Looking Ahead and Back

 "If you can't go through, go around."  

My old fictional NQSYW 'Irish' Regiment (originally painted as the Roth Regiment in French Service) being touched up slightly to become toy soldier style battalions of the 60th or Royal Americans (L) and the 1st or Royal Regiment (R). 

One of my expressed goals is to reach a state where every part of my collection of soldiers and rules, would provide a different gaming experience rather than being the "same thing with different hats".  For example, if starting from scratch, despite some minor changes in uniforms, tactics and weapons,  many of the battles, sieges, and skirmishes in North America from the 1740's to the 1840's could be happily fought with armies and rules from the American Revolution or the War of 1812.  Compare the assault at Ticonderoga to New Orleans or the confused and prolonged close combat at Ste Foye to Lundy's Lane.

Some of my old 15's, from the early '90's I think. Possibly part of a small PBEM siege game I hosted.
The long boat is out of period, a Battle Honours Royal Marine landing party.

In an effort to get to a point where the figures I have get used and get seen or at least have a proper place to stay, I have managed to narrow my interests and find new homes for most of the "been there done that" or "built that to face the army of a friend who moved away" etc collections. 

More of my old 15's: Minifgs both strip and later, Roundway, Frontier, & Freikorps.
The fort was build from thick cardboard by my friend Dave Wilson.

One of the real sticklers has been what the hobby calls the French & Indian Wars, not a term that was used a lot when I was growing up in Montreal. Its not one of my favourite periods for wargaming, too few pitched battles suitable for table top games and no cavalry but its also the period that shaped the land I grew up in and once I had moved to Nova Scotia, the last war that saw significant fighting on land in the province I live in. So it keeps coming back.     

One of Rob Dean's mostly homecast F&IW games, (Cold Wars 2001ish?) using With MacDuff to the Frontier. 
A tactless comment by me about the kilt on Rob's prototype highlander conversion (part of the group just visible in the bottom left corner of the picture) was what triggered my sculpting and home casting interests. Its a long story of the "be careful what you say at 2 in the morning after a 12 hour trip full of delays and detours until rescued by a friend" sort but it ended well in the long run.  

A majority of the figures it the last game had been painted for the fictional Not Quite The Seven Years War campaign but I had begun my armies for that with each company painted as an historical French battalion, the fictional regiments came later. I no longer have a big enough table for decent Charge! battles and have more units than I can use at home or take to join in a club game at a convention so I am going to keep a fictional contingent for travel or the occasional scrap at home and do the minor touch ups to turn others into reasonably historical toy soldier units for my not quite historical fight for Acadia and Canada. Just to cover my bases though, I will convert each Charge! company into a 2 company Battalion for use at home, just in case the call comes for them to take the field as a company in a composite Charge! regiment one day. 

A example of the result of that comment. Some of the Highlanders that I converted from Meisterzin castings,which were then spin cast for us some 18 or more years ago.  I painted up 3 companies of Fraser's (based on now discredited sources) for Rob's and some for myself, now converted to the French Revolution. There are still more in the drawer though!

Right, time to get back to work.