An Unexpected Christmas Gift from Ian Dury

   I took a week's vacation to keep an eye on my wife; this being the first Christmas that she wasn't able to spend with her mother, after her mother's passing. We have been keeping busy cleaning years of junk from the basement. 

   We returned from a dump run, and checking the mail, found a small package from England. As I haven't bought anything from overseas in several months, I was somewhat confused. However, reading the return address found that it was from Ian Dury, who for the last several years always sends me a Christmas card.

   Once inside, I found his Christmas card (by the way, the BEST Christmas card we got this year), and two Peter Laing "coach outriders" from the Queen Victoria's coach.  In my post about buying the lot that I got the coach in, I mentioned that there was two lots that had Peter Laing Victorian Parade figures, but that I  could only afford one. I chose the lot with infantry and bands. It turned out that Ian won the other lot; which is good to know. Ian is one person who seems to know Peter Laing figures and have answered most of my questions about the figures.

   Ian told me that they were figures that he would never use them, as his coach belongs to the Emperor Wilhelm I! I am hoping they will inspire me to get out the Victorian figures and get a game in soon.

   Once again, I wish to thank Ian for his kindness. I wonder how many other hobbies have such generous members.  Hopefully I can  do the same for him, or other members of the hobby.

The coach with the new outriders. By the way, the "new" blog  page generator is terrible, especially for posting the photographs. They never appear in the order I want them in.

The Outriders, generously given to me by Ian. By the way, this was to be the first picture.

Another One Day Army and New Terrain

     After casting several Peter Laing Guards and using them in a game, I was overcome with the desire to cast more, to be used strictly as "Toy Soldiers".  I cast enough for a whole army to create a "Red Army", and cast several more to round out the "Blue Army".  The Red Army received a paint job of gloss enamel paint. Once agin, the figures were cast, cleaned up, based and received their main paint job in a 24 hour period. Details, such as faces and crossed belts took extra time. At the same time I rebased my 18th century Toy Soldier armies. While painting my figures, I also painted one of my Backyard Wars figures as a member of the Irish Brigade based on the illustration in "Uniforms of the CivilWar 1861-1865" by Philip Haythornthwaite.

   Ian Dury kindly sent me some new  background scenery for my games. I think it will vastly improve the photographs of my games. Thank you Ian, I hope to put them to good use.

The new Red Toy Soldier Army marches out of town. In the background is the scenery that Ian Dury sent me.

The Backyard Wars Irish Brigade.

The Red Army lined up for their first battle.

The Sudanese advance their center.

The Red casualties start building up. The Red Army ended up losing this battle.

Future Projects

     Battle Game of the Month & Man of Tin blogs have given me new inspiration  for gaming. Man of Tin has me thinking of playing more skirmish games. After all, skirmishes happen more often  than set piece battles. As for Battle Game of the Month, Ross Macfarlane plays  games based on various border incidents between the United States and Canada in the 19th century.  I am now looking at early American wars for ideas for gaming. Using the timespan of between the start of the Plymouth colony to the Mexican-American War, there is no end of possibilities.

      At the time I got back into wargaming, I had a great interest in the War of 1812. One reason was the use of militias and the small size of armies involved. I dug out some Minifigs War of 1812 militia that I had. Looking at these figures, I decided to order more of them. They will be painted so they can be used as Canadian or American militia.

Two of the Minifigs Militia painted based on a photograph from Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum in Massachusetts. They have a "Training day" where the village drills their militia.

Two more militiamen in more traditional uniform. These militia figures have great potential for some fun painting.  I ordered 48 march attack militia poses. I should have ordered more of these figures.

This figure I made combining two different Minifigs ECW figures. I want to use them for a King Philips War game. Although the militia used muskets, not blunderbusses, there is an old woodcut that I like that shows the colonial troops with blunderbusses.

The Man of Tin blog had a great posting about the Maori Wars, where there were illustrations using Peter Laing figures from a Military Modeling article.  This sailor figure was among those shown . I had made a mold of this figure a while back. Seeing this article inspired me to cast a few; above is the result. A big shoutout to Ian Dury. He was kind enough to forward me a copy of the Military Modeling  Maori War Wargame rules and history of the Maori Wars. 

New Purchase: Peter Laing Feudal and Dark Ages Figures

Last week I managed to win several lots of Peter Laing Feudal and Dark Ages figures. I am disappointed that I still haven't found my camera to get some shots of them. Luckily, Ian Dury was in contact with the seller, who graciously forwarded photographs of the to Ian. Ian, in turn, has shared them with me. Thank you again, Ian.

These lots added several hundred figures to my collection.

I dare say I believe this is going to put a stop to my ECW game for now. These figures have me thinking of my Hyborian game, or possibly a Crusaders game. Also, these figures go well with my Airfix castle.  They are great inspiration for more wargames.

Hyborian Border Raid

   Erilred  led his tribe of barbarians across the border on yet another  raid.  It took no time for the barbarians to have more than they could carry and they turned for home.  The commander of the border guard, Lord Rigal  gathered his forces to intercept the barbarians.  

The Border Guard is on the top of the page, the barbarians on the bottom.

The barbarians facing the border guard.

The barbarian cavalry on their right hits the guards causing 50% casualties but the unit holds fast.

The border guards inflect heavy losses on the barbarians. Lord Rigal tries to maneuver to hold the barbarian cavalry in check.  This turns out to be a disastrous mistake.

The border guards counterattack against the barbarian cavalry and causes 2/3 losses to them and forces them back.

Meanwhile on the barbarian left they attack Lord Rigal's cavalry and breaks them.

The barbarians continue their attack and eliminates the cavalry and kills Lord Rigal. The  guards have just lost their most powerful unit.

The barbarians are now slowly pushing the guards back. On the upper right of the picture can be seen the barbarian cavalry  attack. They have just caused heavy losses and pushed back one unit of guards.

The cavalry's followup attack they push back another unit.Meanwhile the barbarian infantry start turning the guards left flank.

The barbarian cavalry keeps up the pressure.

The regular guards try to keep the barbarian cavalry from turning their right.

The guards turn on their pursuers and eliminates them.

The guards archers manage to take the woods....

.....and  causes heavy losses to another barbarian unit.

The barbarian cavalry eliminates the regular guards and threatens to cut off the retreat  of the border guards.

Meanwhile the barbarian spearmen defeat a unit of guards archers.

The guards rally and try to push back the barbarian cavalry.

The barbarians massacres the guards left flank and the cavalry turns to cut off the retreating archers.

The barbarians finishing off the guards.

The archers, surrounded, surrenders.

In this game both sides had 9 units; first side to lose 5 units is defeated.  Even when one side loses  5 units, I continue to play until  the end of the turn.  For the guards it was a disastrous turn.  They lost 4 units in this one turn.

I had originally planned to use some Peter Laing Picts that Ian Dury had sent me. However, they were so well glued to their bases that I wasn't able to have them rebased in time for this game.

The rules used were modified Battlelore.

New Semi Round Cavalry and Painted Peter Laing Homecasts

     Besides Peter Laing figures, another interest of mine are 30mm semi round figures from the late 1800s-early 1900s.  Recently there were two lots on Ebay, one of three lancers and the other of three what appears to be mounted infantry. They came in the mail yesterday and was money well spent.

    While deciding to paint recent homecasts in the toy soldier style, it became obvious that my original search for Peter Laings has gone off course.  My main interest was to get a collection of Victorian Parade figures to have table top battles which would look like the pictures in "Little Wars", even if the rules themselves weren't used. With the help of Ian Dury I have acquired several of the parade figures (more than I expected to ever get once the search started) and what's more, he gave or traded many of these figures to me; a most kind act. One of the figures I haven't been able to get was a marching guardsmen figure. For now I will try to convert a home cast British Infantryman with spiked helmet into a guardsman. Below is a shot of an experimental figure. It still needs some work but it will fill a gap for now.  I also completed a mold of the Victorian Parade Rifleman Officer and Bugler in one day; hopefully it will be put to the test today.

    Last is some Marching Germans painted as New York State Militia from the 1880s. Inspiration for these figures wwas a company call McLoughlin Bros. who produced toy soldiers and used German style toy soldiers and painted them as American soldiers. Of course American spiked helmets of the time were more of the British style than Germanic. Still, I think they make good looking "toy soldiers", not military miniatures.

Peter Laing New York State Militia

Another Militia unit forming, marching in review by a formed unit.

Two of the semi round figures recently purchased. The figures I believe are a little smaller than 30mm but of course look the part to support 30mm infantry.

Another shot, showing the mounted infantryman. 

The first sample of a converted Guardsman. For my needs they will have to do.