Gamer in Exile

A couple of people asked to see some of OGs figures painted to my top standard “Museum” quality. I painted these four figures earlier today.

This is a preview of the ready painted 28mm AWI figures. I will have them available for sale from the 4th of July holiday. The figures are the excellent Old Glory 2nd edition. I have the whole range for sale. There are British line continental infantry and rebels in hunting shirts all in in floppy and tricorn hats. There are British Grenadiers in bear skins.

I am selling the figures to allow gamers to get a good start at building up a collection for the war. There was huge variety in the uniforms actually worn in the war. To reflect this gamers may want to paint up supplementary figures, in alternative uniforms, to flesh out the collection.

The figures will be $2 each when bought in quantities of 200+ and otherwise $3 each. The figures (metal) are obviously included in the price. I haven’t yet developed the technology to produce the paint jobs without the figures. When I do, the paint jobs will be on one size which can be shrunk to fit the desired figure anywhere from 54mm down to 6mm 

There is no custom element to the ready painted selection. Customers only be able to choose one of the facing colours (where appropriate) and then mention how many officers, drummers, etc they want. It won’t be possible to ask for a unit in entirely olive hunting shirts.

Here are the continental infantry

Following comments on TMP, I darkened the trousers with a sepia wash. Here are the “before” and “after” for the wash

I have some more allies to slow the Axis onslaught. These are some 1/32nd 54mm Airfix Paratroopers.

I only have seven, which I bought second hand at Tripples.

I have been painting some Battle Front “Flames of War” (FOW) 15mm Paras at the same time.

It is quite handy to have a “big brother” to experiment on.

These are some more of the 54mm plastics which I bought at he Tripples wargames show in Sheffield. I bought lots of Japs, so these are a badly needed reinforcements for my troops.

The Japs still have the upper hand in this conflict. So I will shortly be reinforcing the chaps with US Paras, British Paras, and US marines.

I have based the 54mm 42nd and 79th Highlanders which I have painted. The bases are 24cm by 12cm. I haven’t added any grass yet as the stuff I have is too short. I am going to order longer grass, perhaps some tufts, and other bits and pieces to decorate the bases.

I won’t be able to do much more on the DBN front until I can order in some more plastics. I haven’t even decided what I want (or if there is enough available to do it!). Cavalry is a particular problem in 54mm. But there are British light cavalry, Scots Greys, and French Dragoons. Hmmm, sounds like I will have to go for Waterloo!

I have twenty five Airfix Napoleonic Highlanders. I have painted these figures up to play DBN. My plan is to base infantry in 12s (two rows of 6) on 24cm by 12cm bases. This entails a large play area, but I am OK with playing on the floor.

Someone pointed me at a tutorial for painting Highlanders here

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/ToySoldier/tartan.htm#cam

It is very difficult to paint the thin lines which are required, especially for the 79th Highlanders. Remember that these are 54mm figures, and this is tough enough. If you want to try this on 28mm you should be careful to make your initial “grid” large enough to take the small lines you will have to paint in subsequently.

I bought these 1/32nd (54mm) plastic figures at the Salute show in London in May. Most of these figures are from Airfix and have been created from the original molds. I actually had many of these figures as a child.

It is nice to be able to paint the figures properly now. I am not sure if I am going to use the figures or give them away to my nephews, many of whom are at a good age to be introduced (indoctrinated) to wargaming.

I painted some Napoleonic Prussian, French and Portugese infantry for the lads and presented them with the figures when I was in the UK. I think it would have been better to give them WW2 figures, which perhaps they could relate to more easily.

Now I have given away those 54mm Napoleonics I find myself interested in trying my hand at DBN in 54mm. I have some 54mm 42nd and 79th Highlanders which I finished painting today. They just have to be based. My basing will be in groups of 12 infantry on 24cm by 12cm bases. This entails a huge play area. But it will be pretty.

I still have some WW2 American marines, American paratroops, Afrika Korps, Australians and British paratroops to paint.

If I am going to use these figures I will base them in 4s for crossfire. Crossfire is an excellent, and simple, rules set. It would be good to wean my nephews off the Games Workshop hobby.

I had a thought which both shocked and repelled me; it occurred to me that I might have over done it with my 28mm Napoleonic artillery.

At first I was troubled by this feeling. Fortunately I was able to correctly interpret this unworthy concern as a loss of essence, and perhaps even a corruption of my precious bodily fluids.

Once I started thinking about these numbers properly I saw that I had about the right number of guns, or perhaps a few less than I needed. I have 34 Austrian guns, 24 British guns, 34 French guns and 12 Prussian guns in 28mm.

At first glance it seems that I have quite a large number of Austrian and French pieces. But what about an Austrian or French civil war? I might want to drop down to 1:10 to fight such an action out properly.

I am obviously deficient in Prussian guns. I will shortly be putting in an order for more

The Napoleonic rule set “In The Grand Manner” uses skirmish bases of six figures. I had some left over French casualty figures from some Old Glory casualty packs. Actually these figures looked like they were imitating fatally wounded gangsters in Holywood movies.

I bent the figures more upright, pulled their arms outwards, and made them look like an All Singing All Dancing skirmishing chorus line.

When I originally painted the figures I painted them without highlighting. But I liked them so much I have gone back and highlighted the figures. This improves the look but doesn’t work as well as painting the figures from scratch as they would naturally be painted in a darker shade to start with. But they look OK.

At least they are an original unit no one else is likely to put onto the table.