Of Cloths and Cucumbers....

As mentioned yesterday I took delivery of my Deep Cut Studios gaming mat (it is a mat rather than a cloth but cloth fitted better in the post title!) and a whole pile of painted 18th century figures from the collection of Eric Knowles.

There are no pictures as yet as taking pictures at night in the man cave never ends well - they are too dark and it is really hard to avoid shadows. I will be taking some at the weekend under natural light as the roof blinds can be opened.

The mat looks good but the colour - described as 'meadow'- seems quite dark but it is difficult to tell as I have yet to see it in daylight. I certainly cannot fault the quality though.

The figures from Eric are the remainder of his painted late 17th and 18th century armies without the Higgins/Hinton Hunt element. The whole came in around two dozen or so boxes of assorted sizes with at least half of these once having contained cucumbers. I can only assume that Eric had a good relationship with his local greengrocer as I cannot see him having consumed the quantities the boxes would indicate!

The collection comprises units from all three arms as well as a prodigious quantity of artillery, baggage and camp following types. A cursory look has shown units for the following:

ECW - these were used to bolster the later armies, typically as militia types
Grand Alliance
Spanish Succession
Austrian Succession
Seven Years War.

The main bulk of this part of the collection appears to be Minifigs (including some earlier ranges) but there are Hinchliffe present as well as some Garrison. There are others about which I have no clue.

My plan is to sort these out over the next few days with a view to getting some pictures organised over the weekend.

These figures will be very reasonably priced for what they are and for convenience will be offered for sale on a unit basis. I am absolutely not sorting out individual figures! If I have to post any out they will be properly wrapped and packaged and sent on an insured and signed for basis. Ideally I would prefer to hand figures over in person but appreciate this may not always be possible.

Bill is also sorting out the Madasahatta collection (which is surprisingly compact by all accounts) and also what was his ultimate wargaming deterrent, guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of any that were rash enough to challenge it, his army of the Sublime Porte, complete with several hundred Jannisaries....

You have be warned.