An unexpected and most generous offer from Stephen from the Tunnies Terrain Blog was posted in the comment-section in an earlier post this year. He offered me bags of 1:76 scale Airfix originals for free. Wow! -What an offer!! I humbly accepted.
Stephen's generous gift sent me to the Post-Office today to pick up this exciting parcel. Which coincidentally arrived just before my Birthday as well:
This is very brief look of what was inside:
Lets take a closer look at the content:
71 American Civil War Confederates:
Stephen does not only run the Tunnies Terrain Blog, but he also used to run the business Tunnies Terrain and made terrain and scenic items for wargaming. He still stocks some these items, and if you want to know more about what's still available he can be contacted directly through his Blog or Facebook. So he added to the unexpected surprise by adding some groups of trees he made while running his business. It's a very clever design allowing you to instantly add wooded areas and a small forrest to your tabletop:
I vaguely have some plans how to use these figures and great trees for various projects already. Some of them will go to useful bits and pieces. But I urgently feels like deploying these soldiers in some kind of improvised wargame soon despite they're being unpainted at the time. Time will show, so please follow this blog if you don't already do so.
Thank you very much for the generous gift Stephen!
Blog PostScript
ChatGPT-generated images of imaginary 'action figures' are still trending on Facebook, so here is another one related to the theme of this blog-post:
What a great gift to get, enjoy them. I look forward to seeing what you will do with them..
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
It is a great gift indeed. Time will show what I'll use them for, but I have som vague plans already.
DeleteWhat a wonderful gift of some iconic Airfix sets.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think the British WWII Infantry has been replaced by 2 other sets since this one (one of them being re-issued Esci).
DeleteChapeau! to Stephen for the wonderful gift - enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI will. Thank you.
DeleteA great haul! Wargamers are a very generous bunch for the most part, except where dice re-rolls are concerned 😊 Happy Birthday by the way!
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are! This is a great and friendly community!!
DeleteAnd, Thank you!!
Those ACW Airfix brought back memories, remember playing some of my first wargames, early 70s, using these same moulded figures. And the Napoleonic Highlanders box was well designed, everything you needed to raise a regiment, and in repeated numbers so line tactics could be expressed. The detail on the Highlanders was also a clear break from the earlier style of design. I rememberer using the ACW Confederates as AWI light infantry!
ReplyDeleteMichael
Those old Airfix' brought back memories for me as well. Back in the 70ies we didn't use them for 'wargames' as we 'simply just played' with them (and they got lost in action after a while). I'm really exited to have these figures again, and I'll see what I'm going to use them for. -Those ACW Unions are for instance usable for late 19th century and early 20th century infantry.
DeleteThanks for reading and commenting Michael!
Dis you wargame with them painted or unpainted back then, Michael?
DeleteA fair question, Roger. I had just started to paint figures using smelly enamels. It was the detail on the Airfix AWI British Grenadiers and Washington's infantry, combined with the Blandford uniform book, which demanded I paint the yellow plastic figures in more accurate colours. But many never got painted, lol. Such strangely fond memories. Yes, with a school chum, we played simple dice games on the dining room table. I should mention, I never wargamed WW1 or WW2, despite having loads of figures. Too many living relatives had already done that for real, and I preferred the bold uniforms of earlier periods.
DeleteMichael
Sounds like found memories!
DeleteI consider to deploys some of these figures in an improvised game unpainted.
Did you wargame WW1 and WW2 later on?
No, within a few years I moved over to metal 25mm, a mixture of Hinchcliffe and Garrison, and just wargamed the AWI and SYW. Much later I started to wargame Medieval, French Revolution, Ottomans, Muscovites. Still have about 5000 in 28mm. Went over to 54mm in about 2010, and now have about 2500, and in this scale I wargame Medieval, 19th century, WW2, and Modern........ but my relatives have all passed on and some of my wargaming friends who fought in the Falklands and Iraq have no issues with modern wargaming.
DeleteIt's not difficult to agree on your considerations in this matter Michael. It's very understandable. I had relatives who fought in WW2, but they didn't have any issues against this, as they were more like providing me with these toys and models when I was a kid.
DeleteDrafting these number of troops Michael, you must have a very impressive collection!
Roger, you have got me thinking. I need to do some kind of stocktake. Having sold some 28mm, and increased my 54mm. My previous comment could be way-out. A quick count of the 54mm indicates more. I will post the results on my blog. I won't sleep tonight because of this, lol.
DeleteMichael
Oh, no. That was really not my intention. I hope you got a good night sleep and forgot about it 😉
DeleteAre all those, or most of them, 54mms painted?
Oh yes, Roger, unpainted are considered spares, to be stored in a plastic bag, for future projects. For me, they must be painted and based to be considered part of the collection.
DeleteMichael
Makes it even more impressive!
Delete