ACOTS Is Coming
Australian Collectors of Toy Soldiers I discovered about 37 years ago and quite by chance. A house mate saw me painting toy soldiers and said she knew someone who did that. That was Paul Clarke who owns Shenandoah Miniatures and sculpts and makes his own figures. Paul used to also play a game with Britains plastic toy ACW where he actually shot at them with toy cannons. I think he used dice as well but it was a set of workable rules. Paul was with us for a few years until his other concerns, including his business, took over but I owe him.
That led me to meeting the other original members who were collectors and wargamers in the most eccentric of scales, 54mm. Our occupations over time included lawyer, landscape gardener, prison guards, architect, mechanics and school teacher. I was in my mid twenties then and it was a great thing to meet these like minded people.
We had games of toy soldiers on a tennis court, floors and tables. The rules were heavily influenced by Featherstone but kept to one or two pages of charts. From the first 'convention' those many years ago our numbers grew from half a dozen to dozens but we always remained an informal group without treasurers, administrators etc. Yet we consistently maintained our yearly Easter meeting of three or more days of swap meet and wargames, until last year when Covid stopped us. So now we are ready to resume in Adelaide in 2021.
For me it was a bit of a drama as I booked the trip a week early, something like what I had done the previous year (which fell through anyway). I have to remember when Easter is!. Fortunately American Express, which had already swapped over my plane tickets from last year to this, were able to again arrange new tickets and even airport hotel room, so I would be on time for an early flight, with no extra cost to myself. I was covered by two back to back travel credits of $200 each plus points I still had left over. Here's to you American Express for your extraordinary patience.
Many best wishes for your ACOTS meeting and the road back to near / new normal. Outdoor gaming might have a boost from all this.
ReplyDeleteChris Lynch, who designed the 54mm Bold Frontiers Trees that I have, lives and works in Australia. I wonder if he knows about ACOTS?
Deletehttps://www.boldfrontiers.com.au/shop/scenery
I met with him and his wife some years ago when he was first considering his project as he wanted some advice from me on clientele.
ReplyDeleteFor my own part I would use his terrain, attractive though it is, (if I didn't already have enough) for backgrounds on my display shelves as the trees are two dimensional. They are also good for portable wargames. Most of the hard core wargamers at ACOTS have their own substantial armies, permanent 3D terrain and tables so would not be likely to use Chris's trees.