| Moulds now back from Pete. This one consists of robed Arab infantry, I have done a couple of test runs and they seem OK. |
| And this lot are the Turkish style tunic and trousers figures. Normally I wait a month or so for the mould to post cure a bit more but think I'll be churning out regiments a lot sooner than that! |
| Normally I let a mould stand for a month or so to post cure before I start casting. This one I started casting and converting straight away... this lot are the initial proof of concept figures (cast and converted 1 day, painted next day... proof of concept, not masterpieces!) |
| I realised that I could do with a J/Sh/Bw light cavalry figure so these are 'first attempts'. |
| These are the infantry figures I had originally intended to do - did 2 robed archers because first one looked a bit short. The infantry spearman is not just a version of the cavalry figure above - that figure is a horse archer, the infantry figure is just spear/javelin and shield. |
| Hadn't originally intended to do this one - simply basing the cavalry figure - because I didn't think it would work. I did four because I wanted to see if they would make a decent city militia or guard - on balance, think it does work. |
| This is the mould - quite crowded and has a lot of potential... Rhoxolani, Goths, Fantasy Arabs... |
| And I've also cast units of Rhoxolani, armoured Arabs and Goths. |
| Still a bit of tidying up to do on these figures but this is generally the expected composition of the mould. |
| Rhoxolani Sarmatian cavalry - conversion of Sarmatian cataphract, simply cut down the kontos and add a Dacian officer's shield. Seriously wishing I had photographed these on a different coloured background - white is boring... |
| Gothic cavalry. Bowcase replaced by sword and figures given slight variations on shields. For standard bearers I'll just use the standard Sarmatian standard bearer but give it a shield... |
| Lancers plus officer. The officer doesn't carry a bow... These figures will be mounted on a different horse. |
| Likewise generic Arab cavalry. The swordsman might be used as just another archer as he's got a quiver. The archer and swordsman figures are direct conversions of the 1972 Garrison Mameluke figure FNC1. |
| Some of the later lance/bow/shield generic later Moslem cavalry - conversion simply consisted of giving the Sarmatian cataphract a shield. Flanked by figures on the horses I expect to use. |
| And this is the horse I expect to use for the lancers and horse archers. |
These figures should be sent off in a couple of days. When I get the mould back the archer and swordsman will form the basis of infantry archers, swordsmen and officers, not sure yet about the spearman element of the army.
| Got mould RY157 back from Pete. I've leave it a few days to post cure before I check it out. |
| The mould covers all the Sarmation and Dacian infantry plus Sarmation cavalry riders, Both standard bearers are conversions. As far as I know none of the DA figures were ever issued in the past. |
| This is the nominal mix for the next mould. The Gauls basically cover the ones that weren't too successful before - one thing I'm not sure about is whether to add a load more Gallic figures to this mould. On the other hand, I think I have spent more on the Gallic moulds than I really wanted to. The Sarmation figures are two different one piece mouldings, three on unarmoured horses, one on an armoured horse. How well RY157 works will probably determine whether or not I add another armoured horse archer and fill out the mould with more Sarmations. The one piece casting is a medium cavalry figure so the half armoured horse is not a 'correct' figure - paint conversion! - but I can see me doing an army with lots of the other figure... |
First job was to get a mould made using original masters and other figures so I could put together the production moulds. Apart from tidying up the figures I've now sorted out figures for the moulds needed to complete the ECW refurbishment.
After this, think I'll take a break on casting until some time in September!
| Some of it is to rationalise moulds, putting a lot of the figures together instead of scattered. However, the EW6, musketeer in helmet (classic Roundhead figure) mould was no longer fit for purpose. |
| EW15, Pikeman armoured in hat at rest and EW16 Pikeman unarmoured with plumed helmet at rest. These two didn't have moulds attached to them so I looked at a master mould that had some pikes on. The pose was the same as the 'Reserve' figure so I discounted them... until I finally realised that the rest and reserve poses were the same. So now they will be on a production mould... |
| This is a case of putting everything together - so I will now have a production mould with all the ECW cavalry together. Still need to do some tidying up on the figures first. |
I did start a plastic Swedish 30 Years War army back in the 90s. Blog post here.
I have also updated the ECW entry on pages.
Had quite a few moulds made in the last year or so, partly to make up for the 'missing' year when Pete wasn't able to do any.
Anyway, the latist batch has arrived and takes the total up to 150 moulds I've had made since I bought Garrison. Compare that to Paul Ashton's comment on TMP the year before I bought Garrison:
Worth pointing out that I still tend to do 1, 2 or 3 figures the same in each mould - it's cost! On the other hand, most of the figures are usually from the same range... And obviously remaking moulds is very much an option. Over the years the moulds have paid for themselves and are still in credit!
| For some reason there were two mouldcodes that I missed. So this one fills one of the gaps! Lots of rossbows, a couple of Byzantine standards, some (Burgundian?) shields and that little dot thing between the halberds/shields - the bell from a Seleucid elephant! |
| The other 'missing' code. It just happens to be right next to the other 7YW moulds, which is a happy coincidence... Prussian cuirassiers and dragoons plus hussar code 7YC3. 7YW cavlary are proving a bit of a pain to find/identify - well, at least the French and Austrians are. |
| So back to the end of the list... 25mm French Napoleonic heavy cavalry missing a trumpeter and standard bearer. |
| And here are some of the French line light cavalry - light lancers, hussars and Chasseurs a Cheval. |
| Byzantine light infantry, Basil and a couple of Trapezitoi |
| And... 150. Byzantine cavalry horses. Apart from a couple of riders all the Byzantine range is now on new moulds. |
| Contiuing with putting figures together, as well as making it possible to produce the spearman from the chariot set as a figure in it's own right. |
| Same sort of thing with the missile troops, as well as enabling me to produce the chariot archer in numbers a lot easier. I also took the opportunity to include the scythes from the Seleucid scythed chariot, SES1. |
| For the Egyptians, basiclly a need for decent production moulds in the first place - probably still need to do another one eventually. |