Saturday 14 March 2020

AHPC X - Millsy's Millpond - Old Figures




Salute Wargames Show at Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall was where these and another 100+ Norman figures were purchased. Salute was my first ever wargames show back in 1991 when I was only 23 years old!! I was unlike some of you quite a late starter, its all Posties fault really. We both bought houses next door to each other in 1990.
I invited Postie round for a Sensible Soccer marathon (its a very old computer game) Myself and an older version of the Rejects used to get together for a computer games which turned into Risk, axis and Allies and Shogun. The next step we were all invited round Posties for a Wargame and the rest is history!
So Salute 91 was my first show, the main thing I can remember are the crowds of smelly backpack twats hogging what little room there was to shuffle down the aisles. I remember hiding my Salute bag at the train station because I didn't want to be associated with the stinky brigade just down the platform!
Anyway, Normans Saxons and Vikings were my first foray into 25mm, 100+ figures were bought from Wargames Foundry, individually, none of this blister pack crap!!! So i bought exactly what I wanted and didn't have stacks of figures left that I didn't actually want or need???
A few months later I bought a huge painted Norman army at a bring & buy, so some of my figures never got painted................until now of course.


"Paint one or more miniatures from prior to 2000, any genre, any scale. Bonus 10 points if the mini(s) are pre-1990 or bonus 20 points if pre-1980. Extra 10 points if you can provide a backstory on how and where you acquired the mini(s) e.g. I originally bought these to play original D&D back when I was a kid."


3 Normans should be 15 points plus the 30 for the bonus round plus 10 bonus points for their age.


55 points pushed me up to 27th place.

32 comments:

  1. Very nice Ray, that centre figure has a fantastic dynamic pose ..... the one on the right reminds me of a Rik Mayall moment from The Young Ones :-)

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  2. Nice Looking Normans...just a mo..that´s given me an idea!

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  3. Interesting bit of your Wargaming provenance I learned today, Ray! Nice figures!

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  4. Nice to look back fondly at what started it all.
    Fine looking figures.

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  5. Lovely memories, Ray. I could even imagine the aroma of the gathering. Oh, and great looking Medievals too.

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  6. Great looking figures and nicely painted

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  7. Splendid colors and great job Ray!

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  8. Lovely work again Ray, and I think that the aroma you refer to is an international standard for wargame shows unfortunately. With personal hygiene being one the main defence to Covid-19 it's no surprise they're getting postponed!

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  9. Oh Nice!

    I remember waiting to see if a copy of Wargames Illustrated would show up at the Wizard's Corner (local gaming store in Saskatoon through the 80s until... 1992...?) each month (sometimes they'd get one in, sometimes, not so much) and always excited to see what new minis Wargames Foundry would have listed. I mostly made wish lists at the time - as I rarely had enough money to order any I did make a few orders - had to go purchase a money order from my local bank and mail it off and hope that someday they might arrive. Foundry stuff always did, though it might be 3-4 months from when I mailed off my money order and when they arrived in my mailbox! (a couple orders placed with other companies sometimes went off into the ether, never to be heard from again!?).

    Now when I see people complain online that an order took 3 weeks to get to them I think "man, you have NO IDEA!"

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    1. 3-4 months!!! I'd have gone crazy! We are very lucky nowadays for sure.

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  10. Thanks for the walk down memory lane - Postie certainly has a lot to answer for.
    Thought not a period I know muvch about, your Normans do look good.

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    1. You're right Joe, Postie does have a lot to answer for!!!

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  11. They look great, Ray. I love the shields.

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  12. Nice work again Ray and a good story. I totally agree with your implied criticism of the move to blister packs...just maximising the amount of money they can screw out of us...I am pretty sure Foundry led the charge and in my opinion they are still overpriced compared with the opposition....

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    1. Foundry are expensive, they we're mush better when you could buy singles. I think you're right as well, they led the charge into blister packs!

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