War of 1812 Project

      In the last few months I still have done little with the hobby. I go to the basement to work, but quickly lose interest.  I finally figured out that part of the problem is the work area. There is no natural light where I work. I decided to make a tray to carry my projects upstairs where there is more light. The project I wanted to start is two  War of 1812 armies, using Scruby N Gauge British infantry for both armies.
    I decided to prime the figures black, then dry brush the primary colors on. The first unit was an American infantry regiment (which I painted in the basement). Yesterday, after work, I used my new tray and brought my paints and primed figures onto the deck. It was a beautiful summer afternoon and before I knew it, had 3 British regiments almost completed.

First Scruby N gauge War of 1812 American Regiment

My outdoors work area.

The British regiments on the paint board.

Dry Brushing Miniatures

       In a recent post on Battle Game of the Month, Ross MacFarlane painted some Scruby N gauge figures. As I recently bought a large lot of Scrubys, this post was of great interest to me. When one looks at Ross's paint job, you can't help but be impressed with his work.

    In his post he mentions that he primes the figures white. While on vacation I brought some of my N gauge figures to paint if I had the time. All I did do was get a coat of white primer on them.  In the past when working with smaller figures (15mm and under), I would prime them black then dry brush the colors onto them. With the painted Scruby's they seemed to have have been primed in white, and that's the way I figured I would continue with them. After putting on the primer, I realized just how many spots I missed. It started me thinking of going back to black, as it is easier to see spots I missed.

   I decided to try a few to see if priming black and drying brushing on the main colors. For me this is the best option. I don't have the skill to do the fine detail painting Mr. MacFarlane did with his figures.

The 6 figures on the left were already painted when I received them; the 6 on the right are the figures I primed black then dry brushed on the colors. I find this system easiest for me.

No Brain Wargame and Scruby's on Parade

  On Sunday the wife went to a bridal shower, giving me a couple of free hours.  I decided to get at least one game in. As the game was going to be a "No Brain Wargame", it was going to be played with no report. The armies used were the small Chinese game pieces. As there are no archers with these armies, cavalry was used to add a challenge to it. It was strictly a melee game.

The end of the No Brain Wargame. I wasn't going to report on this, but at the very end a green cavalryman attacked the orange king. I decided to shoot the result of the attack.

The result. The king is killed.  If the king survived, the surrounding orange infantry would come to his aid, or he could have battled the cavalryman himself (or retreated and lost the battle).

The green army watches as the cavalryman is rewarded by his king.

While picking up after my "Battle of Hook's Farm", I took some photos of the new Scruby's  to see how they work with the 2" squares and scenery. I am quite happy with the result.

Rebasing Scruby N Gauge SYW Figures

     Being Easter weekend, I have three days off. My wife went off to the picket line, so I decided to get some hobby work done. First was to cast some Zinnbrigade cavalry figures, to see how well they would match Britains 40mm figures.  While waiting for the metal to cool, I cleaned the area around my workbench. Recently I haven't been able to move my chair because I keep stacking various projects on the floor around the table. I got the figures cast that I wanted and my work area cleaned.

   The next project was to try to rebase one unit of the Scruby N gauge SWY figures. I wanted to see if an idea originally planned for my Minifigs would work with these figures. The regiment would be of 12 figures, 3 figures to a base. On one base the standard bearer would be placed on the right side, so when in line the flag would be close to the center.  I was happy with the result; so much so that I took the painted figures off the bases they were mounted on and then started remounting more than planned.

    I find that I really like the looks of the N gauge Scruby's. So much so that I am thinking of ordering some of the ACW line to use with Battle Cry.

The Scruby's on their original bases. I personally don't like thick bases.

The Zinnbrigade cavalry next to Prince August Brave Toy Soldier figures.

Some of the newly mounted Scruby N gauge figures.

The first regiment of Scruby Austrians.

By the way, the Peter Laing GNW armies are almost complete. All that is needed is to complete the generals, and I want to make a couple of Cossack units.

Peter Laing Great Northern War Armies

      While looking at the Man of Tin blog, on the September 5, 2016 post I came across some photographs of his Peter Laing Marlbough figures. Among them he had a very nice Peter Laing powder cart, A113.  With my current interest in trying to work my wagon collection into my games, this little beauty got my mind racing. I decided to postpone the Napoleonic Minifigs project and start work on one that I've wanted to do for a long time, a Peter Laing Great Northern War project.

     BORE WAR-NING!  One of my earliest Peter Laing collections was a very large War of Spanish Succession lot. Over the years, I've had several plans for these figures, but could never commit to any of them. Besides the usual WSS armies, there were imagi-nations and the Great Northern War. The GNW had much going for it. Both sides had colorful uniforms, the armies were smaller compared to Western Europe, and it seems to me that there weren't as many sieges and more battles. Also, there were other countries that can be built; Saxon, Poles, and Ottomans to name a few.
    In May of 2016 I have a posting of two  Peter Laing SYW armies I painted up for use with Hold the Line rules and scenarios. These figures I painted up simply: Austrians in white with their dragoons in green coats and red pants, the Prussians in blue coats with white pants and their dragoons in light blue coats and yellow pants. I did this with the intention that if I did decided to do a GNW project, it would be easy enough to repaint these figures. The Prussian infantry would only need their pants painted yellow and they would be Swedish infantry. The Austrian dragoons, with their green coats and red pants, would work for Russian cavalry. The Austrian infantry conversion to Russian would need more painting ,with their coats being painted green and pants red. The Prussian dragoons would only need their coats painted darker blue to become Swedish cavalry.  This actually worked out well and I quickly had the majority of a Russian army painted and based; the Swedish need a few more figures painted but even now I have 4 Swedish infantry and 1 Swedish cavalry units painted and based.

The Swedish army based. There is some detail paint needed.  Both armies will be based on the army charts in One Hour Wargames. Each army will have four infantry, two artillery, two cavalry units to choose from. Instead of "skirmishers", they will have grenadiers, which will have an extra base. However, I am planning Cossacks for the Russians, that might take the place the grenadiers.

The Russian Army.

It was a good time to compare the Scruby SYW figures to the Peter Laing WSS figures.  Ross Macfarlane was right that these must be Scruby's N gauge figures.

Scruby cavalry compared to Peter Laing.

Scruby 12/15mm Seven Years War Figures

      When I first got into wargaming 20 years ago, I had read both "The War-game" by Charles Grant and "Charge!"  by Peter Young and J.P. Lawford. Of course, I then wanted to form SYW armies. Among the figures I was checking out were Jack Scruby recasts in 15mm.  In the end I went with 1/72 plastics.

     During one of my Ebay searches a large lot of Scruby SYW recasts popped up. It was a "Buy it Now" sale, and for the amount of figures, a very good price. I spent several hours going back and forth on wether to purchase it (I was really hoping one of the other people watching would buy them).   In the end I bought them and received them this week. This is one of those, "project for another day" purchases.

   The amount of figures according to the seller is: 400 infantry, 100 grenadiers, 60 flag bearers, 60 sergeants, 50 drummers, 50 light infantry, 50 cuirassiers, 50 dragoons, 50 hussars, 18 cannon, 50 gunners.   The seller referred to them as 12mm/15mm. They are on the small size; however I really didn't compare them to any other figures yet.

Some painted samples of the Scruby figures. The lot came with some painted figures  of cavalry, infantry, and artillery.  I also got a rather sizable pile of MDF stands. 

Unfortunately the photos are out of focus. They are nice generic figures. It looks like the collection was a project that never got off the ground. Hopefully I will have better luck with them.