I have managed to sort out around half of the Bavarians - the easy ones. The rest will require considerable work and there is a regiment of dragoons that will need a complete repaint.
Here are four infantry battalions:
I have managed to sort out around half of the Bavarians - the easy ones. The rest will require considerable work and there is a regiment of dragoons that will need a complete repaint.
Here are four infantry battalions:
The bank holiday provided the perfect opportunity to deal with one of the biggest projects of the plastics revival. I decided to tackle most of the French cavalry. They were in a bit of a state and some needed a bit of repair work and all required rebasing. In all I found nine regiments. Here they are en masse:
Some more figures have been tidied up and rebased:
Airfix British line infantry:
Over the decades our family has accumulated a huge collection of plastic Napoleonic figures. They have been painted.organised and reorganised and repainted many times. The result of all this is that they have been dispersed and set aside as new projects took hold, or they were replaced by metal castings.
As a result of a mistaken purchase, I have decided to centralise all of the figures, repair and repaint where necessary and to use standard basing. The mistake occurred when I was looking for some plastic French cavalry to go with my Les Higgins collection, until such time as I could find some metal originals. I put in a bid for some French Hussars and a few Riflemen that were going cheap on eBay. I forgot about the bid until just before the auction closed and I thought, as I was the only bidder, I should take a look in more detail. To my horror I could see why there were few bids, it was collection only. Luck was on my side, however, as the location of the lot was about 5 miles down the road, phew!
I then looked at the description and realised that it was not just some cavalry and infantry, but a complete collection of over 1,500 figures. My bid of around £20 looked too low but I remained the only bidder and won the collection, which is now sitting in my garage. I am guessing that most other people failed to fully read the description and were put off by the 'collection only' condition.
To cut a long story short I now have an additional massive collection of painted plastic figures and it made sense to merge these with our existing holdings. As most were sitting dormant in attics and cupboards, the rest of the family were glad to shed their figures, no doubt grateful for the additional storage space.
So, there we are. This little adventure has seen me painting and basing hundreds of figures and I thought I would share some pictires as I complete them. First off figures from our original collection, repainted and baed. Starting with some British:
Some Airfix Highlanders:
Airfix line infantry:Revell Rifles:For many a year I have wanted to have a go at English Civil War wargaming, but have been frustrated by the various sets of rules that I have tried. A year or so ago, Bob Black gave me his massive 28mm ECW collection and I felt that it was time to put some figures on the table.
A couple of weeks ago Will came over and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out some ECW rules. I have had a copy of Bob Cordery's book, 'The Portable Pike and Shot Wargame'. It is not really a rule book but more a collection of ideas. Within the book is a set of rules by Alan Saunders, which adapt his own rules to match a gridded playing area. We decided to give these a go.
Will commanded a Scottish army and I the English.
Two similar armies were laid out on an open table, with a single road and a few low hills:
We worked our way through the rules. The game begins by both sides rolling for initiative. If both players roll the same number a random event is introduced from a list within the rules.Norman recently sent me some more pictures from his vast collection of 1/32 scale figures. In this case we have a force of Royalist troops forming a last ditch defence against a Parliamentary assault. I think the figures are mostly from the 'A Call to Arms' range. Very fine they look too:
Parliamentary troops advance towards the town:
Royalist pikemenPhil popped over for a couple of days, allowing us the opportunity to put some figures on the table and to play a game:
The peace and quiet of the tiny hamlet of Piddlington is shattered by the fateful cry, "The British are coming". Unfortunately for Piddlington it has been chosen as an American weapons and ammunition storage site, that has come to the attention of the British commander. He has ordered a small force to go and destroy the facility. Word of the plan has reached the Americans and the local Piddlington militia has deployed and a request has been sent for reinforcements.