THE FIGHTING PELICANS

Here we have the first part of Army Red for my Funny Little Wigs project, Colonel Horace Bampfield's Regiment AKA 'The Fighting Pelicans'

The regiment in array

Uncle Toby puts the sentinels through their paces

Bayonet practice

The Grenadiers bearing Bampfield's Pelican on their mitre

The colours (pre 1707)

Dr. Hare, the Duke's chaplain blesses the colours whilst the regiment sing a toast to the duke

" Marlborough the great commander

he'll conduct us, into the field

as brave as Alexander, he'll die before he'll yield

Sound the trumpet sound boys

let no man steal your ground boys,

ne'er let us flinch, nor give back an inch

so let his health go round boys.

This is the year of wonders

the gendarmes gor'd with bullet and sword

quake when the General thunders

Almanza was the word

Sound the trumpet sound boys

this to his health be crowned boys

Circle his brows with fresh oaken boughs

and thus let the glass go round boys."

All the line infantry and Dr. Hare are from the Replicants Culloden series, as there are very few early 18c figures available, but I've painted over any non Spanish Succession detail to make them look like Marlborough's troops. The grenadiers are my favourites. Replicants figures are ok, but come with serious flash, and the plastic is very brittle and breaks easily. I had to repair or replace quite a few muskets and bayonets on this lot. Uncle Toby and the ensigns are ebay finds.

I have some cavalry awaiting varnishing and then need to look into getting some artillery (non firing...I have some Playmobil cannons for serious FLW fun). If any readers can suggest sources of suitable figures for this project I would be grateful. I need more line infantry for the Bavarians and French, and suitable artilley crew and pieces.

Off to Reveille in Bristol tomorrow, so I may pick up something useful there. It's a great little show.

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH

Following on with a more cheerful post, here is a 54mm figure I painted a while back as the start of a 54mm Funny Little Wars project, but based in The War of the Spanish Succession (I'm calling it Funny Little Wigs). I plan to paint a small force each for the allies and the Franco-Bavarians and am making good progress with the former.

A rather nice figure from Tradition, but Rose Miniatures do an even better version of the Duke which I hope to get hold of (for Christmas). 

AM I BEING OVER SENSITIVE OR IS THIS JUST AN EXAMPLE OF TERRIBLE CUSTOMER RELATIONS?

Well I needed a boot up the jacksie to actually post something on this blog....we have been camera less and without a pc for a while,, and although I have been busy painting (and gaming surprisingly) I have had little inclination to post much...apologies to followers one and all.

Anyhow, Steve Weston toy soldiers provided the catalyst to get me to write this post, but unfortunately in a negative way. here follows a copy of the email conversation we have just had

following on from a enquiry about a Replicants set.

MY EMAIL
Thanks Steve, could you send me an execution set please? I can send you a cheque if you let me know postage costs or pay by paypal if you prefer. I'm also looking for a UK source of Supreme knights and Vikings (primarily for my son)...any ideas?

THE REPLY (my thoughts in bold)
Hi Mike, the minimum P+P is £4.20  for the first kilo ("but I only want a few figures"), total for this order would be £13.20 with P+P but you could add a lot more figures to this which would not change the P+P price.

you want to give your son figures made by Supreme?("yes") do you also feed him MacDonalds? ("No") Shame on you both counts! ("I feel so much better having been falsely labelled as a neglectful parent")

Paypal? Surely you are not still encouraging them and their ridiculous fees? ("I have never paid them a penny and wish to save my own time and money as well as using less paper for ecological reasons")

Payment by cheque , Postal order (remember them ?) ("Yes, I am not suffering from Alzheimer's Disease or Vascular dementia") or card.

Thanks Steve (" you're welcome, any time you want to randomly insult someone, I'm your man.")

perhaps I am being a bit touchy, but working in retail myself, I had always understood it was good policy to make the customer feel valued so they come back again. It's fine to think some of them are complete morons, but ideally you keep those thoughts to yourself so they come back and spend more money. I think Mr Weston believes he has his customers over a barrel being the only stockist of Replicants figures...in a way he is correct, but this doesn't give him licence to insult them with impunity. He infers that because I am enquiring after these (I think rather nice) figures (lifted from the excellent Penny Whistle blogspot)

I feed my kids junk food (ie. don't care for their well being)

I could answer that

1.. I hold the opinion that a lot of the figures he stocks are pretty flaky
2. By using post and cheques I am wasting paper, time and my own money
3. His own postage fees seem pretty ridiculous (they are only a few pieces of plastic for Gawd's sake)
4. Even if we did feast upon big Macs daily it's none of his damn business.
etc etc. (any more comments I might make would be most welcome).

Unless I can get hold of the priest figure from the Replicants execution of Charles 1st set elsewhere  I suspect I will go ahead and place the order with gritted teeth but honestly...some people.

I had a similar experience a while back from Minden Miniatures.... a polite enquiry on postage costs (not specified on the webpage) brought forth a torrent of abuse (containing swear words) along the lines of " how the f.... do I know postage costs unless you place an order  and tell me what you want". Needless to say that time I didn't proceed with the order. (scroll right down to comment if you would like to.... I can't seem to get rid of the gap between the end of this post and the comment box!)