VSF Russians

I finally finished a couple of units for my VSF contingent for GASLIGHT.  It is 2 units of 10 figures, Russians fom the Russo-Turkish war.

The figures with the chevrons on the base are the NCO's for the units.  I had no idea what the insignia for a Russian NCO was, and I need to be able to identify it quickly in the game.

I have some more figures coming for this that I hope to get posted soon.  I am also doing some figures for Pulp Alley.

In a lighter vein, my friend Ken had posted questions on his blog that I thought I would answer:

What was the very first wargame you ever played (board, strategy or miniature

My father bought my brother and me a Civil War game one Christmas.  It was a boardgame, but had little plastic figures of infantry, cavalry and artillery.  We loved it.  We played it till it fell apart.  My father bought us Panzerblitz next, and we played boardgames for many years.  I had a subscription to Strategy and Tactics for many years, and had a large collection of boardgames that I ultimately sold when I got into miniatures.

What was the first Miniatures focused Wargame?

I was living in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the late 70s.  A friend introduced me to ancients gaming with WRG 3^rd Edition rules.  He was using 15mm figures.  He only had one army done, so we divided it in two and played against each other. 

What was the first Wargame Army you collected and fielded as your own (painted or not, but your own)?

After playing my first ancients game, I went to the local hobby shop.  It had almost no 15mm ancients, but there were some of the old Minifigs 15mm strips of figures.  They were molded 5 to a strip, as I recall, and you had to cut the bases apart.  I bought three strips, some Humbrol paints and a brush, and started painting.  They were Greek light infantry slingers.  I ended up with a fairly large Greek army after going to Denver and buying many more figures at Bonnie Brae hobbies.  The paint job back then was awful.  I didn’t realize that priming the figures was a good first step.  J

I went to England in 1978 for two years.  I was in the service, and ended up at a base about 30 miles from Cambridge.  I met some gamers down there (who were astounded anyone would drive 30 miles for a wargame) and started doing 25mm Greeks, again for WRG. 

I gave up on ancients years ago, but doing that first army was terrific.

What has been your favorite Miniatures Wargame you have played?

After gaming for most of 45 years, its hard to pick out one.  I did play on American Revolution game with some friends back in the ‘80s.  We started after work on Friday night, and it was a set of rules we were playtesting for two of the players.  It was a fun tactical situation, and when it started getting late, no one wanted to stop.  The game was finally over around 3 am, by which time we were all punch drunk and laughing nonstop.  Larry’s wife finally got up, came down, and told us all to go home.  J  Any time I think of that game, it brings a smile to my face.  Then, to make it perfect, my standard transmission locked up in 2^nd gear and I drove 20 miles home at about 20 miles an hour.