Like almost all older wargamers, I have a stack of old wargame magazines squirreled away. My collection includes three complete volumes of MINIATURE WARFARE that I acquired some years ago courtesy of David Crook.
The volumes that I own are:
- Volume One (Issues 1 to 12): Issues 1 to 5 have card covers and are priced at 4/- and Issues 6 to 12 are printed on glossy paper and priced at 3/6.
- Volume Two (Issues 1 to 12):: Issues 1 to 4 are priced at 3/6 and Issues 5 to 12 are priced at 85C (US cents). All issues are printed on glossy paper.
- Volume Three (Issues 1 to 12): All priced at 4/- or 20 np (New Pence) or 85c (US cents). All issues are printed on glossy paper.
John Tunstill was the editor and publisher, and the magazine was available from Benares Road, Plumstead, London, SE18 ... which is just over a mile from where I live! (The last issue of Volume Three included a note that the publication address was changing to Burnley Road, Stockwell, London, SW9.)
Flicking through these magazines, its interesting to note that names of some of the contributors to the first three year's issues: Phil Barker, Tony Bath, John Davis, Andy Grainger, Charles Grant, Peter Gilder, Paddy Griffith, George Gush, Bish Iwaszko, Duncan Macfarlane, David Nash, Bob O'Brien, Charles Reavely, Stuart Reid, John Sandars, Jack Scruby, Ed Smith, and Malcolm Woolgar, It's quite some list of early wargamers who all played their part in the development of the hobby in the UK!
The content was somewhat different from the sort of stuff one finds in the three modern mainstream glossy wargame magazines and included some quite technical articles.
I have several articles clipped from later issues of MINIATURE WARFARE, including three by the late Bish Iwaszko about an imaginary Allied invasion of the Cherbourg Peninsula. Looking at the photographs, I remember how inspired I was by them when I first saw them.
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As a youngster the old b/w photographs of the games were such an inspiration whenever I was able to get a copy of those early magazines.
ReplyDeletePeter,
DeleteThey may be old, but looking at them can be inspirational … and bring back a raft of great memories.
All the best,
Bob
Pure gold. Wargaming gold.
ReplyDeleteWho could fail to be inspired by those photos?!
Nundanket,
DeleteVery true … and I’d say that anyone who isn’t inspired - even just a little bit - isn’t really a wargamer.
All the best,
Bob
Great pictures Bob - I've seen them before but they're always good to see again.
ReplyDeleteMaudlin Jack Tar,
DeleteCheers! If I find any more inspirational old photos, I’ll share them.
All the best,
Bob
Crumbs I vaguely remember those pictures, I had Miniature Warfare log ago, but now lost somewhere in the intervening years. Thanks for the memory jogger.
ReplyDeleteFire at Will,
DeleteI also lost a lot of old magazine along the way, which is why I treasure the ones that I have.
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have a large collection of magazines from the 1960s and1970s, including Wargamers Newsletter, Miniature Warfare and Wargames Illustrated.
How different life was before the internet age. I still remember black and white photographs of Peter Gilders Hougoumont, complete with Hinton Hunt 20mm figures.
But most inspiring were the later colour photographs of games at his Wargames Centre. I was fortunate to visit it a couple of times many years later, and could hardly believe I was actually playing with those same figures.
Truly we are spoilt for choice now with such easy, and free, access to model collections and wargames available for free. But I doubt if we appreciate them nearly as much as we did back then.
regards
Paul
Thistlebarrow (Paul),
DeleteYou are right about how things are much easier these days. Back then, if you wanted information you would write to a magazine and get an answer published months later. Nowadays, you likely to be able to find the answer to you question in a matter of a few keyboard clicks.
I never went to the Wargames Centre but I’ve seen some of the colour photographs of the games and I can see why you have such fond memories of your visits.
All the best,
Bob
Some familiar pictures there. I can still remember visiting his shop (can't remember the name - Soldiers! Soldiers!?) near the Imperial War Museum. He was still active last I heard, only living in Italy.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.soldiersarchives.co.uk/mussolini.php
I know that he was still active after this date.
Rob Young,
DeleteI also visited his shop near the Imperial War Museum.
According to Board Game Geek:
‘John B. W. Tunstill (born 1939 in London, England) is a game designer known as a collector and maker of lead soldiers. He began collecting them during World War II while living in London. By the age of 9, he was casting lead figures on a gas stove using aluminium molds.
Around 1956, he joined the British Model Soldier Society and founded the War Game Section. He also started the magazine Miniature Warfare and has been the publisher of Wargaming Magazine.
On his passport, he described his profession as "alchemist", stating that he manufactured lead soldiers and sold them for money, the equivalent of gold. Since 1983 he has been engaged in buying, selling, and restoring medieval country properties in Umbria in central Italy.
Tunstill served in the Royal Air Force for five years in England and Cyprus.’
All the best,
Bob
As a youth I thought that Bish Iwaszko was such an unusual name but, from the sheer volume of his stuff shown in the early magazines, he must have been a prolific gamer.
ReplyDeleteSome years later, I know, but I always wondered whatever happened to Keith “Ghengiz” Benson who regularly appears in the pages of the early issued on Miniature Wargames.
Cheers,
Geoff
Elliesdad,
DeleteBish was a member of the London Wargames Section and wrote a very interesting set of WW2 rules that used a logarithmic scale for artillery ranges. He was a profuse modeller and the proprietor of Miltra, a company that manufactured some beautiful wargame models as well as set of 1:100th-scale vehicle recognition models for the British Army. I was once told that the moulds eventually ended up with QRF, but I’ve no idea if this is true.
I’ve no idea what happened to Keith Benson, but perhaps someone out there in the blogosphere does.
All the best,
Bob
I have a large collection of old wargaming magazines, but mine are a little older, from the 70's, 80's and 90's which have been very inspiring. Here in the states I think the best of them was the Courier. It was a sad day when it ceased publication.
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteI also used to buy THE COURIER, and its editor - Dick Bryant - regularly reads my blog. I still rate it as one of the best wargame magazines and agree that it was a great pity when it ceased publication.
I also used to buy MWAN and WARGAMER’S DIGEST whenever I could.
All the best,
Bob
I have an archive of digital copies of many magazines, The Space Gamer, Wargames Illustrated and Wargames World being among them. I loved them for introducing me to new ideas and mechanics to use in my games but deciphering them first was key.
ReplyDeleteThe articles were definitely written for people who were already well versed in wargaming or who could at least puzzle out what was written.
Mr. Pavone,
DeleteI also have digital copies of many wargame magazines, but I still enjoy flicking through printed copies.
I find that too many of the more recent wargame magazines are often more like an exercise in product placement or are simple pot-boiler articles that don’t cover anything new.
All the best,
Bob
Those old photos have a wonderful charm to them and as I get older, I appreciate their simplicity more and more. Pre-lockdown I bought some old Airfix magazines that my Dad had and that I used to read over and over as a kid. Not only a great mix of articles but also pure nostalgia!
ReplyDeleteSteve J.,
DeleteThe good old Airfix magazine! I particularly loved the conversion articles and over the years I fielded all sorts of vehicles in my wargame armies (e.g. Universal Carriers converted into Pzkpfw IAs and Japanese light tanks, Shermans into Israeli Ishermans, etc.)
All the best,
Bob
There is certainly a "higgedly piggedly" beauty to them - a beguiling alternate reality, with a lovely sense of confusion, as there has never been a "clean battlefield" in history
ReplyDeleteGeordie an Exile FoG,
DeleteI love the mixture of standard Airfix kits mixed in with ROCO vehicles and scratch-built landing craft and warships. There are also a few toy boats in there, model railway buildings, and all sorts of scenic odds and ends. What’s not too like?
All the best,
Bob
When I was first getting into wargaming ca. 1979-80, I was delighted to find that for some reason, the library of my local university (perched on the very left-hand edge of Canada) had several year's worth of very early Miniature Warfare issues on its shelves! Same volumes you have, it appears. Although it was almost all miniatures content, I still read all of them closely for ideas.
ReplyDeleteBrian Train,
DeleteThose old magazines were - and still are - a great source of useful ideas, information, and inspiration.
All the best,
Bob
I often delve into old magazines for inspiration. Have online subscriptions to a couple of the modern ones (and their archives of back issues), but I've always had a soft spot for the early ones - from long before I joined the hobby, when there was still a large dollop of do-it-yourself and why-not-try-this. Even Games Workshop used to be like that. Featherstone's Wargames Newsletter is particularly fun and I wish someone would digitize the 1962-64 issues.
ReplyDeleteI'm increasingly sorry I didn't discover the hobby before University. There were a couple near misses in my life back then where I could've.
Jennifer,
DeleteBack when I started wargaming in the mid 1960s, almost everyone in the hobby in the UK knew each other, if not personally, then certainly by name. We wrote for each other, and I think that this comes over in the magazines of that era. Things are somewhat different today, although I would argue that Wargame Developments' journal (THE NUGGET) still has that personal touch.
All the best,
Bob.