Sunday 23 August 2015

Der Kriegspielers catalogue....1977/1978


A hobby friend, Terry Schneider, sent me the scans some while back and, post divorce and house moving I have finally managed to upload the scans on the copies he sent me. Full cudos to Terry. These were a loose set without binding.























Friday 21 August 2015

Minifigs Sword & Sorcery - 1970s revisited.....just the cavalry for now....


The old designer, Richard 'Dick' Higgs apparently sculpted using solder and a 25 watt soldering iron....the Sword & Sorcery range was one of the earliest fantasy ranges (their ME range in 1972 was, I believe, the earliest) based on the works of Robert E Howard...they even changed the names at some point after legal wrangles...I'd love to know more.......anyway, I'll start with the cavalry....pics of what I have and blanks of what I'm missing...as time goes on I'll hopefully fill the blanks in. The Lost Minis WIKI has some more pictured here but still not all....help! If you can correct anything misidentified let me know please! There was an early catalogue with a page of pics however my copy has disappeared and Richard (Stuff of Legends) Hale can't remember giving me a xerox of the relevant page ....aaaggghhh!!!

SSC1 Cimmerian Light Horse with (missing) spear (I think)


SSC2 (Caravan City Lancer) / Cimmerian Light Horse with sword


SSC3 Zamporan Spearman



SSC4 (Eastern Empire Light Horse) / Eastern Light Horse Lancer



SSC5 (Eastern Kingdom Heavy Lancer) / Eastern Heavy Lancer


SSC6 (Eastern Empire Mounted Officer) / Eastern Officer



SSC7 (Eastern Empire Imperial Lancer)  / Eastern Standard Bearer


SSC8 (Eastern Steppe Nomad Lancer) / Hykranian Light Horse   


SSC9 (Steppes Swordsman) / Hykranian Officer



SSC10 Poitevan Knight with lance


SSC11 Aquitanean Knight with Battleaxe          


SSC12 (Western Kingdoms Mounted Knight) / Aquitanean Knight with Standard           



SSC13 Mid Western Knight with lance



SSC14 (West Midland Kingdom Knight Lancer Mounted) / Mid Western Mercenary


SSC15 (West Midland Kingdom Mounted Standard) / Mid Western Standard Bearer


SSC16 (Southern Grassland Kingdom Bowman) / Shemite Horse archer



SSC17 Shemite Officer


SSC18 Vandan Lancer



SSC19 (Kingdom of the Hind Mace) / Vandan Officer



SSC20 (Desert Brigand Tribe Mounted Horsebow) / Desert Horse Archer

   
   
SSC21 (Desert Brigand Tribe Chieftain) / Desert Officer



SSC22 Hill Tribesman



SSC23 (Eastern Free City State Knight Mounted) / Khojan Knight


SSC24 Khojan Lancer



SSC25 Khojan Officer



SSC26 (Black Kingdom Mounted Spearman) / Kushite Spearman



Not sure which these 2 are although they are (pretty certainly...) from this range.....


Edit - he's from the Alexander Nevski range. Lots of compatible figures in that range once Dave gets them all re-released.

(possibly SSC26) - thanks to Tim Peterson for correctly identifying this one below.

'The bottom picture is not from the S&S range, it's the later style adopted after they redid the old PB ranges, and is from a Personality range. It is presently available as IRCX 3 Dacian King.

I double checked with Caliver Books. (I was originally wrong as to the code, but I knew the series it was from.... from about 40 years ago. Gad I'm old, I still think of it as new...'

I had to leave the last bit in just to remind me that I'm not the only old school hobbyist around :)


If you can help please give me a shout on enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Saturday 15 August 2015

Lord Dozy of the Dragon Isles......I've painted myself.....


As a follow up to the earlier post, I've now painted the TAG Tudor mini...great fun and I have a few more of the associated range to finish....previous post about them here.

  


The actual sculpts below and more details about the adventure from Pete Brown himself here.



All now available as part of Tudor Pack III....get a piece of me folks whilst they're still hot!


Tuesday 11 August 2015

Fantasy Wargaming a la Tolkien by Gary Gygax


From Panzerfaust magazine, September /October 1973. I hope you can make out the text. Gary Gygax was then the 'Miniature Warfare Editor'. Interestingly he makes no reference to any line of miniatures so I assume he was avoiding the Miniature Figurines (Minifigs) ME range as that was released in 1972. I wonder if he had not heard of it at the time which baffles me. Was there a reference to any range in his Chainmail rules? Mine are in storage for the time being......








I added the front and rear pages plus the contents as a taster. A good article on the magazine is over on The Tactical Wargamer.