1:Uniforms of the American Revolution by Doug Cross, parts 1,3 and 4, Miniature Warfare & Model Soldiers 1972

In response to DC's request, here are three of the four parts of this series (some of the later magazines seem to be either missing or kept safely elsewhere...).

I'm not sure how useful these articles are now, but they are interesting as an example of the sort of uniform references that were available to wargamers in the 1970s.