A Half-Century of Hobbies: Saying Goodbye to Viking

 I spose I've been lucky here in NoVa that we still have a pair of regional chain stores (Your Hobby Place) and an independent (Huzzah Hobbies) FLGS still in operation that continues to carry de riguer (safe and trendy) lines of historical miniatures. Add in HMGS conventions, which are within a relatively short driving distance, and I can get a lot of the newer, flashier offerings quite readily. 

In Carmichael - a suburb of Sacramento, CA, historical tabletop gamers likely have it much worse, and much worse all of a sudden, as retirement comes at last for the proprietors of Viking Hobby. Ken and Jessica Mosbaugh have announced that their five decades of operating the store are coming to an end this year, in late summer/early fall. 

When Eagle and Empire closed up here, a staple in the Virginia/DC area, their remaining inventory helped seed the Alexandria location of the West Virginia-based Your Hobby Place. The ginormous Game Parlor, another local legend, had closed a couple of years prior. New York-based Compleat Strategist also closed down its Falls Church location, though when I saw it last had been given entirely over to Warhammer and RPG titles. So it appears with Viking Hobby that it, too, will just disappear forever. 

I just so happened to be in California last week for family stuff, and I made it a priority to get in there one last time.

Viking Hobby (Viking) opened in 1974, Gemini tells me. I began visiting not too long after. I think I began routinely going in the early to mid-eighties. It started with Airfix HO Scale models. There was the Toy Shop in Arden Fair Mall, and Games People Play as well. Dungeons and Dragons miniatures were likely my first 25mm metal miniatures, but Viking also had Ral Partha, RAFM, 15mm Minifigs, later Geo-Hex, Old Glory, etc, all kinds of enticing offerings. Riverside Hobbies was another that came later, but all are long gone now. leaving Viking as the best and the last.

I've talked about Stuart MacDonald here before, my erstwhile English pal from Hartlepool. When he was old enough, he began working at Viking as a staffer and would be a familiar face there for a certain generation. I seem to have a more English sensibility to my gaming preferences, likely due to him, but also to the fact that Viking carried Miniature Wargames, and Wargames Illustrated, two journals, both at one time or another edited by Duncan McFarlane. Offhand I'd say the English practice differs from the American one by drawing on its own rich and older historical tradition - more Horse and Musket, more Napoleonics, more Colonials, more Medievals, less vehicles, tanks, planes and ships. 

The mags I preferred were English in sensibility, but the store itself was thoroughly American, as my final photos will attest. 

Alas! Jessica had already gone home by the time I arrived. I had a short window, so I was not able to return. This was the view that greeted me as I entered. This is a small shop if you haven't gathered, and I don't notice any changes since I was there six years ago. Apart from product selection, it's looked roughly like this since the 70s!

They are selling down at this point, and inventory is as light as I've ever seen it. These spinners have seen it all over the years. My first serious wargame purchases were 15mm Minifigs French Foreign Legion, then 15mm Essex ACW, but I got the bulk of my 15mm ACW stuff here too. Each generation of hot stuff filled these completely. 

These are the very racks where I picked up Miniature Wargames and Wargames Illustrated, the journal that prescribed how I would hobby forever. I really was in it for the eye candy, the spectacle. 

I'm certain many of these mags have been there for a few decades by now, Courier, Tradition, Military Modeling? 

Ken used to be a common sight when Stuart and I had to be driven there, but he preferred to let Jessica be the customer-facing one. To both Stuart and me, Jessica was a friend as well as an amazing retailer: customer-focused, knowledgeable, and always willing to mail-order stuff for you. Mail-order remains a big part of this hobby even now. She hooked me up with all my Napoleonette Russian and French armies, as I recall it, the vast majority unpainted, but still in my possession!

This "surfboard" model has also been there for as long as I remember. 

Ken himself was an exquisite modeler in his own right. I don't have the best images of these, but they hold their own against contemporary work. 

In his own way, his work set a painting standard for us to aspire for too, though we focused on gaming models instead of those intended for display.  

My photo butchered these amazing flats, but I think you get the idea. Honestly, these shelves contain about the same mix of models that have always been there. I spose the kids think this all might be a bit stale, old models, old magazines, but I, for one, appreciate the continuity and the bridging of the past to the present, which has value in and of itself. Especially when it's gone. 

The old Viking Ship remains iconic to the spot! Seriously, very little has changed here in many, many years. 

The back wall left has seen an expansion in Osprey titles; before moving out of the state and the arrival of Amazon, I got most of mine here. 

The back wall right and corner

Heading back toward the front, the left wall was entirely model kits. This isn't my hobby, so I can't tell you much about it other than it was the section where I picked up Matchbox, Atlantic, Esci, and Airfix (then sold under the MPC name) HO scale models. 

  

This final shot is the view I had before I turned to go. More spinners would have been to my right, the model kits at my back, and fifty years of history lining the walls around me. It’s weird to think that the next time I visit, this space will be something entirely different. The old models, the classic magazines, and the iconic Viking ship belong to the ages now. It’s the end of an era for this Sacramento legend, and for those of us who grew up in these aisles. Farewell, Viking Hobby. It was a spectacular and unforgettable run.

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

15mm Old Glory Union Generals - Meade & McCLellan

 

At center is the General Grant I finished in 2018, but joining him are previous army commanders, Mead (sic) and McClellan. 

I suppose I could go and add the "E" that Old Glory left off, but I won't. 

These are Stuart McDonald's Essex Union models along the sides.

These had been taking up space on the workbench for years, so glad to have gotten them off. War of Rights, as I've mentioned, has really boosted my interest in the Civil War lately. 

I've got to repaint that set of Gallia? stone walls, one of which is in the background here. 

A regiment of Stuart McDonald's Essex Union. He was a great painter - I miss him a lot. 

General McClellan

Those stones in the wall were "decorative filler" that I super-glued together, primed and painted. 

General Longstreet will be the next vignette from this line of models. What's next? A unit of Essex Virginians? Or those Blue Moon Pirates? Or something else entirely? Hard to say. 

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

Stuart Phillip Frederick McDonald & the Great Mutiny

I was looking for something else entirely when I came across these photos that I would have sworn I had never possessed, but I am delighted to find them and to thus share them here. [This is partly going to be a third part tribute to my old friend S.P.F. McDonald (see Part 1 here and Part 2 here) who gave up the ghost just over twenty years ago.]

By this time in our friendship we had gone our separate ways so I wasn't around for any of this which means these had to have been taken in 1997 or maybe even 1998. 

I don't know who the players were, what rules he used, nor who took the photos, but they are extraordinary being as old as they are. I feel like teddy bear fur only recently became popular in the last 10 years so he was definitely ahead of his time, true to form. (The internet was only barely taking off around this time, and Google was nascent.) We were always committed to the best spectacle we could put on - a standard I try to maintain to this day.

I didn't alter any of these other then to crop out the yard equipment and loungers seen in the background. It appears he just dragged the table out into the yard for this engagement and the sunlight with the accompanying harsh shadows make these really immersive.

It's clear that this task force of Brits are to retake that mutineer held village.

Sepoys advance in disorder? Something's off here, perhaps they advanced faster then they could maintain cohesion?

Note the Camel Corps at the right fore - he went a little more purple than I would have but who's quibbling?

Mutineer cavalry rolls forward at center.

Only to be met by a hastily formed, but secure square. They must have been run off as they never reappear in this game.

Belooch or Baluch infantry storm the guns. Maybe the Fresno group painted up some of these, but I've never seen them in a game until here.

Camel Corps gives rout to their immediate opposition.

Stuart loved a wide variety of forces in his armies.

Mutineers in trouble as their left folds inward.

Baluchs sandwiched but with support pressing in favorably.

I've had a framed version of this one on the mantle for decades, but thought that was it.

A small rear guard moves forward, but it's all over but the shouting.

Looks like a fine game with a British victory as they dismantle the second and final mutineer barricade. The photos themselves have numbers from the developer printed on the back so I was able to determine the narrative accordingly. There are quite a few shots missing from the sequence though which unfortunately ends with this one.

I don't really have a good picture of Stuart other than this oddball one of him and his dog Dooley. Dooley was fiercely protective and even though he knew you, he would bark at you incessantly. Weird, but I guess typical of his breed. In any event, I think I've shared everything I have now of good ol' Stu. He continues to be missed and remembered.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

Stuart Phillip Frederick McDonald Part 2 of 2

Continued from Part 1 here:

So we started ACW with the new Essex 15's. I believe I painted a couple Reb units first then Stu jumped in with a couple Union units and the race was on. Originally there were other players with us but as time went on they dropped out.

Ultimately we played with whatever we had painted up, so if it was painted and based, it got added to a brigade or helped form a new one for the next game. This was a strong incentive and we both worked feverishly to get more units than the other. Somewhere in this time period, the Old Glory ACW range hit and we both bought a mess of those too. Battle Honours, Stone Mountain, Minifigs and some Freikorps filled out some brigades and whatever else we could find.

Each unit got better and better and we'd steal each others techniques to the point where we both had gotten pretty good by the end. As I looked at these figures today I thought he was just one more layer of highlight away from perfection by my current standard on many of these.

I didn't paint any Union at all until long after Stuart died so ALL the figures you see below were done by him sometime in the early to mid 90's. There's a fair amount of gaps in the collection too for one reason or another.

Here's a shot of early and late war together. The riflemen are Freikorps but I'm not certain what the back row guys are. It was a State troop of some kind in a unique early war uniform.
If you recognize them, let me know in the comments.

Per JR2, there are to be 5 bases per regiment. I inherited many units that are missing a base here and there. Stuart elected to give this 100 man unit of Berdan's repeaters and they more then held there own while only taking up a fraction of the real estate a more typical 500 man unit would occupy.

These are actually Battle Honours that Stuart painstakingly added havelocks to with a putty of some kind. Only a limited number of sculpts in the BH range at the time.

Single pose Freikorps? Charging with havelocks - more early war. Mercifully there's only one broken and now missing bayonet. Oh, I should point out,in the early to mid 90's there weren't a lot of options in modeling flags so apart from the Essex ones, ALL of these were hand made and hand painted. It was too much for him to do the Federal flags too so just the National flag sufficed.

Essex - Zoaves in Kepi Firing. The single figure at left is Old Glory that Stuart used as a Brigadier. He's painted identically to the Zoaves so I included him here.

Pre-Internet I'm sure we made a lot of errors on this or that.

Battle Hounors - Zoaves

Battle Honours -  Zoaves Advancing - same unit as above.

Battle Honours - Zoaves - Rear

Stone Mountain - Loading.  Weird choice on this officer who's looking through his binoculars.

Stone Mountain - Marching

Same Stone Mountain unit in line.

Essex - Advancing   Today I wouldn't mix up the kit so much as we did then.

Essex - Advancing - Rear  I messed this one up. In my units I tried to set them up to avoid having duplicate sculpts next to each other or close to each other. I didn't build these so I I'm not exactly sure which stand goes where but I just noticed this one isn't right.

Essex - Firing. Stuart told a fair amount of stories with these. Easy to do with the large variety of Essex figs, even easier with Old Glory ones. Here the standard bearer died and another has picked up the colors. This theme repeats below in other units.

Essex - Firing - Rear -- Stuart painted a battle honor on this one that I can't make out.

Same unit but better view of the dead bearer. There are a fair number of figures in these units with the badge for the 2nd corps, Army of the Potomac. I don't recall exactly modeling a specific formation but maybe he had enough info to do it - I didn't for the Rebs.

Another unit  missing a stand - the command stand in this case. Bummer.

Old Glory - March Attack - Missing another command stand here. Today, I wouldn't do that particular shade of blue for the pants though I mistakenly did it on at least a few of my Confederates.

Old Glory - March Attack - Rear  - Same leaderless unit as above.

Old Glory - Firing - this one is missing a stand too. Note again the colors being picked up. And that is a spare Battle Honours figure kneeling in the front rank.

Old Glory - Firing - Rear.  Same unit as above.

Old Glory - Charging - this is my favorite of the lot - great animation and composition.

Old Glory - Charging - Rear - Same unit as above ...

 

Essex in Overcoats - Front

Same Essex unit as above.

By the end there was a few Divisions worth for both sides. Both of us were relatively light on cav and artillery was somewhere in the middle - basically right. We never used real orbats and all our games were fictitious but plausible, as were our forces. As you saw above, Stu liked modeling a lot of the early war stuff and we mixed early and late, Eastern and Western, all up regardless.

Essex - Cavalry - this is all that exists of Stuart's cavalry: One mounted command stand and an entire dismounted unit. I don't recall more than 3 or 4 cavalry units but one of them was Rush's Lancers.

Artillery - All that's left are the two Napoleons and the two Withworths and the crew pictured here. He had at least three full batteries of Napoleon's, there were Parrotts too - all lost.

Better shot of the crew - even a conversion stretcher bearer made into a rammer near top center.

Crazy - he insisted on 6 horse limbers for each gun but only did enough for a battery. There's a couple missing pairs of horses at least and much more.

I remember, I had a handful of 600 man units that were pretty tough and Stu used to propose making improbable paper strength 1000 man units which for JR2 would be 50 figures large - Five 10 figure bases. They could easily hold any position they wanted to and I don't doubt they would look cool but luckily he never did. I had plenty of 400, 300 and even 200 man units too. To take down three 1000 man units would have been a nightmare. We rolled troop quality randomly so if one of those would have been Elite then forget it.

By and by, I finished up at the community college when I went off to Michigan to finish my schooling. A couple years later I came back to Sacramento and Stu had moved on to WW2 and other things - I got busy in my career, we played a handful of games, Command Decision, a JR2 game or two and I moved again. All this while he has been having difficulties in various things in his life, add alcohol to that, girl troubles and it was combustible. In early May I got a phone call from a mutual friend of ours who informed me that Stuart had taken his own life. His friends had divided up all those soldiers, books, models, and sold some to cover the funeral expenses.They had pulled aside the ACW stuff for me knowing it was what we shared most fondly.

Stuart was an awesome friend, a great painter, and tremendously influential to me in a lot of ways. These figures are a dear reminder of a great, great guy who just couldn't get enough light in his world. I, his family, and countless others miss him terribly.

Thanks for looking - questions and comments are welcome.