Pauls Bods is a blog that celebrates 1/72 plastic wargames figures. Yet it is so much more because Paul as an ace modeller who can turn even unpromising sculpts into fantastic pieces of the wargamers art.
His head, body and everything else swops are inspiring.
He also has a great sense of humour which appears often in his creations.
The headline image is of my own work prompted by Paul’s bods. Taking a leaf from his book I painted some mini art medieval cavalry that were given a searingly negative plastic soldier review.
Here are some posts highlighting the range of his work.
One of my latest side projects is World War Two, like most projects I soon reach for the online supply chain. Lockdown has driven this approach even more.
And to start me off my first purchases were from Hannants and Models Hobbies. These companies have given me great value especially for projects where I buy all I need in one go.
But hang on I was/would be buying mainstream stuff, not obscure or discontinued lines. And this was to be a side track slow burn project. So bulk buys would not be the order of the day.
Then it occurred to me that I could go out of my way, with lockdown easing, to visit real hobby shops.
I also decided my interest would be more early war, ideally more inter war era. Just to make life difficult again, this is not the popular end of WW2. Yet this was a fantasy ww2 happening on Fauxterre so anything goes and flexibility is the watchword.
Ok so far, but hobby shops tend to stock the popular, as in, that’s loads of late war armour with a preponderance of German kit.
And then I had another brainwave. After going through online availability I realised I had a massive choice. I would just buy the cheapest stock available in dribs and drabs.
This random approach really started to appeal. It would also make this project different again.
Such an approach interestingly is increasingly not online (and certainly not ebay) + white van man, despite Amazons best endeavours. Don’t get me wrong, online has been fantastic for choice and it still offers great value and even ebay can give you amazing bargains (the effort required though has changed).
So I decided – cut out the postal costs. I would buy piecemeal and when other activities had paid for my journey.
Then if a shop turned up I would go in and see what was available.
This actually fed my Fauxterre ideas. The opponents are both struggling to resource their forces. The parallel for WW2 is the Russians. They took various kit from the USA, France and Britain before getting their own plants working to meet demand. And the Germans reused thousands of captured kit. Probably the most useful panzer they had early on was actually the Czech built 38T? The Russians also benefited from the US inventions of Christie that ultimately led them to the T34 as I understand it.
So a bit of history bashing and Fauxterre sees two protaganists poorly armed going to war with essentially inter war/early war kit and with inter war mentalities.
Next up was – which forces to use – given I had decided no german kit.
I chose the Russians simply because this whole sidetrack project was started by Charles Grant and his Battle Gaming book from 1977 – a charity shop surprise discovery.
Airfix came up often as the low cost option online and seeing as they had made Russians, the very ones in Charles Grant’s book, so that was it. Only they don’t make them any more and old sets are now online and vintage and with a price to match!
In the shops its allied west or german it seems.
After some wrangling I decided I would stick with the Russians and that led me to The Plastic Soldier Company and their good value sets. The Russians kit would be opposed by American kit with splashes of any other kit I liked, while playing that “buy cheap in a real shop” game.
I have made some progress and here are my first kit builds.
ok the PSC gaz trucks work, venerable bren carrier + 6 pounder is cheap and the semovente by Italeri are good value. The jeep and gun was a failure – I assumed I was getting two jeeps not two build choices – look harder before you leap next time. The mountain gun – well the gun dates from 1920 so its just the carriage thats a bit modern.
Lets see how I get on with this slow burn side track project.
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 cheaper1970’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 day1970’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.
The Wargaming Erratic 