This past spring my good friend John Bertolini came down for a visit and not only brought along his lovely wife but also his collection of 40mm 'Old School' mid-19th Century soldiers. This was great in of itself but it was made even better as John has sculpted and cast all of these miniatures himself. The style is very reminiscent of the 'semi-round' toy soldiers that you would see in Europe from the turn of the century. They are quite charming, with those classic proportions you see in figures from this era (i.e. exagerated features , wasp-waisted and with pidgeon-chests). John has completed the traditional feel by painting them in the classic high varnish style. I really love the look of these figures, especially when they are arrayed en masse.
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| John is unpacking his lads and giving me a brief of the scenario and rules. |
It was a spectacular spring day so we set up the game outside on the deck. I think the rules we used were 'Ever Victorious Armies' or something like that. It makes no matter as we had a great afternoon moving great schwaks of lead soldiers around a table, enjoying the sun and gossiping about the hobby (actually I'm not even sure who won). Perfect.
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| In this image you can get a definite impression of John's Italian roots... |
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| John is trying to convince me that I've made a horrible, horrible mistake in the deployment of my troops... |
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| Now, how cool are these cavalry! I believe John is thinking about beefing up these regiments with even more castings which will be brilliant. The table will veritably groan under the weight of it all! |
