I would certainly be interested in a AWI range.

Hat were going to start one, even showed some drawings a year or so ago, but have since seen nothing to suggest that it's going to happen anytime soon.

Hello and happy new year,
I fully support this line of products if it comes live.
Cheers
CPN

I would be in favour (if they finished their War of 1812 line first - American forces are needed)...

I support both AWI and War of 1812. Spanish, Dutch, French and American Natives will be most welcome for AWI.

The AWI is widely popular in the US. There are numerous 15 & 28mm ranges to cover it.
I'm not sure why it (&, glaringly, the SYW) aren't better covered in the 1/72 scale.

It is worth acknowledging, again, Strelets' coverage of the WSS. This end of the hobby is very lucky to get a quality manufacturer interested in what might be described as an obscure period.

donald

Not obscure , just not covered in 1/72 toy soldiers. Get it right and what happens WSS done well = good sales , Rif war done well = good sales , I have no doubt that AWI would do well if covered properly . 7YW is a slightly different ball game because all who have gone before have made tall thin figures that are nearer true 25`s ,so anyone else entering the era has to either do the same or stick to true 1/72 and start from scratch .My view is if you do 1/72 stick to it, and ignore the oversized standard that exists.

Agreed, I wouldn't call the WSS "obscure" it's just overshadowed by the Napoleonic Wars (amongst others and probably neglected in school ...). It was however something like the first World War of the emerging Modern Age (or the second one if you count the 30YW) and had with Marlborough probably one of England's finest generals (plus some other outstanding leaders like Eugene or Berwick). So it's great it finally is getting some well deserved attention.

And let's not forget that the 7YW was also fought in North America and India. So by no means a regional conflict centered on Prussia and Frederick.

But things being what they are, AWI, ACW and the World Wars are closer to peoples memory and thus probably get more attention. The nice thing about this hobby is it may help teach kids and grownups alike a thing or two about history and perhaps get some people interested enough to learn more about "obscure periods".

I'm not going to lie, before this strelets range on the WSS I had never even heard of the conflict. But when I saw such quality figures I became very intrigued. Now here I am having bought a few books on the subject, watching some nice documentaries, and diving deeply into the wikipedia links... I'd almost consider myself an expert on the topic! Well, not quite, but the point is is that some of these obscure ranges can be a great way to bring about new attention to a new period in history (as you just mentioned), and for that I am grateful.

The fact that the existing SYW figures were too tall for 1/72 was reason I didnt get involved with the SYW.
Revell Austrians were not too bad but they are long out of production.

If Strelets did take on the SYW, I would prefer them to start from scratch I think.

Same for AWI. Start their own range from the beginning.

If I went out on the street & asked 30, 50, 100 people what the WSS is, how many correct responses do you think I'd get?

"Obscure" isn't an insult, it's a fairly accurate adjective.

I'm fine with the HaT & Zvesda SYW figures. I don't want a line of midgets to supplement them - such I wouldn't buy.

I just wish the gaps could get covered.
If you want to see what I can do:

http://bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=173&t=25324&view=unread&sid=3683a9a17157855fba58696e41a72811#unread

donald

@ Paintdog

I think we might agree on "forgotten" or "obscured" rather than "obscure". The WSS got quite some attention in it's time and had consequences that are even today relevant (if you care to look, that is) viz. Gibraltar became British as a result of that war.
"Obscure" would, at least imho, be more appropriate for such wars as the British invasion of the River Plate, the Anglo-Persian war of 1856 or similar smaller confrontations.
But you are of course right if you'd ask people today most of them wouldn't know about it and couldn't care less. Then again most people today also wouldn't be able to tell what caused the First World War. It says more about the state of our education systems than the importance of historical events. So if "obscure" means "slipped from public memory" then it probably and sadly is more or less obscure - until someone here decides to build a huge Blenheim diorama now that we do have these nice minis. :wink:

I agree. I am constantly surprised - no, in fact startled - by what young people and students still at school do not know about history generally. I'd suggest that many British 'High school' (Secondary) pupils do not know the start and end dates of WW2, nor indeed the main combatants; and as for WW1....:face_with_rolling_eyes:

Indeed, I recently asked one of my daughter's friends, about to embark on a History degree, whether she was aware that Winchester (an ancient city in Hampshire, southern England) was once the capital city of Saxon England, and she did not...despite the fact that she was about to start her studies at the University of Winchester!

But this is somewhat irrelevent, since it is only if you have a vested interest (because of study, personal interest, or because you collect model soldiers of a period) that you will interest yourself in the details of history. I've loved and studied the subject all my life, so to my mind this is a shame...but there it is.

So far as the SYW and AWI are concerned? No, I would not expect more than 5 in every 100 of the 'general population' to know the basics of either conflict, and why they are important.

Would I buy figures for either or both?

Yes, I certainly would. What is out there right now in the way of figures is OK-ish but not great. You have to mix and match styles and (slightly) different scales, and sometimes go searching for out-of-production stuff via e-bay. Conversions, compromises and sometimes recourse to very expensive metal figures is really the only way to 'do' either conflict in 1/72 right now.

If Strelets were to do with the SYW what they are doing with the WoSS, then that would indeed be marvellous to behold.

I guess whether a conflict is "obscured" or "forgotten" is relative to someone's knowledge of military history really.
For example as a kid, I was always interested in history, so wars such as WSS, Jacobite Rebellion, SYW, Napoleonics, ACW, Crimea etc I knew about as I learned about it in my own time.....not in school where it was always WW1 or WW2.
Only time we did something different was the Russian Revolution... and even then not even for that long. And we barely ever touched upon the warfare itself, it was always political & social stuff we focused on.
All 20th Century stuff. Come to think of it, we barely even touched the ECW.....something you would think was a huge chapter of English history!!!

I think some of us within the hobby will always have our favourites, and tend to gravitate towards those regardless if we know about other conflicts. I think whether we get involved in another conflict also depends on what set's are available, the quality of those sets, and how much readily available information there is on things like uniforms, orders of battle etc etc.

Not obscure , but buried in the sub conscious of Brits at least , think of Churchill and you think Winston not Marlborough , think of Blenheim and you think of the Palace and Churchills ancestral home, not the battle , there are almost as many streets named after Marlborough`s battles as Wellingtons, call it the War of Spanish succession and you will get a blank look , call it Marlborough`s war and you get a lot less blank looks. It`s "obscurity" has much to do in the English speaking world about how the war was exited , not as honourably as many others that are better remembered.

I think the AWI is a deceptively difficult era to cover just because there was SO much uniform variety, stretching from the purple coats of the Culpeper Virginia militia to the Scots and men of Hesse-Hanau that fought for the Empire, that fielding what can be called a 'typical' AWI army is difficult. So in part I can see why many 1/72 scale companies have avoided it, albeit naturally this could change in the future.

Frankly the SYW needs so many sets throughout Europe, North America, and India that starting from scratch would not be that much different than building on the current sets. I like the HaT and Revell efforts though.

I agree with many of you that have mentioned this, but I would love to see the international aspect of the SYW done well as well. Especially the "French and Indian" front of the war.

While not nearly as obscure as the WSS, the F&IWs have even fewer figure sets.
And most of them are BUM......

I think big budget, Hollywood movies have kept the F&IW, to a degree, in the public mind.
I would describe the period as "niche" rather than "obscure".

One of the positives of the 1/72 hobby is that it encourages us to be creative, to modify & adapt.

As you can see from my SYW collection, you CAN game it, even without much more than the excellent HaT ranges, the sadly two Zvesda sets & the mostly dated Revell sets (those "pin heads"!!!)

http://bennosfiguresforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=173&t=24566

I haven't looked at the F&IW but I wonder what you could do from existing materials?

donald

I think what's lacking for the 7YW is mostly heavy cavalry, it can be created by conversions (I used Zvezda Saxon Cuirassiers with heads from Revell Austrian artillery), but to have some sets made by a good manufacturer would be preferable. Zvezda's two 7YW sets suffer from being on the VERY large side (see PSR review). The Revell infantry is not among their best products but can be used. I actually like the HaT sets.
As for 7YW British I think the Redbox British infantry might do and perhaps some of the Accurate/Revell AWI British infantry, both are nice sets.
British cavalry is of course lacking, as are 7YW French and Russians (other figures might be usable for the Line infantry, but I'm not sure, maybe Italeris AWI French though I don't like them very much) and there's an annoying lack of artillery (unless you buy metal figures or make do with IMEX AWI American artillery - IF you can get hold of them).

@ Paintdog

VERY nice figures over at Benno's, great work!

I agree with all of this.

I still think the biggest missing "piece" is SYW Russians. I would love to create a large army of them.

donald

BTW I just received two boxes of the RED BOX Jac.Jacobite LifeGuards & FitzJames' Horse.

The Horse will become a French SYW Gentleman's Regiment (Orleans, I think) & the LifeGuard will make up some squadrons of Gendarmerie de France. The senior office figure will be a much needed French general.

Awesome looking game and great looking armies, Donald.

How did you come by the Pandours?

Regards,
Andrew

They're my only resin figures- weapons are metal.

They're from a company called Germania.
https://germania-figuren.eu/1-72-Figures-from-Resin/1-72-Germania-Figures/?language=en

I was a bit wary about how robust resin would be but no problems.

cheers, donald

Hi Donald,

Could you tell us by which rules you are playing and how you organize your armies (i.e the ratio of minis to real troop strength like one miniature representing twenty or thirty men)?

Rules: A modified SHAKO set (we call it TRICORNE). A little "dirty" but fast & still has an historical feel.
These have just replaced rules we wrote ourselves (called A GLORIOUS WAR) that over the years, grew bloated & slow as we tried to cover everything.

Figure ratio: about 1:30. I don't think this is a vital thing BTW. A French infantry battalion will have 20 figures, a Prussian 24. A cavalry squadron has 3 figures. A gun model equals a battery of 5-6 real guns.


donald

Thanks!

Interesting, 'bloated and slow'...wasn't that what did for the Austrian and Prussian armies (to name just two) which had their showdown with the armies of French Revolutionary France?

The name of a not very popular restaurant?


donald