The Lionel Tarr Periscope - wow! - I'd forgotten about that - I built one! My cousin and I became very interested in battlefield visibility, completely missing the point that to be consistent with the figure scale, hills had to be shaped rather like traffic cones. Anyway, I built a periscope, as described (I imagine) in one of Featherstone's books, and it was a very smart job. It used two of my wife's handbag mirrors, and was painted inside and out with blackboard paint.
Sadly, I built it from sheet balsa, which disintegrated when my cousin sat on it while we were setting up the first battle to use the device, and that was that.
I'm intrigued that the author of this article cannot manage a table, but is allowed to hang strawberry nets on the ceiling. I've often been tempted by the room for manoeuvre offered by a floor battlefield, but have been frightened off by the potential for collateral damage to figures and scenery. However, illustrations of HG Wells and his friends crawling around the floor in tweed suits keep reminding me of this.
Nice article, Clive - thanks again - it seems nostalgia IS what it used to be, after all.
1 comment:
The Lionel Tarr Periscope - wow! - I'd forgotten about that - I built one! My cousin and I became very interested in battlefield visibility, completely missing the point that to be consistent with the figure scale, hills had to be shaped rather like traffic cones. Anyway, I built a periscope, as described (I imagine) in one of Featherstone's books, and it was a very smart job. It used two of my wife's handbag mirrors, and was painted inside and out with blackboard paint.
Sadly, I built it from sheet balsa, which disintegrated when my cousin sat on it while we were setting up the first battle to use the device, and that was that.
I'm intrigued that the author of this article cannot manage a table, but is allowed to hang strawberry nets on the ceiling. I've often been tempted by the room for manoeuvre offered by a floor battlefield, but have been frightened off by the potential for collateral damage to figures and scenery. However, illustrations of HG Wells and his friends crawling around the floor in tweed suits keep reminding me of this.
Nice article, Clive - thanks again - it seems nostalgia IS what it used to be, after all.
Tony
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