When we last had a Conservative government and they were so generous to give me tuppence a week as there were no jobs, I started to develop an interest in Afghanistan and the possibility of gaming in 20mm scale the various conflicts that had blighted the country up to the (then) recent invasion by the Soviet Union (this was before anyone was clever enough to realise you could sell moderns (or WW2) in anything other than 6 or 20mm (sorry HO/OO). Anyway I saved my tuppences up and with some Xmas money had the late Ian Weekly make me some lovely generic Afghan buildings in 20mm.
Whilst they saw some action with a few Soviets and Afghans from FAA (IIRC) I never did anything colonial with them, discovering TSATF and other colonial campaigns. That did not stop me at the time pencilling lists of figures for armies from adverts in the latest Military Modelling (the dark days when there were no wargames mags!) and although I bought some 20mm colonial Brits from Pax Britannica (now long gone...) I never go round to ordering anything from Jacklex who (IIRC) you could order from the Model Shop in Harrow.
The Jacklex list was fantastic with Boer wagon trains and Indian Army screw guns on mules etc. I must confess I thought these old figures had gone the way of the dodo until an announcement on TMP that Jacklex had released their first new figures in 30 odd years for the Pancho Villa Expedition (and people complain at the Wessex Games release rate!).
Anyhow, I have now discovered the Jacklex range on the Spencer Smith Miniatures website an all the old stuff I remembered is there, along with photos. Ok, they aren't as good as some of today's high standard miniatures but the range looks really useful and (AFAIK) quite unique in 20mm - and they take PayPal! I seriously doubt I will be able to resist, just don't tell the wife (or with a birthday coming up should I tell SWMBO?)...
The approach I take is to buy them and give them to my wife so that she can give them to me for my birthday. I usually accompany it with a comment along the lines of "I did not want you to have to go to too much trouble so I bought these for you to give to me. They are exactly what I want and I promise to be both surprised and delighted when I open the present." Works every time! :-)
ReplyDeleteShe has threatened to nick stuff from the lead mountain with the idea that I won't remember I bought it in the first place - sadly she may be right!
ReplyDeleteQuick, hide the lead mountain! :-) My wife has not realised that she could do that yet.
ReplyDeleteI loved my Jacklex figures. Used to pop up to the Harrow Model Shop every saturday to spend my pocket money on another few figs. I met Jack once and he kindly offered to teach me to sculpt. The style was deliberately naive to match the Britains Toy Soldier style.
ReplyDeleteWhat I loved about them was the amount of kit - the elephant drawn artillery, Indian Mountain Battery - mule train etc etc - you really felt you could go on a Colonial Campaign!
Cheers
Mark