What's the plural for a group of moulds ? *

 

Prince August was doing a 3 for 2 sale on their 25mm Napoleonic moulds , so I had to pick up a few more that I needed ! . This afternoon I had a go at casting from the French Artillery moulds . The crew cast well as did the barrel and the carriage - however the wheels were a right pain ! . Casting spoked wheels in homecasting is notoriously difficult and it took me numerous attempts (and much bad language) to get the two I wanted .

The finished gun and crew ready for undercoating . I will be using these figures for the Prussians as well - with suitable conversions .

*sadly there doesn't seem to be one 

The earliest toy soldier !?

 

Found this on the Interweb, it's in the Walters Art Museum and is a bronze model of a knight about 800 years old and is assumed to be a toy - the measurments are 37mm x 43mm x 17mm so would mix with 28mm modern figures .

The lance is a modern extra , I think it is rather cute and reminds me of 15mm Peter Laing figures .

The Author as invisioned by AI

Messing about with AI , and as it sees me !?

 

Toy Soldiers in the sun .

 

One of the bi-products of my cleaning has been the finding of several Prince August 25mm moulds.

Also a prodigious amount of spare tin, either old sample figures, failed projects or figures gifted to me by my wargaming colleagues .

Put the two together and you get (yet) another wargaming project. The problem is you only need the advancing figure in the middle of the mould which has taken a bit of practise to get to work - note the extra vents cut in this mould to get it to cast correctly.

The God*of casting can be fickle, here we have a load of miss-casts which had to be melted down again. .Sometimes you have a good session casting other times not !

The end result , a Battalion of French Napoleonic Infantry .

A better photo. I'm not sure where this project is going but the figures will be from the Prince August moulds , a rather strange range from the Waterloo era but with quite a few missing figures - ie no Prussian Cavalry etc. , so there will have to be some conversions done . I'm looking forward to this project - I have the moulds (just noticed Prince August are doing a 3 for the price of 2 sale at the moment) , I have the tin and I like homecasting ! , so we will see where it goes !

*PS Prometheus maybe ?

It MUST be true - it's the result of an Opinion Poll !

 

I have long suspected this ! - and now it is proven by an Opinion Poll !

PS I have a very poor opinion of opinion polls - nobody I have ever know has taken part in one and a girl I knew in London used to supplement here earnings by going around asking people their opinions for various polling companies, said it was common practise to make things up to make sure you got your quota in .

'The Cleansing'

 

I've been busy tidying up the wargaming room - ("my husband's toy soldier room") as my wife refers to it ! , ' The Mother of all Cleaning' or 'The Cleansing' ! , think I have got rid of 50% of my rules and rules paraphernalia - the hard back stuff has gone to a charity shop the others to recycling - some I have kept for sentimental reasons but I have only kept the rules I regularly play with . My C&C board games are also much more accessible now ,

The far side of the table is now accessible without breaking your neck - more tidying is due on this side as well.

Then I braved 'under the table' !!! the boxes will be restacked and labled so the ones I use regularly can be found easily - again a lot of stuff has been got rid off - mainly damaged scenery items not worth repairing.

Got some new box files to help the storage situation.

And even had time to set up a game ready for 'S' calling round tonight - a battle report will be forthcoming soon.

The very model of a modern Major General - well in 54mm .

 

I've got around to sorting out the six mounted figures I bought and here they are resplendent in the sunshine. 

I didn't repaint them , just touched up any damage - which there wasn't much and gave them another coat of gloss varnish.

I had to think of a way to add bases to them as they fall over very easily on 'the Tabletop of Mars' . I've tried several different methods , none of which were a success - then I hit on this idea , which I call the 'Carousel' method - I drilled a hole in the stomach of the horse and fitted a cocktail stick , then I drilled a hole in a sutable base which the stick is glued into . It seems to be working so far .

This chap has a rather purple face - to many ports maybe ?

Another view of the 'Carousel' method of basing .

This figure is I think a modern recast as he is solid metal - had to use a bigger base to fit the horse . Someone has taken a lot of trouble adding the flowing feathers to his Topee from thin pieces of metal foil !. These figures will be appearing in various guises of command in the future on 'The Tabletop of Mars' 

A blast from the past !

 

Busy clearing out my cupboards and amongst the rules and paperwork I found this poster, I think it was given away by 'Miniature Warfare' magazine probably in the early 70's in that brief period when Wargaming clubs seemed to flourish and the hobby even appeared in the media (as the media was then - not the modern media) , the odd film or even TV series (Callan) , before disappearing again. I have just noticed that there are two thriving Gaming Clubs in my locality , both specialising in Fantasy and 40k and even a small shop that deals in card and board games again with a heavy bias to the Fantasy and SciFi .

Just noticed this on their Facebook page - queue of fans awaiting the shop to open , evidently a new issue of Pokemon cards (!?) (2) Facebook - It makes me feel old - Oh ! I am !!! - a ever changing hobby !

Wargaming humour No.67

 

Are we in the bottom  photo ???🤣

One of lifes little pleasures .

 

I do like returning from holiday to find a parcel awaiting me ! . I must admit I had forgotten I had placed a bid on some figures on eBay - which I had won !!

Luckily I alerted my ever obliging neighbour who kept an eye open for the postman and kept it safe for me . It contained six old hollow cast mounted Officers - but the interesting thing is each had been converted by their previous owners with head sawps and paint jobs .

I do like second hand figures with a bit of history with them ! . why were they converted - battle damage ? , how many battles have they seen ? . I am going to only repair any slight damage to the paint to keep their individual character and find someway to attach them to bases so they can appear on the 'Tabletop of Mars' . I will report on their progress.

Preparing the next batch of Imagination .

 

Whilst doing a Spring clean (of which more later) I found these 40mm semi flat cavalry I once got from eBay .

So they all got a Dettol bath to remove their paint .

Cleaning off the gunge using an old toothbrush and disposable gloves .

First batch cleaned and based ready for an undercoat.

Next batch, I was short one figure so I cast one up , and mysteriously he is slightly bigger , Think it might be a homemade mould hence the size difference ? , hopefully not to noticable when they are painted and on the tabletop. I have no idea which armies they will be joining yet .

If only I could have bought these .......

 

Found these on Facebook , the hours I spent looking at them as a youngster (1960's) they were in Superman comics etc passed on to me by our neighbour - a quiet bald moustached Postman who you wouldn't think would read that sort of thing. 

I especially wanted these, but I didn't even know what a Zip code was let alone sending a postal order to the USA . I now know they where cheap plastic semi-flats but they were exotic unobtainable treasures to me then.

We go Hi-tec !

 

So I have been painting up some 2D Ancient / Hyperborean flats - and finding it hard going ! . By and large I have quite good eyesight (for my age) I think, but the flat 2D Zinnfiguren have very slight definition - being only 1mm thick I suppose doesn't help . So I purchased the above magnifier and light and am trying it out .

I have tried magnifying devices before but they where free standing glasses on plinths and didn't like them , this head mounted one seems easier to manage - and makes you look like a minor Super Hero !

Here is the first figure I have manage with this devise . I won't be painting the rank and file to the same level . I'm quite happy with the results but think his trousers could have done with a bit more shading .People that paint Flats as a hobby tend to use Oil paints so they can blend them better , but I will stick to my acrylics and practise a bit more.

The Meteor of Doom - the Finale .

 

The opponents close for action !

The Hyborean Light Camelry shoot at the enemy but with poor results 

They are charged by the Hyrkanian Light horse and after a brutal melee are forced to flee - both sides being unarmoured was responcible for the heavy losses.. The Stygian mercenary archers move to open fire on the Heavy cavalry .

They cause heavy casualties and killing both Officers results in the cavalry retreating - luckily Gayomar was handy to rally them.

Unfortunately the Imperial Archers move up and unlease a barrage of arrow and the Stygians being unarmoured  suffer great losses.

They break and flee !, Count Valenso was able to hold the Thurn Infantry from joining them , but with only this unit left he was forced to retire leaving the field to the Hyrkanians . The Hyrkanians hold the Meteor - for the time being anyway ! . A short game but it was bound to be with so few units on the table, but it was nice to get these troops back into action again and I hope to use them more often .

The Meteor of Doom - the story continues.......

 

The scene of the action , on the right the Hyrkanian force arrives and on the left the Hyborean , the Meteor of Doom is the objective (centre of the board) and the game will last eight moves.

But first the 'Favours of the Gods,' dice are rolled , Blue for Hyboria , Red for Hyrkania , the Gods favour Hyborea slightly .

These dice can be used to reroll and add to dice scores during the battle .

The Hyrkanian dice - ready for the battle.

The Hyrkanian force - The Fort Ghori Cavalry nearest the camera with the 2nd Imperial Light Horse in the centre and in the distance the 2nd Imperial Archers .

They are commanded by Gayomar 'First of Men' 

The Hyborian Force - The Thurn Infantry left , some Stygian mercanery archers and in distance the 2nd Hyperborean Mounted Archers .

They are commanded by the gallant Count Valenso ! - let battle commence !