Tuesday 28 January 2014

A serendipidous find

If there is such a word!


While rooting in the loft last night, (we are trying to empty the detritus of years) I came across a box with my son's name on it. On opening it I found four biscuit tins containing, not only his Britains spacemen but a large amount of unpainted original plastic Spencer Smith 'Charge' style figures. Over the next few days I'll be sorting these out and will produce photos of the horde.
It is my intention to dispose of these, possibly bagged up in units, at the original price (1d per infantry, 4dha'penny per cavalry). Any one interested in them, please let me know. It will take some time to sort them out, as they include hatmen, grenadiers, two styles of cavalry (and some Franco Prussin Uhlans) mounted officers and artillery.
Keep your eyes on the blog updates.


Update.
To save a lot of problems, I shall just mention that I have been contacted by someone, and will be letting this person have first refusal.


These have now been sent on their way to their new home.

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Happy 50th Anniversary to 'ZULU'

As most of us knowm today is the 5oth anniversary of the film 'ZULU', arguably the best war film produced (closely followed IMO by 'Waterloo') and the film that appears to have inspired the wargaming interests of a generation. I had intended to mark the fact by illustrating the cover of a book on the making of the film, but my machine seems to have taken exeption to putting up pictures at the moment, so I'll stick to a brief description.

'ZULU with some guts behind it, the making of the epic movie' by Sheldon Hall and published by Tomahawk Press in 2005.

Some 409 pages with black and white illustrations on many of them, and a colour section, the book covers the initial idea from a magazine article by John Prebble through research and developement, the actual problems of casting, finding locations, extras and props, and the difficulties of filming under apartheid South Africa. Getting the film edited, past the censor, the publicity and reviews, and a section on 'myths,gaffes and spoofs'. There is information on how the filming affected the Zulu participants (something I think tends to get forgotten, after all, it's their history too), their opinions on the story, and the way it helped bring back some of the old pride..

I like all the little snippets included, almost as asides. One that amuses me shows that soldiers are the same world-wide, where part of one of the songs is interpreted as "stick it up his a**e witch-doctor".

Well worth reading, if you can get hold of a copy. Sorry about the picture.