Saturday 21 January 2023

They say your getting old when you say “do you remember when…?”

No I am not feeling old…although parts of my body dispute that at times, but we were talking during our game on Sunday about the excitement and enthusiasm we had for our hobby back in the 1970s and 1980s when there wasn’t the choice of figures and information that we take for granted today. We had to make do with the figures that were available even if they were only a passing resemblance of the unit you were trying to build and if you couldn’t find the details of the facings of the 3rd Wierdistan Uhlans you simply made it up because no one knew any better anyway.

This sent me spiralling down memory lane.

Like many others my wargaming experience started with Airfix. They were cheap (although an old boss of mine would have scolded me “we don’t say they are cheap,” he would say, “they are effectively priced”) and as a schoolboy I could buy a box of 48 figures for 50c. For many years they were the only figures readily available to us in the Antipodes. And I bought many boxes. I had vast American Civil War armies. 

Magazines like Military Modelling were readily available and filled with advertisements for companies like Greenwood & Ball, Hinton Hunt, Edward Suren, Charles Stadden, Hinchliffe and Minifigs, all promoting that Holy Grail of wargames - metal figures. But I have to admit that I wasn’t overly taken by metals at first because I didn’t think the detail was  quite as good as the plastic figures. That said, I do recall attending meetings of the Auckland Wargames Society back around 1974 and there were two guys who had beautifully painted metal Napoleonic armies that we all drooled over. And we were all jealous since these guys, because they had metal armies, got to use the big, heavy green mat that belonged to the indoor bowls club that shared the premises with us…mind you the bowls club would probably have had a fit if they had known what their very expensive mat was being used for. The big difference with metals, of course, was that you could buy the figures you wanted in useful poses and not have to find a use for the five crawling figures that were in every Airfix box. 

I left school at the end of 1976 and got my first job that I saw advertised in the newspaper one morning, phoned the employer at 8:30, was asked to go in for a 10:30 interview at the end of which I was asked “can you start now” - compare that to my recent experience of an almost 90 day process to onboard a new staff member. My pay was $70 a week, $60 after tax (sure wish I had that tax rate now) and although it seems a small amount of money now it was good for the times (as a comparative measure a one quart jug of beer cost  45c whereas the cost is around $28 today - if only my salary had risen at the same pace with the price of beer). Finally I had the funds to invest in metal figures. 

My first metal figures were for a Hinchliffe 25mm Russian Napoleonic army for use under the WRG 1685-1845 rules. I am sure that Lawrence remembers this army and is probably still in therapy from the damage that bloody big Russian battery did to his Scot’s Greys (I suspect that the unfortunate chap who faced that battery in the first game at the 1983 Nationals when in the first round of the game I rolled six sixes and literally wiped out his elite cuirassier regiment, that he had foolishly deployed directly in front of the guns, with that one salvo would have similar issues). 

Buying figures from overseas in those days was a complex process. Without the internet printed catalogues without photographs were all that was available - although if you were really lucky you might get a pen and ink sketch of the figure. Credit cards were rare and not readily accepted by wargames retailers anyway, so payment had to be made by buying British Postal Orders that you had to purchase at the Post Office. Under New Zealand’s draconian foreign exchange rules of the time they could only sell you one £2.00 postal order at a time. Figures only cost 7p, but unless you wanted to wait twelve weeks for them to arrive by sea post (which was far beyond my level of patience), you had to pay 50% for airmail postage, so the true cost was a little more than10p a figure. Thus, for your £2:00 postal order you could only get 19 figures, or just over one WRG infantry battalion. If you wanted to place any sort of decent sized order you either needed to make several trips to the post office in a week during your lunch hour, waiting in the queue every time, or, as I did, made a wide circuit on the way home past as many post offices as possible, buying one in each location. My best effort was five post offices in one day.

I’m sure this will bring back memories (or nightmares) for NZ wargamers of a certain age

As much of a hassle as all this was the arrival of the parcel is where the excitement and enthusiasm that I mentioned at the start of this post came into play. Those new figures would be taken excitedly taken along to “show and tell” sessions at our Friday night games or on club days, whether painted or as raw castings, and this would stir the enthusiasm for projects new and old. 

But here is the thought that brought me to this point. In the late 70s I could type my order, on my manual typewriter, and post it off by airmail to England, with my postal orders. That letter would  take a week to get to Huddersfield, but pretty much exactly three weeks after dropping that letter in the post box a little grey/brown box would arrive in my mail box filled with shiny soldiers. Forty-five years later, with vast improvements to communications, logistics and transport systems,  I fill in an online form and submit it with an electronic payment that is instantly received by the seller, but it takes anywhere from three to six weeks (longer in some instances) to appear on my doorstep.

My lead pile is still flat and I am bored with nothing to paint… can you tell?


43 comments:

  1. Thanks Mark an enjoyable post. We seem to have walked in the same footsteps ….. including the Postal Orders!

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    1. I forgot to mention that to get your catalogue in the first place you needed one or two International Reply Coupons (IRCs) which involved another visit to the post office.

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  2. You may have to wait even longer for post from the Uk now.....the PO has been hacked and has asked people and business not to send international post! I hope you can restock your lead pile.

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    1. Yes I have been following that. My parcels were dispatched on the Thursday before RM disclosed their ransomware attack. So fingers crossed that it got through and is held up in the backlog with the NZ Customs Service.

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  3. I remember all of which you speak!
    My first ordered metals were fantasy though (Minifigs Middle Earth figures which for some reason I still have).
    By the time I started to order historicals from Foundry I graduated to using a work fax!

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    1. The arrival of bank credit cards in 1979 was the game changer for me.

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  4. Hi Mark....I am very confused. Not by your reminiscences of yesteryear, but by Blogger.
    I saw a new pis from you on Jons PWJ list....it was titled " I wasn't planning to start a new Napoleoonic Army"
    "Aha" thinks I..."what's he gone and bought THIS TIME?"
    So over I pop to 1866 and All That.....and your post has absolutely NOTHING to do with a new army????
    I don't think this is the first time Blogger has fooled me this way, either!
    Just to be sure, I went back to PWJ, but sure enough, your 1866 and all that blog still appears under a title relating to a new Napoleonic army.....WEIRD!
    Perhaps you have been talking about a new army in front of your phone, and the algorithms have figured it out and passed the intelligence on to Blogger????

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    1. I accidentally pressed publish on a post that I have started to write, then deleted it. Blogger clearly can’t revert to past posts in the thumbnail. All will be revealed next week on the new project.

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    2. Lol....now, you will have to appoint an independent investigator to get to the bottom of this massive security breach!

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  5. I remember the hassle of Postal Orders , things are better nowadays !

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  6. that brings back memories my aunt in wales used to send me postal orders for xmas and such , for some reason I wasnt able to send them back to the uk for toys. still they did turn into 6 kiwi peso's. Im waiting for a parcel despatched well before the current postal hacking situation so im hopefull its dodged its way through. if you get too bored drop me a line , i have a acre of 15mm bavarians lounging around here i can drop off

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    1. My parcel was shipped on the 5th and the hacking announcement was made on the 19th, so with luck my parcel slipped through before it turned to custard. I do have a small “emergency shipment” coming from a local source that should give respite to my boredom…although in truth I am busy with some buildings…15s oor…err…haven’t you held any of them since 1999…don’t know if my eyes would stand that.

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    2. i need glasses for the 28's and they were WW2 , most of the 15s I have were bought painted so its just been a case of bringing units up to strength and adding the odd unit . I couldnt find anyone with bavarians so im biting the bullet there

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    3. Are those the old Military Miniatures FPW that I painted way back in the late 80s?

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    4. yes I picked them up off barry with my lockdown savings, picked up another pair of divisions on trade me also painted. just working through building up half strength units and working on a prussian supply train. I might pay to get the bavarian division done. Phil A has austrians and italians and a Mark has a french and wuttemberg division. Im hosting a game of they died for glory around twice per month.

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    5. I seem to remember that I painted several FPW armies at the time.

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    6. Don’t recall…it was a while ago now!

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  7. That evokes many memories Mark, even for a UK resident of a similar age. Send off a SAE to get the catalogue, wait for it to be delivered, then send a postal order with your order and then wait for up to 28 days for delivery. I did that for an Action Man figure and waited excitedly each day for it to arrive, only to be disappointed when the package wasn't by the door. But when it did arrive, the feeling was just wonderful!

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    1. When I turn into the driveway I get a slight glimpse of the spot where where the postie or courier leave parcels is there and I still get that feeling of disappointment / excitement when waiting for parcels. I like that childlike excitement.

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  8. Oh yes I remember Postal Orders…
    I also remember feeling very grown up when I bought one myself with my own saved up pocket money…
    As I recall it was also fairly normal to send cash through the post.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Cash…that’s a word from the past. I handled some myself just the other day…seemed weird.

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  9. Well I definitely feel old but I like posts like these bc they make me feel young again. I’m a generation (or two) behind you. I was in diapers in 1976: I’ve never even seen an Airfix miniature. I’ve always ordered miniatures off the internet. My first miniature wargame was Warhammer 40K. 😀

    Nothing to paint??!!! Incredible.

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    1. Pah…1976, just a youngster! And never seen as Airfix figure…you haven’t lived man…I sometimes think I am regressing to those days now that I am buying more plastic figures than metals, but I don’t think I could be tempted back to the soft plastics of the Airfix era. Have no fear fresh figure stocks are only a couple of days away so my idleness will be short lived.

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  10. I enjoyed that happy trip down memory lane Mark. Those postal orders brought back happy memories as well. I think there was a five pound one as well if I recall correctly. Was it reddish in colour? I remember piling them all in envelopes and posting them off, having selected the seamail option for delivery because airmail was ridiculously expensive. As you know I have been permanently scarred by that Scots Greys incident. I am thought of among my group as a cautious player (I prefer "considered"), and I think a lot of that stems back to that game against you.

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    1. I can hear the mental anguish in your writing Lawrence!

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  11. As much as I love my Hinchliffe (& Minifigs) figures, looking back to the 1970's, they were a bit hit and miss. Some Hinchliffe figures were positively emaciated, poorly cast with lots of 'flash'. I do emphasise 'some'. Minifigs figures were less of an issue and easier to paint but a bit 'blocky' for me. After a (very) long break from wargaming/collecting the quality and variety of modern figures was amazing to see.

    Then again, I remember when rust was a major problem in cars which modern metallurgy seems to have mostly cured. My 1970's cars (Kingswood, Falcon etc) seemed to have a new spot of rust every week! Times change.... sometimes for the better.

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    1. One description of Hinchliffe figures was that they could pick up cigarettes fro from the gunner without bending their knees. I mentioned this to Peter Gilder when I met him in 1986 and he roared with laughter.

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    2. Brisbane Napoleonic modelling23 January 2023 at 19:00

      Hi Mark, no idea why blogger isn't using my blog title and using 'anonymous', I am not anonymous! Great that you met Peter (sadly I didn't) he was a true pioneer. I didn't say in the original post, Hinchliffe artillery was undoubtedly the best castings for decades.

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    3. No problem. Did you comment using a different device? I find if I comment using the phone I become Anonymous. I went to Peter’s Wargames Holiday Centre for a week. He was a great chap.

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    4. Brisbane Napoleonic modelling24 January 2023 at 20:27

      It was the same computer, seems blogger doesn't like me very much, sometimes it is OK other times it isn't. I don't do anything different - Chris

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    5. There is actually a fix for this. There is a change that needs to be made in your settings, but I can’t recall what the fix is. If I remember I’ll post it here.

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  12. Oh Mark what a cracking good post. Though slightly younger, I still recall the excitement, tribulation, and planning that went into a purchase from the UK here in Australia.
    I remember distinctly waiting till after 9.00pm to ring the manufacturer of choice, order my figures for the same WRG Horse and Musket rules army lists, ordering a regiment, paying 50% airfreight, and awaiting a little box of goodness three weeks later. The best feeling!

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  13. IRC'S and waiting the lag time for postal services....smiling as I remember the six week standard delivery time in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Four games played in a year, the trolling of doubtful friends for new opponents.
    Waiting for the latest package is still a small thrill. Some things don't change. Hopefully your figure fast is short and leaves no permanent scarring.

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    1. The arrival of a parcel is still a thrill and is often a welcome distraction from the stresses of every day life.

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  14. Very interesting to hear about this side of the old days from the Antipodean perspective. Being UK based I sometimes mutter about how easy it is for US wargamers to source materials and store everything in their gigantic basements, but I really, really shouldn't grumble, should I? We Brits are lucky to be able to get most figures, books, paints and whatnot so easily. But I do identify with the experience of posting off an order and paper payment in the old days, seemingly into outer space, then waiting weeks and months, but being rewarded with the excitement of a parcel.

    Were you not able to order with a cheque in the old days rather than a postal order? I always did that. Even as a kid I would get my dad to do a cheque and set off the amount against pocket money due! I haven't written a cheque in about five years now. One clever thing you used to be able to do with them was to send a payment for an unspecified amount when you weren't sure what the exact cost would be. You made a high, round estimate, left the main line of the cheque blank and wrote "not exceeding £10" or whatever, and trusted the seller to write in the exact amount. I should think this facility is long forgotten now!

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    1. I am always super jealous when I read tales of UK gamers attending wargames shows. Only on one of my few visits to Britain have I managed to attend a show.

      Cheques may have been a possibility, but two things might have affected their use: first, I am not sure if you could write a check for Sterling unless you had a foreign exchange account, and second, if it was possible any cheque would have had to be sent back to NZ to be verified before the funds could be released, then confirmation sent back to the UK, so that process could well have added another four to six weeks to the whole cycle. Bank drafts were possible, but they attracted a significant fee and prior to 1979 we had pretty hefty restrictions on private overseas funds, so the BPO was the most practical solution. Life became much easier when bank credit cards arrived, although because “toys” attracted a 20% sales tax prior to 1984 the ever watchful NZ Customs would slap you with an additional charge on entry if your order was above a certain level.

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    2. That's interesting. We have this kind of issue if we want to order something from the USA, or in recent times from an EU country.

      You are right that we're lucky to be able to go to so many shows. Although in the true "moaning pom" spirit I would say that most of our shows aren't all that attractive. I only really go to the Partizan shows a couple of times a year. Salute is impressive in its scale, but it's over 50% fantasy stuff nowadays, and the cost, time and exhausting physical effort to get there and around the hall nowadays puts me right off. For most shows, even Partizan, it is telling that most folks only stay for a couple of hours these days, the halls emptying from around midday. Each show is a focus of collective effort (and usually a bit of a money-maker) for the clubs that organise them, so they continue to happen, and sometimes it's a satisfying trip out with a mate or two, but there isn't so much to see or buy as was once the case.

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  15. Hello Mark

    As with many others you have dragged me down memory lane.

    The limit of one £2.00 postal order at a time meant trips to the Post Office on consecutive days but I don't recall thinking much about it as that's the way it was. I remember on one occasion as a school boy being louldly scolded for untidy handwriting on the application form by an old battle axe (I could be a little biased here 😃) lady teller. I could feel multiple sets of eyes peering in my direction. Such a cingey life forming moment!! 😃

    Salute
    von Peter himself

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    1. I can relate to that Peter, in part because I have always had abysmal handwriting and in part because I think I must have struck that lady’s sister in an Auckland Post Office!

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