I am still busy cleaning my basement. In my "wargame room" I am boxing up most of my toy soldiers and other hobby supplies, with the idea of going through them later to decide what stays and what goes.
While sorting through a tote, I found another FP&BA painting guide for The Battle of New Orleans, along with an old catalog of their figures, which I thought might interest people.
While I haven't done much with wargaming, I still do look at other blogs and look for figures to buy. I did find some more Frying Pan and Blanket Amalgamated War of 1812 figures. I believe that they were sold in the Fort George gift shop. I have gotten several sets that contain 12 figures that were sold at museum gift shops ( FP&BA sold their infantry sets with 24 figures). I have thought of trying to contact the gift shop to see if they still had more of these sets.
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| The 12 figures that came in the set. 1 officer, 1 color bearer, and 10 privates. |
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On the Duchy of Tradgardland and Man of Tin blogs, there has been an ongoing challenge to fit a wargame into a matchbox. It made me think of what I would do. Man of Tin mentioned Peter Laing knights as one option. I thought that Peter Laing WSS artillerymen with linstocks would make good dueling swordsmen.
However, if one wants a large battle, I think Irregular miniatures 2mm blocks would be a good option. Ideally I think that the user would have to know the rules so it wouldn't be necessary to have a copy of the rules in the box. I could see using a roster system to keep track of losses and maybe a drawn map for a battlefield.
I have used small containers to carry miniatures and dice to use with Mike Lambos solitaire wargame books.duelist. I believe this is about as small as I could go. I do believe a game in such a small box would be best as a skirmish game.
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| The matchbox I used is 1/2" thick. |
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| It is 1 &1/2 x 2 inches. |
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| The matchbox with some Irregular 2mm blocks and a couple of scenery pieces. |
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| the small container I used for Mike Lambos solitaire wargame compared to the matchbox. |
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| Miniature dice would work well for this size game. |
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| The mentioned Peter Laing artillerymen that could double as duelists. |
I came across a nice set of Wollner semiflat marching band. I have been avoiding purchases until I get my first retirement check. However, I have a weakness when it comes to Wollner miniatures, and the seller offered a decent discount so I purchased them. They were marked as being 30mm: comparing them to other 30mm Wollners I believe the are 35mm. However, we are playing with toy soldiers so what's a little size difference?
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| The Austrian marching band. |
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| The bandsmen compared to my first Wollners. The greys are smaller, but who cares? They are great figures. |
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| I will admit, the bass drummer with the miniature horse. Pulling the bass drum was a major reason I wanted these figures. |
One Halloween night I finally got a wargame in. I dug out my Peter Laing Arabs and got a "No Brain Wargame" in. It's not much, but it's a start.
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| The "Sudanese" on top, the Arabs on bottom. |
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| The Sudanese dominated the Arabs from the start. |
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| The Arab army is having their left flank turned. They decide to retreat while they still have an army. |
October 3 was my last day working. I decided to take an early retirement to spend more time with my wife. One would think with all the extra time I would get more gaming in; but no such luck. I have been busy doing work around the house that has been building up for awhile. This week I started cleaning the ceiler, and trying to get rid of 30 years of collecting clutter. I did decide to enlarge my "wargame room". I plan to get rid of my existing wargame table and set up a larger dining table for my new wargame table.
I also have decided to unbox all my books and put them back into bookcases, with the goal for going through them and getting rid of books I no longer need.
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| The current state of my wargame room. |
Last night I opened the Mexican cavalry. There were 15 figures that represent the 1st cavalry, with lances and leather crested helmets. There were also 15 figures with shakos and carbines representing the Mexican line cavalry.
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| The cavalry figures with shakos. |
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| The 1st Mexican cavalry figures |
After my last post, I naturally went to check Ebay to see if there were any new Frontier Miniatures. Surprisingly, there were 2 large bags of Mexican American War Mexican Miniatures. One was infantry, the other cavalry. I know the last time I was thinking of ordering from Frontier in the 1990s, they went to selling mixed bags of infantry or cavalry, where you couldn't order just what you wanted, so I'm guessing these are from around that time. As I'm retiring in a few weeks, I have been being careful on my spending. However, I also figured these figures could be a good long project for me, so I purchased them.
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| The Mexican cavalry |
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| The infantry opened. |
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| The command figures of the infantry set. |
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| The infantry separated. I haven't got a count out yet, as I opened it right before going to bed. |
When I first got interested in wargaming again in the late 1990's, I dug out my old Modelers Mart catalog to order some figures. This is when I bought some Frontier War of 1812 figures. I was also looking at their early Napoleonic figures, but never bought them. I especially like their Sans Calotte figures.
Recently I saw a lot of Frontier French in bicornes. I bought them, with the idea of using the for Napoleon's Italian campaign.
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| Some of my first 15mm War of 1812 minis were Frontier Miniatures. A package of Frontier Miniatures came up for sale recently. It was hard to tell, but from the photos they appeared to be American infantry which I have been looking for. |
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| I won the auction and was pleasantly surprised to find they were the minis I was looking for. Above are two of my originals from 20 plus years ago. They are my favorite War of 1812 minis. |
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| I got 20 in the package, doubling the number of figures. For now I have to decide how to paint them. I am thinking of doing one 4 man unit based on the Maryland 5th Militia Regiment. |
