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Wednesday, 25 December 2013

William Britains: New Nappies and Tommies!

New releases from W. Britains for their Napoleonic and WW1 ranges


Napoleonic - Brunswickers

The Black Brunswickers were raised in 1809 to fight Napoleon Bonaparte's occupation of Germany. These Brunswickers were distinctively attired in black wool uniforms, black leather belting and wore silver death heads on their shakos, quickly earning the nickname 'The Black Legion' or 'The Black Horde.

Napoleonic - British 44th Foot

In the Eighteenth Century, British Infantry regiments were normally made up of nine companies of regular infantry and one company of elite grenadiers. Although this was successful for fighting in the developed European terrain, it was less successful in the virgin forests of North America. The British forces in North America developed tactics for this new kind of warfare and light companies were trained to fight in a non-traditional method relying on marksmanship and extended order. Although the experiment was successful, the practice was abandoned for a short period at the end of the French & Indian War.
By 1770, regular Regiments were required to have one company designated and trained as Light Troops. The training was inconsistent and often inadequate, but by the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, progressive officers were writing well thought out manuals for this new corps.
While most companies of the regiment fought in tight formations, the 'Light Bobs,' as they were nicknamed, fought up to 80 paces in front of the main body of troops in pairs and in spaced intervals. Additional tasks of these light troops included rear guard and flanking protection, reconnaissance and protecting artillery.
When infantry formed squares, light infantry and artillerymen were often instructed to take cover in the squares when they were attacked by cavalry. Our new offering of 'Light Bobs' of the 44th Regiment of Foot are on their way back to the protection of the Battalion and Grenadier companies formed up into a defensive square. One enterprising soul pauses to loot a watch from a French casualty before sprinting to safety as the Sergeant signals others to follow with a sharp signal from his whistle!

Battle of the Somme



Happy hunting!

Thomas Gunn Miniatures: December Releases

Here we are at the tail end of December and I'm just about getting round to putting together one or two very brief posts about some of this month's releases from a handful of my favourite makers

All I can say in my defence, and it's not much of one really, is that I've been up to my eyes getting things ready for Christmas. Such is life when you have a wonderful young family to help raise; other things have to take a back seat from time to time

Anyway, first up, feast your eyes on these three planes of yesteryear, courtesy of the team at TGM


WOW003 - Dornier 335

The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil ("Arrow") was a World War II heavy fighter built by the Dornier company. The Pfeil's performance was much better than other twin-engine designs due to its unique "push-pull" layout and the much lower drag of the in-line alignment of the two engines, this made it one of the fastest piston driven aircraft of WW2. The Pfeil was an extremely large fighter aircraft for its time with a wingspan and fuselage length measuring over 40ft. Only a handful were produced before the end of the war with none seeing actual combat, Allied aircraft were too slow to catch the Dornier and the Luftwaffe were forbidden to engage the Allies should one fall into enemy hands! Our 1/30 scale model comes with 2 all metal figures, a Luftwaffe pilot checking his map and an elite Fallschirmjager smoking a pipe! This limited edition of 15 models is priced at $650/£450 and is available from January 2014.
 
 

WOW005 - Fokker Eindecker 

Fokker Eindecker. The Eindecker was the German Air Forces first monoplane fighter aircraft and entered service in 1915. It was also the world's first aircraft with a single machine gun that fired through the propeller, this gave the Germans a degree of air superiority over the Western front until early 1916 which later became known as the 'Fokker scourge'. Future aces such as Boelcke, Von Richoften, Immelmann, Udet, Jakobs and Otto Kissenberth all learned their trade on the Eindecker. Our aircraft photographed features and also includes a 1/30 scale weary Otto Kissenberth celebrating another aerial victory by downing a bottle of something strong! If you would like to reserve a model then please drop me an email at your earliest convenience. Priced at £315 + £15 Postage.



WOW004 - Hannover C1.11 

Hannover 2 seater WW1 Bomber. A Hannover 513/18 from FEA 11, based at Brieg/Breslau during World War 1 in a pale blue livery. Our aircraft comes with GW017 Workshop set which comprises a mechanic repairing a Maxim gun and a rookie pilot - namely Wolfram von Richthofen, the 4th cousin to the famed Red Baron. Wolfram reported to FEA 11 in March of 1918 for advanced training, he was later assigned to Manfred's JG1 on April 4, 1918 and first flew with the Red Baron on April 21, 1918, the day the Red Baron was KIA. Wolfram eventually went on to score 8 victories and survived the war, he also served in the Luftwaffe during WW2 rising to the rank of Field Marshall, only to die in July 1945 from a brain tumour. Please note we will add pictures of the GW017 figures to our website with our Hannover when they become available. The pilot figures shown at the moment are for scale reference purposes only and are not included. There are a total of 12 Hannovers available worldwide priced at £365 + £15 Postage.


Several more pictures of each of these beauties are available on the company website. Happy hunting!

Merry Christmas, 2013

 
Merry Christmas, one and all


Here's hoping Santa brings you a certain something special to stuff in your stocking!


Have a super holiday season, and happy hunting


Sunday, 8 December 2013

Warfare

 

I haven't posted anything lately in connection with Warfare, the online military history magazine. A while ago it changed its format but it's still out there and still worth a look I reckon. I had a quick gander the other day and came across this interesting little calendar feature. Take a look for yourself and see what you think

 

Events Calendar








Calendar Key

 
Today.
 
Events on this day.
 
Nothing happening on this day.
 
Happy Hunting!

Saturday, 30 November 2013

Figarti: Forthcoming Fabulousness!

All of the following are currently available, or very soon will be, from Grey Goose Collectables here in the UK. Just give Clive a call and he'll see you right! I've got my eyes on the Panther and MW's Tiger!























This all new Tiger 1, as commanded by the infamous Michael Wittmann, features oodles of fine detail and expertly rendered weathering to the paintwork. Limited to a production run of just 500 models this little beauty comes complete with photo-etched tools and equipment, hinged commander's hatch, moving gun breech and Figarti's new individual link assembled tank tracks for that additional touch of realism. If it looks anything like as good in real life as it does in the photos then it will be worth every penny of its £145 price tag!

 Happy hunting!

First Legion: The Forgotten Bits!

You'll never guess what landed in my in-tray earlier today. The November newsletter from First Legion which included details of all the new releases mentioned in the previous post as well as two American Revolution personalities that have been featured on the company's Workbench page for some time and a bunch of 'sneak peaks' thrown in for good measure. Read on and enjoy!


First Legion is extremely pleased to present the first of our personality figures of the American Revolution! 

Long previewed on our workbench, we are excited to finally bring you AWI056 General Cornwallis & His Dogs.  

In addition, of course we had to do a Mounted General Washington to lead the Continentals on to victory.  We sincerely hope you enjoy them!




AWI056 General Cornwallis & His Dogs - $179.95
AWI057 General George Washington - $159.95





Following the success of the first two releases in our “vignette” series, the Death of Lannes and French Camp Life, we are pleased to present this preview of the next such vignette for our flagship Napoleon’s Europe product range.   

This time we have selected a moment on the evening before the Battle of Borodino where the Virgin of Smolensk Icon was paraded before the Russian Army to prepare them for the horror that would follow the next morning.    

We hope you like it!



Next, for our Battle of Stalingrad range we have this small preview of the first of our truly ragged winter Germans depicting the very end of the Battle.   

These two figures are doing their best to keep warm and prepare some food cleverly using their MG34 to assist in the process. 




And last but by no means least, we have a preview of the first of our Confederate mounted personalities from our American Civil War range, Generals Lee and Longstreet!




Happy Hunting! 

Saturday, 23 November 2013

First Legion: New Releases

Yet another feast in store for you now from First Legion including a new paint job for some of the first figures they ever produced. As Matt says himself, if you have the originals then it would be interesting to stand the new ones alongside them and see just how far the company has come in terms of production values. Without further ado I'll let you enjoy the team's latest offerings





Roman Personalities



 

  Crusades

 

Battle of Agincourt

 

  Renaissance

 

 

 Napoleonic Bavarians

Bavaria



 

 Vietnam







Happy hunting!