The Year 2015 in Review

2015 was another great year for my hobbies and, thanks to my readers and followers, Horse and Musket. Thank you all!

I closed the year with 109,987 hits to date, just shy of my goal of 110,000. I wrote 56 articles in 2015.

The English Civil War: Royalist Army remains in First Place for all time hits at 943.

The 7eme Hussards remains at 2nd with 683 hits.

The Battle of Bosworth Field , 3rd at 658 hits

HistWar: Napoleon, 4th at 651 hits

Hampshire Yeomanry, 5th at 625 hits

2015 saw the introduction of 1/350 scale Elizabethan/Spanish Armada ships to my collection. This now numbers 7 ships, all modeled in great detail by Julián Fenández de Sevilla of ModelJShip .

2015 being the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, I continued the pictorial essays of my Napoleonic collection with a review of all of the British Heavy Cavalry at Waterloo. I also wrote an article about the visit my brother and I paid to Waterloo for the celebrations.

I wrote similar pictorial essays of my Museum Quality ACW Collection.

After my retirement in March, I formed some new friendships with local gamers. I became introduced to Fire & Maneuver. I have not been involved in true Club Games for 45 years since my days in London with the South London Gamers in the mid-late 60's. I realized that I have built a figure collection that is really not designed for the rough and tumble of the gaming hall, although I do play wargames with my sons and good friend Jeff Lower at my house. 

I therefore embarked on a new project to build a suitable ACW Union contingent so that I could comfortably field some of my own figures in a club setting. In this endeavour, I was helped immensely by Frank Patterson who painted most of my new wargames collection. These are all Redoubt figures, based on metal stands, to typical F&M rules. My other collections are based on wooden Litko bases. This project was completed very quickly and I now have a Union infantry Brigade (and another in process), a Cavalry regiment (mounted and dismounted), artillery for both Brigades plus staff, etc. 

From Frank and other new friends I learned a lot about wargames scenery suitable for a game setting and acquired some excellent hills, houses, fences, roads, etc from Frank. I also added more scenics from Joe Linares and Hovels. I am now well set up to join in club games or stage them myself. 2015 really saw me transition from collector to collector AND gamer. Indeed I enjoyed some very fine F&M games during the year, including Wake Island and St Nazaire.

Since 2015 was  also the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain, 1940, I added a few excellent 1/72nd scale Corgi die cast aircraft models to the collection. A number of new boardgames including WW2 land and air, plus ancient Rome, joined the collection. I enjoyed and supported the resources of Boardgames Geek for a second year and came to fully appreciate this amazing resource with its associated Geek Market.

Special thanks to Will and Jeff for our terrific Craft Days, to Ethan (Mad Guru), to Yanni, Carl, Neil and Julián, and to Frank and my new F&M friends.

Happy collecting, painting and gaming in 2016! I plan to enjoy many more games. I'm also working on an Old School Seven Years War collection so that my gaming can include real retro games in the style of Brigadier Peter Young and his seminal book "Charge".  This will be based on Minden 28mm figures in a simpler, glossy style, individually based.  More on this in 2016...

Farewell 2014

2014 was a very good year for Horse and Musket.  I posted 59 articles, only half of what I posted in 2013. However it generated 32,539 "hits" during the year which almost equaled all prior years combined (35,067 through Dec 31 2013). Thank you to all my followers and occasional readers. I'm glad you found the blog interesting.

2014 was of course the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War  of 1914-18. I have re posted below a picture of my Grandfather Leslie Claude Snelling as he went to War in 1914 as a Carabinier with the Hampshire Yeomanry. I was gratified to see that my article on the Hampshire's gathered 513 hits for a fourth place in most popular articles in 2014.

More importantly for me, my post enabled me to reconnect with my Welsh cousins and their children. 

A big surprise was the first place that went to the article on my English Civil War Royalist Army with 659 total hits. This was followed by the Napoleonic French 7th Hussars (614) and Saxon von Zastrows (539).

I started the year focussed on Wings of Glory WW1. I discovered the fun of 3D prints and completed a number of Shapeways 1/144 scale models which are fully compatible with the Ares models of Wings of Gory. I had fun painting the planes and learned how to work with decals using Microsol solution. This turned out to be very useful towards the end of the year when I was working with Citadelsix waterslide flag and banner sets for the Wars of the Roses which is my latest interest. Here are a few of my Yorkist magnates and their heraldic banners:

The early part of the year also introduced me to Ares' other fine line of models/game, that is Sails of Glory. I collected all of their available 1:1000 models and then directed my collecting towards Langton metal 1:1200 ships. These Langton models are much more detailed and used by serious collectors. I knew I was not skilled enough to paint and rig these beautiful but small sailing ships. However I met on-line the very skilled master modeler, Julián Fenández de Sevilla, who built a small but growing collection of fully rigged Langton ships for me. We are currently working on a 1588 Armada project in the larger 1:350 scale.

The other big interest/focus in 2014 was the American Civil War. I  now have a very nice collection of Union and Confederate Forces by Martin Robson and Leuthen Studios. 

Finally, my son William purchased a Lancastrian Wars of the Roses force from Martin Robson. This prompted me to start an opposing force of Yorkists with units by Carl Robson and Leuthen Studios. I am also painting several units myself with the help of William and Jeff Lower who has helped immensely with the faces and hands of the 28mm Perry Miniatures figures we are using. As mentioned earlier, I am using Citadelsix flags, banners and badges for all of the retinues.

So all in all, a very good collecting year with many fun Craft Days. William and I were very glad to welcome Jeff Lower back to these painting and gaming sessions after his long illness. Good to have you back Jeff!

Happy New Year to all and a special thanks to all the wonderful artists and modelers who have helped me with my collections in 2014.