The New York Public Library has an online collection of color plates of Egyptian uniforms for the period 1820 - 1898. This should be a great reference for people interested in the Sudan and other North African campaigns in which Egyptians participated.
The New York Public library has put online its collection of color military plates. Most are hand colored block prints. The collection of Mexican Uniforms 1826 - 1906 could come in handy as a painting guide for the Texas Rebellion and the US - Mexican War, as well as the Maximilian period.
One of the first historical wargames I saw was of the Indian Mutiny. Here’s a page with a great deal of background on the event. Black Hole of Calcutta, anyone?
I launched the site on March 22, 2004, so today, MiniatureWargaming heads into its fourth year of operation.
I started MiniatureWargaming as an attempt to organize and share all of the miniature wargaming related links in my “favorites” folder. It has since taken on a life of its own. There are, as of this writing, 2,763 categorized, indexed and searchable blog entries. Each entry contains a link to a useful—and free—wargaming resource, and a brief description of what you’ll find there. There are links to free rules, painting guides, terrain tips, modeling hints, scenarios, paper figures and terrain, historical resources and other fun and useful stuff.
In addition, the Miniature Wargaming Directory lists 26,021 wargaming related websites in 3629 categories. I’ve also installed a gallery to display photos I’ve taken at conventions and a wiki called the MiniPedia, where gamers can add their own miniature wargaming encyclopedia entries. The most recent addition is a new forums module. Not much activity there, but it’s still very new.
Here are some other numbers for the last three years:
* 2,763 blog posts
* 26,021 sites listed in the directory
* 124,258,840 Hits
*3,106,471 Visitors
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit. The fact that so many have found the site useful is a source of neverending amazement and pride.
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
Happy Birthday to MiniatureWargaming dot Com!
