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Re: Actually Played a WSS Game

"I just could not work out how to use the Airfix Washington's army set to 'do' what I wanted...too many useless crawling/prone poses, and some pretty poor standing figures too.."

Au contraire. You got 4 lying firing men with no hats (useless), otherwise, the four crawling figures and the casualty party all lost their hats to make tricorn cavalry. The two barrel men make gun crew. You get a mounted officer and you get 26 foot figures you can use for units. You have 4 main poses, plus a command group. They work really well compared to some of the others, even if the poses aren't exactly drill book.

Re: Actually Played a WSS Game

Graham Evans
"I just could not work out how to use the Airfix Washington's army set to 'do' what I wanted...too many useless crawling/prone poses, and some pretty poor standing figures too.."

Au contraire. You got 4 lying firing men with no hats (useless), otherwise, the four crawling figures and the casualty party all lost their hats to make tricorn cavalry. The two barrel men make gun crew. You get a mounted officer and you get 26 foot figures you can use for units. You have 4 main poses, plus a command group. They work really well compared to some of the others, even if the poses aren't exactly drill book.
Ah yes, but what a difference a few decades makes, doesn't it?? in 1975 I did not have the skill or insight to use the Washington's Army set as you describe...so I visited Mr Ronald Spencer Smith in person (he lived in Guildford, UK) had an interesting conversation one Saturday afternoon and bought a few hundred of his figures. A really nice gentleman too. And I ended up with SYW armies that looked a bit like the ones I'd seen in Charles Grant's 'The Wargame' book too.

Now...I have quite a lot of the Airfix AWI sets (Washington's and British Grenadiers) in my stash and of late, with accumulated skill-at-conversion gained over four decades, more time and patience, I am now using these for what they were originally intended...that is, AWI forces! I still happen to think that the Washington's Army set is a truly awful set and a wasted opportunity ( what is the ensign doing dragging his flag on the ground, how short in stature does a sword-waving officer of Foot need to be? etc etc.....Strelets would have done it so much better) but that is merely my opinion. I'm using the figures now, although many of them will never see a table-top battlefield I fear.

Re: Actually Played a WSS Game

Defending the indefensible, that is a truly appalling set and was probably the low point for Airfix,but I believe the intention of that terrible pose was to be a salute.

The thing is, he is correctly realized for an officer with a sword (hat removed, arms spread from the sides, one foot back) but the flag salute is totally different, being dipped in an overarm fashion with the staff held above the head, angled forward (like that annoying bayonet thrust pose that we are too often saddled with).

I used the crawling figures as casualty markers, and the standing shooting pose as SYW Hungarians; the drummer's nicely done, but the rest really only fit for the bin.

YMMV:smile:

Re: Actually Played a WSS Game

Interesting that they split the audience (this sub-set of it at least).

I find that they have a timeless quality. Excellent firing and loading poses and a range of other poses that at first seemed 'useless' and then came more and more into their own with changing needs and mores of the hobby (as Graham noted).

Getting a mounted officer and coupla foot ones in each box? Superb. Those 'useless' casualty carrying and prone figures, ripe for conversions, casualty figures or other markers. The 'high port' figure I was less enamoured with, I must admit...

None of the more modern versions have outdone them for uniformed versions of the intended subject, nor for application to early- mid-18th C. Even as early Napoleonic Spanish or Sardinians prior to having better options in the past 3–5 years!

Regards, James

Re: Actually Played a WSS Game

James Fisher
Interesting that they split the audience (this sub-set of it at least).

I find that they have a timeless quality. Excellent firing and loading poses and a range of other poses that at first seemed 'useless' and then came more and more into their own with changing needs and mores of the hobby (as Graham noted).

Getting a mounted officer and coupla foot ones in each box? Superb. Those 'useless' casualty carrying and prone figures, ripe for conversions, casualty figures or other markers. The 'high port' figure I was less enamoured with, I must admit...

None of the more modern versions have outdone them for uniformed versions of the intended subject, nor for application to early- mid-18th C. Even as early Napoleonic Spanish or Sardinians prior to having better options in the past 3–5 years!

Regards, James
They flag bearer never bothered me, as he was just making up the numbers anyway. If you look at my units you'll see that the flags are stuck into the bases, not carried by figures.

Those high port figures are an issue - what pose is that supposed to be? Still, you stand enough of them side by side and they look okay.

They've served me well for many years. Sure, the current Strelets sculptor has got them beat hands down but their figure mix is off - too many grenadiers in a box, I'm afraid. I shall be buying more of them when my figure pile has gone down a bit more, or when I restart me ongoing WSS project, but I can't see me ever retiring those WA figures from my table top armies.

Re: Actually Played a WSS Game

For the Airfix GWA set I have carefully removed the flag to make an artillery man and the Mounted Officers are used as Musicians for my Hussar regiments. With the British Grenadiers the Mounted Officers have become Horse Greadier Guards, they work equally well as Scot's Greys. In this scale the only difference is the colour of the horse: a Cavalry Black or a Grey. Also I painted the whole box as British Fusiliers with a GWA Foot Officer with a head sxop to lead them. In this guise the Standard Bearer is appropriate. It´s only reading these forums that I realised that the GWA with their legwear could stand in hor Hungarians.

Best regards,
Malcolm