Ready For Inspection

After 15 years in coatees and Havelocks, the Belmont Fusiliers are ready to take the field again in shell jackets and 'Porkpie' forage caps. 

"Well men, a good turn out. War looms and you'll be needed some but today I'm ordering an extra ration of rum to celebrate your arrival."

A few more units to touch up and rebase and I should be able to put a small game on the table before the weekend. 

Ps: This regiment and the General can be seen as they were in 2008/9 on the near left side of the header picture at the top of the blog homepage. The rabj and file started life as Historifigs Scruby 40mm ACW figures. The officers were original sculpts.

Old Dependables

While the Acadian campaign armies have gone into winter quarters, my favourite, first shiny 40mm toy soldier, armies are preparing to hit the table again. 

Some of them are ready, but others need a bit of refurbishing to fit in.

Left to right: Original Scruby 40mm 1812, 2008 conversion for India,
re-conversion for 1830's (in progress).

to be continued....

Recycle, Reuse, Again!

This is just one of those weeks when I can't seem to get charged up to work or to game so, I decided to paint. I love these Scuby ACW cavalry, and especially so when they formed my 2 Dragoon units for the Aroostock War Whatif game which appeared at Huzzah 2012.  

A shot from my blog battle report of a test game of my 2012 Huzzah! convention scenario.
In the foreground are the stars of this post in their 1840's glory days.

And a shot of the redesigned game as played from my Huzzah 2012 blog post.
 (Blue Dragoons being off camera somewhere)

Another view of the Huzzah game, stolen from Normans's Junkyard Planet blog which also has some pics of our joint Ango-French 16thC game.
(and yes that hermit with the involuntary tonsure is me.)

However, all things must end and the what-if Arroostock and Oregon Wars faded away and the Dragoons kept trying to keep up with the times as the games slipped into the 1870's and then to 1914. I was contemplating reviving their 1840's look but while they mulled around the back of my desk, it suddenly occured to me that with a headswap to a Tarleton helmet, and a repaint, they were perfect for the French Revolution. Out came razor saw, drill, glue and paints......

Scruby ACW cavalry in their 3rd role (apart from the trumpeter who is a new Merten plastic recruit). 

A squadron of the 11th Light Dragoons should be ready for Flanders in 1793-5  by the weekend. 

Another One Rides On Board

 This twice converted Scruby ACW 40mm cavalry unit is now ready to rumble and roll dice. 

Since this is minor sideshow, I've decided to limit the armies for the Kapelle Rebellion to what is needed for small scenarios such as the ones in  One Hour Wargames and various other sources. Just enough to make use of whats done for a quick game now and then, a game a bit different from my usual fare. 

Apart from moving some infantry and gunners from abandoned foamcore test company bases onto individual washer bases, the Faraway Expeditionary Force in Kapelle is now complete with 6 infantry companies, two squadrons of cavalry, one mountain and two field artillery guns plus an armoured car and various comandeered trucks. The rebels and their allies just need  two more mounted figures and a bit of basing and they'll be done as well. 

But, whats not done can wait for a while, its time to get back to the 1790's!

We Need More Men!

 It was obvious during the last game that I needed more American units. (I had to recycle the first four US units that were broken).

"Hey guys, I think we're back home in 1812"

I plan to cast more of the infantry and militia in grey which are my own figures but I also want more Scrubies. Ironically most of my Scruby US figures were converted for my 1837 alternate Aroostock game which was played at Huzzah in 2011. (Wait! That was 10 years ago!?)

My Aroostock War ahistorical game at  Huzzah 2011 blog post

Well, some of those 1840's Americans are surplus again, some in grey, and I had enough of my 1812 pattern US shako heads in the spares chest, so with some sawing, drilling, and gluing, there's one additional unit ready for a paint touch up. Once the weather moderates I'll do some more casting.

New Recruits Begin Training

The hoped for box (car) of recruits for the Foreign Legion arrived today and went straight into training.

Scruby 40mm from Historifigs. Primed with Burnt Sienna mixed with a bit of matte varnish. I  find this works well under red.

Now if these were Model Soldiers, for France 1914 I'd have to consider whether or not the pants should be white and if the havelock was appropriate but since they are toy soldiers I can just go to the ultimate authority on what the Foreign Legion should look like.

The original Airfix box art. A bottle of my mother's  nail polish supplied the red trousers for my first box.

Six days and a wake up left.

Mobilization Contiues

The first four Oerberg Riders have had their clothing and equipment updated. Dismounted Riders will follow then the other halves of these two squadrons.

I was going to put in before & after pictures but umh, well,  apparently, despite having appeared in many battle report photos, only one or two have had their portraits done. Oh well, what's done is done.

Anyway,  when I originally decided to go for the Shiny Toy Soldier look 10 years ago, this is more the look I wanted. At the time though, I had somehow managed to convince myself that my table was too small for anything but musket era battles in 40mm, hence the choice of the 1840's. 

The Constabulary has now acquired a PomPom gun crew who have retired from Oberhilse service and  light blue trousers and donned tan ones to fight for Oerberg. 

Over Two Years in the Making

Bit of trivia for the day. It seems the bugler who sounded the Charge for the Light Brigade at Balaklava was named William Brittain. Not the same spelling as the famous maker of Toy Soldiers but close enough to elicit a "Hunh! How about that.".

Oerberg Republican Constabulary galloping towards their assigned bases.

Just got to cut one more base and mount these lads up. I did some digging back through old posts and it seems they've been in the "to be done" pile since at least March of 2015. Practically new then!

I had a mental image of how they should look but couldn't quite remember what sparked it. The Blue and khaki smacked of Teddy Roosvelt and his Rough Riders so I looked them up and close but not quite right. Eventually I remembered a B&W lithograph in my old faithful, pages falling out old,  Boer War book. Sure  enough there they were, illustrations of the British South Africa Mounted Police, in action during the Matabele War  and Jameson's Raid. I must have imagined the colours at the time based on the B&W shading where the shirts were darker. As far as I can tell it is roughly right though in younger years I might have made an attempt to roll the sleeves up and open the neck.

Anyway eight had been bought to provide Mounted Police and ordinary Commandos for Oerberg so they've ended up in the right place.

Dismounted O.R.C's to follow along with non-uniformed Oerbergers ere too long.

something old something new

Something sent as a sample,
Something blue

(and red and white).

Since its an OS figure painted toy soldier style,
 I allowed myself to use the box art from the
 first version Airfix FFL as a painting guide.

Yes a 40mm Scruby French Foreign Légionnaire from Historifigs. Relax, he's not available yet. Mike included him in my last order as a sample of progress on the partial recovery of Scruby's 40mm Colonial range. No date or list yet but I'm sure a note to Mike expressing an interest in buying when they do arrive wouldn't be amiss.

http://historifigs.com

More plans, toy soldiers and talk about rules to come over the nect week.

Oberhilse Continues the Arms Race

In between my manly chores of clearing yet more snow off the driveway and making chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I finished off a few Overhilse gunners in 1880 campaign dress.

Scruby 40mm ACW  artillery in slouch hat from Historifigs with officer converted from a Zinnbrigade gunner. The gun is a Scruby ACW gun converted to a breech loader. The round about to be loaded is from one of the Zinnbrigade moulds.. 

It is a bit annoying that Oberhilse greatly out numbers Faraway but is still building while Faraway is stalled. However, I can cast or buy as many Bluecoats as I want or need but am waiting on upcoming Redcoats.  I was a bit startled when I stumbled across a blog post indicating that 18 months have passed since I last sculpted an 1870 Canadian infantryman then botched the mold so badly that it was unusable. Time to get back on that horse.

Ironically in 54mm I had the opposite problem. Plenty of redcoats but for blue I had to borrow plastic ACW which were  a little larger and VERY different stylistically. If I had gone with 1880 and Oberhilse then I did have suitable moulds on hand, and still do. The 6" grid looks very suitable for 54mm troops and this 40mm painting push may be part of a desperate attempt to forestall their return.

Mounted Rifles are up next.

From a November 2011 narrative battle report of a refight of Blasthof Bridge using my antique and new Britain's. 

Your Other Left! !

Time to get back to working on some more 40mm toy soldiers myself. A few weeks ago I started on some more 1914 Brits but ...(insert excuses) ... and now I've decided to let the 1914 armies stand as they are for the foreseeable future. Since I had not yet started on the distinctive WW1 webbing I decided to just swap the hats and paint them as Boer War Canadians in slouch hats with the brim turned up.

Having scrounged up a little bit of near dead putty I set to work.  The result before sanding is ok, not great but it'll do for one offs. Then, before I added bandoliers I decided to flip to that picture of the Yukon Field Force in red coats and slouch hats, much more colourful. While looking at equipment and leggings an alarm went off in the back of my mind. Eventually I twigged. Her Majesty's troops turned up the left brim, the side where the rifle is shouldered. I had turned up the right one!
Must be the combination of reading up on campaigns in German Africa and using Scruby ACW reb cavalry with hats turned up on the right. Well, Oerberg can use some more figures anyway.......

40mm Zinnbrigade in front, Jacklex 4.7" and a 1st mockup of a 40mm version behind. 25mm Garrison medievals behind.

One thing I have been fretting about is a 4.7" gun, can't take Little Wars as inspiration and not want one. Initially I planned to buy the Little Briton's one but the picture just doesn't do it for me. The little 20mm Jacklex one is a superb little model that looks like its straight from a photo. The original Britain's was close and had a charm of its own but the LB one has nice wheels but lacks the elegance and length of the thing. So I have started playing about with bits and pieces as can be seen in the picture.

Speaking of  Scruby and artillery, Mike at Historifigs has been working on rescuing the 40mm Scruby Colonial range and it WILL include a gun! Watch this space!

Winter Quarters

OK I admit it, I've been letting myself get distracted, playing at Sapper and so on.

This snow bank was knee high yesterday.....

But I have managed a few minutes at my workdesk now and again.

The Blue Dragoonsand the new Hougal Light Horse each  now have a dismounted marker figure. More importantly, I now have an affordable, easily made, kluged prototype of a late 19thC artillery piece.

40mm conversions of Scruby and Zinnbrigade miniatures 

When I look about for a 40mm fieldgun for late 19thC Colonial wargames, there isn't one really. STS and Irregular have various toyish guns, none looking even remotely like a 12pdr rifled breechloader and all too expensive for my budget, esp with exchange and shipping, for something that's not what I'm looking for..

The Sash & Saber 10lb Parrott  is not right but close enough and an attractive  little model to boot but again beyond my budget at the moment and perhaps a little too serious looking for this project.

The ACW canon that Historifigs sells is a nice, simple OS 12pdr Napoleon. Its a little small, esp for figures on a base, and the wheel rims are a bit thick but it suits the figures well. Its just that its a bronze smoothbore muzzle loader and it looks it.

So, after some pondering of options,  such as whittling a new longer barrel out of wooden dowelling, and looking at pictures of various rifled breech loaders of the last quarter of the 19thC, I cut off the trunnions of a Historifigs gun then took some epoxy putty and built up the breech, incorporating the cascabel, thus lengthening the overall length of the barrel and giving the rear 1/3 that typical  swollen look due to the need to reinforce the breech.

Not great, not accurate but I think it gives the right impression and should be quite a serviceable toy hun. To lessen the height deficit vs figures on bases I added wooden blocks under the wheels and trail with "grass" to lessen the oddity of a gun floating on blocks.

A closer look.

Now to order 3 more guns, and some crew in slouchhats for various purposes.

Meanwhile back in Winter Camp

Winter storm after winter storm have brought enough snow and freezing rain to interrupt the winter campaigning season while I shovel but haven't completely halted all hobby activity.

I managed to do to 2 dismounted lancers which will give me a dismounted marker for each squadron.

40mm Zinnbrigade conversions.

Also, I have rebased the Scruby Brigade for 1812. Just need to add a drummer for the Fencibles. I decided to paint the bases rather than rely on the usual dark green flocking. They match the green hills better than this sandy section but it will eventually green up again as well.

40mm Scrubies from Historifigs, with some original and some converted Zinnbrigade command figures.

.
While I was waiting for glue to dry I  ran through a few test rolls of an encounter between 2 opposing battalions and then 2 opposing brigades using the British victory at Crysler's Farm as a guide. It quickly became evident that with the Americans as Line Infantry vs British as Grenadiers still ends up as mutual annihilation unless the US rolls low. US firing as Militia vs British as line should normally leave enough Brits to face a  second attack but only very poor rolling by the US would allow for the historical result. With both sides as line, Chippewa and Lundy's Lane are both possible with the dice determining if one side wins or both are blown to pieces. Essentially the low number of troops make it very chancy and will make for a very quick game. Luckily, now the troops are organized on shelf trays again, set up and take down is fairly quick and easy.

It did get me thinking though and I have started the slow process of  polishing Hearts of Tin as an alternate rule set using the same organization. The working draft is available again under blogs and rules at the right of the desk top version of the blog. This is where I was in 2012/3 when I first looked at arranging the 1812 troops to use either rule set. The detour was useful mostly as a way to eliminate nagging doubts using trial by fire.

Work has begun on planning a game for the 1900 chaps some time in the next week.

Uh Oh! Peccavi perhaps?

Or in other words, I may have Scinde after all.

 I was rearranging figures on the shelves including the left over over British units from my aborted Scinde campaign and suddenly remembered that there is a good chance that  Historifigs will start re-releasing some of the old 40mm Scruby colonial figures this year. With the War of 1812 almost caught up, the early 20th Century moving along smartly and a few feet of shelf space not fully accounted for,  I might finally be able to get back to that long delayed Indian  question later this year.

Scruby 40mm Native cavalry from Richard Larsen's collection.

To maintain compatibility with the 1812-1837 troops I will plan for Charge! units again, The troops I have are in shell jackets and Havelocks so I think they are close enough to serve as the start of an 1857 force for the Great Mutiny, which was really what I had wanted to do. Perhaps an imaginary Native state inspired by Gwalior rather than one of the main mutineer armies. For the rebels, light cavalry, artillery, militia for native infantry, line infantry for sepoys.  British cavalry as Heavies regardless of title, artillery, British line as Grenadiers, or maybe as line infantry if I want to field more of them. With the sort of odds they could face, I already have enough British to do  for a while but afterwards there are a plethora of interesting uniforms to convert and paint.

This could be fun.

Converted 40mm Scruby, Zinnbrigade, Sash & Saber and original figures storming a fortress in 2009.

The Wisdom of the Young

That's The Brigadier Peter Young.

At the end of last week's post on early 20thC rules , I dropped in  a last minute comment about OS rules and player morale vs unit morale. It wasn't a planned comment that I had thought on, it seemed to come straight from my subconscious to the keyboard. Once aired however, it got me thinking and it got/me digging through my library. Not through history books but through wargaming books and it got me thinking again about morale but more on that in a later post.

One of the early additions to my wargaming library was the Knight's Battles for Wargamers book on Bull Run. I don't have it anymore alas, loaned to a non-wargaming friend that had expressed an interest but who I lost touch with. I do however have the Alma one and it appears that they all have the same introduction by Brigadier Young. He wrote various interesting and useful things in the introduction but there were two that are particularly relevant. One was his comment that:

"elaborate Morale rules are a waste of time. Morale is in the mind of the wargamer himself, for ultimately a war game is a duel between the two opposing generals themselves. Do not let them hide their deficiencies behind the alleged failings of their metal or plastic followers!"

The other occurred while discussing the range of battles that the series aimed to cover. He mentioned that he would like to see it expanded to cover some modern battles but that "...... it is not a bad idea when refighting these modern actions to fight them with the troops and the rules of the Napoleonic Age......." . This is indeed what Lawford & Young did in their book Charge! where the classic Battle of Sinttingbad was apparently inspired by the Battle of Sitang Bridge in Burma. I'm not going to suddenly decide to fight WW1 with my War of 1812 figures but it has given me ideas about the various late 19thC toy soldiers that I have or that I want to paint but haven't been able to figure out what to do with once painted.

Scruby infantry extended in front, Zinnbrigade Prussians painted red in march column and a Zinnbrigade mounted officer with a Scruby head. Scruby British artillery in the background. 

 As my WWI German "army" grows, I've been thinking about the opposition. For various reasons, despite the existence of a purchase option, my conclusion is that I HAVE to sculpt and cast Highlanders and British line infantry. Its now been 2 years since my last successful sculpt and mold project and even then the mold was so so. There has been some sculpting of masters, some of which I was ok with but the last mould was a complete bust. I could really use a successful mold but if so, I need to justify the cost and effort by casting more than a dozen figures. That encourages planning for a bigger game.

Scruby Jaegers/Marines from their Boxer Rebellion range painted in WWI graygreen.

I know that the sculpting and casting is going to take me more than a weekend and I can't start the war proper until the figures are cast and then painted but if I pay some heed to the Brigadier's advice and field some colourful figures, in red or blue, to brighten the table, I now have enough troops for a small test  of an alternate OSW style game which is where this started with a test game in 2011 .

Meanwhile back in the forest

30mm Scruby Native American Warriors. 

The first Boer War game is a ways off yet so I decided to tackle the handful of 30's from the Historifig parcel before they got shelved and forgotten. I'm not used to do this kind of backwoods figure in a glossy finish and it was hard to refrain from trying to weather and stain leather and cloth but I managed to contain myself and the resulting figures are pleasingly toy-like and ready to roll (dice).  

30mm generic Rangers, 3 Scruby's + 1 of my Plains of Abraham museum figures. The red toories are suspect but I couldn't bring myself to file them off or leave them blue.

I messed up and ordered 6 Indians instead of the required 8 but I can live with an empty spot on each of two bases until my next order. If all goes well these figures will see action on Sunday before going into winter quarters. In the meantime, the next batch of Boers is already primed.

Hoorah for Oom Jack

The first batch of Scuby Boers are now done. 

Scruby '25mm' (~1/72nd) Boers. 

(My apologies on the pictures, I was going to borrow my wife's camera but now it has gone missing !!?)

I'm still finding the glossy block toy style very difficult to paint convincingly. It is so much faster and easier to use washes to soften, blend, shade, weather and also to disguise little slips but once done, these figures have just the sort of toy look I was aiming for so I will persevere. I know from looking at some of my old figures that the old painted 25mm Marx figures were not as carefully painted as my memory would have it but the feel of these now is much the same as the feel of those figures was back then. 

The Jacklex and Scruby figures are quite different in style.The Scrubies are "finer" and the ones with open arms are softer and more amenable to animating but the Jacklex are hairier with more character. One on one, up close, the different hat/head size makes them less compatible than hoped for but luckily painted up and seen on the table at arms length they seem just fine together. 

A mix of Jacklex 20mm (the hefty guys) and Scruby 25mm Boers.

I can't consistently decide which I like better but I've enjoyed both so much that I would cheerfully buy more of both even though I have enough for the games that I have planned. I do intend to pick up a couple of each of the Jacklex positions that I don't yet have  but that will have to wait a bit as will an equally small Canadian and British force to oppose them. (My apologies to all those Aussie readers who feel left out).  In the meantime, they should see action against Ron's Brits before the end of the year.

Sometimes its a positive blessing to not have spare cash to over buy or this project might out grow itself in a hurry!

Getting to be a bit of a Boer

Images from Historifig website 

Well, I've taken the plunge. Last week Ron broke out the Colonials for a nail biter of a Colonial game with "my" Brits just hanging on to a ridge for a narrow win. With a  decision still pending on the best way to scratch my long deferred  Boer  War itch, I took the plunge when I got home and ordered some Scruby Boers from Historifigs and then a handful more of Jacklex figures from Spencer-Smith (gotta  have a classic 4.7" somewhere in my collection) to get me started.

Reinforcements on table from a week ago with Brits holding the hill. Ron Porter's figure and table.

Not saying I will never do it in 40mm toy style but these classic ranges have the right sort of OS look, are cheap enough for even my budget and, based on pictures and remarks on the Plastic Pelisse  and John's Lead Garden and my own experience with Scruby 25mm Mamlukes, are close enough to the Ral Partha's that  I'll be happy fielding them on the same table. 

For now it will be a small force for Battlecry games to be followed by British, and then I suppose by Zulus/Matabele/Basuto. Whether or not it ever expands and blossoms into something else or reaches as far as Tel el Kebir is another question for another day.

________________________________________________________________

This week, long time friend Simon MacDowall (red 'jumper') crossed over the pond. Its been  a decade or two since we have been able to squeeze a game  in but Ron graciously hosted us for a 3 player Battle Cry game, a long way from Simon's usual fare but just right for a quick break from the pub. This time it was the Afghans defending the ridge and Simon and I ended up on the same side, the first time in 40 years as far as we could recall. Innuendos that it was no accident that Simon's Afghan force (see http://legio-wargames.com/#/the-legio-blog/4553964887 for more pictures)  was driven off the ridge and wiped out before reinforcements arrived, must surely be dismissed in face of the great personal risk run by my General and his escort who defeated Ron's right wing, capturing its general and preventing the capture of the only flag we held at the end. Luckily enough of my men were left at the end to be able to garrison his tribal areas as well as my own once we let the British buy peace.

As an aside, probably the last time that all 3 of us were in the same place at the same time would have been at a meeting of the Montreal Wargamers at the old fort on Ile St Helene in 1976/77. 
_______________________________________________________________

OK back to designing my card table game and experiments with going small but grid-less or not and with abandoning casualties or not.

Plan? What plan?

I have a number of little things to get done for Huzzah, some broken figures to replace, some leftovers from the re-org that just need a few officers and a new coat colour to make up a new unit that looks different, trees to be based so they won't fall over and flocked so they won't be quite so embarrassed. So is that what I've been doing on this long weekend?

HALT! Advance one and be recognized!

Nope!  Firstly, the sun came out and chased away all but the most stubborn patches of snow that were left. The garden is full of little shoots, garlic, crocus, daffodils and so on and things are generally spring like and Kathy and I have been raking and tidying and generally rediscovering the out of doors.  Apart from that I finally painted a 2nd Oberhilse lancer, for the Square Brigadier, that makes them a functioning squadron. I also hauled out some figures passed on by a friend (see http://valkyriesintheattic.blogspot.ca/ ) . They were an unidentified ebay win but to me they have Scruby written all over them. Wasn't planning on going red coats and sun helmets, I was thinking of khaki but this guy did paint up into an attractive toy soldier. Three more have now been primed, enough to make a SB unit.....

I already have enough Oberhilse infantry and artillery in spiked helmets to do Sawmill village. Just have to find/make some tall narrow buildings to use with 40mm troops on a 3" grid. I wonder what part of Atlantica this clash will come. Adobe houses up north or stone & clapboard in the south?

Did I say too many things at once?

Scruby '25mm' Mamlukes painted as Afghan Irregulars

Tomorrow I am heading to Ron's place to take on the mantle of Makpha Khan, the Rose of Kurram defending his tribal lands against the Raj. Having sold off all my 25mm Colonials a few years back, I cast about for something  to add to the game. Ron has Ral Partha Afghan tribemen but no cavalry  and I had some Scruby Mamlukes waiting for painting. They are slightly smaller than the Partha's but not a lot. In fact they are comfortably in between plastics and the Partha's and would fit with either. I mounted mine on some slightly larger horses to better match the Partha and Minifig cavalry they will have to face.

At first I wasn't too impressed with the figures but as I started animating and painting them I became quite enamoured of them.Simple but full of charm and easy to customize.  I can't help but think that they would match Jacklex quite well.   2 more pts towards a 1/72nd Colonial project vs a 40mm/54mm one.