Slowly but surely - though being distracted

I'm still working away at gathering the things I require for my Plattzdorf battle.  But, as I hunt through cupboards and drawers, I'm coming across figures not necessary for the battle but which I can't resist basing.  The picture above is one such group.  There are no Sappers/Engineers/Pontooneers in the Platzzdorf OBs, but I like doing little groups.

However, I have produced some relevant items...

I've done a few fields, and a good number of trees (I've still to darken down the rocks outside this field)

You'll see from the above photo, and many others, I've still to finish most bases.  I should have finished the bases of the individual figures before sticking them onto the big bases, as it's difficult to get in between the figures without coating legs with flock.  Taking the easy way out as usual, I'll have to hope any bare patches between close order figures look like shadows!  By the way, I'm sticking the figures down on acrylic sealant which look like rough ground when flocked.  

Some more figures.  The first photo shows Huns (Hinchliffe, I think)

The second shows ACW Zouaves.

Huns and Zouaves!!!  In an early 18th Century battle!!!  OK - not for the purist.  Or even the reasonably sensible wargamer.  The simple answer is I've figures from ancient to ACW, and I don't want to waste them!  You can see why I'll be wargaming solo.

And for an ImagiNation campaign, I can persuade myself (if no one else) that an obscure country in the far reaches of (possibly) south east Europe would have mercenaries from even more obscure countries.  And there are quite a lot of Ottoman units which may also have brought along some unusual allies from their backwaters.

So my armies will have figures from Ancient; Medieval, Renaissance; Seven Years War; Napoleonic and ACW periods, in addition to the more historical late 17th/early 18th Century one.

Silly I know, but I'm still going to do it.  I saw an appropriate phrase in an old "Wargames Illustrated" from someone explaining his approach to wargaming... "toleration of idiosyncrasy"!  That'll do me.

Another anachronism I'm guilty of is too much artillery.  And, like the figures, I've to come up with a reason for having so many.  I've about 30 cannon from various periods (not to mention a Chinese "big arrow" thing) and can't resist buying different kinds.  In any small wargame of the period, there should be perhaps 3 or 4 cannon models per side.  I don't yet know how I'm going to introduce more.

On the other hand, something I don't have too much of is flags.  Very few of my regiments have them yet and I'm still gathering flags from all over the internet, and some heraldry books.  I should have taken a note of which sites I got them from but regrettably didn't.  However, I'm really grateful to the people who put them on their sites for anyone to use.

Like the figures, they come from many countries and periods.

The above ones will be the Royal flags of each side (it's a civil war, hence the similarity).  The black lines are not meant to be there.  Each unit will have a Royal flag and a Regimental flag.  I had thought of making big flags in the "League of Augsburg" style, but storage in file boxes would be difficult, so they'll be just the scale 6 feet size approximately.

Well, that's all for tonight.  The photos certainly have less obvious reflections since using Aly's suggestion of a light tent.  It's 24 inches wide so, until I'm taking photos of an actual wargame area larger than 24 inches, that'll be a big improvement.

Not as easy as it seems!

Is gloss varnishing a good idea?  Well, not when taking photos...  Actually, the figures usually do not look so glossy but, today, I was trying out a couple of led torches as lighting.  When taking photos in natural daylight, the gloss is much less noticeable.  Probably, I won't use lights again.  I could come up with some sort of light tent, but that just complicates matters.  The battalion gun above was taken in natural daylight.

Anyway.  In my original enthusiasm, I intended to post on the blog every day.  Then decided every two days would be more realistic.  Now, it looks as though it will be once a week...  Maybe twice a week.

Except, I'm away most of next week so hopefully will post some more at the end of the week.  I might manage text during the week but not pictures, so we'll see.

I mentioned in the previous post my fishtank castle.  Here's another fishtank ornament in the right scale I thought had potential: a Greek ruin.

I've now got it slightly more believable for a campaign in the far reaches of mid/eastern Europe.

The only reason for its existence I can come up with is that it's a Folly.  There are many of these throughout the UK, and I assume they were also built in other parts of Europe.

But, remembering my first battle is going to be based on Donald Featherstone's "Plattville Valley" (henceforth to be known as "Plattzdorf" here for its new geographical setting) I've finished a couple of terrain items.

The churches I came across on the internet were too large for what I had in mind.  I'd this old ruined Scots Church lying around and realised nobody said a church had to be in use.  I made the graveyard to fit in with the size of the church.  As I'll be using a 6 x 4 feet table (just possibly 7 x 5) I don't want buildings to take up too much space.

Now, I've amended the original Plattville map to make it more appropriate for the campaign setting.  You will notice a slight Germanic influence in the names.  Those of you fluent in German may scorn the words but - remember - this is located in a country somewhere in the far reaches of the Holy Roman Empire and Google Translate couldn't help me!  

So that's all I've managed to do this week.  Even though I'm retired, "real life" doesn't half intrude into my hobby time...

Minifigs Battles - Getting Ready

Having been an "Armchair General" for many years, keeping up with wargaming by reading magazines and browsing the internet, I've decided to once more lead the troops into battle in a late 17th / early 18th Century Imaginations campaign.  I was always drawn into the Charles Grant(s) / Peter Young type of setup.

Despite admiring the current ranges of wonderful figures, I'm going to remain loyal to my trusty 25mm Minifigs.  I know they went out of fashion years ago, and were even scorned by many wargamers (horses' rear ends were a common complaint!), but I still like them.  They were, it was said, too rigid and static in their design.  That's precisely why I like them.  I like the toy soldier type line of shiny figures all in one pose.  Shiny?  Yes - all mine are gloss varnished! 

It's taking a while to rebase them from plain green painted bases to flocked ones with added tufts and the occasional stone.  Figures glued down with PVA are not too difficult to remove by soaking overnight, but ones stuck down with other types of glue are more of a struggle.  The bases are going to be 5mm or 6mm thick - fairly unusual in the UK, although more common in the US, I believe.  

As well as preparing figures, I've to gather buildings and terrain.  The hills will be the stepped type made from 1" polystyrene coated with acrylic sealant.  Trees will be from a variety of commercial producers.  Walls and hedges will be a mixture of bought and made by me.

Buildings, for a start, will be the very good home printed card ones designed by Dave Graffam, as shown below.

Eventually, I'll get round to making my own, in Tony Harwood's style (Dampf's Modelling Page).  In the meantime, I've just started working on converting an extremely garish fish tank ornament to an abandoned castle.

To get me started with an achievable aim, the first battle will be an adaptation of Donald Featherstone's "Plattville Valley" from his "Wargames" book.  I'll know what I have to get together in the way of troops and terrain.  This not too big a task will encourage me to actually get going.

In fact, the main purpose of this blog is to ensure I'll keep working on figures and terrain, by having to show progress regularly.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with comments and suggestions.  Thanks.