Modeling Voltaire

(Originally posted on 07/08/12)

In my Imagi-nations or semi Imagi-nations I like to have non military personalities making guest appearances ( ie Kipling in my 54mm FLWs or H.G.Wells in my 40mm Balkans wars) so I was at a loss for who to add to my 40mm SYW games , when reading a biography of Frederick the Great I came across Voltaire , who being quite a character seems to fit the bill.

I was sorting through some miss cast figures when I found a damaged artillery officer, (sword missing) I Googled 'Voltaire' to see what he looked like and found this rather quaint illustration. I then sat down with some 'green stuff' and started fiddling about altering the casting . I also decided to give him a servant using one of the gunner figures as suggested by Mark Dudley of http://ilkleyoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Here we see Hodge discussing the finer points of 'Candide' with the author who awaits painting.

Bolt Action - First Units

Got my camera working again and these are my first unit of German Paratroopers . The figures are 28mm and by Warlord . I always find painting figures with camouflage difficult , it's more a question of giving the right impression than being to accurate and there is always the danger the colours blend in together to just give a khaki blob !. Painting the 18th Century is much easier !.

I thought the Americans would be easier - no camo ! , in fact I found them harder to do !. Getting the right shade of paint was hard - Vallejo don't do the exact shade and the painting guide I used suggested mixing colours - which I think I got wrong ! , far to dark - I re-coated them with base paint and tried again , I looked at various colour photos on Google Images and found them all different ! . The trouble with camouflage colours are that they react to light and no two photos match ! , in the end I picked a shade of Khaki that looked about right and went with that !.   

Bolt Action

I'm not a great fan of World War 2 , although some of the first games I ever played 40 odd years ago were WW2  using Airfix figures and kits with Don Featherstone's rules. I have dabbled in Flames of War - Early Desert and although I enjoyed painting the figures the rules are a bit heavy to relearn every time . So when I came across Bolt Action I was intrigued as they looked very simple - using D6 and 28mm figures . I got a copy cheap off Amazon and was impressed by the 'gameyness' of them - very simple but clever mechanisms and the way the squads are activated ideal for solo play . I have decided to build up 2 x 500pts forces to start with , I tend to shy away from the exotic in my gaming so I thought I would do something a bit different this time and have been painting up U.S Airborne 'Screaming Eagles' and German Fallschirmjager . When my camera batteries have recharged there will be photos of my efforts so far !.

New Figures for my O.S. FPW Project.

I have been busy adding a few bits and pieces to my Old School Franco-Prussian War project . Firstly a 21cm Krupp Mortar - this is really for sieges and I think will only be an objective marker in games .

Next the first batch of my Franc-Tireurs , these are Foundry figures, as Spencer Smith don't do them at present . They are a similar size but a bit chunkier , but as they will be in a separate unit this will not matter.

A size comparison. - the Spencer Smith Officer (right) is slightly taller and thinner, whilst the Foundry is chunkier. I plan to 'import' my O.S. FPW bloggings from my now defunked  blog to this one in the future - when I get around to it .

Wargaming Cannibalism

(Originally posted on 05/08/12)

Found a big bag of 20mm SCW figures, mainly Irregular but several other manufacturers as well and melted them all down - now I suspect that there are people out there crying shame ! , but lets face it I was never going to use them . I could have sold them on EBay but could not be bothered and I'm not sure how much they would make , if  I was going to do the SCW in the future I would use some of the newer 28mm figures. So they have been reused into -

These will be the mounted element of Scheither's Frei Korp ,they took quite a bit of casting , cavalry molds need extra vents cutting into the molds, but I'm pleased with the results .

I especially like the trumpeter , have got a couple of Hussar molds as well but being newer more rounded types they are proving harder to get perfect castings from them .

Scheither's Freikorps

(Originally posted on 30/07/12)

One of the problems with buying job lots of molds off EBay is that you sometime end up with molds you would not have chosen to buy yourself. I'm not a great fan of figures firing , I much prefer advancing or marching figures as these look better in most situations . So when I  got a mold with a kneeling and standing firing figure  I wondered what to do with them .

Whist perusing Osprey's 'Frederick the Greats Allies' I came across Scheither's Freikorps which had mounted Carabiniers , Grenadiers, Jaegers and Artillery - a sort of mini army . I decided to use the firing figures as the Jaeger company .

I am planning to add a gun and crew and maybe the Carabiniers but at the moment the camping gas cylinder has run out so further casting is being held up till a new one can be purchased.

Turning Heads.

(Originally posted on 27/07/12)

One of the problems in home casting is the limited variety of  figures , not so bad in portraying the rank and file but things like General Officers are more of a problem. With a purchase of molds off EBay I also received a number of ready cast mounted officers , I decided to try and convert one to add variety.

I cut off the right arm and the head as above , turned the head/throat around and glued it in place , added 'green stuff' filler and sculpted another coat front . I then added another arm from 'green stuff' and a piece of wire as a baton.

Before and after , luckly the Prince August figure is a little 'primative' shall we say so the arm was not to hard to sculpt (would not want to try it on a Perry miniature).

Sorry for the rather blurred photos of the finished item .I also added a waist sash and longer wig to the figure.

Not to bad for a first attempt. May try swapping heads with infantry officers next to add even more variety