Jim Walkley sent me a few pictures of his home-built kit for siege wargames. I like them a lot because Jim actually plays sieges, using the Vauban's Wars rules very effectively, and doesn't waste time (as I do) collecting and painting unnecessary quantities of toys, and fiddling endlessly with rules which never seem to be finished.
Jim says:
"I happened across a couple of pictures of my efforts of a fortress and thought that perhaps they would be of interest to you.
The gate is the best I had to hand and is a Spanish
gateway. The bastions are not sloped but are sturdy if not lovely.
I did construct one with slightly sloped faces but laziness stopped me making
any others.
As you will have realised, I go for functionality."
"I am attaching a couple of pics of the MkII bastion which shows a slight slope but after all the measuring and cutting the butterfly decided that good enough is good enough and moved on."
He is, in fact, a hero, as further evidenced by the fact that he kindly sent me a parcel of spare figures recently for my WSS siege forces, and (best of all) he is renowned for having been present at the Waterloo commemorative wargame at the Duke of York's HQ in 1965.
Jim is circled on the following two photos. Own up, chaps - show me a photo of yourself in the same frame as Tony Bath and Neville Dickinson, and you can be a legend too.
Thanks Jim. Appreciated.
***** Late Edit *****
For those who might have missed them previously, here are links to a few posts which I've published over the years, with bits of the documentation for this "Military Festival" at the Duke of York's HQ on 20th March 1965.
https://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/2020/06/duke-of-yorks-hq-military-festival-20th.html
https://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/2020/07/featherstonia-occasional-new-series.html
https://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/2019/12/more-on-1965-waterloo-war-game-at-doys.html
*********************
These photos are amazing artifacts. Is that bastion hand made - perfectly precise if so. I can't get beyond the photo of the gentleman with the binoculars! I understand now better than ever the nature of the problem but there is something perfect in surveying a huge game set up with binoculars. At the very least it is a testament to a golden non-digital age. : )
ReplyDeleteAgree completely. The protocol of the entire proceedings would be greatly enhanced if someone had the right make of opera glasses - I am surprised there is no-one with a megaphone. I love these 1965 photos, and have nothing but enthusiasm for the whole subject, but I also treasure the story handed down through the years that the magnificent wargame got a little bogged down in disputes about the rules, and ran out of time. Now there is a worthy tradition, surely?
DeleteThe bastion is handmade from card, model railway building papers and scenic grass sheeting on top of the walls. Sadly,my attention span was insufficient to make more.
DeleteAmazing - Jim is now my hero!
ReplyDeleteQuite right too!
DeleteI must say that Jim is definitely a hero! What well constructed walls and siege works. That bastion is truly lovely.
ReplyDeleteThese pictures of our wargaming heroes are always an eye opener. So smart, as you mention no metal T shirts and not a rucksack in sight. Not to mention the crowds of enthused children.
I have told Jim that, in my heart, I wish my sieges looked like his. On the matter of the 1965 Waterloo spectacular, I find myself wondering how people found out it was on. Word of mouth? Small ads in the evening paper? Newsletters from clubs? Big ads pasted on walls and in shop windows? I wonder if there was even a wish for only insiders to know about it? [Publicity line for Brooklands racing circuit (Surrey) in the 1930s: "The Right Crowd, and no crowding" - i.e. keep out those who don't belong...]
DeleteRather taken with Jim's sap design. As for the 'big game' - 'no fair!' I was in Singapore at the time and my pocket money wouldn't have stretched that far even if I had heard about it.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that Jim's saps look rather better than my brown felt ones - I'm thinking about that. I guess Singapore was even further away than Edinburgh.
DeleteAw Shucks. I think the 1965 Waterloo spectacular was advertised in Wargamers Newsletter.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim - that makes sense. I may add a Late Edit to this post with links to the Show Programme from 1965, and the wargame rules - see if I can find them...
DeleteJim is clearly a hero - his game looks like a proper siege all right.
ReplyDeleteCompton Mackenzie? Presumably the event would have been reviewed/written up afterwards by Don Featherstone at least, perhaps in Wargamers Newsletter ( I have dim memory of seeing something like that on-line? ) , and surely Sir Compton would have been mentioned as a notable spectator? Further research required.. I love the idea of a wargaming Teddy Boy, as that other chap appears to be!
I had a look through the various typed reports, and could find nothing, so maybe it wasn't Sir Compton at all. By the age of 83, I believe Compton Mackenzie had serious problems with his eyesight, and continued to publish his memoirs only with considerable assistance from the MacSween family [the haggis people??], to whom he was related by marriage. Sir Compton had a complicated life, including a spell as an accidental(?) spy, which I confess I haven't managed to understand...
Deletep.s. Wikipedia says Sir Compton got married that year - maybe this was part of the honeymoon? :)
ReplyDeleteSounds ideal. It seems he was also a commited billiards and snooker player, and an enthusiastic supporter of West Bromwich Albion, mostly because he liked the idea that their ground was called the Hawthorns. Sounds a bit whimsical? His 3rd wife was the (much younger) sister of his second wife, who had just died. That's more than enough about all that...
DeleteSimple, effective, useful - what's not to like? Regarding photos and my past wargames 'career' - don't have a single photo with my face on it dating from my 70's heyday...
ReplyDeleteHi Rob - shame about the lack of photos, but it's good to have had a heyday. Something I certainly never managed, by any stretch of a fevered imagination...
DeleteWonderful models!
ReplyDeleteLooks brilliant, what scale do you think it all is, its hard to guess? 20mm?
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Ray. I tend to follow Tony's line of horizontal scale and vertical scale differing. Originally the models were made so that the musket range in the rules (DF's SYW modified) was the distance between bastions. I was using the old Airfix Washington's Army figures to fit behind the walls so I guess the scale is more or less 20mm.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all who have made such kind comments.
Very nice work. I hope they have seen plenty of action over the years. I suspect the guy with the velvet collar was a wargaming spiv selling black market miniatures.
ReplyDeleteOne can't really see details, but the spiv guy also seems to have sunglasses and be smoking a ciggy. Seems a bit far out for that company, unless it was just Earl Mountbatten on his day off?
Delete