Back in the Saddle

Wow, it's been months since I last posted.   After the move,  I didn't pick up a paint brush for at least 3 months.   I'm still not sure what the ultimate source of my malaise was, after all my wife and I are living in 1/2 the space we used to with no home maintenance chores to speak of in a rental property.   Really, there's been ample time to paint.  Anyway, I've recently resumed and decided to start with the 54mm Ancients, working my way back up to the flats in time.

I sampled a box of these HaT Carthaginian infantry.

How do they look painted ?

Nothing exceptional really.   I don't know that much about the Carthaginians but I suppose the case could be made for their wearing captured Roman armor.  But I prefer something more distinctive.  Such as CTS's animated take:

I do really like these.  Too bad they only come two to a box.  You know the drill, 2x6 different figures to a box, only half of which are useful.  I'll have to inquire of CTS if they'd be willing to sell multiples of the same figure.  I doubt it but it won't hurt to ask.

And as for cavalry, I've had a rethink about using Expeditionary Force.  If you recall this previous post, the 60mm scale was a disappointment.  But the EF figures are hands down better than anything done by HaT or Italeri.  I figured it was time to just say "What the heck, they're all toy soldiers" and live with the disparity in scale.

A Macedonian Companion atop and below:

Truly nice sculpts.   The standard two poses of galloping horses are somewhat colt-like in proportion and actually aren't bad at all for 54mm, it's the riders who are big.

Speaking of scale, I ordered a half dozen reasonably priced metal phalangites from the Ukraine on eBay which I asked my wife to give me for Christmas.  Wouldn't you know it, they're rather small compared to your average Russian style figures.  Painting now and I promise not to wait another 6 months to show them.

Well, I got this one in under the wire before 2017 expires, so it's a good opportunity to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2018.

Chibi Maru Battleship

Here's a model I actually finished a few months ago.  It's one of Fujimi's Chibi Maru warship series, depicting capital ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy in cartoon style. This particular kit represents the battleship Hiei which was sunk near Guadalcanal in 1942.  After seeing these posted on Bob Cordery's Wargaming Miscellany blog, I was tempted to try one and ordered from eBay.  The kit shipped from Japan fairly quickly and was reasonably priced when you consider what plastic models cost these days.

How was the build ?  Pretty straightforward.  All instructions with Japanese text of course, but as the plans are a series of numbered schematics, it wasn't difficult to assemble.

This is designed as a snap together kit so theoretically no glue needed.  However, I found some of the tolerances tight indeed which no doubt ensures pieces don't fall off once assembled, but proved difficult to force into place.  Thus I think a child would struggle to build this and in straining to insert certain pieces, one runs the risk of some small part flying off the tweezers or pliers to disappear in some far corner of the room or carpet pile. As I went along, I found myself increasingly shaving parts for an easier fit and relying on glue to hold things together.

How does she look ?  Not too bad. It's a simple brush job in Vallejo # 992 Neutral Gray. Somewhat deceptive paint as it dries darker than it looks in the bottle.  The kit also has stickers for things like bridge windows and wooden decks but for the most part I didn't use them for anything more than the flag.  I didn't bother painting the lower hull.  They make photo etch parts for many of these kits although that begs the question, how much detail really needs to be lavished on a tubby toy-like battleship ?

So what's next for me in this series ?  Nothing really.  You know, if Fujimi had designed these in relative scale to each other and issued a USN counterpart to do battle with, they might have some wargaming application.  As it stands now, the kit is a novelty piece although I did enjoy the change of pace in building something like this.

Re-Arm with Brickarms 3: Tehnolog 54mm Fantasy

Some while ago, I posted about converting cheap plastic army men to Brickarms weapons which are designed for use with Lego minifigs.  Although the concept seemed well received by Brickarms fans due to the novelty of it, the figures looked a little over-gunned when carrying anything larger than an Uzi.  That is, the Brickarms weapons are nice replicas of the real things, but stylized and of course intended for use with the Lego figurines where the firearms are unabashedly out of scale with the figures.  As is the way with these toys, like it or not.

I still had some weapons left over, and with a set of Russian Tehnolog fantasy warriors purchased on eBay, I thought they'd be more suitable candidates for conversion on account of their already over-the-top style.

Since these are hard plastic, it wasn't too tough to cut away their sci fi guns and replace with the Brickarms.  How did they turn out ?  Not too bad, I think.  Tough guys one and all in the Terminator style, they'll make pretty good special forces or mercs for the forces of evil Tan.

The figure in the black trench coat is unmodified, the four in the photo just above are the ones I converted.

"Out of our way, kiddies."

The minifigs are cheap Sluban clones with the "Merkava" in the background. More about these in a subsequent post. I have no intention of using the little soldiers.  Ah, but the vehicles, definitely some utility there !

Expeditionary Force Macedonians - 60mm Plastic

I'm well past due for a post, time to have at it !   Several years ago when I worked on 54mm Ancients, I customized some Italeri Carthaginians as a Macedonian style phalanx formation. Thinking this was a lot of work, I always had the thought in the back of my mind, "Sure wish somebody would come out with Macedonians in 54mm plastic".  Now years later have my wishes have been answered ? Well, not exactly.

Enter Expeditionary Force.  Splendid sculpts and a fine range of both horse and foot.  Just the ticket ?  Damn it, no !  60mm.  Why this scale I have no idea.  With that in mind, I stoutly resisted the Greeks and Persians. But when the Macedonians released in late 2015, the figures looked so good that I succumbed to the temptation and got a few boxes for Christmas. I'm not altogether satisfied with the quality of these images taken on the iPad Mini but they're at least adequate, so let's have a look.

The foot come 9 to a box, horses & riders 5.  The boxes are generic, not even so much as a label on the side to identify the contents.  They average about $4 a figure, pricey for plastic but not totally unreasonable for what you get.

The figures are multi-part.  The plastic is on the harder end of the spectrum, with the parts fitting well and easy to glue together.  The pikes of the phalangites are two part, rather short but to my eyes that's a perfectly acceptable compromise.  The 9 figures in the phalanx box consist of an officer and 8 soldiers.  They phalangites come in two main styles of armor, linen in the classical Greek style and bronze cuirass, with two styles of shields as well which are either plain or adorned with a typical Hellenistic pattern.  The heads can be swapped at will coming with various helmet plumes and crests in each pack, thus a good variety can be achieved.  As can be seen from the top photo, the rank and file are posed 4 each with the pike level and pike raised.

Quite a splendid officer, isn't he ?

And as painted.  The Peter Conolly school, not the Angus McBride.  But really you could paint these in any fashion and who is to say you're wrong  ? So the operative question is, how do they match up with 54mm figures ?

Eh, not so good.

For toy gaming, I suppose one can say - who cares ?  But I have to say, the size variance is something that grates on my sensibilities. So, I think it's probably off to eBay for these chaps although I'll have to paint a few more eventually to make a reasonable auction out of it.  As I didn't assemble the other boxes they can go as is.

What's next ?  I owe another back post on the Chibi Maru battleship model, long since completed.  I've been quite engrossed of late in my  Daisenryaku video games, much enjoyment to be had in downloading the various classic games like  Super Daisenryaku and seeing what works on an emulator and what doesn't.  Plus the sometimes maddening but often gratifying puzzle of playing in Japanese.  I'm thinking strongly of starting a Daisenryaku blog but haven't completely abandoned the painting, and at the moment have resumed working on the 40/45mm flat & home cast Napoleonics.  

Airfix Modern British Infantry: 1/48 Plastic

I recently purchased a box of Airfix modern infantry with the idea of using them with my Green forces.  On paper, this seemed like a good idea as my few 1/48 HLBS modern infantry figures (a range now sadly defunct) match pretty well with the other figures I have.  The back of the box image sold me on the purchase. The poses are fairly static in patrolling mode but there looked to be some useful guys in the box.

The raw materials.  The figures aren't multi-part in the sense of having a lot of options right out of the box, although not doubt some customization can be done.  Things fit well enough together (except for the scrawny necks), although the arms aren't clearly defined as to what angle they need to be mounted in order to grasp the spindly assault rifles. Using plastic model glue there's time to make adjustments before it sets, super glue is a lot more problematic in that respect.

As soon as I saw the size of the parts, I knew I had a problem.  From left to right, Airfix, HLBS, plastic army guy:

The Airfix soldier measures 33mm from the boots to the eyes, HLBS is 38mm.  Seems hard to believe a major model company could muff the scale, so we can say then that the HLBS were "heroic" 1/48, a virtual 40mm. Still, I'm curious how the Airfix might scale up against the Tamiya 1/48 WW2 figures, although I'm not about to purchase a box purely in the interest of research. 

Despite his deformity, Private Pencil Neck somehow passed the army's physical exam.

No, they just won't do.    

Cloning a Clone: Plastic Army Guys

Everyone has seen them, those ubiquitous bags of cheap plastic made-in-China clone soldiers hanging on the rack in seemingly every supermarket and drug store in the US.  Do kids even play with these anymore ?  Maybe just big kids like us.  As often as not, they're 35-45mm knockoffs of their 54mm plastic army men brethren, the Airfix or Timmee roots clear to see. I've posted about them before.

Inspired by the engrossing series Jono's World at the Archduke Piccolo blog, I decided to to take another crack at these.  In this case, I modied one of the figures for the evil Tan forces. The raw materials in this bag are two main types of soldiers.  The Vietnam era guys seem to be copies in the Timmee style. But others look like British WW2 infantry from the neck down, capped off with US M1 style steel pots.  This helmet had a good long run from WW2 until the Fritz in the mid-80's, wore one myself (now over 40 years ago, wow !).

Here is the candidate figure, selected for his appealing and useful assaulting pose.  The main change was was substituting an AK for his WW2 rifle (Enfield ?), brass wire for the barrel and green stuff magazine and front sight.  That and giving him boots for a more Russian sort of look, plus a rucksack to cover the old-fashioned web gear.

And for added strength and repeatability, made a mold to cast the figure in metal.

The result ?  Not too bad and he certainly meets my needs.

The BMP in the background is a cheap and simple paper model. More about this in a subsequent post. For now, I'm belatedly painting the first example of the modified cavalryman.

Biedermeier Imagi-Nations Redux - 40mm

Where to begin yet another abrupt change of direction.  Following Castles of Tin must be akin to tailing a drunk driver: tire tracks across a lawn here, there a mailbox run over, further down the road a parked car sideswiped.  After finishing the Prussian battatalion, thought I'd reward myself with a change of pace. I'd been tempted off and on to give those plastic Napoleonic Russians a go, readers may remember these:

What to paint them as ?  It struck me that except for the Cossacks, the other three groups could easily make do for other European armies, aside from the Russians.  Such as Prussia for example. Now it occurred to me that I had a book of uniform plates depicting the Prussian army of 1830. This one, and one of the better quality color printing jobs ever done by Dover.

What struck me leafing through this neglected treasure again was how little the Prussian army had changed in appearance since 1815.  So, I had some cavalry to work with.  The cuirass is painted on.

Quite stylized of course, but not half bad.  Now if I can only find more, I can easily paint a unit of Cuirassiers, Dragoons and Hussars in the Prussian style. And, I already have a Creartec Prussian infantry mold which produces these two different figures.

Decent, although the French are more elegant. Going forward, I can see that I need to file the seam at the top of the gaiters to make the full trouser look more convincing.  The semi-flat Creartec are certainly the stylistic successors to Schneider with these Napoleonic figures.  Judging from photos, their 7YW Prussians appear more conventional although I don't own any of those molds. 

Here's the original map, and a world still waiting to be populated with troops. The Prussians will do nicely for the Grolschken Reich.
  

Waiting in the wings, some Createc French become Celticans and the Prince August Brave Tin Soldier drafted for war.