New Cavalry Figures for Homecasting

A lot of Johillco cavalry recently purchased for use with my newest homecasts .

I think they are a good match. My first plan was to use Zinnbrigade cavalry, which I still might do.                           However, these figures just seem to fit better as far as looks go.

I am planning to eventually make a mold. I am thinking of cutting one of the figures in                                                        half  and making two molds.   By doing this, it would make for a lighter figure and save on metal.
I have a French dragoon head that I think would work well with the figure.   

No Brain Wargame

      My wife had a late shift tonight, which meant that I had to keep myself entertained. Of course, the ideal use of time would be a wargame. But what game to play? I haven't been working on any one project with a game in mind. While walking the dog, I thought of playing a "no brain" wargame. I have played this game in the past. The first time I played I used several sets of Airfix indians, which were divided into two armies. Both sides got the same number of archers and spearmen. Both sides were randomly placed on a gridded board, four figures to a square. I paid no mind to what figures were put in the squares. Some units had one archer, some three. I rolled my homemade movement dice. Movement was one square. Archers had ranged fire of 2 squares. To roll a 5 causes one figure to retreat 2 squares, a 6 is a kill. Melee combat uses the same roll. If after melee a square is vacated, a unit from the victorious side can advance into that square. It's about a simple game as you can play. It usually turns out to be a fun game. I don't overthink the game.  Hence, " no brain". Perhaps I should have called my blog "No Brainer Wargamer".

The Arab army on the left, the Persian army on the right.

The Persians start losing men and several break and run.

As the game goes on, the field gets a little confusing.

The Arabs start breaking through the center.

The Persians continue to lose more men.

The Arab line becomes clear; the Persian line is close to breaking.

The Arabs finally break the Persian line.

The Persian general finally orders a retreat. 

Both sides started out with 40 men. The Persians lost 24 men, the Arabs only 11.

The Persians had fewer archers than the Arabs. Usually when I play this game I try to make both sides even. However,  this isn't a "serious" game, it's just an afternoon distraction.  And after all, how many armies are exactly equal?

Conversion of a New Casting

Several years ago I bought an odd lot of toy soldier figures and parts. When I got them, there were several heads with different head dresses. While most are 54mm, there were several that seems in the 40mm range. Included is a head wearing a bearskin helmet. I tried this head on some Zinnbride figures, which I thought were a good match. It dawned on me last week that this head might work well with my newest  marching figure. And so a quick decapitation and drilling a hole for the neck, I tried the new head. I think it's a good match and might be making a mold of this figure in the future.

These are some of the converted Zinnbrigade figures.

A closeup of a Zinnbrigade conversion.

Another Zinnbrigade conversion figures.

A new unit of home casts.

The new conversion.

One Hour Wargame Pike & Shot Game

     At the beginning of December I had planned to try a Pike & Shot OHW war-game using some Peter Laing Renaissance figures that Ross Macfarlane, of Battle Game of the Month fame, gave me. They were figures I really wanted to use but I know little of the Renaissance period. After reading a couple of articles about the French Wars of Religion 1562-1598 in old Practical Wargamer magazines, I got the idea of using Neil Thomas' ONE HOUR WARGAME rules. I would base the Peter Laing figures using blue tack on plastic bases. The figures wouldn't be painted, I would just mark the units on the bases.

   The week before Christmas, the husband of the niece we visit in Maryland called us. He informed us that our niece, who had been battling cancer, wasn't expected to make it until Christmas. We left 2 hours after the call. We spent her last day with her, along with her husband, son, and one of her sisters. She went peacefully surrounded by her family. We stayed in Maryland until her service was held. We arrived home the day before Christmas Eve. Life is just starting to get back to normal. Needless to say, I forgot completely about this project. When I got home and went to my work area, I found the Peter Laing figures on the desk. I decided once things calmed down I would get this project done.

   I finally got the figures based, reread the rules and decided to get a game in today. I didn't have a 3' by 3' space, so I used a 2' by 2' board. I cut the movement in half; the bases were half the recommended size for the game so it seemed right to cut the movement in half. I used the second scenario in OHW; the goal being to seize a hill and crossroads.

The Imperial army is on the left, the Royal army on the right. The Imperial army consists of 3 infantry units, 1 unit of swordsmen, and 2 cavalry units. The Royal army has 3 infantry units, 2 Reiter units, and 1 cavalry units. The Imperial army, with only 3 units armed with firearms, want to close quickly with the Royalists.

The Royal Reiter unit, lower right, fires on the Imperial cavalry closing in on them . They score 6 hits, but run out of ammunition.

On both flanks the Imperial cavalry close in on the Reiters, negating their firepower.

The Royal cavalry sweeps down off the hill and hits the Imperial cavalry in the flank( upper part of photo). The cavalry rolls a 5, which is doubled. Along with the hits from the Reiters, they are eliminated.

Closeup of the Royal cavalry attack.

The Royal cavalry swings around behind the Imperial line. The Imperial swordsmen  swing around to attack the  cavalry.

The Reiters  hit the swordsmen in the flank. The swordsmen are overrun.

Closeup of the swordsmen fighting the cavalry.

The Imperial cavalry eliminate the Reiters and turn on a Royalist infantry unit. In the upper left the Royalist cavalry attacks an Imperial infantry unit.

The Imperial cavalry eliminates the infantry unit and the Imperial infantry in the upper center eliminates a Royalist infantry unit.

The Imperial and Royalist cavalry attacks each other in the center of the field.

The Royalist cavalry and infantry defeat the Imperial cavalry and infantry. Only one Imperial infantry unit is left  fighting against the Royalist Reiters.

Close up of the last imperial infantry unit holding off the Royal Reiters. It also shows the quickie basing I did for this game. At this point I called the game. If it did go on the Royalists would have launched a flank attack, which in this game proved devastating.

This was the first time I used the rules.If you have never played the period or just want to try a period out, these rules would be a good start. I find when you play solo games, having some form of retreat rules makes for a more unpredictable game. As for being a ONE HOUR WARGAME, even with the basing of the figures and taking pictures and keeping rosters, the project from start to finish took about 2 hours. I assume that OHW means the game lasts an hour; it certainly lived up to it's name. And if in the future I want a one off game that I don't want to spend too much time on, this would be a good option to use.

New Figures

     I have made a couple of new purchases. One was a lot of Frying Pan & Blanket Amalgamated War of 1812 figures.  There are enough figures to make an American regiment from 1814, if you are using their rules' THE COMPLETE BRIGADIER. Also, there were 12 artillerymen and 9 British infantry. After seeing them I went looking for the War of 1812 Militia figures I have, without success. While looking for the militia, I did find my Minifigs 4.7 naval guns which I had lost. I wanted to use these guns with my Peter Laing figures.

   Another purchase I made was some 10mm plastic figures from a company by the name of Gordon & Hague. They are based figures already painted. They come painted and based already. each base is individually packaged. I did some research of the company. It seemed that after a couple of years in business, the company who molded the figures went out of business. G&H then planned to switch to 15mm plastic figures; however they went out of business. I was getting interested in these figures. However, when they were in business the price of single stands were quite high. In fact I bought 10 stands which with postage cost $2.00 per stand. When I opened them, one figure dropped off the base with no abuse on my part. I dare say that if I want to war-game ACW in 10mm, I will stick to Old Glory figures.

A Gordon & Hague artillery and Confederate militia stand.

An assembled and primed Minifigs 4.7 gun.

The 4.7 manned by Peter Laing figures.

Frying Pan & Blanket Amalgamated British War of 1812 Infantry.

FP&BA War of 1812 American command figures.

FP&BA War of 1812 American infantry.

FP&BA War of 1812 artillery

New Home Casting

British Infantry

22nd New York State Militia

U.S. Army

Another British regiment

Peter Laing Medievals

       While I haven't been working on any one project, I did take a quick inventory of my Peter Laing Medieval figures, not counting the very large collection of Norman figures. The biggest surprise was that I have 45 mounted knight figures, more than I thought I had. I have enough figures to make two small armies. I was also looking through my old PRACTICAL WARGAMER magazines for inspiration. There was a good article on the French Wars of Religion 1562-1598. While I only have the first of two articles, on Ebay someone was selling 4 copies of PRACTICAL WARGAMER, one of which has the second article in it. I bought the lot, although I have copies of the other three issues. Keep your eyes open on this blog if you are looking for copies of PRACTICAL WARGAMER, as I will probably give away the duplicate issues.

     I have also been working on a secret mold and have been having good success in casting with the mold.

The collection of mounted knights.

Sorting out the different Medieval figures.

The unarmored spearmen with shields on the march.