Lamming French Napoleonic Cavalry original range FC 26 Mameluke with Blunderbuss

A very recent acquisition - a first series Lamming Napoleonic Mameluke with Blunderbuss.

Very welcome for a number of reasons:

1. It is an extremely attractive figure
2. I have not seen many Lamming original series cavalry, they have mostly been the reworked "heroic" figures
3. I have had an example/examples of the later series figure for years and have always wondered what the original figure looked like - the later one holds his blunderbuss vertically.
4. I have a large number of S Range Mamelukes from the French Revolution & Egypt Campaign to paint at some point (these are different to the French Napoleonic ones in carrying small round shields) and he will make a good and distinctive leader figure for them.

First of all pictures from different angles to show the figure off in the round:

And then a comparison shot.

Unfortunately I don't have the later FC 26 figure to hand so this is the FC 27 Mameluk Officer.

This photo is not very successful in showing the difference in size and build of the two figures but if I can find the later series FC 26 figure I will do a further comparison shot with that.

PI/5 Lamming Prussian Guard Grenadier Officer

A painted example of the Prussian Napoleonic Guard Officer, also seen in the bare metal in this previous post below.

https://theoldmetaldetector.blogspot.com/2020/05/lamming-napoleonic-figures.html

More Lamming Napoleonics - BA/11, 12, 13, 14 - British Foot Artillery

There were two further Royal Artillery figures, of which I do not yet have examples - BA/9 gunner with match and BA/10 gunner with lever.

Lamming artillery pieces were considered very fine, with Don Featherstone for one a big admirer of them.

More Medieval and Roman siege artillery

Last week I ventured into my loft for the first time in about eighteen months.

I have recently acquired a number of Rose and Hinton Hunt ACW units and I needed to see what I already had, and put them into the best combinations as units.

I also knew I had a small number of additional painted Rose Napoleonic units which would just need rebasing to my new Rose standard.

Then I had my RJW project, where I needed to find again the ones in the loft I already had painted. Figures are mostly Jacklex with some Stonewall ones thrown in. The bad news was having fairly recently finally tracked down the Stonewall figures on their website (not easy, I promise you) and having taken an inordinate time to paint the 60 or so Japanese infantry I had in the queue ... I found I hd another 60 or so of the blighters undercoated in the loft. So more work on them, then...Still it puts forward the evil day when I have to try to put together the handrails on the two new Japanese field guns I bought a while ago from Mark at Jacklex.

But a collateral benefit was this group of medieval and Roman artillery pieces. I think that is now the ninth Lamming medieval ballista I've found I had, together with some type of mini trebuchet and two Roman scorpios. I've no idea who made these last three items - the scorpios are definitely right bu the "trebuchet" has been assembled from a box of bits including some other frames and a catapult arm. These will all have been odd bits which were included with something else I bought and which I had wanted at the time.

Glad to have (re) discovered them now - I had no idea they were there.

Next post will be the Rose Napoleonics - more of the same as in previous posts, but only one more Old Guard battalion which means the ration of line to Guard has improved a bit.

Then I will do some posts on the Rose and other ACW units once I have done the photographs.

And eventually something about some Hinchliffe System 12 figures and accessories which I have recently acquired -- though that might be on Vintage Wargaming.

So all in all I'm hoping to increase tyhe productivity of my logs a bit in the near future, Good intentions, eh?

Something different from Lamming - medieval Cogs

These are the 1/2400 scale Medieval cogs made by Bill Lamming and introduced, I think, at the same time as his medieval Campaign rules. I never had any back in the day, although BL sold them for pennies. They are now available again from Tony at ERM but cost a bit more these days.

I obtained these - all vintage castings - in two lots, in the last three or four motnhs. One set have a small cast on sea base, the other lot just a plain hull. I have put both types on basetexed pennies, to give a robust and protective sea base.

I'll add a bit of context to this post in the next few days.

Mystery Napoleonic Prussian Fusilier with Lamming heritage...

This figure was included in a recently arrived bunch of figures from eBay which amongst other things had around 30 Lamming first series Napoleonics, infantry, gunners, and cavalry. While not quite the same style as those first series Lammings, and also being slightly smaller, it shares some unmistakable Lamming DNA.

As I knew the Hinton Spieler was interested in this figure (and has posted a photograph from Charles Grant's Napoleonic Wargaming of part of Peter Gilder's collection including a unit of these), I sent him a copy of the picture above and have had an email discussion with him about it. He will be posting his views there, but I can't yet agree that they demonstrate a third, "intermediate", Lamming Napoleonic range, either before or after the first series.

It is well documented that Bill Lamming remodelled the figures in 1974/5 into a chunkier, heroic 25mm format, dropping eight French infantry codes at the same time. However there is no suggestion anywhere else of a third range - this would only have worked if they were forerunners of the original range. and this is entirely possible but is only based on this particular figure (although the Spieler has also been tipped off of pictures of another in similar style on eBay).

I would want to see at least five or six different figures before accepting there was such a range. Given the longstanding interest there was in Bill Lamming's short lived Sven Years War range and the energy which went into looking for information on it (see here) I don't think a whole range could have disappeared without anyone noticing or mentioning it.

So I think perhaps these were one or two early figures which might have been resculpted as the first range built up. The figures themselves look like Alberken or Minifigs 20mm figures which have had Lamming faces or heads transplanted onto them. They also have an attempt at the scratched grass effect on the tops of their bases. I think they may have been home cast although the Spieler doubts this. Peter Gilder certainly had a record of using others' figures in designing his, and it is interesting that they have emerged in the context of his collection - so he may have made them himself for his own use.

Interestingly I have another photograph (the one above) which is certainly made up of the same figure and I think actually are the same figures and unit as the one in the photograph from  Grant's Napoleonic Wargaming in the link above.

It came from the late Mike Ingham, who took the Wargames Holiday Centre over from Peter Gilder, and who asked me to help to identify the manufacturers of the figures from PG's original 20mm collection at the WHC which he wanted to sell - this was later replaced by the collection of Connoisseur and other figures which will be more familiar to some of a particular vintage.

The basing is the same, the flag looks the same, also the Hinton Hunt officer and converted ensign (below).

We may never know anything more for sure, but it will be interesting to see if anyone else has any of these figures, or any light to shed on the matter. I know Matthew at the Hinton Spieler has some more, relevant photos so I am looking forward to how this discussion might develop.

Lamming Napoleonic Figures

A recent eBay arrival contained, among other things, around 20 Lamming Napoleonic foot and eight mounted figures. There were one of each of the foot figures and some duplicates among the mounted, which included four different types of horse.

This is a significant addition for me as I have never had sight of most of these figures - I have a couple of units (yet to be repainted) and a few odds and ends, mostly command figures.

The foot figures contain more of these (command figures), two four man artillery crews (RHA and French Foot), and a number of standard infantrymen.

The artillery crews do not quite include all the gunner figures which were produced. There is also one slightly intriguing figure, of which more anon. With this exception they are all from the first series Napoleonic Range (before Bill Lamming replaced them all with "heroic 25 mm" versions. While all the figures are very welcome additions, I am particularly struck by the mounted figures as I am not sure (without an all-day expedition into the loft) whether I actually have any of the first series cavalry already.

I will also need to do some further investigation into the horses, in case I can identify and/or find a list for those with visible codes - this may provide a further post.


BRITISH FIGURES

British Line Infantry BI 1,2 and 5 - advancing, officer and drummer

British Light Infantry BI 8 - advancing

Royal Fusilier Officer BI 10

Royal Horse Artillery BA 1, 3, 5, 6

Royal Scots Grey Officer BC 6

FRENCH FIGURES

French Line Elite Company FI 1

Imperial Guard Grenadiers FI 4, 6, 3 - officer, drummer and advancing

French Line Fusilier FI 8

French Line Foot Artillery FA 1, 3, 5 and 6

French Cuirassier Officer FC 8

Dutch or Polish Lancer FC 19

PRUSSIAN FIGURES

Prussian Line Infantry PI 3 - officer

Prussian Guard Grenadiers PI 5, 2 - officer and advancing

FIGURES - IDENTIFICATION NOT CONFIRMED

I have not been able to provide confirmed identification of these figures and any help with this would be gratefully received. In some cases I have a strong idea but don't yet have 100% certainty.

Mystery Prussian Line Infantry - PI 1?

French Hussar Elite in Busby FC 13; or FC 1 Chasseur a Cheval of the Guard? Or other? Horse is not necessarily a clue - haven't done any work on the horses so mounted at random

Possibly British Hussar BC 1

I have two further British Cavalry figures to photograph - British Lifeguards BC 3 and 8 - trooper and officer.

When I have done whatever I can on the identification of the horses (which may not, of course, have been the right ones to start with) I will add new photographs. I also hope to add individual posts for each of the figures in this post.

And next I will post something about the mystery Prussian Fusilier pictured above. I have been talking to the Hinton Spieler about this figure and I think it is fair to say we haven't reached a consensus on it, so I think Matthew will be also be posting about it there,

Lamming Medievals: MA/3 Ballista

I recently bought an eBay lot of seven Lamming Ballistas, unopened in their original packets.

I had hoped they might be the Roman ones but I am sure I could easily use them for either period.

While Bill Lamming made two crew figures for his bombard model as far as I know there were no specific ballista crew. Of course there are plenty of figures with open hands which would easily serve in this role.

The seven packs I bought didn't all have the same number of all the pieces, hence there are one or two differences you may spot on the three models in the photograph.

I decided to mount them all on round bases that would just accommodate them, then singly based figures could be used as crew.

Lamming additions

An update on recent new Lamming Roman and Britons acquisitions.

As mentioned in a previous post I had been looking for some British chariots. Once I had found two (from a slightly unexpected eBay source) I had a hankering for Boudicca's chariot. A while later I picked up another four, including Boudicca (that's her on the left). I think I need to add reins to finish these off. I think six is enough now.

. 

I'd also had a successful appeal a while ago for some Eastern archers and thought I had enough but when these turned up I couldn't avoid picking them up. Already painted, they only needed rebasing

They came with these Garrison Roman Archers, which are very compatible and add variety with a different pose - a very welcome addition.

I also picked up from the same seller this small group of Roman Auxiliaries, again very welcome.

Finally these Ancient Britons had been painted for a long time, they just needed the addition of wire spears. I am not sure how historical the horned helmets are (I know they are now thought not appropriate for Vikings, but I don't know about earlier Ancient Britons).

 So I don't have any remaining gaps in these forces, with loads of Roman and Celtic cavalry. Of course something interesting might still crop up...

Lamming Roman Empire RE4 Eastern Archer

By the miracle of the internet and the generosity of Dave in the States these RE4 Lamming Roman archers arrived shortly after my last post. Not the best time to be buying figures from the US but I was ready to make a special case for these. This means my Lamming Romans are finished - but if anyone has a couple of Lamming British Chariots going spare I am still on the lookout for those (hint hint)

Lamming 1st/2nd Century Romans

I don't do Ancients but I have always had a soft spot for the Lamming Romans, which I used to buy one or two of a year from Bill Lamming at the Durham shows organised by Derek Sharman in the Student Union ballroom.

I've acquired these over the last twelve months or so in batches on ebay - a couple of units of legionaries painted, which I have just rebased, glued weapons and shields back on, and plastidipped them. The rest have been painted in the last six months or so and my recent run of clearing things that have been waiting on the painting table for a while.

Cavalry - there are two types here, cavalryman and Praetorians, but I am not sure which is which. Also decurions and a mounted general figure. I have too many cavalry for the size of the army but I couldn't just let them go...

Infantry: legionaries, auxiliaries, standard bearers, cornicers, centurions, and a tribune.

The two units of legionaries which were bought painted.

I could do with four of five pilae and shields and another infantry standard - if anyone has any spare I'd be glad to take them off your hands. I guess I could do with some RE/4 Eastern archers and one or two British Chariots, if anyone has them.

Lamming Guard Chasseurs a Pied

Lamming didn't list any Chasseurs so these will be Grenadiers with a slightly different paint job. The pioneer/sapper is an S Range figure.

These figures came together with the SEGOM Dutch Grenadiers which can be seen here.

More Lamming SYW

I recently bought a mixed ebay lot of some very heavily playworn S Range Jacobite Rebellion figures and some very nasty recasts of Lamming SYW figures.

I'm not complaining about this, as it was clear from the photograph, and they didn't cost much. but they did help with identification. The lot contained one Lamming SYW figure I had never seen before and another I have had examples of for a while, but hadn't realised was Lamming.

This means we can add to the Lamming SYW listing:

Highland officer
Highland grenadier
Highlander (I don't know enough about the period, but perhaps the shield slung on his back indicates Jacobite rather than Government Highlander?)

More Lamming SYW French Light Infantry

Like buses...

having spent at least ten years with no Lamming SYW figures in sight, soon after buying Bill Lamming's display models for this range at auction in Driffield I bought two units of S range SYW French light infantry on ebay. The second unit, identified as a Croat Infantry battalion, included around 15 Lamming kneeling SYW figures. I think they work well together, as skirmishers and a formed company with command on which to rally.

Possible Lamming SYW Highlander

The quality of the casting and the shininess of the metal suggests this is not an original figure, but its similarity to some of the Lamming SYW figures leads me to think this may be a Lamming SYW Highlander grenadier. As I have never seen a list of the Lamming SYW range this suspicion is almost impossible to confirm - unless you know different, of course.

Lamming SYW figures

(click on the photo to enlarge)

I have been working out how to base and use the Lamming SYW figures I bought at auction from Bill Lamming.

I wanted to be able to use them as single figures but also in units so I have decided to mount them on pennies and then in the 1p movement trays from War Bases

In theory this means I don't need to have a tray for each unit but just have a stack and use them as required - this was sort of the theory behind Minifigs S range moving to two piece cavalry castings with the horse furniture on the riders, so that you just swapped horses around and didn't need one per rider - this never worked out in practice for me, as I just bought one horse per rider anyway.

I've tried these figures against S Range Jacobite Rebellion figures but they won't work together for me. The SYW range were pretty bulky so the slimmer SYW S Range figures might work better. The good news however is that it looks like they should work well with the rather fine new Red Box Jacobite Rebellion figures which could provide additional British Infantry, Loyalist and Militia Infantry, and Highlanders. These figures are a little shorter and slighter but I hope within acceptable limits. Interestingly, in my attempts to buy the Highland Infantry set, it turns out the boxes shipped to both Harfields and Hannants contain the Militia and Loyalist Infantry figures instead.

For artillery pieces I have tried Minifigs and Fine Scale factory with limited success, so have settled on the rather lovely Art Miniaturen French battalion gun instead.

So far the only unit I have finished is the British Infantry Regiment. Some of the others are only waiting for plastidip spray on the newly painted bases, and others are waiting for a fresh supply of 1p pieces (as are the Red Box plastics).

Bill Lamming's lost range -Seven Years War

Vintage 20mil in their history of Lamming Miniatures stated:

Lamming’s first 20mm range covered the Seven Years War. It was launched early in 1968 and included British, French, Austrian and Prussian troops. The details we have of the range are sketchy but it appears that it included all arms, some artillery pieces and a fairly wide variety of troop types including a mounted British colonel. A photo in Wargamer’s Newsletter shows a gun and four-man artillery crew plus an officer. Infantry figures sold at one shilling (5p) and cavalry for 2/6d (12 p).

By 1970, when Lamming launched his 20mm Napoleonic range, the Seven Years War range seems to have been dropped. Adverts for The Northern Garrison in 1970s issues of Scale Models mention only the Napoleonics and in an article on gaming the Jacobite Rebellion that appeared in Miniature Warfare in January 1972 author Stuart Reid states "Lamming are no longer producing Seven years War figures".

I was very pleased at the time of my earlier post to have found a few figures from this range. Now, following a heads up from Doug of Unfashionably Shiny, I have rather more progress to report.

A couple of days before it was due to take place, Doug let me know of an auction taking place in Driffield on 23rd March 2013. This was described as follows:

To include THE LAMMING COLLECTION - the promotional display collection of painted die-cast scale models & military figures of Lamming Miniatures, Hull, on instructions from Mr W H Lamming who has retired

Lot 352 was described as Lamming, Seven Year War painted diecast figures, approximately one hundred and ninety figures, etc, including foot soldiers from three different regiments, cavalry, skirmishers, three gun crews and cannons, etc (190)

I wasn't able to attend or make a remote bid, but on checking after the sale and finding they were unsold, I bought this lot sight unseen for the reserve price, and on Monday was able to pick them up. I was very glad to find that they were what I had hoped for, as this had been a risk, despite the provenance.

The photo at the top of this post shows the mounted British Colonel mentioned in the Vintage20mil description. Below are some further pictures of some of these figures. They are extremely well painted for the time and the cavalry have very nice replacement pin swords - the curved light cavalry sabres are particularly fine. There are one or two figures from other manufacturers. If anyone can help with identifying troop types that would be helpful - SYW is not one of my main periods.













I am posting photographs of individual figures in a series of posts below, in what should be the most detailed description of this range yet available. I have never seen a list of this range and I haven't been able to put an outline one together here, as all the undersides of bases have been filed so the only legible code is the P/1 on some unpainted examples of the Prussian Grenadier I acquired from ebay recently. If anyone has such a list, I would be very glad to hear from you.

I am very glad to have found these figures and to now be able to give a reasonable representation of what must be at least a majority of this short lived range. i am also very pleased thath the figures have turned out to be as lovely as they are.

Lamming SYW Range -British Mounted Colonel

I'm not sure whether these are intended as infantry colonels, but I have added a picture of one leading some dragoons.