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.