"Is this the original wargamers' "Eye Candy" book?" Topic

auction

Published in 1975 or 1976, it holds its own with today's Warhammer or Flames of War Wargamers' Porn codices.

Still cheap and available from eBay and used book stores. For me it was very inspirational.

Great book, great photos came out right after The Wargame which is my first favorite eye candy book. Now very hard to find.

John,
The Johnson book is really well done. I stumbled upon my copy many years ago while browsing in a second hand bookshop. I still pull it from the shelf regularly.

Jon

Thanks John,

I'm on it.

Dave

I just *knew* FoW was old school! I'll start pulling the whippersnapper line out on critics from now on.

There seem to be plenty of 1980's editions for very cheap prices.

- Bob

The Johnson book is pretty much an advertisement for Hinchliffe figures.
Garrison for the Hessians.

Har… a little boo boo there, listing it as published in 1884.

Got 'em both. Didn't realize I was ahead of the times for once.

Hmmmm, I have mixed feelings on this one. I had heard about this book on TMP, so went to the trouble of hunting it down on ebay. I was a bit disappointed when I got it; the pictures are quite nice, but are definitely "old school". Since Hinchliffe et al are quite a bit before my time, I don't hold any particular affection for them so they look a bit behind the curve to me. Don't get me wrong, I am sure they are much beloved by many, its just that there's no nostalgia in them for me. The first Frei Korps SYW figures I bought in the late 90s hold that honour and doubtless they look a bit out of date now.

I relegated this book to the shelf, so perhaps its time to take it down and reappraise it; I had forgotten about the flag illusration, perhaps it will be useful.

It was an inspiration for me, too. I didn't care for the Hinchliffe AWI range, but it got me moving from Airfix AWI to the glorious Iron Brigade range.

Allen

Does anyone remember the "sister" publication "Battle of the American Civil War in Miniature?" I have both, and a number of other eye-candy works from the late 70's to early 80's.

All, even when dated, still serve to get the juices flowing.

If having flowed juice around you is your idea of a good time.

TVAG

The wargame figures are Hinchcliffe and some one-off conversions and specials that were all from the collection of Peter Gilder. Hinchcliffe figures were state-of-the-art figures in their time. Now they are Old School.

The book gets extra bonus points for using the correct terminology "American Revolution" in its title.

I have the AWI book. I did not know of the ACW book.

I have always thought of:
"The Napoleonic wargame"
by G. W. Jeffrey
Published in 1974, Almark Publishing (London)

As the first "eye candy" wargame book.

My copy has large front on back color photos and quite a few nice photos inside along with many diagrams to explain things. Sadly they never did explain what "Average Dice" were. Making using the rules a bit of a trick. And unlike GW products, it set you back a whole pound fifty, (Not fifty pounds like today)

As far as inspirational works, I recall a library book called something like "battles of the civil war in color" which had intense pen and ink drawings of bird's eye views of battles. When have been on shelves ~1975. And a Time-life book with photos of a museum display of Roman soldiers and siege engines (this could be much newer).
Ah, the memories.

DyeHard

My local library had a copy that I fell in love with back in the '70s. I later bought a used copy at a gun show.

If it wasn't the original 'eye candy' book, it was definitely one of the first.

Have it. Thought it was a good book.
Try Gettysburg in miniature on VHS for more eye candy.

Man, I am getting old. I remember when they came out.