I'm not dead, yet...

It's been an unbelievably busy Autumn. Real Life™ has demanded almost all my time. Things seem to be getting back to normal now. I've recently re-established my hobby space (in the new house ).

Of course, now that I have dedicated gaming space there are an  infinite number of distractions, too. Focus, focus...

french & indian game fiasco...

We inaugurated the 'war room' in the new house with its first game last Sunday. Sad to say, but it's been such a long time since I've run a game that I really flubbed up on the rules. Note to self: Even though you wrote the rules... READ them before inviting people over to play!

the fleet floats...

It's been a slow few months for gaming projects. But I did hunker down and get my ship rehab project pretty much complete. I've still got one un-built galleon kit, but the stripping and repainting of the used models is complete.

the return of the king...

It's been a long time since posting. But I've not been entirely idle. But this project does seem to be winding down. I've got two more 24 figure units to complete and then I still need a handful of officers and commanders. But after that it will probably take some game playing to inspire me keep cranking out ECW figs. Unfortunately, officers are a bit of an issue with 54mm ECW.

A Call to Arms ECW figure sets do not include any mounted officers. At first I thought I'd have to get out the conversion knife and see what damage I could wreak on a few flamboyant Confederates. But so far I've been able to avoid that.

converting covenanters...

One of the challenges of collecting 54mm English Civil War figures is that it is a pretty specific area of interest and few figure manufacturers pay a lot of attention to it. Consequently, except for indulging in some more expensive metal figures for commanders, etc, I'm pretty much limited to using the 'A Call to Arms' figures. While it is a nice range, there are some figures which are inconvenient for wargaming and I don't expect to seem many (if any) more poses released. Therefore, it is time to try my hand at converting 54mm plastic figures to add variety, especially among officers and standard bearers.

a gathering of horse, part deux...

Ha! Auto-Focus-Nemesis strikes again! Nevertheless, an eight figure squadron of 54mm cavalry makes for an impressive sight. I really do like these figures. Once again, a forthcoming game proves to be a wonderful inspiration for getting things done.

let slip the dogs of war...

Big-Fig Battle Day finally arrives. I must confess... I've had a decadent wargame weekend. On Saturday I participated in a Zulu vs. British game. On Sunday we play-tested Quindia Studio's 'Victory Without Quarter' ECW rules. Both days were exquistly fun. And, now that I think about it, both games were played with plastic figures. The colonials and Zulus in 20mm, the ECW in 54mm. Hmmm... perhaps I'm overcoming my long standing prejuduce against plastic wargaming. As much fun as the Zulu game was, I was really looking forward to seeing the big-figs in action. I dragged my 4x8 sectional wargaming table out of the basement and overlaid the dining room table a full two days before the game. My wife was quite indulgent with me, bless her heart. This was the first game I've hosted in over five years.

junior officer granted brevet...

My collection is a bit shy on command figures. Eventually I'll have to jump into conversions simply to have enough flag bearers. But I've been stalling on that. This gregarious sergeant is a stock figure. He'd probably make a good addition to the line troops but due to the shortage of gentlemen he'll be receiving a field brevet. Over on the Helmet blog there are some shots of this figure having undergone some conversion work to a standard bearer. Hmm... where'd I put that Green Stuff?

treasures from the columbus toy soldier show...

 I've attended a number of wargaming conventions over the years. But the Columbus Toy Soldier Show on October 3rd, 2007 was my first 'Toy Soldier' show. It was a pretty smallish one-day affair with thirty or forty dealers in attendance.

yellow dogs...

The fourth 24 figure unit has been completed. Notwithstanding that all my other units are generic, for some reason I think I'll label this unit as Talbot's regiment. The yellow coats would be appropriate but I'm not sure about the color of the pants. Nor am I sure about the correct flag to use for Talbot's regiment. While the few sources I've consulted all agree on the 'talbot hound' device, the flag itself may have been either yellow or white. I'll probably go with yellow.

the artillery park...

In a previous post I mentioned picking up some artillery pieces at the Columbus Toy Soldier show. Cool stuff. It was a pleasure painting them, no eyes, no belts, no draped fabric to shade. Just hardware. Wood, bronze and iron. I had previously slapped some paint on a BMC American Revolution cannon but hadn't bothered to finish it. But once I got some paint on the other three gunnes, I had to do some detailing on the little BMC.

kudos to michigan toy soldier company...

Bravo! I've been told that  Michigan Toy Soldier Company provides excellent service. My first experience with them supports that. I recently ordered some more ECW figures from them and when I received the stuff it wasn't quite what I wanted. I had mixed up a product number and they had forgotten to give me an advertised discount. I was a bit disappointed and dropped them an email suggesting that they send me the box of figures that I really wanted in lieu of the discount. All in all, given the size of the order I thought this would work out to their advantage financially, though it would be a close call once shipping was added in. But to be honest I was expecting a reply of "Nope. Sorry. Tough luck." That was on Sunday. On Tuesday I got a reply: "Sure, sorry about that." Wednesday morning I got the figures. Wednesday night I got a notification that they had been shipped. Now that's what I call customer service. During their busy Christmas season they took the time out to make my first order a good experience. Thanks, MTSC!

auto-focus-nemesis in retreat...

Happy Holidays to you all!
I do not believe my wife reads this blog. Nevertheless, I'm sure that somewhere between the basement (where I photograph my figures) and the upstairs study (where I post to the blog) I must have mentioned, in passing, once or twice, how much I despise her digital camera. And so this year for Christmas she gave me a Nikon CoolPix P5100. Within 30 minutes of unwrapping the gift I was snapping these photos of the latest figures. These are the first two pictures I took.

male modeling instincts...

 It's been a while but things are finally coming back together. Since getting the new camera I've been itching to test it out. However, I started a new job just two weeks before the holidays, and for the last week and a half I've been fairly, though not seriously, ill. The figure shown here is my first modification of a 54mm figure (see previous post). The painting was done mostly before the holidays, though I just finished spontoon earlier this week and the base about two hours ago.

back on topic...

I've whined before about the limited number of poses available for plastic 54mm English Civil War figures. This is especially true for command figures where I'd prefer to have more individuals. It pays to have friends. I got an email not so long ago from Craig who said someone picked up two of the old Airfix cavalier/roundhead cavalry figures at a convention and given them to him. He also said that he doesn't need them both. Well, that's just rubbish since you can use all the ECW cavalry you can find but I know a good deal when offered.

hurrying heavy horse...

Fairly often when searching the web for information on the 'A Call to Arms' English Civil War figures you'll come across a statement along the lines of 'Yes, the figures are nice, but there are no cavalry available.' Not true! The company makes two sets of 17th century cavalry figures.

a touch of the blues...

Somewhere, on some computer, at some time, I saw a web site with a simple listing of coat/cuff/breeches colors for the various ECW regiments. Of course, I can't find it now. Haythornthwaite shows this blue/brown color combination as in use by the trained bands. However, I suspect it is generic enough to be used for any regiment on either side that wore blue coats. This is my third completed regiment and exhausts the color combinations used on my test figures. Guess it's time to do some actual research. Almost completed regiment. Base flocking is yet to be done.

a banner day...

One of the goals of this project is to create scalable standards that can be used for any size figure. I've been using SVG (scalable vector graphics) for a few projects at work and figured it would be a good format to use for flags. Size 'em to whatever size needed, print them off and viola! jaggie-less flags, big or small.

the gentlemen assemble...

The first officers to answer the call. The figures in the Call to Arms command set are large. In fact, their size and styling makes me strongly suspect they were sculpted by someone other than the rest of the range. They are not my favorite figures though they do exhibit a fair amount of character. One thing I can say for certain is that the large surface area of the officer's coat loudly cried out for shading. This was a good chance to experiment. I wanted to keep the shading subtle yet I know that I also have to keep the paint 'dry' or risk washing off the base coat of glue. So shading came down to an exercise of mixing paint on the figure. This was something new for me as I am traditionally more of a 'wash' painter. I am not unhappy with the results, though clearly more practice is required.

a gunne arrives...

The bargain artillerists. While the Call to Arms figures are very decently priced, at over $10 for a single gun (with no crew) their artillery is not. Now, I lucked out by finding a box of artillerists at half price at my local hobby shop. But I haven't footed the bill for the gun, yet. The gun shown here is a BMC model that came in a bag of cheap American Revolutionary War figures. I suspect the gun trails should be a bit straighter to more accurately reflect an ECW piece, but I'm also sure there was quite a bit of variability in early English guns.

a gathering of horse...

Seen here is the first of the painted cavalry. I'm not real happy with the buff coat. Too yellow, methinks. Finding cavalry figures may be the biggest challenge of this entire project. Call to Arms makes two types, an 'Ironside' and a Haslerigge 'lobster'. Luckily there's four poses of each--at least of the riders. I do feel the need to find some more active horses for these figures. The challenge is also true for finding mounted command figures. There are some truly exquisite 54mm figures available for the period. But they also have exquisite prices! And I have to face it: part of the reason I'm doing this in 54mm plastic is to avoid the cost. I may end up doing more conversions than I had originally intended.

disciplined green troops...

The second regiment has been completed. While this is, ostensbily, a green regiment, it might be difficult to tell from their uniforms. The color that most catches the eye is the yellow of the buff coats on both the pikemen and the at-attention musketeers. This is obviously a well drilled unit... except for those musketeers on the right. Once again the physical size of the unit impresses me. And, once again, I'm concerned about the table size I'll need in order to play a game with these figures. In fact, I've found myself looking at a lot of 6mm and 10mm figures lately. Though I'll stick to 54mm for the ECW stuff, I may try War of Spanish Succession, SYW or even Napoleonics in a much, much smaller scale.

the regiments form...

My original intention was to use 36 figures for a unit; 16 pikemen in block flanked by 8 musketeers on either side. But the more I read the more I disliked the pike component being deeper than the gunners. So I'll probably go with 8 pike in 2 rows flanked by 8 musketeers, also in 2 rows. However, there'll be a third row behind the pikeman for command and color bearers. This may contain 1 or 2 pike men since I still think 2 rows of pike just looks a little skimpy.

the Hessians are coming! the Hessians are coming...

Individually, the BMC figures are nothing special. However, make a unit of them and they don't look too bad. In fact, I think they look better in the eyes of the painter simply because a unit--even a small one--gives one a greater sense of completion.

With the growing cost of steel, I've found myself balking at buying fender washers on which to mount figures. For my ECW project this was not an issue since I was basing the figures in groups of two. But with the AWI I wanted to mount the figures individually on round bases. I just can't accept spending more for a figure base than I paid for the figure itself! Consequently, the Hessians are mounted on plastic poker chips obtained at the grocery store. Cheap. Convenient. Just my style. (I didn't even have to go get them myself... I just added them to the weekly grocery list.) One never knows where one might find gaming supplies. Keep your eyes open!

Many of the BMC Hessian figures exhibit awkward posing. Some look as if they're stabbing at bats flying around their heads; some appear to be caught in mid-air right after tripping. Most of them just aren't inspiring. (Well, blarmey! Why don't you buy better figures, you cheapskate?!) Still, a figure not used is a figure ripe for conversion. This standard bearer on the left is actually a BMC American artillerist with his linstock cut away and his head swapped with one of the bat-stabbing Germans. The regimental colors of the Hesse-Cassel von Lossberg regiment was printed out from this French site. That page got book-marked.

And, finally, another close up of one of the Hessians. This is not a bad pose. Is there anybody out there that wants to trade for some German bat-stabbers?

bmc awi, etc., continued...

I'm always a glutton for project distraction. My projects never grow too large for my space, there are just too many projects that appeal to me. Though for the most part I've not been too tempted by 54mm figures. I've stuck (mostly) to my original plan of working in two periods: the English Civil War and the American War for Independence.

Having said that, though, I should also confess that I've picked up ten or twelve gladiators along the way. But that's a story for a different day. Oh, and the colonial British... and the Zulus... and the Spanish American War soldiers... and that one lone Confederate officer....

These are a few more of my original BMC purchase--recently painted. Specifically the Marquis de LaFayette and George Washington. General Washington's horse is a separate purchase from the Columbus Toy Soldier Show. Fifty cents, I think. The proprietor informed me that it was actually a horse from a 60mm Plains Indian figure. But it was such an animated figure that I felt the need to acquire it. The base has obviously been twisted over the years and a bath in boiling water didn't seem to help correct the awkward angle. I do think I'll glue a rock to the base, though, since the horse looks like it's avoiding stepping on something. The added weight on that side of the base won't hurt anything either.

rebuilding a fleet...

Small scale plastic galleon kits seem to have been more popular in the past. I don't think any of these kits are in production any longer. Nevertheless, I was lucky to find 8 kits, 7 already assembled, to augment my ever so slowly growing fleet.

Easy Off... not just for ovens, anymore...

I started out scratch building galleons but didn't get too terribly far. However, not too long ago I acquired seven old plastic models--a couple of assembled Pyro/Life-Like/Lindberg Golden Hinds, Santa Marias, etc., at a toy soldier show in Indianapolis. They'll work. But it appears as if they've been sitting in someone's attic, uncovered, for about 30 years. They're filthy. I've been cleaning them up but would like to strip the paint. In fact, I'd like to disassemble them if possible.

the march of the musketeers...

Interesting enough, there are no poses of musketeers firing included in the musketeer sets from Call to Arms. However, they do include four of them in the command set. Seems a little odd. Nonetheless, I'm glad to incorporate them into the musket companies.

the big picture is a little scary...

So I took the plunge and ordered three more boxes of pikemen, four boxes of musketeers, two boxes of cavalry and a box of command figures from my local hobby shop. I also found that they had a box of artillerist on the shelf for $5. Scarfed that up, as well as a bag of BMC American Revolution figures (thinking that the cannon would do double duty). Once they came in I couldn't resist and simply had to sort them all out by pose and take a look at what I'd gotten myself into.

You can also see the state of my workbench... well, after a bit of cleaning. I must admit to being puzzled by the price charged by my hobby shop. I intentionally ordered through them rather than on-line simply because I know how tight things are when you're running a brick and morter hobby shop. Yet, they charged me $11.98 per box. As far as I can see MSRP for these figs is 10.98. Now, I'm not one to complain about supporting the store, but I might think twice before making another special order through them.

Clearly this will not be enough figures to put on a game of any size. But since I'm fielding both sides it's not like I have a set schedule. Nobody's waiting on me. I've yet to see any information on the number of cavalry that would be included in an army of this period. I suspect it would be about the same as the number of infantry. In any case my paltry eight horsemen will need to be beefed up. I also came across a non-specific warning about using the Haythornthwaite book as a reference. I suspect the clothing IS a bit too bright in the illustrations. Of course, that won't stop me since I'm not looking for a totally historic representation.

pudel and peper learn to paint on plastic...

So I tried a number of different techniques gleaned from the internet on how to keep acrylic paint on plastic figures. Special soaps and glues, chemical brews, plastic etching shenanigans. None passed my rather gentle scrape test, I might add.

the insanity begins...

A fellow gamer and I were commiserated over how the scale of figures that appeal to us seems to have a direct proportional relationship to our accumulating years. Furthermore, I've always shied away from plastics simply because of the problem of keeping paint attached to figures that are frequently manhandled. But with the increasing availability of decent 54mm plastic figures and my own decreasing visual acuity, I figured it was time to try something new.

nostalgia...

Oddly enough, working on the BMC AWI figures made me feel somewhat nostalgic. Many years ago I painted up some 54mm metal figures for a local collector but had few of my own. At about the same time another friend was tinkering around with home casting and that inspired me to acquire some Prince August moulds and try my hand at it. In total I cast ten figures before my attention was drawn elsewhere. I knew they were still down in the basement, somewhere. After a bit of poking around I managed to find them--unfinished, dusty, and not in the best of repair. Only three of them were close to completion. So I washed them off and reattached heads and arms. Unfortunately, I've lost most of the muskets or was not very successful in casting them... I really don't remember.

I still have the moulds and not too long ago I attempted to cast a Prussian grenadier out of epoxy. The results were educational but did not result in a complete figure. Still it was successful enough to make me think that it is possible. I do wonder, however, how the epoxy will affect the life of the mould? My major problem was that I no longer have the clamps to hold the mould shut so I tightly wrapped a rubber band around it. Most of the resin leaked out. So I'll need to get some clamps and probably some boards in order to evenly apply the appropriate pressure next time I try. Interestingly enough, the detail on the resin figure turned out much better than on the original metal casts. That's a bonus!

The three (semi-)finished figures represent the Prussian 18th regiment. I have no idea why I picked that particular regiment. Probably because the pink cuffs and turnbacks are unique. I also think I was substituting heads in order to come up with the musketeer. I have moulds for the grenadier, the officer and a standard bearer. But not for a musketeer. I don't think I ever had one, either.

Packed away with the Prince August figures I found some old Imrie-Risely figures. There's a British light infantryman from the American War for Independence, an unpainted dismounted British cavalryman of the 16th or 17th regiment, two gladiators and a Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. At one time there was a Hound of the Baskervilles but he has apparently run away. I'm not sure that Sherlock is repairable. While the figure is complete he is holding a fairly mangled pistol. The barrel is doubled back on itself and I suspect it will break off easily. Still, it could be replaced if necessary. The painted light infantryman really brings home the effect my eyesight has had on my painting. Years ago I could paint much finer detail than I am now capable. On the other hand, I can now afford to buy these figures without having to forgo a meal. Ah... the salad days...

Lastly in the storage box was a Major Washington in the uniform of the Virginia Militia and an 18th century damsel. She doesn't look like Martha so she must be Sally Fairfax. Well, at least in my mind. The Washington figure appears finished though chipped. Oddly enough only the front of the woman is painted. I have no explanation for that. The detail of the Imrie-Risley figures is commendable, even though these figures are at least a quarter century old. It makes it difficult for me to look at the modern BMC figures without disdain. Still, cheap price and easy availability do have their charms.

bmc awi, etc...

Not too long ago when I first started working with 54mm plastics I purchased a set of BMC figures for the American War for Independence. Price and availability are their greatest virtues. Realism is not.

Nevertheless, I wanted to see how a few of them would look painted up. Luckily, they make some Hessian fusiliers that aren't too bad and I picked up a number of them at the Columbus Toy Soldier show for $0.25 apiece. The photos here show one painted as a corporal of the Lossberg regiment captured by Washington at Trenton. The first BMC figures I acquired was the "Yorktown" set. I originally bought it simply for the small cannon included thinking that it could be used (and currently is used) for the ECW figures. The set included figures which represent Washington on a horse, LaFayette, and General Cornwallis. I think the Cornwallis figure looks more like General Clinton, though perhaps I'm looking at him too hard. He painted up easily, the plastic is fairly hard and takes paint well.

All in all, the BMC figures could be worse. Probably worth painting a few more. Especially since I've been in an AWI frame of mind.