New Toy Soldier Mold

        A while back I had the idea of using Britain's West Point figures for making 1800s American militia units. The cost of original  Britain's figures made using them beyond my means.  I did make a mold of the body, with the idea of swopping heads. Most of the heads I got didn't look right on the body. The idea petered out and I moved on to other projects.

   A few weeks ago I was on an auction website looking for a particular toy soldier mold. I came across an old mold from A.C.Gilbert Kasting of a marching West Point cadet. The mold looked to be in good shape, but it was quite pricey. I resisted for a couple of weeks, before breaking down and buying it. 

    I just received  it, along with one casting of it. I also found a couple of bars of casting metal that I didn't  know I had.  Unfortunately  the basement was flooded by a leak and many boxes stacked in front of my casting area, putting a hold on trying out the new mold.

The new Gilbert West Point mold.

The casting that came with it

My earlier attempt at using a Britain's  West Point figure to make an 1800s American militiaman.

Battle of Five Armies Portable Wargame

     I have tried  in the last couple of months to get a project off the ground, without success.  A couple of weeks ago I brought out "The Battle of Five Armies" from Games Workshop from 2005. The game uses Warmaster rules with 10mm figures. I always liked the look of the Warmaster units, but couldn't get into the rules.

   Fast forward 18 years. On my job I do a lot of driving. I will play YouTube videos (no I don't  watch them) while driving. For two weeks I listened to one poster explain the rules, different armies, and battle reports. One thing about the battle reports was the fact that 4 turns could take up to over 2 hours of play. As time is limited, that would not work for me. I then went on my Kindle and brought up my copy of "The Portable  Wargame  Compendium". In it it has rules rules for " Swords, Sorcery and Squares: A fantasy variant of the Portable  Wargame " by Justin Barrett. I thought these rules could work with the BoFA game pieces. For a trial  game I ended up using Bob Cordreys' Portable Wargame Ancients  rules. 

   My wife went out with one of her nieces  for a couple of hours. I decided to use one base of figures for each unit, as the board wasn't large enough  for  multiple bases. The game at first was going well, but then I started fumbling with the dice that marked the unit's SP. Then the wife came in and started to talk about her night, distracting me from the game. The game fizzled  out, but has me thinking of using individual  figures  to represent SPs. 

The armies deployed. The goblins on the left, the humans on the right.

The goblins slowly forced the humans back.

The end. The goblins defeated the humans, destroying most of the human units. In the end I screwed up with the break points and the game should  have ended sooner.

2mm Wargame

In the last month I not had any time to work on the hobby. Last night I made time to get in a quick 2mm game using my cigar box wargame set up. Terrain was set up randomly, and both armies had 4 infantry and 2 cavalry units.

In the end the red army captured the village, but lost 4 out of 6 units: first side to lose 2/3 of their army loses.

Old Style Toy Soldier Game

Both armies were equal in strength. Both had one spring artillery  piece, along with 2 ammunition  wagons and an ambulance. Any figure hit by a round who didn't  fall over was wounded. He would  have to go to the ambulance, and then could return to the battle.

Both armies deployed  for battle. The red shells were artillery rounds. The cannon could fire up to 4 rounds per turn. The Blue rounds were infantry. They could fire 1 round for every 6 infantrymen. They were only supposed  to  have  12 inch range: in the heat of the battle I forgot that rule. At least I forgot it for both sides.

 

At the bottom of the picture wounded soldiers can be seen heading towards the ambulance  to have their wounds treated. Both armies have switched  to skirmish  order to cut down on casualties.

 

A Semi Flat Artillery Battery

A battery of Semi Flat artillery. 

The battery with a supply wagon with spare ammunition. 

The caisson loaded with ammunition. It will require tweezers to get the rounds out.

 

Guns for the Next Battle

When I got my large order of spring loaded cannons, only one gun was functioning. I thought that maybe the previous owner was a pacifist wargamer who intentionally  disabled the guns. Fortunately  a little oil and gentle  tapping got 8 out of 12 guns working.

After having that much success, It got me thinking how to put the guns to use. I started making ammunition  for the guns using cotton swabs with the tips dipped in paint to harden the cotton. The above picture shows the ammunition  drying.

A quartermaster  wagon shows up bringing a fresh load of ammunition  for preparation.

 

Semi Flats Wargame: Part 4

The Green Jagers are hit from three sides.

They lose four out of six men. However, they pass their morale check.

The Jagers fall back into the protection of the village.

The Blue artillery fires on the Jagers and wipes them out.

The Green army forms a new line and the Blue Zouave Brigade suffers heavy losses. 

However, the Blue army holds firm and the Green army regiments have been decimated. 

The Green general calls for a retreat.

 The Blue army general orders his troops  forward in pursuit. 

Semi Flat Wargame: Part 3

The Green army advances, pushing a unit of Jagers into the town. The Blue army turns their right most regiment to hit the left Green regiment.

The Blue army fire kills 7 Green men.

One Green regiment, that suffered 50% losses, breaks and runs. The 2nd Brigade general is on hand to try to rally the regiment.

The Green army continues  their advance. They move their artillery forward towards the left flank. The Brigadier rallies the broken regiment and leads them forward. The Jagers push through the town and turns to hit the First brigades right flank, carelessly  exposing it's  own flank to the Blue's artillery.

The Jagers fire kills 2 Zouaves.

 

Semi Flats Wargame Part 2

The Green army deploys and advances.

The Green army first volley kills 5 blue soldiers.

In the Junior General rules, any losses calls for a morale check. The regiment that lost one man fails their morale test and starts to retreat. Meanwhile, the regiment that suffered 50% losses holds fast.

The Brigadier of the 2nd Brigade goes to rally the broken regiment. He succeeds in rallying the broken regiment.

 

Semi Flats Wargame Part 1

The two armies march onto the field. Blue army at top of picture, Green army on bottom.

View  from Blues side.

Close up of one of the new caissons  in use.

Blue army deployed and advancing.

This game was just to get a game in. Both sides are equal, with six- 6 man regiments divided into 2 brigades, and 1 gun and crew. Each brigade had a brigadier general and for command a major general with a drummer. The rules used are from Junior General website. 
I have decided to break this report into several posts. Once again, I am trying to get computer problems resolved so I am using my cell phone to do the blog for now.