Alan Cook

I wanted to register my sadness at hearing of the passing of Alan Cook of the ABC Wargamers' blog, after a long illness.

Alan amongst other things was a great S Range man with an unerring eye for conversion possibilities and huge skill in carrying them out. He sent me some of his pieces, including a wonderful Franco Prussian War ambulance, which I will treasure.

His later Nineteenth Century armies were stunning and stand testament to the man.

If you would like to mark his passing I suggest you go over to the blog and look at some of his work.

I never met him personally, only by email and internet, but he was unfailingly friendly, courteous, and helpful. I can only start to imagine what his family and friends must be feeling.

OF 10 Napoleonic Cantiniere

Not to be mistaken for OF 8, American Civil War Cantiniere (previous post here). In practice I think they are interchangeable and could also easily be used for Crimean War and Franco Prussian War.

BN 28s, 29s Marine advancing, and officer

Small but very versatile and useful unit of Marines with an officer.

PtN 1s Portuguese Light Infantry Cacadore

Small unit of Portuguese Cacadores, essential for the Peninsular War.

FN 42s French Sapeur

I recently acquired four of these figures - true to form one of the veterans has sloped off somewhere, and gone temporarily AWOL.

Ancient Romans - housekeeping

I've done some housekeeping on the blog, taking advantage of some photographs sent to me by Bob the Painter, to review the posts under Codes AR and ARC, and to add two new posts under Code AFA (Ancient Field Artillery).

I hope to do some more tidying up in the coming weeks, to take photographs of some figures I have acquired since listing them on the blog, and to correct any misidentifications which may have crept in.

I'm also going to try using photographs of the "new" Minifigs from a 1978 catalogue to see if they can help with identifications of the S Range SYW figures which can be hard to identify - different grenadiers in mitres can be hard to tell apart.

AFA 2s Catapult

With thanks to Bob the Painter for the photograph of this item of equipment...

AFA 1s Ballista

Shown here with two crew figures - AR 20s Roman Artilleryman pulling lever (R) and AR 21s Roman Artilleryman holding bolt (L).

With thanks to Bob the Painter for the photograph of this item of equipment and the figures.

Small amount of maintenance on AWI posts.

I've done a small amount of maintenance on the AWI posts, this has involved adding three new photographs and moving one which had been previously misidentified to the correct post.

I hope to do a similar review of the SYW posts and also possibly the Ancient Romans in the next week or so.

AWI 5s Georgia Infantryman advancing

AWI 10s British Light Company Infantryman advancing

AWI 13s British Light Company officer

AWI 16s Canadian Light Infantryman advancing

Uncoded - packs for mules 1-4 and the rocket's red glare

The photos above show (L to R) - head on and then sideways on:

Pack 1 Wheel Pack
Pack 2 Body Pack
Pack 3 Ammunition Pack with Ammunition Boxes and Poles
Pack 4 Rocket Pack with Ammunition Box and Rocket Containers

These were listed without codes as Packs for Mules @ 5p each without Mule & Gun (this was to distinguish them from the Colonial Artillery set  CFA 4s Pack Set of 3 Mules with Barrel, Wheels, Body and Ammo Packs). This included one each of Packs 1,2 and 3, along with 23 mules (I am currently unclear whether this was the same animal as NFAH 2s pack Horse - from the single model I have, compared to the catalogue photo of CFA 4s below it seems to be the same model but with two different descriptions).

CFA 4s - from L to R Packs 2, 1 and 3

NFAH 2s

Unfortunately taken from the other side but I think clearly enough the same animal

If you bought these items (the packs) separately you also had to provide your own animals and gun model separately.

It was also possible to use Pack 4 along with BNC 10s Mounted Rocket Batteryman and normal cavalry horses to form a mounted Rocket Troop, as below.

The photo below appears in the catalogue but isn't ;listed as a set so I think this was put together from these other components..

There was one specific foot Rocket Batteryman figure listed, BN 34s carrying rocket.

To complete your Rocket Units, S range also offered:

NFA 7s   Rocket Launcher
NFA 17s British Rocket Battery Caisson
NFA 18s Siege Rocket Launcher
SFA 8s    British Rocket Battery Caisson Set of Caisson, Limber, 4 Horses and 2 Drivers
SFA 13s  Rocket Battery Set of Launcher and Three Crew
SFA 14s  Siege Rocket Launcher Set of Launcher and Three Crew

Clearly there were two further Rocket Batterymen on foot which were only available in the sets (as I have seen a figure firing the rocket which does not appear in the BN lists). I think the difference between siege and standard rocket launcher models may have been been the angle of firing, the regular being lower than the siege ones.

These are both marked NFA 7.

Seeven Years War identification assistance - Russian Grenadiers?

For Seven Years War experts - could these be RSW 4s  Russian Line Grenadier Officer and RSW 5s Ruissian Regiment Grenadier Advancing? The grenadier is missing his fixed bayonet.

Identification help - American War of Independence

Question for American Revolution/War of Independence experts - could this figure be AWI 11s British Guard or Fusilier advancing?

Uncoded weary draught horse

No code on this one and I can't find it in any list - I think of it as the weary horse, either very tired or pulling an extra heavy load. It may well be an Alberken/Miniature Figurines 20mm horse predating S Range.

OF 1s Set of French Stretcher Bearer party of 2 bearers,stretcher and wounded man

Component parts were also available separately, listed as

OF 1 French Stretcher Bearer
OF 2 Wounded Man
OF 3 Stretcher

I also have still to assemble

SFA 2s Baron Larrey's Flying Ambulance set of ambulance, 2 horses and driver

with which which these will form a nice group.

After the introduction of the "New" Minifigs this was recoded in catalogues as WAG 2, and joined by WAG 10 Flying Ambulance of the Garde

Mystery Chariot Horse CH 1s

This horse and its code don't appear in any listings I have. Irt is very clearly marked CH 1s. other chariot horses have ACH codes.