Sunday, January 3, 2016

'Nostalgia' from FranL - Sometimes I wish for the old days...

When I was a lot younger and first started wargaming or playing with soldiers, I used boxes of plastic figures (unpainted) but being very naive I would pitch forces against each other that were simply different colors but not necessarily enemies (Prussian Landwehr vs Scottish Highlanders, Viking vs Romans etc....?).



My mum would go to town to shop and play a bit of bingo most Saturdays, now my Mum hated my hobby and would throw out and any figures she found but this just made me more determined, so I would hide the figures under a loose floorboard in my bedroom and with the aid of an old subbuteo cloth pitch (turned upside down) and maybe a book under the cloth to show hills (terrible for figure stability) and sometimes a river was needed, so some blue paper and we have water!



I would have the best of times and pack away everything before Mum got home, these were the days of easy games and knowing nothing anything  better, now we worry about historical accuracy, paint guides, the best sculpts, scenery, rules etc...... (I used to just throw small bits of lego at the figures and if the figure fell over it was dead!).



Now I love wargaming and actually playing games with rules, but I look back at those days with a twinge of nostalgia and sigh.......



I put this bit of tat a display together with some 15mm (ish) plastic figures, some green stuff to represent the subbuteo cloth, the figures were given an undercoat, a basecoat with a touch of drybrushing, it does look a little shocking but then so was the gaming at the time...........



41 comments:

  1. One of the best things about being young is taking pleasure in the simplest of things. We lose that, along with a lot of other valuable things as we grow up and life sticks its boot up our arse.

    Here's to the old days!

    Well done Fran!

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  2. Another lovely paean to childhood! Terrific work, Fran!

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  3. Great nostalgia post Fran. cheers PD

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  4. Great memories Fran, I remember doing exactly the same, apart from the hiding from my Mum bit!!

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  5. I think we all played this ruleset at some point...

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  6. This is exactly how I started playing wargames.. cept we only had the rules, and legos.. and the throwing of legos were a constant thing there ;)

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    1. I used to clip a few legos together, instant shrapnel!

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  7. I think this will strike a chord with almost all of us old ones. I wonder if your mum through some of my figures out as well, I seem to remember missing some!

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  8. Lucky those childhood traumas didn't scar you and you grew up well adjusted. :-)

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  9. Nice work Fran - I think you've captured those childhood memories superbly in this piece :)

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  10. The simple pleasures are often our most cherished, cracking idea Fran.

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  11. Fran, I love it! My first wargames cloth was the reverse of a Subbuteo cloth as well....SNAP! I lined my troops up and fired Lego and marble bombs at them - one army under each of the two lounge chairs - so, SNAP again. No hiding under floorboards, though :)

    Well done, mate!

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  12. Reminds me of kid in the garden lining his figures up. Very Nostalgic indeed Fran!

    Christopher

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  13. A lovely story behind that piece. Reminds me of the first battles I fought with a friend of mine some thirty years ago. Esci 1/72 Napoleonics were our drug then...

    Cheers
    Stefan

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  14. Pure Nostalgia alright Fran :-)

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  15. I had several grand battles across wood floors, didn't hide my collection in the floorboards but a few stalwarts fell in the cracks and knotholes!
    Great Entry, Fran!

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  16. Great entry Fran. Extremely Nostalgic, and I think the way all of us truly started. Minus our Mom's throwing stuff away.

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  17. This is such a great entry. I still have my original Subbuteo pitch and teams, but not many of my old Airfix figures.

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  18. I loved this entry. I remember whatever shape my unmade bed was in was the battlefield of the day. Innocent times indeed!

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  19. I had hundreds of toy soldiers when I were a ankle biter! The summer holidays seemed endless, Napoleonic battles fought across the kitchen table with yes the upside down subbuteo pitch, I never thought about using books to create hills and such, but my river was a long off cut of clear blue polythene. Happy carefree days! Thanks for rekindling some very fond moment's

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