Memory Lane

[Sunray]

First, apologies for hijack of Leon's new thread on bridges- and my memories of buying two Matchbox Shermans to get both ends of a broken bridge.

The train of thought returned me to the happy days of the late 1960s, and my cousin James (CJ) and I unpacking Charles Grant's (1970?)rules for wargame.It had appeared earlier in monthly parts Meccano Mag. "Wargaming- the new hobby"

Grant used early Airfix Russian and German infantry which were still in HO&OO scale in those days. He matched them with ROCO AFVs which were the same scale. CJ wanted Brits so sourced Airfix Infantry Combat Group. I opted for German infantry and DAK - it meant I got free anti tank guns! Don't worry about the accuracy of the model- the barrel was thick and heafty.
CJ had to buy Airfix 6 pounders and replace the 'kneeling giant" crew. He used 8thArmy to supply Vickers and Bren gun groups.

CJ had Sherman tanks. I went looking for Pz IVs, but the shop only had Panthers in stock. So,in our rules, all tanks were equal, and we pinched Russian 120mm mortars as support weapons. I swapped my unwanted Russians for a US marine rubber boat and a mothly collection of civilians who were more at home on a railway platform.

Other swaps deals brought me in Matchbox diecast Saladin and Ferret (Mk1) on which I mounted the Airfix German A/T gun. A lot of our MT were Matchbox lorries painted green. Or in my "Germanic" battle group, matt grey primer.
 
We based the infantry in small groups of three on plastic card using Bostik glue.

Scenery: Cheap & cheerful Bellona, a few Merit trees ..AND Honk Kong Blue box farm sets. You got a cardboard play mat, a stone house and a barn.  We played the manditory "Action at Twin Farms".

Good times. 

 

[Ithoriel]

We never had a problem with figures being somewhat different scales so had no problem with the gunners manning the 6pdr (I could only afford one), being big strong lads. They had to be to lug that gun around. I mean they had to because the commander had pinched the Bren Carrier to use as a battle taxi! Ah! to be young and foolish .... well 50% ain't bad

[fsn]

I was a follower of the Blessed Featherstone, being introduced to the Sage Grant at a later date.

My first was the Airfix beach defence set with the trench system and artillery piece. It came with Infantry Combat Group and Airfix's first version of German infantry. It also came with (IIRC) a DUKW, M40 (?) M60 and a Centurion. Being an aficionado of 1960s WWII films, the M60 was easily identifiable as a German Panzer.

The Blessed Featherstone's War Games did not differentiate between tank types, though it included Lionel Tarr's ruleset which was far, far too complicated.

When I was about 12, we moved to a new house, so new it was on a building site, and I was able to forage for sufficient materials to build a sand table.   

Happy days! 

[T13A]

Hi

It had appeared earlier in monthly parts Meccano Mag. "Wargaming- the new hobby"

I well remember reading the articles in my local library in Fulham back in the 1960's and pestering the staff as to when they would get the next issue in. Also remember that the Airfix boxes of figures were just 2 bob a box when I started gaming back then and if memory served had 48 figures in each box!

Cheers Paul

[sultanbev]

I'm a heretic because I started with the Hornby model rail layout, but then used to drive my Airfix tanks over the table, the Sdkfz 234/4 with incorrect mudguards stands out particularly.

When the rail layout table got taken down so a relative could stay, it never returned, but the tanks stayed.

I do remember an uncle on mum's side up in the north-east having a big wargames table, and he gave me some Airfix ACW sets, I only met him that one time.

When Matchbox came out, it was a revolution! Two plastic colours, and Oh wow a scenic base! And vehicles that Airfix would never build. 

Until this decade I don't think there has ever been another plastic kit of a Comet, Humber armoured car, Churchill AVRE, M40, 17pdr ATG, etc.

I had most of the Donald Featherstone books, and Operation Warboard from the local library, then Tank Battles in Miniature at the local WH Smiths for an extortionate £3.50 a book
The Russian front one fetches silly money now, but am pleased to say I did complete the full set some years ago.

But it was the Airfix magazine guides that really got us going:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/79356-airfix-magazine-guides
esp number 15 on WW2 wargaming. I still have my original much annotated copy!

Mark

[fsn]

The Russian front one fetches silly money now,

Really? What kind of "silly money"?   

[Steve J]

Airfix was the start, then as Mark has said, Matchbox suddenly upped the ante when they came out and we all loved the scenic bases, which featured in what passed for a wargame way back then.

[Sunray]

Some great memories here. Lional Tarr? There's a blast from the past. If I remember right he was Bristol based and sole gamed the Eastern Front.

Yes those 2/- packs of plastics that Airfix stumbled into, and how Mecanno fed the fledging hobby. The scale creep from HO&OO 1/89 up to 1/76 to match the vehicle model Kits.

The early books by Featherstone who introduced us to big 20mm, 25mm and even 30mm metal figures, the token page on Military Modeling.

Then came the clubs, who in turn hosted shows,and gave space to the growing cottage industries.

Then the dedicated magazines. The rise in painting standards. I noticed this in a 1990s Model Railway magazine, when an article urged the model railway faternity to take a leaf out of the Wargamers book and pay more attention to how they painted their models. Even commented on the poor quality of pre-painted railway figures, in comparison to the common or garden wargamer's skills.

Painting, basing and presentation was now equal in appeal to rolling the dice.

Rules: You could right a book on the evolution of rules

Keep those memories coming.   

[sunjester]

Two bob for a packet of soldiers? I could have sworn they were only a shilling a time when I first started "Collecting" them, mind you I was about 6 at the time so the memory may be playing tricks on me.

What was I doing? Is it lunchtime yet?  

I do remember getting my pocket money on a Saturday then rushing around to the nearby toy shop, a handy 200 yards away, and blowing it all on "boxes of little men".

When I was about 11 my mum read in the paper about the local wargame club having an open day, so she gave me the bus fare and sent me and a mate off for the day because "I might find something to do with all those little soldiers!"

Boy, did she regret that!!!

I discovered Charles Grant's books and the various rules in the Airfix Magazine Guides........

[Ithoriel]

Pretty sure that my first two boxes of Airfix figures were one shilling apiece. Bought in Woolworths after a trip to the dentist where I was promised half a crown if I behaved. Hard not to behave, given I was put under with gas and air!

Like so many others I got the British combat group and the original German infantry, the only two sets Woollies had at the time.

Not sure I ever did get the remaining sixpence

[FierceKitty]

I started off with Red "Indians" and US marines. Of course, we had to take what we could get in the colonies!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Mostly Airfix Centurians for me (the TANK) Still have a load of Matchbox Fireflies converted to 75mm (with a saw). Used the Infantry combat group with 8th Army Vickers and the guy charging converted to a bren Gunner via 8th Army Bren. Transport, M3 1/2 tracks, Carriers, the Airfix polethene duce and half with floors added via the M3 trialer and similar FV432.

[sultanbev]

Really? What kind of "silly money"?   

£60 I saw recently!

[John Cook]

I discovered wargaming in 1962 when I found Featherstone's 'Wargames' in Hummel's, a shop in Burlington Arcade in London.  I used to do an annual trip to London to Hummel's and Hamley's to buy Britian's 54mm metal soldiers.  I would've been about 15 I suppose. 
I started with Spencer Smith 30mm plastic figures but they were just too large and not really period specific, but they were cheap and all I could afford.  I'd been given Anatomy of Glory by then and had been bitten by the Napoleonic bug.  My first 'Napoleonic' figures were Airfix Guards Colour Party, converted to Napoleonic infantry using plasticine, hardened with something called banana oil.  Cavalry and artillery came mainly from a company called Alberken which, I think, were the forerunners of Minifigs.  They were 20mm and fitted well enough with Airfix
I stayed with Airfix, ACW, WW2 and Napoleonics for a long time, dabbled in 25mm, until 15mm appeared.  What happened to the Airfix stuff I have no idea but it disappeared.  I suspect that my mother decided that I'd outgrown 'toys' and threw them out.  In 1971 I had joined the army and my life was fairly nomadic for the next quarter of a century. 
I went through a wargaming hiatus for many years until in 1989 I found myself in Germany, married by then with an infant son, and looking forward to civvy street.  There was a thriving local wargames club which I joined and my wargaming was re-booted.  It also made up for what was a tiresome three years, immersed in the verbal and physical bull-s**t of a peacetime army, which I'd spent the last two decades avoiding.
I'd already discovered 10mm in 1985 with 10 High ACW figures.  Not only were they relatively portable, but large units, that looked more like what they were supposed to be, were possible.  I just lost interest in 15mm, and all other sizes generally.  I'm confident that had it not been for 10mm I would've binned wargaming a long time ago.  Returning to civilan life in 1993 there was no going back really.  It has been 10mm ever since.
Thirty years later and it's ten different periods and more figures than I care to count, all in 10mm and mainly Pendraken.
 

[fsn]

£60 I saw recently!

Blimey! I think I bought my copy for £3.95!