Wednesday 17 July 2019

Battle! Practical Wargaming- a spotty camouflage question

My really productive gardening session was interrupted by rain this morning and l came inside. Over a cup of coffee l was reading Charles Grant’s splendid book as mentioned in the title of this post. It is an old favourite l come back to again and again. Today l spotted this picture on page 124-
I had forgotten about it and the figures shown in it. Some questions for you all-
1. Are the Airfix marines still available?
2. Does anyone know what colours are used in this camouflage pattern? Something at the back of my mind thinks  one was yellow.
3. Has anyone seen any other pictures of this army, if so,where?
4. Did Airfix magazine publish any conversion articles relating to this book or armies depicted within?

10 comments:

  1. Hi Alan. Rain? What's that? We are desperate for some down here. The airfix marines were re designed and are nowhere near as good:(

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  2. I had hoped that the old school marines had been reissued. Hope you get some rain soon.

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  3. I also have been intrigued by this photo over the years but no info was ever provided. Grant's series featured in "Meccano Magazine" not "Airfix Magazine".

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  4. Somewhere on the Internet there is a site of the original Meccano magazine articles .

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  5. Tradgardmastare,

    I would love to know what colour scheme was used on these figures. I certainly copied the idea for one of my own armies, and used green, brown, and sand for mine,

    All the best,

    Bob

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  6. I have a faint memory that there were a few articles on WW2 wargames by Mr Grant in Military Modelling - in the late 70s or early 80s? - which also featured some of the old marines masquerading as US infantry. In my memory the pics were in colour - but I am afraid I can't be more specific!

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  7. Have you thought of asking the author’s son?

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  8. The old 1963 Airfix version 1 US marines - http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=355 - are more charming than the current Vintage Classics version 2 Ones. This is something I feel about most of the Version 1 Airfix figures.
    The Airfix US marines version 2 seem to incorporate the 1:32 US infantry poses in miniature http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=354 They are still available through the Airfix Shop etc.
    The version 1 US marines you might pick up on EBay such as https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airfix-HO-OO-1-72-Scale-WW-2-American-Marines-1st-and-second-version-240-pieces/254298363618?hash=item3b355d16e2:g:s34AAOSw-UpdJ1PR

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  9. The Grant WW2 rules were tweaked on the late Thor Shiel's website http://www.thortrains.net/downloads/Wargame-grant-Additions-2.pdf

    There is a Meccano Magazine viewer and article list here https://wargaming.info/2011/charles-grant-battle-practical-wargaming/#.XS-RAtHTWhA



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