Some of my WoFun figures

I finally managed to base some of my new WoFun figures to see how they looked. I used a pre-cut, four-part 8 x 8 grid of 50mm squares that Warbases made for me some time ago as a tabletop on which to display the figures.

28mm Jacobite Rebellion

I decided to select sample infantry units for both sides. The Hanoverians included single base examples of infantry in blue, white, and yellow facings, whilst the Jacobites included single bases of the Royal Ecossais, Lowland, and Highland infantry.

18mm American Civil War

These should have been mounted on smaller bases (I used the same size as I had for the 28mm figures shown above), but the large bases allowed me to spread the figures out more.

This time I based four bases of Confederate infantry and four bases of Union infantry.

Whereas the smaller figures did not look out of place on the 8 x 8 grid, the large ones looked a little too large. That said, I think that with a bit of planning, I could easily refight the Battle of Culloden on the 8 x 8 grid using my PORTABLE WARGAME rules.

WoFun figures

As I explained in a recent blog post, I bought some WoFun (World of Fun) printed plexiglass figures just before I went into hospital. They were delivered whilst I was in hospital, and I have only just had the opportunity to properly look inside the two boxes that were delivered.

What I discovered was incredible. Before I placed my order for the 18mm American Civil War collection, I had been in contact with the Lucian (the driving force behind WoFun), and he said that he would send me some samples of his larger figures with my order. In fact, the samples more than filled a single box, and some had been put into the same box as the ACW figures.

The 28mm samples included:

• Jacobite Rebellion
• 48 Jacobite Highlander infantry
• 44 Jacobite Highlanders infantry marching
• 48 Jacobite Lowland infantry
• 46 Jacobite Royal Ecossais infantry
• 3 Jacobite mounted leaders
• 46 Hanoverian infantry (blue facings)
• 46 Hanoverian infantry (white facings)
• 46 Hanoverian infantry (yellow facings)
• 27 Hanoverian Dragoons (+ 3 spare horses)
• 12 Hanoverian gunners (+ 2 draught horses)
• 25 assorted casualties
• French and Indian War
• 20 French line infantry
• 20 French light infantry
• 19 French militia
• 8 French gunners (+ 2 guns)
• 3 French mounted commanders
• 5 French scouts
• 20 British line infantry
• 20 British light infantry
• 19 British militia
• 8 British gunners (+ 2 guns)
• 6 British scouts & assorted infanry
• 3 British mounted commanders
• 19 Iroquois infantry
• 10 Iroquois cavalry
• Wild West
• 19 Great Plains Indian Tribes infantry
• 10 Great Plains Indian Tribes cavalry
• Miscellaneous
• 4 guns

The 18mm American Civil War collection includes:

• Confederates
• 144 infantry
• 36 cavalry
• 40 gunners
• Union
• 144 infantry
• 36 cavalry
• 40 gunners
• Miscellaneous
• 16 Guns

I now have more than enough figures to try re-fighting some of the battles of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745/46 using my PORTABLE WARGAME rules as well as dipping my toe into the French and Indian Wars! Coming on top of the fact that I now have two sizable armies for the American Civil War, I have plenty of wargaming possibilities that I can pursue over the foreseeable future.

American Civil War wargaming

One of the first complete collection of wargame armies I owned was an American Civil War one. It was made up of Airfix figures, and they were almost painted. (Almost, because they were mainly left in their original mounded colour, and had their muskets, faces, and hands painted. The exception was the artillery, which were moulded in a brown plastic, and which got a basic overall coat of blue or grey paint.)

I had many enjoyable battles with these figures, including a refight of Donald Featherstone’s action around Plattville, but when I began buying metal figures, my ACW collection went into storage ... and eventually got ‘lost’. (I think that my mother may have given it away to a neighbour’s child after I had left home.)

I resurrected my interest in the ACW in the early 1970s, and I painted quite a few of the then-new 25mm Minifig figures as Union soldiers ... but I never painted any Confederates, and these figures were passed on to another wargamer only relatively recently. I had another attempt in the mid 1980s, this time using Minifig 15mm figures ... but the project was never completed and most of the figures were permanently loaned to another wargamer.

Recently, I decided that I would try again, but as I did not want to go through the trials and tribulations of painting a whole load of figures, I began to look around for some table-ready figures. I trawled through eBay, but found that any figures that might do were either already based and would need rebasing or were not very well painted, even by my standards. Essex Miniatures sell complete ready-painted ACW armies, and they were one option I considered. I also looked at buying some of Peter Dennis’s Paperboy figures because they were cheap and required only a small amount of work on my part to get them ready for use on my tabletop.

At this point, I was introduced to WoFun figures. (WoFun is an abbreviation of ‘World of Fun’, and it is a Romanian company that prints Peter Dennis’s figures on plexiglass.) I considered that they might be a simple and fast way to acquire an ACW collection, and about a month before I went into hospital, I ordered a complete collection of 18mm ACW figures from them. They arrived whilst I was in hospital, and my wife unpacked them for me to look at a couple of days after I got home. They looked even better than I had expected, and once I am a bit more mobile (hopefully sometime over the next few days) I intend to get the figures out of their box and based. Once I have, I’ll write a review of them.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all my friends and fellow bloggers a Merry Christmas.

Since last Christmas, life for all of us has not been quite what we expected or planned for, and this year many of us will be celebrating as best we can under very trying circumstances. To those of you who are on your own or unable to see any friends or members of your family, I would like to wish your a particularly Merry Christmas, and hope that you have a better 2021.

I have done a lot of reading since the beginning of the month.

Whilst I was in hospital, my only recreation was reading. As a result, I ‘consumed’ quite a few books that were already on my Kindle. These included:

• PIETR THE LATVIAN by George Simenon
• THE HANGED MAN OF SAINT PHOLIEN by George Simenon
• THE SHIP by C S Forester
• THE GENERAL by C S Forester
• THE CAPTAIN FROM CONNECTICUT by C S Forester
• DEATH TO THE FRENCH by C S Forester
• THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy
• SPAIN IN ARMS by E Hooton

Since coming out, I’ve been able to read quite a few printed books, including:

• THE PAULISTA WAR: THE LAST CIVIL WAR IN BRAZIL: PART 1 by Javier G de Gabiola (published in 2020 by Helion and Company ([ISBN 978 1 9128 6638 0])

• WARSAW 1920: THE WAR FOR THE EASTERN BORDERLAND written by Steve Zaloga and illustrated by Steve Noon (Published in 2020 by Osprey Publishing (ISBN 978 1 4728 3729 5])

• ARMIES OF THE ITALIAN-TURKISH WAR: CONQUEST OF LIBYA, 1911-1912 written by Gabriele Esposito and illustrated by Giuseppe Rava (Published in 2020 by Osprey Publishing [ISBN 978 1 4728 3942 8])

• WARSHIPS AFTER LONDON: THE END OF THE TREATY ERA IN THE FIVE MAJOR FLEETS 1930-1936 by John Jordon (Published in 2020 by the Naval Institute Press [ISBN 978 1 6824 7610 9])

I hope to add more books to this list over the Christmas break, especially as I have to remain in isolation until my wound has fully healed and I have recovered from my recent operation.

I’ve actually managed to do something today!

For the first time since I went into hospital, I managed to spend an hour or so in our home office. I had quite a few things that needed fairly urgent action (e.g. paying bills online), but I did manage to do a few wargame-related things:

• I uploaded the Nugget 331 Colour Supplement to the Wargame Developments website.

• I watched Stephen Smith’s recent YouTube video about his planned English Civil War ‘Snakes and Ladders’ campaign. This is based on the Jacobite campaign on the GRID BASED WARGAMING - BUT NOT ALWAYS blog. Furthermore, Stephen managed to give THE PORTABLE PIKE & SHOT WARGAME book a plug, for which I am mightily grateful!

I feel as if I have made some real progress today. Not much ... but a bit ... and hopefully things will continue to improve as the days go by.

Slowly but surely ...

Over the past few days, my ability to get about and do things has gradually begun to improve. I even managed to get up two flights of stairs to our home office and my toy/wargame room yesterday, and to walk up to the local postbox to post our somewhat belated Christmas cards. The latter involved a walk of less than three hundred yards in total, but it took me nearly ten minutes and I needed a long rest afterwards.

The problem with my excessive exudate seems to be coming under control, thanks to a course of antibiotics and regular changes of the wound dressing. I am hoping that by Christmas I will only need to have the dressing replaced every two days rather than daily ... but whether or not that happens is not in my hands.

Sue is planning what we will need to buy to get us through the Christmas holiday. Before the latest changes to the Coronavirus Tiers, we had booked Christmas lunch at a local restaurant, but since London moved into Tier 3 from Tier 2, it has shut. We have looked at various alternatives, but it looks as if we will have to eat Christmas lunch at home, something we have not done for years.

One thing that I have managed to do since I left hospital is to read quite a few books, and once I am able to spend some time in our home office, I hope to write about them on my blog.

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Thanks again to everyone who has sent me emails or made comments on my blog wishing me a speedy recovery. I am told that I can expect to have made a full recovery in two to three months, depending upon my body’s ability to heal.

And this week’s new word is ... Exudate!

An exudate is a fluid that filters from the circulatory system into lesions (such as surgical wounds) or areas of inflammation. In my case, it is an almost clear fluid.

Exudate supports the healing process by facilitating the diffusion of vital healing factors (e.g. growth and immune factors) as well as the migration of cells across the wound. It also promotes cell proliferation, provides nutrients for cell metabolism, and aids autolysis of necrotic or damaged tissue.

In my case, my wound is producing a high volume of exudate, and this is saturating my wound dressing. The latter keep leaking and having to be replaced. I’m being prescribed antibiotics to help ensure that the risk of secondary infection is reduced and to assist in reducing the flow of exudate.

Until this problem is solved, I’m unable to do many of the things I’d like to be doing, and both Sue and I are becoming increasingly frustrated. There is only so much sitting and reading/watching TV one can do before boredom begins to kick in ... and we are fast approaching our personal limits.

That said, I’m eating and drinking normally, I’m learning to cope with my stoma bag, and I’ve had lots of time to think about wargaming ... and I’ll be writing more about this in due course.

Ups and downs ...

I’ve been back home for nearly forty-eight hours, but have yet to have a good night’s sleep due to problems with my high tech, post-op wound dressing.

I won’t go into the unpleasant details, but it began to leak almost as soon as I got home, and after numerous phone calls to different people involved in delivering NHS medical care in ones home, I finally had some running repairs done last night.

Despite this, the leakage got worse overnight, and this morning a local District Nurse completely removed the original wound dressing and replaced it with conventional dressings. These will now be replaced on a daily basis until I am fully healed ... and the concerns I had about the nature of the leaking matter have been answered.

Once I am fully rested, I hope to resume blogging regularly. I have lots to write about, in particularly about books that I hope to add to the stable of PORTABLE WARGAME publications.

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I’d like to thank everyone who has made a supportive comment on my blog during my current health problems. Reading you kind words and best wishes helped raise my spirits, especially during the long, dark, and sleepess nights.

And so it ends ... sort of!

After nearly nine hours in surgery, I emerged at just after 6.00pm with a section of my colon removed, and a stoma.

I am now fully awake and drinking copious amounts of water.

More news when I’m feeling better!