New Wollner Figures

I recently bought some new Wollner figures, hoping that they would be 30mm, as one's a General figure and another is a General staff officer. Unfortunately, they are 35mm so they won't work with my 30mm semi round figures.

This Week in Wargaming

It has been a productive week as far as my wargaming is concerned.

I was hoping to get a rather large lot of Britain's "B" series  44mm figures, which would have given me 4 new figures that I don't have. Unfortunately, I lost the bidding at the last second. While watching this lot, I did come across a single "B" series Coldstream Guard figure, which I ended up purchasing.

I also bought a lot of 16 30mm semi round figures; a very nice lot which has me pulling out my  semi round figures with the intention of using them soon. I originally was thinking of repainting them as Austrians from the 1860's, however, the paint isn't in as bad shape as I thought and I'm not sure I can bring myself to repaint them.

I managed to play two games. One I used my Peter Laing Army of Counterpane, the other game I used my Caesar miniatures fantasy figures. In this game, the humans were the evil army, the goblins simply defending their woods.

All in all, it was the most successful week I've had in a few months.

Britain's "B" series Coldstream Guardsman

Britain's "B" series figures.

"New" 30mm semi rounds.

Counterpane Army facing German army.

Among the Counterpane casualties was the hero of their first battle (center with chevron of merit).

Good goblins vs. Evil humans.

Comparing 30mm semi round figures on Heroscape terrain.

Another Painted Semi Flat and Peter Laing Casting

One good thing about my job was I get to listen to audio books during the summer. I listened to a book on Lord Cochrane, who provided ideas for the Hornblower & Aubrey novels, and another about a powder monkey during the Napoleonic wars. These stories inspired me to finally make a mold of Napoleonic sailors that Ian Dury gave me a couple of years ago.  The mold turned out better than normal figures and I now want to work on the gunners to go along with them. If only I could find the officer now!

The Peter Laing sailors. Only two ended back in the pot; one by accident.

Closeup of a painted sailor.

Midshipman Horatio Nelson taking on the polar bear. (In actuality Nelson was armed with a musket).

When I first got these figures, I thought it was an officer holding his sword scabbard.  After careful  examination it is a soldier with his rifle under arm. The figure on left shows the general condition of these figures. The figure on right has been primed for painting.

After: once again a quick paint job.

Repainted Tin Soldiers

      Last year I bought a lot of semi flats from Ebay. When I bought them I thought several of the figures were newly made, as the paint job on them looked new. With the last couple of posting they were examined again and now I believe that they are old figures that the previous owner repainted. This adds fuel to those who say these figures deserve a fresh coat of paint.

   The rubber I use has a short shelf life once opened, and it seems that the most recent batch is past the half way mark towards being useless. I am now in a scramble to use it up. I decided to try a semi flat figure.  I was happy with the result, although the first few casting the head was somewhat deformed, which was caused be a thin flap of rubber at the mold break that I missed.  Unfortunately I haven't taken a photo of them yet as this posting is a hasty one before going to work.

At first I thought these were the same figures, but there are several differences in the pose.

I have several highlander figures, all wearing mini kilts.

One if the big selling points of this lot was these sailors (they would also make good Confederates).

The casing I made was of the marching guardsman. However, I used a figure whose paint job was in bad shape.

I posted this picture, which currently is my favorite semi flat. What I like about it is it  looks to me to be a Prussian infantryman from the 1840's; the helmet seems to be taller than those of the Franco Prussian War and he has the blanket or overcoat roll over his shoulder.

Refurbished Tin Soldiers

After my last post, several readers mentioned if I had any plans to repaint the figures that were in bad shape. I have always shied away from tampering with old figures, but from the sounds of it many people repaint figures that are in rough shape. I decided to try a couple of figures and paint them in toy soldier fashion.

I will admit that after painting these two, somewhere down the line more figures might be painted. I will have to find some high gloss paints that don't dry out so fast.

Tin Soldier Parade

      I have bought quite a few lots on Ebay recently, including a nice set of Schiller 30mm semi-flat soldiers. They arrived yesterday and I found myself going through my collection of semi-flats.

   The new unit of soldiers are Jagers and the paint is in good shape. For such a smart looking unit, they deserved to be welcomed in grand fashion. And so a parade of tin soldiers was held today.

A view of the parade.

This unit of cavalry was bought earlier this year.

A unit of Lancers.

The Guard infantry leads the parade.

Here is the newest unit of Jagers.

Every parade needs music.

The bulk of the Tin Army; the 80 strong Wollner Austrians.

The grey line of Austrians take up most of the line of parade.

The cannon fodder brings up the rear.

More cannon fodder.

Bringing up the rear. In this unit are the first semi-flats I bought. How the mighty have fallen!

The Generals reviewing the cavalry.

The Guards on dress parade.

The Jagers stand by for inspection.

The Austrians on parade.

Another great buy were two lots of Peter Laing Colonial Indian cavalry.

The Jagers return to barracks after the parade.

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.