Tag: 25mm

Categories
miniatures painting

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 16

So AHPC16 is upon us – well the 21st December is storming towards me far too fast.

In previous years – well the last two to be exact – first year I started preparing on the 21st way too late and then last year did prepare one primed unit beforehand but held off having a plan before knowing about the themes which then derailed me with a sci fi bug.

I found I was doing stuff (deciding about theme models or simply digging out figures to clean and prime) but not actually painting colour – much before the January deadline loomed into view!

So this year I started my plan in November!

And I have primed some of the planned pieces.

And I decided to ignore the theme and just see what came along.

And lucky me this years three themed pieces have fallen nicely into place within my plan.

Declining Empire should see some planned 1848 Hungarians appear

Childhood toy memory fortunately gets the wild geese treatment from the 1700’s

And rebels hopefully will see some Covenanters appear before the various deadlines

Alas last years failed star of my show might fail to appear yet again. As its anniversary related this is a constant theme – I started my 28mm stoke field armies in 2015……still not much progress ten years on!

And now I have scenery options nudging their way into my plan.

I was hoping to get some more Fauxterre 1930 kit done.

Then there were the 1848 Hanoverians, 1848 Neapolitans, 1700 French Dragoons, 1848 Roman infantry all crying out to be on the plan – the list goes on and on.

Way too much of course for this painting snail, which having done a plan shows so well. It means the exercise has proved its worth already.

However real life is very very busy right now so I might fail on all fronts!

The optimistic wargamer marches onwards……

Categories
1/72 scale figures 20/25/28mm figures metal miniatures wargaming

Scaling the Heights

James Fisher has a fascinating blog on Napoleonics. James asked me about Warrior Miniatures. Now I will say at this point Warrior Miniatures and I go back to the mid 1970’s, however my association has only ever been as a paying customer. So any effusive comments about them is simply reflecting my enthusiasm for their products.

So James wondered about plastics and the metals from Warrior Miniatures which I would add, shown here, are from their advertised 25mm range.

Now I have chosen to show the figures randomly arranged. Previously I have posted with some attempt to show exact height difference. Yet I think that ultimately it is the opinion that matters not the maths. So do they look ok?

First up the plastics – L to R Hat Russian Militia, Waterloo1815 Austrian 1859 Artillery and then Strelets 1877 Russian Artillery. Note thin strelets bases probably make between 1-2 mm height difference. The austrians have been on short rations while the green russians look rather too well fed……….The blue strelets are slightly shorter and as they are furtherest from the camera this is enhanced. unless you game with all troops in one neat row view exactly side on then that comparison is false. So my slightly layered approach is more suited to judging if figures will “mix well”.
L-R Hat Russian Militia; Strelets Russian 1877 Artillery then Strelets ACW Union in attack converted with Hat stove pipe hats and finally Hat Napoleonic Austrian Landwehr
L-R strelets 1877 russians; converted strelets attacking union ACW infantry, Hat austrian landwehr and far right Waterloo1815 Austrian 1859 infantry, again thin strelets bases and they being shorter yet squatter mean they could be easily 2mm shorter. I think it will be fine.
Warrior Napoleonic 25mm range L-R irregular spanish, then a sole British Napoleonic Light Infantryman BN10 I think and finally spanish line troops (these are the standard 4 poses you get with Warrior along with a firing pose. To me they are active and uncomplicated – great for gaming pieces – not so good if you are producing perfect rembrandts
Warrior Napoleonics SN8, SN6, SN9, SN5 irregular spanish infantry
Warrior Napoleonics Spanish SN5; British Light Infantry BN10 – with shoulder pads!; Spanish Line Infantry SN1 and SN4
Warrior 25mm Napoleonics – 4 of the 5 standard poses – firing pose not shown
warrior and waterloo 1815 figures interposed
Warrior and Waterloo1815 figures interposed
Warrior and converted Hat figures interposed (conversion from kepi to stove pipe has added almost 2mm to top of figure)
Warrior and Hat Landwehr interposed
Warrior and Strelets 1877 russians interposed
Warrior and Russian Militia interposed

Just for fun here are some other figure comparisons – I think hinds and caliver books still run these “retro” minifig/hinchliffe lines. I have posted elsewhere the gross sculpture change Greenwood & Ball did between their Garrison Normans and Vikings. I think the bigger more detailed Vikings shown here sunk without trace – while the older G&B figures were rerun for a time into the 2000’s?

1970 era Hinchliffe persian, Greenwood and Ball Garrison Viking, Minifig ECW, Hinchliffe Assyrian and Minifig 7YW french musketeer – minifigs tended to be shorter and fatter
1970’s metals interposed with strelets russians
1970’s metals interposed with Austrain Landwehr Hat figures
1970’s metals interposed with Russian Militia Hat figures
1970’s metals interposed with strelets ACW conversions
1970’s metals interposed with Waterloo1815 Austrian 1859 infantry

Here is another oddity – again a short life production from Minifigs

a persian horseman for the Cyrus the Great era who dwarfs a standard 1970’s minifig horse which was all that was offered then! The figures were completely oversizing the existing ranges when they came out. again I think they sank without trace
I quite liked the figure at the time – but they never got beyond my by then favoured black undercoat and some block painting
magnificant helmet comb……….with skirts – they deserve painting one day……….

Now I have dug out a later 25mm 1700 grenadier – I think its a foundry chap with practically no base.

base starts at 10cm
eyes at 28mm and grenadier cap tops out at 34mm
so how does he match up?
Warrior examples with two 25/28mm figures – the chap on the left is more 25mm but still above 25mm foot to eye.
Bulk is one issue – warrior are campaign figures so half starved whereas most 28mm figures are obviously garrison based and well fed
warrior napoleonics alongside minifigs 7YW musketeer and 25/28mm grenadier
warrior napoleonics alongside hinchliffe assyrian and 25/28mm grenadier
warrior napoleonics alongside hinchliffe persian and 25/28mm grenadier
warrior napoleonics alongside Greenwood and Ball Garrison viking and 25/28mm grenadier. I actually think the vikings cut the mustard in the 25/28mm sector but 45 years too early!
warrior napoleonics alongside minifigs ECW and 25/28mm grenadier

Now some finished and based figures to compare against

Warrior Napoleonics and minifig austrian 7YW very very fat figures – the frei corps figure I hated even painted as it turns out and still don’t like even today. Yet they have done good service on the gaming table.
Warrior Napoleonics and Hinchliffe Bavarians who match well for campaign slightness while height is fine in my view
Warrior Napoleonics and Zvezda 1/72 Great Northern War Russian Infantry in some inexplicable uniform from the mythical world of Fauxterre of course. With thinner bases the Zvezda figures are physique wise taller. Zvezda have produced some significant variations in their historical ranges which puts certain figures in the 25/28mm category
ALL Warrior Napoleonics and their french counterparts with painting 45 years apart! clearly there is a very stiff breeze blowing……
Warrior Napoleonics and Tradition 25mm Russian Guard. Slender style matches and as guardsmen they are just a bit taller to eye level.
Warrior Napoleonics and early minifig french napoleonic line infantry

To sum up, when it comes to height, I have become ever more tolerant and actually it is anatomy which jarrs my view. This is why I struggle with Perry figures – they are just so perfect. Which shows you just can’t please some people.

Some beautiful plastic 28mm Perrys from my stalled Wars of the Roses project with a metal tumbling dice norman (1/72) thrown in

Finally a book which started my wargaming in earnest and is a celebration of fantasy gaming – I kid you not!

This books celebrates fantasy gaming

I leave you with this image from that book – published in 1967 – when it really probably was bad form not to have the correct facings or turnback colours etc. Lawford and Young said “play fantasy” and in the game photos they showed that scale was not a big issue. These look like 30mm figures rubbing shoulders with 45mm figures?????

The lancers smallness is offset by their horse size while the bearskin wearer looks almost 20th century parade dress with a decididly 18th century chap next to him…. who cares….the game was a cracker.

Above all if it looks right to you then it is fine – play* away.

*tournament players will not be so lucky methinks.

Categories
wargaming

Shieldwall

Many years ago, although it seems only recently to me, I bought several titles from the Warhammer Ancient Battles booklist – they included Siege & Conquest – all about the siege; Chariot Wars; the WAB basic rule set itself; The Chinese Warring States and all that plus Shieldwall. A fairly random mix you might say which is correct.

I never really bought into Warhammer or Games Workshop after I returned to wargaming in the late 1990’s. I dropped neatly into 15mm and DBA. The 600mm square tabletop battlefield, relatively small metal mountains that could be painted and a simple ruleset that was popular all fitted my constrained interests and time.

And yet despite plenty of enjoyment 15mm became a compromise and once the restrictions on table size were removed I returned to the idea of 25mm (old style) which I suppose is my roots. Despite buying some 28mm figures that size has failed to ignite my interest.

I have discovered that 20mm/25mm or 1/72 is the figure size that appeals to me: Sufficient in size for each individual warrior, painting repays in the visual look while the table top is of the order 6′ x 4′ or 1.8m x 1.2m which is my limit.

And my 25mm wargaming odyssey has taken me back to the past with 1/72 plastics displacing metals but in the modern style from prolific manufacturers such as Zvezda, Strelets, Hat, Ceasar and the occasional Orion, Mars, Emhar and ok even vintage Revell. But it is not all plastic – tumbling dice miniatures have offered up some really nice figures to compliment the plastics. And so to have SHQ, Newline and Irregular Miniatures.

One thing I have done since returning to the hobby is read and that includes reading rulesets. In fact reading them more than I play them!

You need only one ruleset to play wargames for any one period. So I can’t explain why I have dozens. Yet rulesets are personal statements. In their way they seem to me someones interpretation of history albeit through their take on gaming mechanisms. So they are still history books in a way and thats how I consume them.

I only have historic wargames rulesets – fantasy wargaming is something I left behind in the 1970’s – Sci-Fi I could never get my head round.

And fantasy was for me doing dungeons and dragons in the 1970’s before it all took off. And yet my historical interests have always been tempered by an interest in historical fiction. Not the Sharp novels ilk. More a case of a parallel universe where so much is instantly recognisable yet the story lines, characters, countries have different names.

Each to their own as they say.

Well being inclined to Anglo-Saxons at the moment I dug out the Shieldwall book which I kept because like Chariot Wars it felt like a well researched and back then a well designed package. I never played the WAB ruleset with Shieldwall. Just maybe I might give it a go now.

Of course it is approaching vintage (25 years plus) and oldhammer is probably in the Oxford dictionary as a particular type of old wargamer already.

The constant theme though is to enjoy reading history, enjoy imaginative history and paint miniatures and if with a fair wind play some games. In short it is escapism – taking pleasure in playing with imagination.

Categories
basing

Do bases matter that much?

Do bases matter that much when it comes to miniatures used in wargaming? By current standards they clearly do with plenty of trade offerings available and a wealth of DIY advice online.


Also the preference for elements without individual figure removal permits more imagination to be applied around a base. Perhaps the exception is skirmish gaming but even here you have the option of sabot bases providing the individual figure movement while retaining the convenience of the larger element base which can still be given varying levels of decoration.


My basing journey has been pretty basic. Back in the dim and distant past I painted desert or green paint onto cardboard bases. I still have them and they work after a fashion. The figures are 25mm. They look a bit tired though.


I think this figure is a citadel adventurer from the 1970’s when my painting hand was patient and my eyes still worked! note the ageing gloss varnish.

Then I started a 15mm phase and actually paid for painting including basing. The quality was good but somehow they did not grow on me. They look accurate but……

15mm Essex Byzantines professionally painted with matt finish and understated basing!

I did some of my own and I was even less happy!

And then I caught the plastic fantastic bug and returned to simple painted bases for some 1/72 scale figures.

Zvezda Russian Cavalry cruise past some positively ancient 20mm minifig french napoleonics and giant 25mm tradition russians

In the middle of this phase I moved into 28mm figures and thought they needed something extra. As it happened despite all the wealth of offerings and advice in all the various magazines and books I had collected, I stumbled across the humble warhammer guide in one of their rulebooks – maybe shieldwall – where they recommended simply gritting the bases, basecoating and drybrushing once. Somewhere I found a suggestion to use budgie grit. I tried it and painted it up, except no dry brush, but added some static grass and…… I was still underwhelmed. There is no pleasing some people.

Perrys 28mm Continental Burgundian Pike on DBA bases

I then had another surge of plain painted bases when I reworked more of my old 25mm metals.

You can see them next to the Zvezda Russians above – Minifigs French circa 1972? and Tradition Russians from the mid 1970’s. The bases they replaced were very dark green painted airfix box card – the figures have been transformed in my view, although unbelievably garish – they cheer me up!


And then I decided to do some mediterranean normans. Coincidentally I had watched both British cycling, Le Tour and La Vuelta races and the penny dropped. All my scenic basing had generally used dark green/dark brown earth (or grey brown for 15mm) colours – and I had not recognised why I liked the bright green bases beyond their simplicity. British cyclists rode through dark earth countryside with bright greens but La Vuelta cyclists went through fantastically bright coloured soils of many hues and even with brighter green shrubs and trees on top. (well except in the picos mountains in the north).

So I got my paints out and started experimenting – and so I have now found what I want for my Normans. Well until the butterfly lands on the next flower…..

In my next post I will share the results.