A Different Kind of Naval Wargame

    A lot has happened in the last couple of months that has slowed down my wargaming activities. I took a new position at work, which means I work later and have less time to work on my gaming. I also injured my back and was having trouble getting around for a few days. While recuperating I was looking  at a forum on R/C naval combat, where warships armed with BB guns try to sink each other. There is a group forming which is making "steampunk" ships based on Pre-Dreadnought ships. As I have a strong interest in ironclads and Pre-Dreadnoughts this has been a major distraction.  I have wanted to try R/C naval combat for 30 years. So when a R/C war ship model came up for sale on Ebay, I found myself on the spur of the moment buying it. The kit arrived Friday. It has a fiberglass hull, along with the wood for the decks and foam superstructure.  To prepare the ship for combat, it is required to cut panels out of the hull.  It is going to take a little time to get the courage to start cutting up a perfectly good hull.

The model was made by a company called "Skunkworks", which has since this model was sold to another company called "Strike Models".

More 30mm Semi flats

Last week I won two lots of 30mm semi flats. The ads said they were Heyde, although I'm not sure. Hopefully someday I can find a book that has how to tell different semi flats apart. Still they are nice figures. I am disappointed that I missed a lot of Zouaves.

The figure on the left is one of my old figures used for scale.

Painted Homecast Crimean Grenadiers

I found myself wide awake at 3:30 this morning. With 3 hours before I had to go to work, there was time for some painting. So I decided to do a quick paint job on the newest home casts.

Homecast Crimean War Guardsman

In my last post, I showed a conversion figure using a Zinnbrigade and a Guardsman head. Under the comments, Ross MacFarlane mentioned about wanting to make a Crimean period British Guardsman with a coatee. The idea was too much to resist! I took a Zinnbrigade French infantry figure that I had casted for another project and put the grenadier head onto the body. The mold almost wasn't made; the rubber is on it's last legs and I barely got enough usable rubber.

The figure. There were more air bubbles in this mold; I'm wondering if it has to do with the fact the rubber  is at the end of it's shelf life. Luckily most are small and not too noticeable.

The conversion from an earlier post painted, except the rifle.

These are painted with Krylon enamel hobby paints. Now I have to find a source for more of the colors.

Homecasting Takes Blood, Sweat, and Tears

      One of the truly inspiring blogs I go to is Battle Game of the Month by Ross MacFarlane.  Among my favorite molds are the Zinnbrigade line, which are Imperial German figures. Mr. Macfarlane converts these figures to different armies and periods.  Someday I hope to be able to achieve the same results as his.

       I did get some 40mm heads with an odd lot of toy soldiers at one time and made a mold of the heads. I converted some Zinnbrigade figures into British Guards, using the heads. After seeing the latest conversions at Battle Game of the Month, I decided to make a mold of the marching Guardsman I had made.

    The mold was completed, however when making the mold the rifle in the master broke. I tried to position it so when the second half was poured, the rifle would be in the right place. Unfortunately, it moved and the rifle is all wrong. I decided to just remove the rifle at the shoulder and drill a hole to which I would put a piece of wire to represent the barrel. As I was casting, in between pouring I was cutting up old figures to melt down. While doing so I managed to cut a large chuck of skin out of one of my fingers; hence the blood, sweat and tears!

The finished figure out of the mold. The mistake with the rifle is clear in this picture.

One of the figures with his new rifle at the start of the painting process.

The bandage on the middle finger is for where I cut the chuck out. The bandage on the index figure is where I stabbed myself with an Xacto blade while trying to bore a starter hole for drilling out the rifle barrel.

"New" Semi-Flats

Recently on Ebay there was an odd lot made up of mainly semi-flats. At first I wasn't going to bid on them, but one figure caught my eye.

The entire lot of figures.

Another Highlander in a mini skirt!

Most of the figures are of this style.

This one figure seems to be wearing a pith helmet.

This is the figure that made me bid on the lot. Unfortunately there was only one of these.

"New" Armored Forces

       Donna and I finally got to try our new camper out. We only went to the next town over, around 20 miles from home. We did this first to get a feel for driving with the camper, and so we could bring Molly, our dog, along to see how she would behave. If she misbehaved, we could still drop her at the kennel for the weekend. She did very well and should be going on future trips with us.

When we got home there were two packages for me. One of them contained some Tootsietoys tanks, armored cars, artillery, and a truck. Ian Dury suggested on my last post to check Ebay for more Pre- Dreadnought ships.  I found this lot instead. I took some pictures with Peter Laing figures. Although not to scale, for "toy soldier" battles they will work fine.

The tanks.

The tanks with Peter Laing support.

The armored cars.

The Artillery.

The supply truck.

The bottom of the vehicles.

My mobil Command Post with the vicious guard dog on watch.