ALYS TOY SOLDIERS

Tuesday, 12 October 2021

A new project… The War of 1812.

Yes… The War of 1812…

Greetings…

“ How did this come about ?“ I hear you ask..

Well…

The war came about mostly because of American anger at the Royal Navy stopping and seizing ships on the open sea and impressing as British subjects captured crew, even if they personally had proof of their U.S. citizenship… combined with a long standing desire by War Hawks in the American House and Senate to try and conquer the whole of…

Oh!…

Of course what you meant is how did it come about that I have started a War of 1812 project…

Well…

I let my butterfly flutter free for a while…

First it settled on something small…6mm Napoleonics… It seemed like a good idea…you know the kind of thing… big battles in a small space…

But… It was… well… just a bit too small…

Next it landed on something just a little bit bigger…

10mm Seven Weeks War (1866)…

Nice uniforms and an interesting period…

But… yup… still a bit on the small side…

Ooo!…

54mm Britains style toy soldiers in a ‘what if’ 1890’s Anglo-American war…

Now I do like the idea of this…it ticks all of my boxes… but I’m not that sure about building large scale terrain at the moment…

Maybe when I’ve sorted my cellar out and have more room…

This was a bit of a surprise… The 30 years War…

I find this period really interesting… both militarily and politically….

The figures are lovely…

But… I find it really hard to get into pike and shot wargaming… I’m not sure why… maybe I have a phobia about long pointy sticks ( I’m not that keen on Macedonian armies either).

It’s an odd thing really as I always enjoy reading about other peoples adventures in this period…but when I start painting any myself it just leaves me a bit cold… I will try again another time.

Normans and Byzantines in Italy…

I think this will get done it’s a fascinating period full of really interesting characters… what stalled me here was not finding a set of rules that suited my needs… of course there is now a Lion Rampant supplement on the market… so yes… but not right now.

Definitely a yes…

But after The War of 1812.

The least said about this the better…

For those of you who want to know… it’s a push fit limited edition SF 3D Battle Suit… I have two of them.

Move along nothing more to see here… possibly. 😜

Shiny Seven Years War… using Minifigs.

This came close… I even worked out what I might need…

But… I’ve already got a couple of ‘shiny’ projects on the go.. I think I will get these completed first… at least to point of having a game before I start another.

And now…

The War of 1812…

It’s pretty obvious really…😁

It of course helps that I have a reasonable collection of books on the subject…

And…It’s one of my favourite periods…

My plan is to put together a couple of forces for Rebels and Patriots…

I think these rules will work well for a lot of the small scale actions that happened during this war…

Next up…

The first unit…

All the best. Aly

Tuesday, 5 October 2021

Shiny Napoleonics… French 9th Hussars.

Greetings…

Hurrah!… or should I say Hussar!… more shininess.

Another new unit for the shiny Napoleonic collection… this time it’s the French 9th Hussars.

It took me a while to decide which unit to paint… there are so many pretty French Hussar Uniforms.

Looking at the list of favourites I have, I could end up with half a dozen Hussar units in my French army.

The 9th won out this time… It was the brightly coloured Trumpeter that did it for me.

I have however thrown my self imposed period restraints out of the window… I had thought that I was going to stick to a period covering the dates 1812-1815…

But with these 1808 uniformed Hussars this now makes three units that are outside these limits…

Well… it’s more about what’s pretty isn’t it… and they are very pretty…

This unit is made up from second generation Garrison Hussars for the rank and file…

The command are a converted Garrison figure for the Standard Bearer.. A Minifigs Officer on a Garrison horse…And a Minifigs Trumpeter also on a Garrison horse… both the horses had to have their saddles removed so that the figures could fit.

The Elite Company are Lamming Miniatures… I was going to put the Lamming heads on some Garrison bodies that I acquired from the very nice Rob Young but in the end I couldn’t bring myself to decapitate the lovely little fellows…

I think they fit in well enough as they are…

I am delighted with these…they are everything I look for in a Hussar unit… yes that lace and braid take forever but the end results are …I think we’ll worth it.

The Dolmans are… Citadel… Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The Pelisse and Breeches are… Foundry… Sky Blue 21B.

The Braid is… Foundry… Yellow Ochre 4B.

The White bits are… Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh.

The Trumpeter Dolman is… Foundry… Ochre 4B.

The Trumpeter Pelisse and Breeches are… Citadel… Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The Trumpeter Shako is… Foundry… Sky Blue 21B.

As always everything was given a coat of Aly’s Brown Liquid and highlighted with the original colours.

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

The bases are as always...

https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/

The Flag is GMB Designs...

https://gmbdesigns.com/product-category/28mm-range/28mm-range-napoleonic-wars/

There is a fresh Neuchatel Battalion in the works but before that I should have something of interest for those of you that prefer Matte or even Soft-Sheen finished figures…

All the best Aly

Sunday, 26 September 2021

Shiny Napoleonics… Merit Alder trees.

Greetings…

On a nice sunny afternoon last week it sat in the garden and stuck together some Merit Alders that I picked up on eBay….

I wasn’t sure whether to leave these as they came or put some paint on them… in the end I decided to paint them… I think they go better with the way I am painting the miniatures-and now the buildings.

I did attempt to glue them together using No More Nails Invisible… this only partially worked… so they are just mostly glued. I think that they will be robust enough… it’s not like I am going to throw rocks at them.

I think that the trees which are an overall dark olive green are the older ones and the more multi-coloured are… relatively speaking… the newer ones. The older ones are made of a better quality plastic and have less flash… I briefly considered trimming the flash off, but decided that life is just too short for that kind of thing.

Once the trees were all assembled I gave them a good spray of Humbrol Grass Green.

The Trunks were painted with Citadel… Dryad Bark.

The Leaves were given a light dry brush of Foundry… Phlegm Green Light 28C.

Everything was given a spray of… Citadel… Munitorum Matt Varnish.

Three of the finished trees with a mounted officer for scale…

I am very pleased with how these have come out… I will probably pick up a few more as time goes by.

In the comments in my last post, my good chum David Bickley pointed out that the building (like these trees) are not actually shiny…

This did get me pondering…and I like a bit of pondering…

I am more than happy to gloss varnish toy soldiers but it has never crossed my mind to gloss varnish terrain pieces.

Looking back through some of my old books and magazines there would appear to be no one gloss varnishing their terrain…

I think it’s just one of these aesthetic conventions that have always been accepted… I’m sure someone somewhere has done it but it’s not for me.

Mind you I’m not really trying to be ‘realistic’ with my toys soldiers… I’m trying to do something that I like and I find the juxtaposition between the matt and the gloss very pleasing…

The bases are as always...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

All the best. Aly

Wednesday, 22 September 2021

Shiny Napoleonics… My first building.

Greetings.

I have just finished my first building for this project…

It has taken me quite a while to decide what buildings to use/make for this project…

I suspect that I will include some of the ex Airfix buildings that are now made by Dapol…

https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/model-accessories/self-assembly-oo-kits?page=2

But what I actually wanted was something with a European feel…

I have looked at and bought samples of resin, mdf, plastic and even paper… they were actually all fine and good models but the size and look of most of them just did not click for me…

And then I saw these…

https://sarissa-precision.com/products/european-timber-frame-town-set-15mm

As you can see … they are for 15mm figures.

This works well will my thoughts on the footprint of wargames buildings…

For large scale battles I like my buildings to represent a built up area rather than individual structures so for me the smaller footprint works better… and in this case it also has a decidedly old school look about it.

So I purchased a sample to see how it looked…

https://sarissa-precision.com/products/european-timber-frame-farmhouse-15mm

I spent a lot more time painting this than I initially intended as my original idea of just painting it in flat colours looked…. Flat!

So I decided to repaint it more in keeping with usual style…

The Walls are… Citadel… Balor Brown… Which has been give a wash of… Citadel… Seraphim Sepia Wash. This was then dry brushed up with Balor Brown then Balor Brown with a touch of Foundry Boneyard 9B.

The Roof is… Citadel… Tuskor Fur… Which was washed with… Citadel… Reikland Flesh Shade. This was then dry brushed with Tuskor Fur. Some of the roof tiles were painted a lighter shade to add visual interest.

The Timber Frames are… Contrast… Gore Grunta Fur with a touch of Doombull Brown added.

The Chimney Stack is… Citadel… Tuskor Fur… Which was washed with… Contrast Darkoath Flesh and then dry brushed with Tuskor Fur.

The Windows were blacked out using… Contrast Black Templar.

The Frames are… Citadel… Corax White.

The Shutters and Door are… Citadel… Dryad Bark… with a wash of… Contrast… Cygor Brown.

Everything was given a spray of… Citadel… Munitorum Matt Varnish.

(Spellchecker has a field day with these names 😁)

A bit more effort than I expected but I am very pleased with this…

Here it is with some toys…

The base was cut from a 3mm Cake Board.

I shall definitely be ordering more of these buildings…

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

All the best Aly.

Saturday, 11 September 2021

Shiny Napoleonics… French Artillery.

Greetings…

I have finally finished basing three French artillery pieces…

The crew have been painted for a while but I decided to repaint the guns because I wasn’t that happy with the colour of the carriages.

The crew are all Minifigs S Range and Intermediate Range, the officers and guns are from the current (1980s) Range…

Line Foot Artillery…

Line Horse Artillery… I suspect these are conversions… mainly because the heads fell off when I stripped the paint off…

Guard Foot Artillery… There are also a couple of conversions here… the gunners with the portfire and the cannon ball… both converted from the chap with the trail spike.

A couple of dashing Horse Artillery Officers

Come and get it if you dare…

I am very pleased with these, the uniforms are relatively simple-colour wise-but they look very stylish and stand out well… I am glad that I took the time to change the colour of the gun carriages…

The Tunics are… Citadel… Kantor Blue.

The Red bits are… Citadel… Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The White Gaiters… are Citadel… Pallid Wytch Flesh.

The Belts are… Citadel… Corax White.

The Officers Gold Braid is… Citadel … Retributor Armour mixed with some Foundry Ochre Light 4C.

The Gun Barrels are… Citadel… Retributor Armour.

The Gun Carriages are… Foundry… French Gun Olive Green Shade 109A.

The bases are as always...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

As always everything was given a wash of Aly’s Brown Liquid and highlighted with the original shade…The belts were given an extra highlight of pure white and the gun barrels were also lightly dry brushed with Retributor Armour plus some Silver.

There is more shininess to follow…

All the best Aly