Thursday 25 June 2020

Toy soldier fun

It all started bout two months ago when I was looking for inspiration and examples for the 42mm project I introduced in my last post, I found a number of lots of 54mm Britains Toy soldiers for sale at  very resonable price. I almost bought a number of boxes, but even at those give away prices, it would have been a serious investment. And then...

I was googling around for alternatives and I came upon Armies in Plastic 1/32 toy soldiers. And then I found a Belgian dealer, good prices and easy on P&P. I needed a plan, other than buying toy soldiers to play Little Wars, or maybe Glossy Coats and Shiny Bayonets style gaming.
Not much worried about the historical context, I ordered some boxes to make a blue/grey army and a khaki/red army. The reasoning was I could paint them in the 70's Britains Deetail style...just the weapons, skin and some details...the soldiers' plastic would be the main uniform colour.


- And so it begins -

Right, step 1 finished. Now I needed some kind of setting to do some mini campaining à la One-Hour Wargames (by Neil Thomas, nice little book, rules might just work for some 54mm gaming). I settled on a Crimea / Balaclava inspired setting where one force is harassing the outer perimeter of a beseiging army. They are the advance forces of the army that is trying to link up with encircled Petropolis. The skirmishes and at first smaller engagements are happening in the Table Valley and Wood Valley. That settled, the brave little toy soldiers need something to fight over.

-Aldi Emmenthaler cut in strips-
-I decided we needed new placemats-
- The gouache pots / placemat gabions being tested for size, I still needed to tease out the top to simulate branches sticking out-     

Looking good I thought...


-I found an acrylic wall paint tester, just about the right shade of brown, to simulate 70's brown plastic toys-

Then  I found some cardboard boxes and made some rough and ready buildings:

-A fort-

-House searching in the village of Valcona, notice green cheese hedges-


And there you have it, humble beginnings.

Now let me share this with you, Paul supported me to restart this blog, only for me to discover that he is way ahead of me. I forgot to ask him what rules he uses for his games. Maybe we should have a game together.

I'm so very lucky to be able to do all this, must keep the momentum up...the armies need to be ready for the grandchildren to play with, granddaughter is three and a half , grandson is minus two weeks, ETA 2nd July...

Happy gaming,

Pjotr

Monday 22 June 2020

Last in, first out


Indeed, let's start with my last finished project, just to get started.

I've always been in love with toy soldiers, especially the old "Little Wars" style castings and also with the Britains Deetail range of plastic soldiers.

I was looking for an original gift for a fellow retired officer of cavalry. The unit he grew up in and where his heart is, is the Belgian 4e Regiment Lansiers (4th Lancers Regiment). Then it struck me: why not paint up some glossy toy soldiers as Belgian  lancers? And the I thought: well, why not present them in a box, as if they where made by some toy soldier manufacturer?

And so I did...

Irregular miniatures German Uhlan Troopers, painted up as  Belgian 4e Regiment Lansiers

In the Britains boxes of four cavalry, you also had a trumpeter or standard bearer and an officer, so I made up those. The officer arm was a bit awkward as it had a hand stifly extending from the arm, so I had to sculpt on a light cavalry sword.

The trumpeter's and officer's horses are different colours from the trooper's horses. Small mistake which can still be corrected: the piping on the officer's chapska should be gold.

The miniatures where finished in Coat d'Armes paint and a coat of Windsor and Newton gloss varnish. The main colours per instructions where royal blue, golden yellow and sky blue. I'm quite happy with the "paint conversion", which is in the spirit of the old toy soldiers.

Next I wanted the box the have that retro look, so I copied the Britain's style boxes. I did however insert text on the inside of the lid, as I thought it would be a good backdrop when displaying the toys.

OOOOOH SHINY !!!!!

TADAAA!!!

I think I just might do a couple more sets like this, just for fun.

There you have it,  a first careful post, maybe the start of a renewed regular sharing of my leasure time activities.

As always,

Happy Gaming,

Pjotr




Tuesday 16 June 2020

Is anybody out there?


Well, is there?

Just checking, I might just fire up The Chronicles, slowly but surely, as more hobby time is created. But then only if someone is listening.

Happy Gaming
Pjotr