ITALIAN TANKETTE COLOURISED

Following the startling news that the Ledbury BUF (the Kensington & Chelsea Armoured Infantry, aka "The Sloane Rangers") is equipped with new 2 man tankettes, their "coachwork" specially adapted courtesy of the deep pockets of Bendor, Duke of Westminster, an opportunity for a colourised photograph:

Not a "Sloane Ranger", but a tankette, a snazzy three colour camouflage scheme
 and a Death's Head logo....

...brought to life in a startling colourisation. An Italian made Fiat Ansaldo  L3 spotted
"somewhere in Herefordshire". Or perhaps Hungary - there's so much
static on these Fleet Street phone lines.....

For more information on the L3 series of Italian tracked vehicles, see WIKI here

AIRCRAFT CARRIER - BIG SCALE

It is rare for anyone to suggest that John Ruddle's 54mm Fleets were constructed on "too small a scale". The United States Navy (inevitably) may be one such, however:

The caption of this 1972 UPI press photo reads:

"St. Louis, MO - The "Enterprise Jr.", a 53 foot miniature 'aircraft carrier' used by the US Navy Recruiting Service, cruises the Mississippi River at St. Louis recently (April 18th). The miniature 'Flat top" - manned by five Navy recruiters - was seen berthed on Pusey Sound at Seattle, Washington, for the last five years. It is en route to Omaha, Nes., for use in Midwest Recruiting efforts. The craft left New Orleans May 5th and is due in Omaha about May 31st. Slowed by high water and a strong current, the 225 horsepower craft has been making about six miles per hour as it arrived in the St. Louis area."

In the "BIG Carrier Competition", the USN's "Enterprise Jr.", at 53 foot, seems about the same scale as the 1/15 model aircraft carriers used in Hollywood's 1970 epic "Tora, Tora, Tora":

For some info on the 1/15 USS Nevada from "Tora, Tora, Tora" (and the teeny-tiny VBCW aircraft carrier built by LAF Akula), see HERE

JOHN RUDDLE'S GARDEN SHIPS AGAIN

Buried in the "Naval" thread (see the label to the right) is this blogpost on John Ruddle's large scale wargames ships, part of the various VBCW musing and mutterings re. "28mm aircraft carrier design" that preceded the (postponed) "Assault on Newquay" Big Game.

For those who can't get enough of "BIG Ships", Bob Cordery of the long-running "Wargames Miscellany" blog (and "Portable Wargame" fame) has now published some more photographs of John Ruddle's garden set up - see HERE (PART ONE) and especially HERE (PART TWO). Lovely stuff!

A scratchbuilt battleship passes a port on a newly mown lawn in calm conditions.

ADD EDIT : John Ruddle sadly passed away at the age of 91 in February 2023. There are some nice recollections of John and his wargames garden on the Collecting Toy Soldiers webpage HERE

THE BLACK LION

Following THIS MENTION of Reichsmarschall Goering's Fallschirmjager troops and their "Battle Headquarters" at the Black Lion, Bridge Street, Hereford, some useful photographs for VBCW researchers and re-enactors:

The Black Lion, Hereford

The Black Lion's position at 31 Bridge Street made
it an ideal HQ location for the Fallschirmjager picquet guard at
Hereford's Old Bridge. It was also within easy walking distance
of the Castle Hotel - Reichsmarschall Goering's "digs" during the VBCW.

The bar of the Black Lion. In 1938, this bar would have been full of Fallschirmjager.
However, it is definitely best not to mention this to modern patrons, who themselves
maintain a discreet "veil of silence" over "the German connection" and "the Fatboy" (who he?)

A VBCW researcher/re-enactor's collection of VBCW Fallschirmjager memorabilia,
some collected from the battlefields around Herefordshire and some, reputedly,
purchased (or should that be 'liberated'?) from the basement of the Black Lion
 at the end of the VBCW.

TYPES OF THE VBCW (4) - THE PUZZLED INTELLECTUAL

 An occasional series of painted 28mm VBCW archetypes

Another VBCW type from the Cluedo "Super Sleuth" boardgame (see HERE) - "the Puzzled Intellectual". Glasses, hair greying and slightly too long, bow tie, notebook, handkerchief - you just know that there is a pipe hidden somewhere - experiencing the confusion of the convinced rationalist in an age of civil strife and unreason:

28mm Cluedo figure aka "Professor Plum"
Copplestone sculpted, unknown painter.

Curiously, this figure is an almost dead ringer for Harold Nicolson, probably the best diarist of the interwar years (vying, of course, with 'Chips' Channon), and certainly a "confused intellectual" of the period:

When Mosley founded the New Party in 1931, Nicolson edited the Party's newspaper, Action, and stood as a New Party candidate for the Combined English Universities in the General Election of that year. However, Nicolson opposed Mosley's formation of the British Union of Fascists in 1932, and was elected in the 1935 General Election as the National Labour MP (i.e. a supporter of Ramsay McDonald and the National Government) for Leicester West. He was married to Vita Sackville-West, and one day we'll find a 28mm figure for her - and (of course) Virginia Woolf.

Add Edit:

(1). In fact, it didn't take that long to find a "Vita Sackville-West" figure in 28mm - 

Askari Miniatures "Marion the Librarian". Unknown painter.

TYPES OF THE VBCW (3) - THE VICAR

 An occasional series of painted 28mm VBCW archetypes.

Every VBCW game needs an Anglican Vicar - good natured, somewhat bumbling, intimately concerned with his local community - and not necessarily a strong believer in the Almighty. In the course of the VBCW, many of the Church of England's "muscular Christians" served with the Anglican Field Armies, but this still left a substantial number looking after their 'flocks' in local parishes. Here is a lovely 28mm example:

"Revd Green" 
Copplestone sculpted, unknown painter.\

Although sculpted by Mark Copplestone back in the early 1990s, "Revd. Green" is not sold by Copplestone Castings. Originally, he was a "playing piece" for the Waddington's Cluedo "Super Sleuth" game (1996 edition), and then at some point (but no longer) became available via EM-4 miniatures. Still, good examples can still be found via Ebay, whether by buying the game itself (which comes with a number of very useful VBCW type figures) or by looking for individual "replacement pieces".

KING EDWARD VIII INSPECTS "THE KING'S COLONIALS" - AND MORE

Two contemporaneous Press photographs demonstrate quite how long and hard a struggle was the Very British Civil War:

The King's Colonials marching off to war - with bayonets fixed.
Obviously an early VBCW photograph, with Edward VIII looking relaxed and confident
and Commandant Stokkies Joubert (leading in salute) remarkably athletic
  (even when in his riding breeches - and vertical).

Later in the VBCW - a careworn Edward VIII inspecting a section of the notorious
 "Goering Leibwachter", the Reichsmarschall's hand-picked and
black uniformed bodyguard, Herefordshire 1938.

Commandant Stokkies Joubert led the "Kings Colonials" aggressively and successfully during the early stage of the Hereford VBCW, particularly featuring in the Battles of Second Ledbury and Marcle Ridge. Nevertheless, he was captured by the Bishop of Ludlow at the Battle of Winforton Pontoons, with the much-reduced (by casualties and desertion) and otherwise entirely ungovernable "Kings Colonials" thereafter becoming dispersed, awaiting Joubert's release or escape. For more on Stokkies Joubert, see HERE.

Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, accompanied by two full Sections of elite Fallschirmjager, surprised everyone (including the Fuhrer) by "dropping in" to the Hereford VBCW at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross. After that battle, from which the Fallschirmjager emerged victorious but heavily depleted in numbers, the Reichsmarschall established his "Command Headquarters" at the Castle Hotel, Hereford and his Fallschirmjager's "Battle Headquarters" at The Black Lion, Bridge Street. Contemporaneous gossip noted that the two were conveniently situated within easy walking distance. Later in the VBCW, the Reichsmarschall's forces were supplemented by enthusiastic "European tourists", "lost airmen" and other such volunteers. The best (and most physically imposing) of these were mustered into the "Goering Leibwachter", which never exceeded section strength. For more on Goering, see HERE.

Notes : 

(1). "Real world" historians have expressly noted that the caption on the reverse of the top photograph states "The New King. 21.1.36. The Prince of Wales taking the salute of Australian troops outside Australia House, during the Peace Day Procession in 1919". While it is the case that George V died on 20th January 1936, and there was a Peace Day Procession on 19th July 1919, the photograph is clearly of The Strand in London (the church in the background, St Mary-le-Strand, is unmistakable), while Australia House (officially opened 3rd August 1918) was (and remains to this day) in Trafalgar Square. As the King's purpose built dias is demonstrably outside Somerset House in the Strand (conveniently close to The Savoy Grill), VBCW historians have been emboldened to denounce the first caption as "a crude fake" and claim both photographs (the second uncaptioned) for their own time/dimension.

(2). Goering's "volunteers" were brigaded together under various other titles, including a tactful resurrection of the "King's German Legion" (disbanded at the end of the Napoleonic Wars) and lesser known "Hanoverian Legion", both uniformed in WW1 German grey green and Stahlhelm, but armed with a mixture of Mausers, Lee Enfields, Bergmans and Lewis Guns. At least one artillery piece seems to have been crewed by recruits from the little known SA Artillerie-Ausbildungsschule.

(3). For the history and uniforms of both the "King's Colonials" and Reichsmarschall Goering's volunteer units, see "Foreign Volunteers in the Very British Civil War (3) - Specialist Infantry and Artillery" (Osprey, 2011), both generally in the text and particularly uniform Plates C and E. Note that these illustrations are now seen as somewhat outdated, particularly in relation to key details such as bayonet frogs and the omission of "five button fly battle trousers" - a significant technical advance at the time (see "Logistical Relief in the VBCW - The Five Button Fly", unpublished PHD, "Oxford Brookes University", 2021). A flavour of the Germanic volunteers' VBCW experience can be gained from Jabo's "Gott im Himmel ! Hereford !" (1967 - published in paperback in the USA as "Krauts in the Kingdom"), albeit the author's extensive medal claims (some alleged, somewhat curiously, to be posthumous) are heavily disputed.