"Badge, Boot, Button: the Story of Australian Uniforms" Topic

I just discovered the existence of this book, released in 2017, the author of which is Craig Wilcox, a name that seemed strangely familiar. Searching my memory banks brought up images from old issues of 'Military Modelling' magazine of large-scale painted figures, mainly of ancient subjects, and on reading an interview with Mr Wilcox (who looks remarkably like a friend of mine) on the Carpe Librum blog my recollection was confirmed; the author is indeed the same Craig Wilcox whose miniature artistry graced the pages of MM back in the 1970s.

These days Craig is a military historian with a number of published books to his credit, who's worked at the Australian War memorial, and who has connections with the Australian historical reenactment community.

This book is an illustrated history of the development of uniforms of all types in Australia from first settlment to the present – military, civic, and civil – alongside an analysis of their social and societal significance. Military and police uniforms feature prominently in the narrative.

Interestingly, Craig is currently writing a history of Australian maritime frontier conflict, that is, the role of violent encounters involving whalers, sealers, and sailors with Aboriginal people, both around Australia and in the south-west Pacific region more generally.

Hmmm… mentally delete 'the role' from that last sentence.

Overnight in my slumbers the name Peter Wilcox bubbled to the surface as the Military Modelling contributor, and googling that name confirmed that he, and not Craig Wilcox, was the collector figure painter of old.

Given their shared hobby and the surname coincidence I wonder if they're related :- o.

To add another level of weird to this tale, a website devoted to the life of Peter Gilder reveals that his full name was Peter Wilcox Gilder, and the website describes him not only as a wargamer, but also as… a master figure painter! Could it be that Peter Gilder was the MM contributor, and that he used his middle name when promoting his collector figure painting?