Dads Army… New Toys…

Greetings…

Alas it is still very quiet on the painting front…

The eye is definitely getting better… And I have been sticking lots of plastic toys together…

I have even undercoated some…

I thought I would post a picture of some very patient figures that I had painted by my chum Mark Hargreaves… They are currently sitting on my desk shouting…”BASE ME”…

Mark has done a splendid job on these and I hope to add more figures to this slow burner of a project…

Eventually I would like to have a little campaign set in and around Nottingham involving places like Trent Bridge and Wollaton Hall…

So here you go…

These pictures were supplied by Mark… I will be posting more once I have them based.

We are slowly getting closer to seeing German Gliders swooping down on Wollaton Hall and Kriegsmarine assaulting the Cricket Ground.. The castle might be harder to recreate 😁

Hopefully some finished figures sooner rather than later…

All the best.  Aly

The Hundred Days… Rediscovered ‘Publications’

Greetings …

While packing up books and magazines to make room for the building and redecorating of the Wargames Room/ Library I rediscovered these…They had somehow managed to slide behind a couple of much bigger books.

I completely forgot that I had these…

They are of course from Almark Publications who back in the day produced some splendid works for the Wargamer and Collector…

I think these must have been produced as a ‘Part Works’…

Their rediscovery has happened at the perfect time and they will come in very useful when I can eventually get back to painting my toys…

I will make a point to look out for the missing issues at Partizan in a couple of weeks…

All the best   Aly.

The Hundred Days… Some Useful Tools and Units Assembled.

Greetings…

I thought I would show you some useful ‘Tools of the trade’ that I have been using while I’ve been sticking lots of plastic toys together…

First up…

Where to put all those bits…

For a while I’ve been using off cuts from the heavy duty liner that was used for tanking out my cellar…

They work okay but it’s a struggle to get anything in that is bigger than an infantryman…

So…

Go big or go home 😁

Half a dozen spray can lids taped together… 

This gives me loads of room… I can put multiples of the same figure in each ‘Pot’ and cavalryman with ease…

It is also a lot more stable… And there are plenty of ‘unwanted’ lids out there.

Next…

Super Glue ‘Floss’…

Okay… It may seem like a daft idea… At first….(Me! Having daft ideas… Whatever next)

I’ve only been using a small amount of Super Glue on this project…But when I do use it I use one of these..

I put a drop of glue on an old paint lid or a coin and use the pointy end as an applicator…

If too much goes on the bit I am gluing I use the ‘Floss. To remove the excess…. “Simples “ 😁

And Next…

My favourite Scalpel Blade…

For me the 15C is the first choice for cleaning up plastic figures… I like the small blade, which makes it easier to get into all those nooks and crannies…It is also good for scraping off mould lines and carving.

The only thing it has trouble with is the heavy cutting… 

I use my trusty Side Snips for that…

Next…

Here’s an Old School Oldie…

Yup!…

Dissolve some bits of Sprue in Thin Liquid Cement…

You are looking for a runny PVA consistency… Put in a few bits at a time until you are happy with the results.

This is excellent stuff for filling in little holes and gaps as well as tidying up where you have scraped back areas a bit too vigorously…

Of course if necessary it can be smoothed out a bit more with some Thin Cement.

Hopefully this will be of some help to someone or maybe even spark off some new ideas and techniques.

Progress wise…

Still not much on the painting front…

But there are now plenty of toys stuck together…

All the best    Aly…

Hmmm!… I should really try and be a bit more consistent with my box naming protocols.🤔

The Hundred Days… All Twelve French Imperial Guard Engineers.

Greetings…

I thought I would post a shot of all twelve of my Engineer conversations…

As I have already said..I am very pleased how these have come out… and I am looking forward to getting some paint on them…

The converting/assembling continues at a reasonable pace so hopefully more photos soon.

All the best   Aly

The Hundred Days…. French Imperial Guard Engineers.

Greetings…

Here are a few more simple conversations…

French Imperial Guard Engineers…

These are made from FN250 French Napoleonic Infantry Battalion 1807-1814… with Carabiner heads from… 

FN 120 Plastic French Napoleonic Heavy Cavalry.

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product-category/plastic-ranges/box-sets/

The plumes were sculpted from Green Stuff…

These will be a 12 man unit when they are finished… 

They were brigaded with the Marins of the Guard which I think are doable if I stick to the campaign uniform.

I am very pleased with how they have turned out… Another simple but effective conversion.

All the best   Aly

The Hundred Days… Getting Stuck In.

Greetings…

With my Blepharitis still make it difficult/uncomfortable to paint toy soldiers…They did say it could take a while to clear and I should be patient… Sigh!

I have decided to spend my time sticking plastic figures together… Which is actually something I wouldn’t normally enjoy…But needs must.

I have actually managed to stick together a lot of Victrix Rus and Islamic cavalry (Being used as Khazars) but I have yet to take any pictures of them.

So here we have some Hundred Days “period” miniatures that I have also been doing.

First up… Some French 3rd Infantry Regiment 1815…

Against regulations it appears that the 3rd’s Flank Companies continued to wear Cords and tall Plumes with their 1812 Bardin uniforms up to 1815.

The figures started life as Perry Miniatures FN100 Plastic French Napoleonic Line Infantry with heads taken from FN250 French Napoleonic Infantry Battalion 1807-1814…

A little bit of sculpting was done to create the 1812 Shako Plates…

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product-category/plastic-ranges/box-sets/page/2/

A simple and quick conversion which should look really nice when they are eventually painted.

The finished unit with four additional skirmishers…

Once finished the toys are stored in a labelled freezer carton… Surprisingly organised for me.

This is them undercoated and waiting patiently for paint…

I have stuck quite a few units together ( Napoleonic, Rus, Khazars and even some ACW) now and once they are photographed I shall post them and attempt to explain how they were created.

Despite my misgivings about sticking plastic figures together I have really enjoyed this…

The choice of plastic Napoleonic figures out there is quite dizzying.. Sadly no Dutch/Belgians or Nassau as yet…

The eye is improving (slowly). I have started basing some figures and I have a Rus test figure waiting to be photographed…

All the best   Aly

From my side of the table… The French in Egypt and the Fog of War.

Greetings…

Last week myself, Adam, Matthew, David and Michael gathered at Alan Perrys house for a wargame set during the French invasion of Egypt…

Michael, Adam and Alan took the part of the French…

Matthew and David were the British…

While I took the Turks… My choice of commanding the Turkish force was down to a couple of reasons…

The main one being that I am still suffering from a flair up of Blepharitis which has made the vision in my right eye somewhat fuzzy…  Hence the Fog of War reference in the title.

The Turks were in defensive positions so all I really had to worry about was the enemy to my front .

Also the Turks are very pretty…

I was to hold out as long as I could against a large French force while the British marched to my rescue.

The field of battle…

I was defending the (slightly incomplete) fieldworks at the top left of the table and a smaller fort with a big gun on the little island…

My brave defenders watch on as the sappers try and finish the defences… Wondering what that big cloud of dust is on the other side of the town… And wondering where their British allies are.

Eeeeeeek!

That was a bl*#@y big dust cloud… And fast moving…

I must say though… They are also rather pretty.

The French cavalry came charging down the Waddi hoping to sweep away my Well Below Average Light Horse…

They didn’t….

On the other flank my Mamelukes didn’t do so well…

Basically the dice gods took against my left flank…

The incredibly brave action by my Well Below Average Light Horse gave the Heroic if a bit Slow British time to advance…

Unfortunately the French kept advancing as well…

Meanwhile on the island….. 

Hmmmm…

Apparently these guys are really good…Just who you would want to defend your little island against the French hoards…

Wherever they might be…

My well defended Island/Fort allows more glorious British troops to land in safety from the unseen French hordes…

Yup!…

I know where the French hordes are…

Point blank artillery… In the face… And guess what…

Yup!…

I missed…. Sigh!

My brave men made a tactical withdrawal…

Go Away! ….

My new position proved to be quite good for a while… A number of French units came a cropper charging through the gap in the earthworks…

Sadly not enough…

The Glorious British have now landed in force…

But there seems to be endless numbers of French….

My pretty boys hold out for a bit longer…

But…

Unfortunately the casualties add up… And it’s ‘ Run Away’ time all of a sudden…

On the other side of the table/battlefield/ fuzzy vision the British do quite well…

In the end I would say it was a ‘bloody’ draw…

I held the French off for as long as I could… Sadly the British were too slow to save me but just fast enough to catch the French right flank and put the boot in…

It was a lot of fun… Even with the fuzzy vision.

I don’t think Adam and Matthew had ever seen so many toy soldiers in the one place so they were delighted.

All the best    Aly