Tag: 1/72 Zevzda plastics

Categories
metal miniatures wargaming

1970’s and all that

Grognardia has been running a series of posts on 1970’s roleplaying which have prompted my memories of encountering D&D.

His post showing the No7 edition of white dwarf took me back 5 decades to that moment when D&D took off – well arrived in my backyard.

It has meant I have dug out some pictures of my historical figures of that time.

1970’s Ral Partha Knight – my 12th century army that never happened

I play fantasy historical anyway – this theme has a long history and I could say my introduction was Charge or How to Play Wargames where the “tailpiece” exhorts all gamers to abandon thoughts of modelling real units. In fact there is an allusion to Charlotte Bronte and her brother and their fantasy stories.

In fact I think my influences were in the 1960’s – airfix soldiers, my mates playing with the US union troops against the British 8th army! well thats all we had! Then I had a magazine called Ranger (later Look & Learn) which typically in those days offered children a whole range of articles although mainly science and history as I recall. Nestled in there was a cartoon strip in colour called tales of the Trigan Empire. Pseudo Roman soldiers armed with ray guns and swords complete with monsters and a little magic meant I had no compunction about twisting history when it came to gaming with model soldiers.

1970’s 5th Edition WRG with 80mm x 60mm large bases decades before IMPETUS!!!!! element basing with no figure removal was happening even then……..
1970’s Regal Hinchliffe 25mm Persians to be admired mainly because minifigs were cheaper
1970’s 25mm Garrison Vikings – came in at almost small 28mm causing grief in the 20-25mm world and having no match with the other garrison ranges either!
1970’s more unfinished hinchliffe as in 40 plus years in undercoat…………..
1970’s billy no mates – a complete george gush rules minifig ECW unit – their brethren lie unpainted in store to this day
1970’s minifigs hussars, lancers and cuirassiers napoleonic cavalry
Fantasy Zvezda 1/72 Great Northern Wars rub shoulders with Minifig 25mm 7YW Austrian Grenadiers and Musketeers plus some Warrior 25mm French Napoleonic Grenadiers

Finally 25mm Minifigs 7YW Austrian Free Corps rub shoulders with Warrior 25mm Napoleonic French, Tradition 25mm Russian Guards, Hinchliffe 25mm Bavarians, Minifigs 25mm 7YW Grenzer, 1/72 Hat Napoleonic Austrian Grenzer and finally some early Minifig french napoleonic infantry of the very slim variety.

Categories
wargaming Wars of Louis XIV

Not just infamy being launched!

As much as I like too fat laddies productions and no doubt infamy will get the thumbs up, other manufacturers and scales are doing business.

Minairons have just dipped their toe in the 1/72 scale market. It is a test of the customer base and unlike kick starters you could say this is a rolling start production even if the roll is barely perceptible to start with.

They have opted for the back end of the baroque, or great northern wars or malburian or as they have called it – the war of the Spanish succession.

Starting with some skirmish troops their low key announcement showed the figures contrasted with the splendid zvezda great northern war swedes.

These look fantastic and very tempting……

Categories
new additions

1/72 Reinforcements

These figures are quite slight and in soft plastic so we shall see hwther they paint up well and fit with my other forces for 11th century Italian Wars

So some more 1/72 reinforcements mainly early medieval for my Normans in the South project which will at some point include Byzantines.

Byzantines are sadly lacking in 1/72 so I will have to do some conversions of late romans and el cid HAT ranges.

Lets start with an odd one out!

These grenadiers of Louis XIV are a nice set and will complement my great northern war Zvezda forces
These are all either going into my late roman war forces or just maybe will be reworked to make late byzantine cavalry which are few and far between
back covers of 1/72 Medium and Cataphract Cavalry by Hatt
I already have quite a few of these two sets and it does not hurt to have some spare when your building 11th century european armies of any type.
Not as good back cover art as Zvezda although they show what you actually get in one case. somehow the unpainted figures promise more which is a bit unfair as the painted box art must be at least 10 years old at a time when strelets had nowhere near the resources of a company like Zvezda
These are great figures and I look forward to painting them. some will make it into my planned Varangian Guard unit for my Byzantine 11th century force.
The Zvezda back of box pictures of the painted figures just cry out to be bought. The animation is fantastic although better suited to loose and open fighting rather than showing a shieldwall
These figures are quite slight and in soft plastic so we shall see whether they paint up well and fit with my other forces for 11th century Italian Wars
These are currently my best bet for building forces of Byzantine Cavalry around the 11th century. I can’t use all of them and the horse fittings look a bit suspect.
Categories
Wars of Louis XIV

Sun King Distractions

So Barry Hilton advertised some back copies of 2nd Edition Beneath the Lily Banners. So i bought a copy which arrived very promptly – thank you Barry
I am so tempted to dust off some of my Zvezda 1/72 plastic Russians for a test drive of these rules. But then that would do serious damage to my Dark Ages project. So maybe another time for these old school style based chaps!