Sunday 1 October 2023

Expedition to lead mountain......

In an email conversation and comments on this blog, I mentioned to Andy McMaster of "Another Slight Diversion" blog https://blog.belisarius.org.uk/ that I thought I had some RSM Hanovarians "somewhere" .

As I spent Saturday cleaning up officers, drummers and ensigns for the British line, as well as repairing 8 who had lost bayonets while listening to the last disc in the audio book of Last of the Mohicans, I thought I should perhaps try to find them......

The reason was I wasn't sure whether they were Hanovarians......there was an inkling they may be British, in which case I needed to find them to work out if there were enough officers.

Now expeditions to my particular "lead mountain" are not to be undertaken lightly , not I hasten to add due to the risk of wild animals or tropical diseases or even cannibals or lack of oxygen, rather it can be a most frustrating experience.......

The "garage" (which it's clear was never intended to be used as one) is crammed full of junk, not all of it mine. Most of the older toys are under what I hoped one day would be a wargames table again. So I roughly knew where the SYW box was. However, I remembered that when purchased many moons ago for a bargain price from a certain online auction site, they had originally resided under the other end of the table, but I was certain I had reorganised them (the foam they came in being visible).

Torch in hand I delved under the table where I thought they may be after moving some boxes and found a box which I thought was mostly Russians and Prussians. Extracting it, I looked inside and there were the RSM figures!

Instead of Hanovarians, I found 36 British including command, 28 Prussian grenadiers and various command, plus some generals with horses and around 3 artillery limbers plus guns and gunners! A rich haul! What is more, digging around in the main SYW box I found more officers and another French line unit (which I had completely forgotten about) as well as what looks like a Soubise conversion!

I had bought some surplus RSM bits from Andy, so with my discoveries I have more than enough for British as well as expending the French and can use up various command figures for other armies.

It's amazing what you can find.......this is despite having a reasonable mental inventory of what miniatures I have lurking in the garage!

9 comments:

  1. Bringing up a lost treasure from an archaeological dig of The Lead Pile is great fun.

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  2. Especially when you cannot remember buying it! ☺
    Neil

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  3. Peter,
    Normally it ends without being able to find what I'm looking for!
    Neil

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  4. After rummaging around for a while, I can forget my original objective. I often come away with something completely different but still as interesting.

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  5. Jonathan, me too! I'm not sure what that says about either our respective lead mountains or ability to be distracted from our original purpose!
    Neil

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  6. That tale has all the parts for a channel 5 hobby documentary Neil.
    Great find.

    Willz.

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  7. Yes that happens to me often.

    Willz.

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  8. "Wargame hoarders!" "Watch as Barry struggles his way through mounds of polystyrene and other things that 'will come in useful one day' as he searches for his little men......" ☺
    Neil

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  9. Wargamers are easily distracted ......
    Neil

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