More Testing Times…

Greetings…

Here are a couple more colour tests…

The first is of course the Hanoverian Light Infantry…

This has come out very nicely… There was always going to be a risk that it would be a bit dark but I don’t think it is…so hurrah!

The second lot of  are North Star 1672 figures…

I only have a few of these and when I came across them the Butterfly said “ put some paint on them “ so I did…

I painted them as a Danish Fyn Regiment Pikeman, a Swedish Dal Regiment Junior Officer and a Swedish Halland Regiment Musketeer…. All from the Scanian War.

I am rather pleased with the results…but I will not be adding any more at the moment as I have shiny little people to get on with…

All the best… Aly

Shiny Napoleonics… W.I.P.

Greetings…

As promised here is a W.I.P. Photo of my next Shiny Napoleonic unit…

They are (going to be) the Hanoverian Light Battalion Luneburg.

I was rather taken by this unit when I first saw it…Riflemen colouring but with the added interest of shoulder rolls and a Belgic shako.

The musician also has red shoulder rolls and shako cords.

The figures I have used are mostly Minifigs Intermediate BN1… British Infantryman Running.

It’s a rather nice active position…

Shoulder rolls and a few other repairs and adjustments were made with Green Stuff.

As can be seen… I could not get all of the original paint off the figures… What you see are the results of  one soaking in Dettol and two in Bleach… At this point I decided that life is too short and ended things there…

If I ever find out what the paint was/is I shall use it on the exterior of my house as I suspect it is Weatherproof/ Radiation-proof  and possibly Bulletproof …

These will be undercoated tonight…

There will no doubt be some more re - based Romans on their way as well.

All the best.  Aly

And an other Re - Based unit…

Greetings….

Here is yet another Re- Based Late Roman unit….

Once again… They have had new spears and a little bit of sprucing… Mainly to repair damage that I caused 🙄.

I think this lot have a bit of a Germanic feel to them (Don’t ask me why… they just do😁)… So I think they could be Romans/German Auxiliaries or Goths.

I’ve just finished prepping a new Shiny Napoleonic unit… I should get them undercoated tomorrow.

I will take a W.I.P. Photo…

All the best   Aly

Late Romans… Yet more Re-Basing…

Greetings…

Here we have another batch of my Re-Based new Late Romans…

Most of them have had a little bit of a spruce up and new spears…

The Command group was put together from a couple of spare figures… Something my friend David Bickley does… So quite in keeping with this collection.

Some of these will work well as Romans or Barbarian/Goth types and one unit will certainly work nicely as Romano - British or Romano - Gaul.

There is another batch being worked on and I have been prepping something shiny…flutter flutter 🦋.

All the best.  Aly

Pyrrhus of Epirus…Oscan/Samnite Infantry.

Greetings…

The Butterfly has fluttered on to a little project I started about a year ago…

Pyrrhus of Epirus… 

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2025/02/pyrrhus-of-epirus-first-epirote-phalanx.htmlALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Pyrrhus of Epirus… The first Epirote Phalanx

This time we have a unit of Oscan/Samnite Infantry…

This is a very versatile unit, and can be found in most armies of the period and not just those of Pyrrhus.

As Pyrrhus fought Rome, Carthage and Hellenistic Greece I intend to eventually expand to cover all their forces…

The figures are Crusader Miniatures… Available from North Star…

https://www.crusaderminiatures.com/list.php?cat=1&sub=40&page=1Ancients - Ancient Oscans - Crusader Miniatures

The Tunics are… Warpaints… Dragon Red and Tidal Blue.

                             Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh.

With contrasting edging…

The Shields are also… Warpaints… Dragon Red and Tidal Blue.

With a Foundry… Buff Leather 7B… Edging.

Everything was given a wash of Aly’s Brown Liquid and then re- highlighted with the original colours.

The paints are Citadel,Warpaints and Foundry…

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

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint-setsPaint Sets – Wargames Foundry

https://thearmypainter.com/en-gb/collections/warpaints-fanaticWarpaints Fanatic | Premium Acrylic Paints for Miniatures – The Army Painter 

The Bases are as always Warbases…

https://warbases.co.uk/

I am very pleased with this colourful little unit…There will certainly be more.

I am trying to clear a backlog of started and half finished units so the Butterfly will be getting a lot of exercise 🦋🦋🦋.

All the best.   Aly

Late Romans… The return of Re-Basing.

Greetings…

Some of you may remember that a couple of years ago I bought some Late Romans from my friend David Bickley…

These were all re-based and spruced up a little bit…

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/search/label/Late%20RomansALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Late Romans

Well… I have bought some more 😁… Also from David.

The figures to the top of the picture ( With square cornered bases) are the latest acquisitions and the ones at the bottom (With round cornered bases) are the previous acquisition.

Do you think I have enough?

Personally a few more Huns and Goths wouldn’t go amiss 🤔🙀🤣…

Here are the first two new units…

Archers (Skirmishing) and Legionaries….

These just had a few chips touched up, a light wash of Brown Liquid on the armour and a new Draco Standard for the Legionaries.

And of course new bases…

Not sure what’s next…(Apart from re-basing) The butterfly is still calling the shots 🦋🦋🦋.

All the best.  Aly.

Shiny Napoleonics… Plastic Hedges and Walls.

Greetings…

While having a FaceTime conversation with my friend David O’Brien ( apparently a third of all wargamers are called Dave/David) I was bemoaning the fact that I couldn’t get hold of any Merit Plastic Hedges….

David immediately disappeared from view… And returned with a sizeable bag of Plastic Hedges.

“ You mean like these”

“Yes”

“I will get them in the post”

What a splendid generous fellow 😁.

The package arrived…And…Wow!

A positive Bocage of Hedges…And Walls.

Certainly more than enough for my needs 🙀

Here is the first ( test) batch that I painted.

I decided that I would mount them on MDF bases and paint them in the same way as I painted my Merit trees…

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2021/09/shiny-napoleonics-merit-alder-trees.htmlALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Shiny Napoleonics… Merit Alder trees.

The finished hedges in situ…

I am really pleased with how they have turned out…I of course have a few more to paint… I may vary the shade slightly with each batch.

Thank you very much David.

All the best.  Aly

Tintin… A Bordurian Armoured Car.

Greetings…

The Butterfly decided it wanted to see a nice Bordurian Armoured Car…

So here it is…

The vehicle is actually a Daimler DZVR Schupo - Sonderwagen 1921…

Painted a simple Blue-Grey…

What I found quite difficult was underplaying the shading and highlighting to try and get a more toy like feel… Which I think suits this comic based little project 

I am pleased with the end result.

All the best.  Aly

Shiny Napoleonics… Prussian Landwehr

Greetings …

Another slow time with the paint brushes…I’m still putting books back on shelves and I have the disruption of builders returning in the next week or so…

So here are a unit of Hinchliffe 5th Westphalian Landwehr…

In reality they were an under strength unit so only having three stands is fairly accurate… But I will probably get another six figures and bring it up to a four stand unit… They never carried a Standard but I may add one to the extra stand anyway.

For a change I have painted these in a “Wellington Man” style…

https://thehintonspieler.blogspot.com/p/how-i-paint.htmlThe Hinton Spieler.: How I Paint 'Em

This is not the first time I have done this…

https://alystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2024/11/shiny-napoleonics-wellington-way.htmlALYS TOY SOLDIERS: Shiny Napoleonics… The Wellington Way.

Although unlike Matthew I will be using acrylic paints rather than enamels…

As I have said these were painted in the “Wellington Man” style… So Base Coat, Wash, Dry Brush and Black lining out…

Here are the basic colours that I used…

Coat and Hat… Citadel… Kantor Blue with a Citadel Drakenhof Blue wash then given a Kantor Blue Dry Brush.

Trousers… Citadel… Pallid Wych Flesh with a Brown Liquid Wash then a Pallid Wych Flesh Dry Brush.

Facings… Citadel… Warboss Green.

Belts… Citadel… Corax White then pure White Highlights.

Napsack and Backpack… Foundry… Moss Light 29c with a Brown Liquid Wash and then Moss Light Highlights.

Black lining was added between the colours and some additional lighter Edge Highlights were added.

The different style made for a refreshing change to my normal process and was a lot of fun.

Although I don’t know how Matthew manages to paint whole armies… I definitely don’t have the patience 😁

All the best   Aly

Testing Times… Tintin and STS…

Greetings…

I’m posting this for two reasons…

One… To show you the test paint jobs I have done for my planned Tintin project and a little reworking on some STS figures.

Two… To see if Blogger will let me 🤔🙄.

These represent Syldavians…

I’ve gone for a rather Soviet look… With nice simple bases.

These are some of my Shiny Toy Soldiers Schleswig- Holstein figures…

As I was putting them out on the shelves I realised that this collection is all over the place… Mixed basing style and sizes, some quite yellowish varnish and more figures than I really need/want for a game

So I thought I would try a quick bit of tidying up on these as well…subtle shading with a bit of lining out…

Similar to what Greenwood and Ball used to do back in the day…

I’m in no mad rush to do more with the STS stuff at the moment…The butterfly is heading for Tintin 😁

All the best    Aly

New Year Catch Up and plans for 2026

Greetings…

Well it’s taken longer than I thought to get this post written up…

I think it’s just been one of these years…

For me it started of with Flu… And a hospital visit.😳🙄

I’ve also had two Cataract operations… Which I must say has made a massive improvement to my life.

I have now got some decent prescription reading glasses for my close up work , but on a day to day basis I don’t need really need any glasses at all… ( I do however carry a pair of shop bought £3.99 readers in my pocket… just in case😁)

The house has been ( and still is) a bit of a building site… but the Cellar is now finished as is the work on my Wargames Room…

The only thing to do is get all my books and toys back on their shelves… This has been a slow process as I have had a rather bad Fibromyalgia flare up which has made moving me and objects rather painful.

Bit by bit I am getting there…

Most of these boxes are now empty and all my toy soldiers are where they should be…

Painting as a result of all this has been at a minimum… but I have assembled quite a few figures in preparation for my retirement…

Yup!

Retirement! Hurrah!… The plan is April.

So! 

What are my hobby plans for the future?

I have planned out/ prepared/ front loaded for 6 - 8 projects/Collections.

In “All Plastic “…

Khazar Wars… Two forces for Lion Rampant…Khazars v’s Rus… Victrix Miniatures….8-10 units a side, all assembled while I was waiting for my eyes to heal…

The first thing I painted after the operations was a test unit for the Rus.

The Hundred Days…

Two moderate sized forces…All plastic… Made up of units that I think are pretty, based up in a way that will hopefully allow me to use a number of different rules systems.

I have already treated myself to a painted unit by my chum Mark Hargreaves at Over Open Sights.

http://over-open-sights.blogspot.com/2025/09/vive-l-empereur.htmlOver Open Sights: Vive L' Empereur!

In “ Metal “…

Pyrrhic Wars…

This is probably one of the bigger planned projects…

Four factions… Each 8 - 10 units strong…

Pyrrhic, Hellenistic Greek, Republican Roman and Carthaginian…

I have all the castings I need ( well probably more than I need 🤔)

Vandal Wars…

Vandals v’s Byzantines… Two forces for Lion Rampant 8 - 10 units a side with options for expansion.

I also have all the castings I need…Maybe 😆

Of course let’s not forget the Late Romans that I have just acquired from my friend David Bickley…

I have some rebasing to do… But I do have all I need…. Yeah!… Maybe 🤔🤣

Tintin…

A small project using Mark Copplestone’s beautiful “Marks Little Soldiers “

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=23&page=1Mark's Little Soldiers - Copplestone Castings

Not sure where this will go… But I’m thinking Rebels and Patriots or Men Who Would be Kings…

Syldavia v’s Borduria… What’s not to like.

Oh!…

And there is The Lord of the Rings…

A bit of an outrider here…

I’ve been collecting various bits and pieces… Thinking “Dragon Rampant “… 

We will see where this goes as I always found it difficult painting Fantasy/Sci-Fi as it reminds me too much of Work… But as I won’t be working things might be different.

Also…

The Youngsters are planning something WW2… Set around operation Knights Move… I’m thinking a little force of Paratroopers… Maybe a Stug or two 😁

There also maybe a visit to “Pillage” later… I’m thinking Normans.

This is all on top of adding a few new units to my existing collections…

Well…

That’s the plan… Sort of…

I certainly won’t be bored…

But we all know what happens to plans….

All the best   Aly.

The Boxing Day Game 2025

Greetings…

So…I have finally got around to writing this post up… My apologies for the delay 😁

Due to not being able to use the big “New” table… It is still covered in boxes and books… We opted to use my little dining room table.

Which is big enough to take The Christmas village, Some woods and all the protagonists.

 Here we see the layout of the battlefield…

Force Blue… In two groups moving up from the South.

Force Red… In two groups moving down from the North.

And..

The Snow defending the Village and most importantly the Yule Goat.

https://www.visitgavle.se/en/gavle-goatGävlebocken | Visit Gävle

The Snow…

We decided we would tweak our rules for the Snow People… And have given them a chance to regenerate.

This added an interesting dimension to the game… It turns out they were quite good at regeneration.

The Yule Goat sits in the middle of the village and will catch fire if a Toy Town Soldier remains in contact with it and rolls high…

Let’s not forget… The demented Snowball in the woods.

As before this moves randomly and ricochets around the table creating chaos where ever it goes…

I have to admit that this is one of my favourite figures/ characters…

Much to my surprise… And theirs… The Snow immediately start taking casualties.

The psychotic Snowball and a nervous Snowman have an uncomfortable encounter 😳

The Snowman/ person is bowled over and Psycho Snowball careers towards Reds Troops…

Take note of the position of my men…

It doesn’t change much 🙀😳.

Psycho Snowball demolishes Reds Troops…

Come on… That’s pretty impressive 🤣

The Snowman jumps up oblivious to what has just happened….

Although looking like Henri is about to make a daring solo attack on a Snow sentry… This is actually another fine example of my men simply not moving…

You are on your own old chap…

Oh!… Was he stunningly successful in his endeavours?…. I hear you asking.

Of course not… He couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn 🙄

Rust manages to untangle himself from the mass of twisted limbs, splinters and chipped paint.

And bravely dives for cover…

The ‘Snow’ has started to regenerate…Psycho Snow looks around for something/someone new to play with…

Red’s men… those that are still on their feet… attack the village.

And my men…. 🤔. Sigh!

Ah!… It looks like it’s my men that Psycho Snow wants to play with…😳

Surprisingly my men manage to run out of the way…

Except…..🙀

Pierre… Mummy!

Snowball… I’m not your Mummy … I’m a ball of snow with anger management issues…

Pierre… Eek!

Snowball… Brace yourself! 😈

The onslaught continues… Reds men push into the village… Colonel Snow encourages his “ Men” to hold on and most importantly… Regenerate… Fast!

Out of nowhere… Rust rushes in and sets fire to the Goat…🙀🙀🙀

Then gets his brains blown out 💀💀💀

Horrified… Force Red breaks and runs…

And…

A brave snowman sacrifices himself by diving on the flames, Melting and saving the Goat…

A glorious victory for The Snow…

By actually getting into the village and doing something Force Red come Second.

And me?

Third 🤣🤣🤣.

A thoroughly enjoyable game…

With… What is now a predictable outcome…

I shall try and do a round up of 2025 in the next few days…

It’s been an odd year but hopefully still interesting…

All the best.   Aly