One reason I have an interest in Peter Laings is the line of Victorian Parade figures, which I thought would be good for table top "Little Wars". Finding figures proved to be harder than I thought.
In my search for figures I came in contact with Ian Dury, who collects Peter Laings. Over time he has kindly given me some of his spare Peter Laings, and rarer ones he has loaned me to attempt to homecast. One of the figures was the Victorian Parade British infantry in spiked helmet marching, one of my most wanted figures. Getting the figure and actually getting a somewhat usable figure was another matter. It took three tries before I finally got a usable figure.
With my last couple of posts, I showed some militia uniforms of the 1800's. I figured that this figure would be prefect for these uniforms. They would also be good for "Imaginations" armies. So I gave 3 of them a quick coat of paint; one painted as a traditional British soldier, the other two as American militiamen. By the way, the "quick paint job" is the way I paint most of the time.
If you look at the cigarette cards, the militia helmets look more like German helmets than British. However, the regular U.S. Army helmets of this period were more along the line of British helmets than German. I do believe that it would be the same for the militia.
Considering how fine (as in small, thin) the originals are, I've think you've done a very good job on these. The painting is the style they were designed for I think.
ReplyDeleteI have trouble picturing these being used for real Little Wars but they would seem ideal for some form of portable wargame or Little Wars on a grid (or a Hearts of Tin game for that matter).
-Ross
Thank you for the compliment about the figures. I like the lack of detail on these figures as they look more like old Britains and don't need to painted with super detail.
ReplyDeleteAs for the table top "Little Wars" I was thinking more along the line of having the look of the illustrations, although a spring firing 4.7 naval gun in 15mm might be fun. When I do manage to get a game in I usually use Bob Condreys Portable Wargame or Memoir of Battle, with minor changes. I will have to check out your Hearts of Tin rules. I like grid wargames; as a solo wargamer it helps "keep me honest".
Hi John - I think those look really good, and very like Peter's originals. I don't think I can add pictures to my reply, so I am sending a quick picture to your normal e-mail of some of mine, painted as Hesse Darmstadt infantry of 1870 (they had a taller Pickelhaube than the Prussian standard one, apparently) - please feel free to add here.
ReplyDeleteRoss - I now use my Laing 1860s/70s armies for Portable Wargame a lot these days - if you look back in Bob Cordert's "Wargaming Miscellany" to April 2011, you will see a picture of the PW terrain I built and took to Salute as part of the Continental Wars Society display - with my Laing figures.
If you like them, there are more pictures of my figures on the link below:
http://ozwargaming.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4404
PS - the US militia piece was fascinating - sparked my interest....
Ian M Dury
Ian, Thank you for the photos of the Hesse Darmstadt infantry. I will try to get them up on my next post, along with some more of the militia cards. I missed out on a good lot of them this weekend. The German figures would probably work for this period, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the mention of your wargame terrain on Wargaming Miscellany. I have been thinking of trying to work on my wargame board and terrain and seem to remember that you set up is where I wanted to go with my table top terrain.
John