buccaneer bonanza...

The inventory continues...up next: buccaneers and colonial militia. I have two full shelves of books regarding pirates and buccaneers. For a few years it was my favorite period yet I never really gamed it. I picked up some odds and ends over the years but it wasn't until another gaming buddy really got into pirates that I ever bothered to paint any. But I have to confess, my motivation was not the figures themselves. My motivation was to scratch build a 25mm pirate ship. I did, used it and the figures in one game and eventually trashed the ship in a previous move. Been carrying around the figures ever since.

old west, old figures...

I'm on a bit of a photography jag. Mostly inspired by getting all my gaming stuff out of storage after a year. Partly because I'm in a 'documentation mode'. I've been creating databases and spreadsheets to track my toys and books and photographing them seems like a logical next step. And it brings about another opportunity for a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

elephantine memories...

I first became interested in historical miniature gaming in the mid 1970s. However, the first time figures became readily available to me was in 1980 or 1981 when I took a part-time job at Light Brigade Hobbies in Concord, California. I believe that is when and where I acquired these six 25mm elephants. I've been carrying them around ever since.

Over the years they've been sorely neglected. I don't recall ever using any of them in a game and only one bears anything close to a finished paint job.They do, however, show something of the progression of my painting experience. At least up to a point. As I've been inventorying my collection of figures I found these and instantly felt an impulse to repaint and rebase them. Just seems like the right thing to do. Consider these the 'before' pictures.

Hinchcliffe Successor Elephant
circa 1978

I'm sure this elephant was manufactured by Hinchcliffe. In fact, Jeff Jonas has a wonderful picture of this model on his web site.Mine is painted with old Testor's enamal paints telling me that this was one of the very first figures I painted. In fact, I recall using the same deep blue on a 1/48 scale Aurora Albatros C-III model which I built in the mid-1970s.

Mea Familia Gladiatoria - 25mm

Another year, another move, another part of the country. And while the new apartment has fewer square feet, more of those feet are dedicated to closet space so all my toys and books have come home to roost. It's a good feeling. Over the past month I've been unpacking, inventorying, and assessing damage. In the big scheme of things the damage is minimal. I lost no books to Hurricane Sandy--and it was a very real possibility as our storage unit was barely 200 feet from the sea coast. Two moves by...  'professionals' resulted in just a few broken swords, detached shields and debased figures. Of course, I haven't unpacked everything yet so there's still a chance to discover a disaster, but the prognosis is good.

I tried, I really tried, to get into "Spartacus" series on cable TV. I watched the first four episodes and decided it was not worth the effort--especially after watching the original Kirk Douglas movie. Nevertheless, it reawakened my interest and then a number of posts on the 'Lead Adventurers Forum' motivated me to dig out my small scale figures.So, without further ado, here are my 25mm gladiators. Now to see what it takes to tweak my rules for solo play.

glacial gaming...

Not much gaming going on in my life. I've started rebasing some Wargames Factory Ceasarian Romans, bought some Numidian cavalry to augment them and some plastic Celtic cavalry to add to their opponents. To be honest, though, my inspiration has been seeping away.

I was tickled, however, when I found a toy cannon in a local antique shop. I'm guessing it's from the 1970s--maybe a gift shop item from Colonial Williamsburg or Jamestown or something along those lines. I think it will work well with my English Civil War 54mm figures. It's cast in some nondescript, copper-color metal and has black plastic wheels an inch and a quarter in diameter. The trail is split and functions for elevating the aim. The gun is missing the elevation pin but that's an easy fix. Interestingly, it is spring loaded. Pull back on the plastic loop at the breech end and 'let 'er rip!' The spring's not powerful enough to knock down figures, though, so I won't be doing any ECW Little Wars. Still, it's a nice little addition.

my familia gladitoria...

Some projects never end. I have a collection of 25mm gladiators which are pretty much finished. But for some reason when I started gaming with 54mm figures I really wanted some big-fig gladiators. Of course, that was years ago.

Splendid Little Warriors...

One thing about having your toys packed away... you catch up on stuff. I did a little bit of verbal tweaking and formatting for my simple Spanish American War rules "Splendid Little Warriors." My goal for these rules was for a simple, fast play game appropriate for a fairly large number of players. They worked well for my 54mm las Guasimas Lite game.

You can download the rules here.