Rampant Romans

First Legion are at it again, beautifying the world with their latest batch of toy soldiers, on this occasion in the shape of the second set of releases in their Glory of Rome range

All their Romans pictured together, girding their loins in readiness for the imminent clash with their Germanic enemies!

Having started the range by releasing a number of Legionnaires armed with pilum and sword, the company have now provided the command figures and they are truly wonderful, as you might expect them to be

Here they are, six in all, in a bit more detail

Imperial Roman Centurion

The Optiones were important junior officers in the Roman Army, second in command of the Century to the Centurion. The Optio would enforce the Centurion's orders, take over command should the Centurion fall, and operate behind the rear ranks of the battle line to keep the troops in good order

The Aquilifer carried the eagle standard of the Roman Legion, its most prized possession.  Because of its importance, the position of the Aquilifer was a great honor and ranked its bearer above the Optiones and just below the Centurion

The Imaginifer carried the Imago, a standard bearing a portrait of the Emperor.  It was of political importance because it linked the Legion with the Emperor personally

The Cornicen marched at the head of the Centuries and was another Junior Officer of the Roman Legion whose function it was to sound off orders to the Legionnaires

The Tribunes of the Roman Legions ranked just ahead of the Centurions but below the Legate, who was in command of the Legion.  Their position was as much political as it was military

I've already mentioned that the company has big plans for this range. Not only do they intend to provide more Roman foot figures, cavalry, vignettes, personalities and artillery pieces but they will also be depicting a number of their adversaries, starting with some Germanic tribesmen. The following images come from their Workbench page and give a tantalising glimpse of what is to come

 

More images, together with some more historical details about the figures, are available on the company's website. Until next time. Happy hunting!

A Great BIG 'Thank You'

Hi everyone. I know this isn't a post about toy soldiers, airsofting, reenacting, wargaming or militaria collecting but, I hope you can forgive me

The blog has been running for less than a year and earlier today, according to the 'official' Blogger stats counter, it registered a little over 5,000 page views. I know this isn't huge, and hardly anything to write home about when compared with many other blogs out there, but I thought it was a tiny milestone worth celebrating

So, I'd just like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read any part of what I've put up here, or listen to any of the mixes I've uploaded to Soundcloud. I hope you've found something useful and/or entertaining here and, what's more, I hope you continue to do so

Thanks for your support

King and Country Dispatches

Apologies for not getting this post up a little sooner but hopefully you will think it's worth the wait. As usual, K+C have announced a varied selection of soon to be released figures and, if you're a K+C collector, there's almost certain to be something here that will appeal to you, unless like me you happen to concentrate on a relatively small number of ranges

Releases include vehicles and foot figures for their Afrika Korps range, a number of additions to their Australian Light Horse series from the First World War, a whole load of aircrew and ancillary staff figures, support vehicles and a new plane for their RAF and Warbirds ranges, a few more Ancient Egyptians, the second set of figures for their Napoleon in Egypt range, and a wonderful series of figures representing an entirely new French line infantry regiment for their Napoleonic range

The third of their Volkswagen at war models, this time depicting the diminutive little car as it may have been used during the campaign in Africa

As virtually everyone knows, the German Army made much use of "captured" enemy vehicles throughout the war... Rommel's Afrika Korps was no exception!
Here, complete with driver, is one of the "liberated" vehicles, the classic British Morris 15cwt. Truck still in its 8th Army colour scheme but with prominently displayed German crosses on the sides and on top of the engine

 

 

 

Based on a Panzer 1 tank chassis this self-propelled gun mounts a 4.7 cm Czech-made Skoda gun and was the first German tank destroyer of WW2

In addition to the three vehicles pictured above, K+C are releasing a number of additional infantry figures to go alongside them. They can be seen here huddled together around some architectural remains from much earlier times, with a British 8th army prisoner in tow

There will be 8 new figures available in all, including the British 'Tommy'

Five more pieces for the 'Napoleon in Egypt' series

Five new support vehicles for the RAF.....

.....and a brand new Warbird, the Hawker Typhoon, shown here with support vehicles and the soon to be released additions to the RAF crew figures range

A the top of this post I referred to the fact that, in all likelihood, there would be something in this latest batch of releases to appeal to the majority of K+C collectors. I could be wrong, but there is one thing I can be certain of and that is that I won't be buying any of these new releases because I don't collect any of the ranges that they belong to

I will, however, be purchasing one of the items on their latest retirements list which includes figures from a number of ranges. Altogether there are 18 'sets' listed on the website for retirement this month, including the one pictured below. Incidentally, when this set was initially released, alongside a set depicting Hitler in a staff car during an early wartime visit to Paris, I never even added it to my wish list. The reason it's on it now is because I want to include it in a diorama I have in mind, the centre piece of which will be a recently announced new release from a different manufacturer, also referred to in a post I wrote just a few days ago. I wonder if you can guess what I'm referring to!

Waffen SS war correspondents. I want to include this set in a diorama I'm planning involving a certain well known personality who was photographed late on in the war, not long before his death

More comprehensive details, together with more mouth watering images, are available as always from the manufacturer's website. I leave you on this occasion with a glimpse of the new French line infantry regiment, marching to Waterloo in 1815. How pretty they look!

Our new "French Line Infantry Regt." is wearing the updated "1812" pattern tunic and the more relaxed (or practical) style of military dress adopted by the Emperor's army during the "100 Days" campaign following his escape from Elba

 

Until next time. Happy hunting!

Warfare!

 

I bring you news of a completely new publication. Not only new, but a little different in that it's only available online. In the publisher's own words:

Warfare is a new, completely free online publication, launched in May 2011 by Wharncliffe Publishing

Published every other month, each issue contains articles on major historical events, anniversaries and areas of historical interest along with current news and events

Warfare is presented in a modern and readable style loaded with videos, animated content and interactive adverts. Our carbon neutral magazine is distributed world wide and can be viewed online or downloaded free of charge

Articles cover military, aviation, maritime, family and general history, and includes new book, game and model releases and reviews as well as competitions, give-aways and reader offers

Our aim is to provide a free, information packed publication relevant to people with an interest in military, family and general history

Issue 1 is available now, from the website at www.warfaremagazine.co.uk. To read it, you will need to 'subscribe' to the magazine, ie let the publishers know your name and email address, and there you have it, access to Issue 1 of the magazine which is 48 pages long, and the chance to win a Kindle!

The 'front cover' of Issue 1

Happy reading, and good luck with winning the Kindle!

War and Peace, 2011

It's July, so it must be time for 'The World's Largest Military Vehicle Spectacular', and so it is

 

From humble beginnings way back in 1980, War and Peace has grown into a truly spectacular event. As it says on the poster pictured above, it is arguably the largest military vehicle show in the world but it's a lot more than that

Alongside vehicles of all shapes and sizes you will find reenactment and living history displays, military modelling and wargaming, stall holders selling all manner of genuine and reproduction militaria, arena battles and displays, bars, beer tents and evening entertainment in the shape of 40s style singers and dance bands. There's even a fun fair, just in case the wife and kiddy winks get a bit bored!

Airsoft Arms and Accessories: MP9 and Lonex Mags

Welcome to July

I spent yesterday at my regular airsoft site, Fireball, playing a very enjoyable series of games in near perfect weather conditions and whilst there I came across a couple of items of kit I liked very much indeed

The first was a wind-up mag with a difference. Instead of spending forever winding up the little plastic wheel protruding from the underside of the magazine casing, or using a key, rather like the ones you used to use as a child when you played with your clockwork train set, and which you have probably already lost in some safe zone or other, you simply open up the bottom of the magazine to reveal the winding mechanism and pull a wire a few times. Just in case you can't picture what I've just described, I've included a couple of images from ebairsoft

At over $25 a pop they are by no means the cheapest hi-cap M4 magazine you can buy, but the reviews on the web site are excellent and the handful of guys at Fireball who already own some were similarly impressed when I spoke to them yesterday

Reviews from ebairsoft

This is really a 5 stars one !
Fill it, pull 5/6 times the small rope and you're done.
I tested 4 of them with :
Marui M4A1 933
VFC SCAR L
JinJong M4 CQB
JinJong G36 with M4 magazines adapter
Never failed nor "holes" in short, long and extra long burts.
Real capacity is 357 +/-1 USABLE rounds plus 25 rounds to engage the spring.
The finishing is raw-steel like with that blue effect which is making it great !
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

Bought 2 of these and instantly bought another 2 as they really are that good!
Everyone at my local airsoft site asks about these when they see them and my winding hicaps are purely a back up now I have 4 of these superb mags. Needless to say I'll be ordering a few more!
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

I used my only two Lonex mags at this past weekend's game and was blown away at how well the magazine works. It takes but a few pulls of the metal wire and the magazine is ready to go. I could not believe that it would unload a full magazine; no more pulls of the wire were needed. The magazine only had about a dozen or so BBS left in it. If more pulls are needed or a quick re-load of the magazine is required it can be done very quickly. The construction seems pretty good. I have used them in my ECHO 1 XCR and it fed the BBS perfectly.

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

The lads at Fireball got theirs from the above mentioned retailer, and they are available on ebay as well, so I'm told

The other item I came across yesterday was a gun, the KWA MP9 GBB pistol. The words 'outstanding' and 'blown away' are used far too often these days but in my opinion they are well warranted where this particular weapon is concerned

Two of the Fireball regulars brought one along yesterday and I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to fire both of them. Suffice to say, I had a smile on my face as wide as I don't know what, and I've already decided to put it at the top of my wish list

This is what it looks like, just in case you haven't seen it.....

The KWA version of the MP9, available from ebairsoft

It's also available from Landwarrior Airsoft in the UK

 
.....and this is what it sounds like, and shoots like



The rate of fire is awesome and it sounds tremendous, so expect to get through the 48 round magazine in the blink of an eye. Fill the magazine with your gas of choice and it will shoot 3-4 lots of BBs before needing a top up. You may choose to buy a spare mag or two, but they will set you back around £40 each. The gun itself is around the £200 mark

Spare mag and single point sling for the MP9, also available from Landwarrior Airsoft

More from me later. Happy hunting

"Always Read The Label"

It's the beginning of July, and I've been 'blogging' now for the better part of 9 months, and I've only just found out about attaching labels to my posts! Doh!

So, you will notice that there is now a 'Labels' box at the top right hand side of the widgets column, allowing you to browse the pages that may be of interest to you a lot more easily

 

Thanks for looking

German Fighting Man: Ancient Times

As promised a while ago, and inspired by an article in TSC by A.J.Mergenthaler, I plan to assemble a number of posts which together will provide an overview of the evolutionary history of the Germanic warrior and the development of what is generally acknowledged to be a very militaristic society

I intend to take the aforementioned article as my starting point and then expand on it somewhat in a series of chronologically organised blogs, so in this, the first of them, I will be writing about the ancient origins of the Germanic peoples and what is known of their early conflicts with neighbouring tribes

As Mergenthaler points out, the precise origins of the Germanic peoples are somewhat obscure, but they certainly have a long history which stretches right back to the Bronze Age, many hundreds of years BC. They first inhabited an area of the European continent now known as Denmark, Southern Sweden and an area of Northern Germany between the Ems river in the west, the Oder river in the east and the Harz mountains to the south. Over the course of many centuries they gradually migrated further and further south, west and east as shown in the following maps

Map of the Nordic Bronze Age Culture, circa 1200 BCE

Map showing the regions of Europe occupied by Germanic tribes

   Settlements before 750 BC

   New settlements after 750 BC until 1 AD

   New settlements until 100 AD

   New settlements after 100 AD

At this time the Germanic tribes had no written language so what we know of their very early military history is necessarily limited and based on a combination of archaeological finds and the writings of Roman historians and military commanders like Tacitus and Julius Caesar. Conflicts between the early Germans, Celts and other tribal peoples remain largely mysterious since neither side recorded any of the events. Wars against the Romans, on the other hand, are fairly well documented, from the Roman perspective at least!

Gaps in the historical record notwithstanding, it is generally acknowledged that the Germanic peoples often had a fraught relationship with their neighbours resulting in long periods of military conflict over a variety of territorial, religious, ideological and economic concerns

An informative timeline of the Germanic peoples can be found at the website of The Cherusci Tribe, a US reenactment and living history group seeking to recreate the lifestyle of the early Germans

 

Once again, however, it doesn't go into detail about the conflicts between the early Germans and other peoples but does refer to their invasion of Gaul and their first significant contact with the Romans in around 112 BC

112 BC  Proto-Germanic tribes from the middle Baltic Sea area, the Cimbri and Teutones invade Gaul; during the extensive raid they attract the Ambrones another Celtic tribe to their ranks, and destroy five Roman armies sent against them before turning towards Italy.  The beginning of relations between the Romans and the Germanic tribes.  

So, the first really detailed accounts of the military exploits of the early Germans date back to Roman times and are in the main a record of the wars fought between themselves and the Germanic tribes. The manufacturers of wargames figures and toy soldiers likewise tend to focus their attention on this period of time since it is relatively well documented when compared with the pre-Roman era

I leave you then, at the end of this necessarily brief initial post, with some pictures of 15mm early Germans, painted and based to be used with the Wargames Research Group's DBA [De Bellis Antiquitatis] fast play rule set

The Early German army list covers a period of several hundred years, from about 115 BC to 250 AD, and allows you to organise the army in a number of different ways to reflect the different 'tribes' in existence during this period

An entire army consisting of 12 bases, or elements, plus makeshift camp!

The heart of the army. The tribal warband

More early Germans from a different player's army

In my next post on this subject I will be taking a look at the first contacts between the Germanic tribes and the mighty Roman Empire. Until next time

The Collectors Showcase: Brand New Tiger

For the most part, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking for this post. Suffice to say, when I took a look at the CS website last night and caught a glimpse of this, I very nearly wet myself with excitement!

CS have already produced one or two pieces depicting the infamous MW, but as far as I know this is the first time they have done so in this very popular 1/30th, or 60mm, scale

Having missed out on the K+C version produced a few years ago, and being an admirer of Wittmann's military exploits, this is quite simply a 'must have' for my collection. I've already emailed Dave over at TMT and asked him to contact me as soon as he has any more information

CS themselves say;

TCS is pleased to announce our latest and greatest Tiger I. This beast goes along with our now popular true 1/30th scale vehicle series. What best to go along with the new King Tiger just released but this fabulous 007 Michael Wittmann tank? We've out done ourselves and added a four figure Wittmann crew that can be posed on the vehicle ready for any Reich propaganda photographer to capture. This baby comes with the well known thrown track option and two crew. All hatches open and close on correct hinging and a winter version is also available

Wittmann's Tiger showing the now standard thrown track feature and the opening hatches

The additional crew figure set. NICE!

I particularly like the set pictured above, showing the entire crew of the most famous tank ever written about, relaxing in between epic encounters. More than that, I simply love the way they have chosen to include a sculpt of Wittmann sitting on the turret, a reproduction in metal of the iconic photograph which has appeared in countless books over the years

 

Indeed, said photograph has formed the basis of one of my own WW2 airsoft 'impressions'

 

Wittmann, of course, has been written about quite extensively and there's plenty of information out there for anyone sufficiently interested in finding out more about him, including a very informative and nicely put together website you might care to take a look at called Panzerace.net 

Wittmann's career timeline and the major decorations awarded to him during the course of his service, both taken from the above mentioned reference site

 

So, there you have it. A cracking new model, and an accompanying figure set, from TCS, both of which I fully intend to add to my collection at the earliest opportunity. I leave you with a picture taken from the manufacturer's website showing both new releases in their full glory. Happy hunting!