...And rode madly off in all directions...

 Things might be simpler if I had just one period of history (or type of fantasy) which interested me for gaming, but, for better or for worse, this is not the case.  So, like the fellow in the title, I’m off in all directions this week.

I have been experiencing a fair amount of pandemic fatigue recently, and have gotten behind on keeping up with the rest of the wargaming blogosphere.  Last month, however, Ross Macfarlane caught my attention with a few posts on Russian semi-flat figures.  I poked around the web a little to see what sort of background information there was on the history of these figures.  I like German flat zinnfiguren, even if I find them to be very difficult to paint, and I liked the look of these Soviet-era figures.  I probably would have left it at that, but shortly after that, the Michigan Toy Soldier Company (MTS) had an article discussing the work of a new Russian designer in a similar style.  The Warriors and Battles line includes a wide array of non-combatants, so my mind immediately went to some sort of roleplaying game, rather than a straight up wargame.  In any case, I couldn’t resist buying some samples.

Individuals are in a resin material

Figures from group packages are in the usual toy soldier plastic

I am an old enough wargamer that I have been caught unprepared by the sudden unavailability of figures more than a few times.  From these experiences, I have developed a general rule.  If I can’t buy enough figures to stage some sort of game with the first purchase, don’t buy anything. With figures being imported from Russia (i.e. chancy supply chain) and the possibility that the appeal was a little speciaized, I concluded that this was definitely a time to follow that rule, and ordered a box with 8 SKUs—three knights with retinues, a group of peasants, a group of bandits, a pack of wolves, and a pair of individual ladies. MTS shipped it promptly, and I was very pleased with the figures once they had arrived.

I told myself that I was going to be good and try painting some of the figures before ordering more.  I discovered that the soft plastic would hold the usual primers that I have been using on 1/72 scale figures, and that the resin could be primed with a Krylon primer advertised as being suitable for use on plastic.  

The figures are pretty flat; with the soft plastic ones being even thinner than the resin lady shown above, but the sculpting nevertheless has enough texture to make shading a relatively straightforward matter. I found them to be fun and relaxing to paint, enough so that I ended up spending three hours at the desk painting the two samples, and needed a good stretch when I was done.

I was pleased with how they came out, and have set up five more and primed them.

I haven’t quite decided how I am going to base them.  They are quite light, and I can imagine them easily being knock over at a convention by the wind, or fans, or passing attendees, so I am thinking that they will end up with rectangular steel bases to give them just a bit of heft.

While I was not looking for a new project, especially not another individually-based medieval project, here we are...

Hasty Hordes Army

My son mentioned his dinosaur themed Hordes of the Things army recently, so, as I mentioned a couple of posts back, I decided it was time to recycle a project we called The Peasants are Revolting.  PaR was built ten years ago for the early years of the HAWKs Kids' Table at Historicon.  It was intended to be a simple game using inexpensive plastic miniatures and card buildings available from Usborne, as a bit of a demo of what one could do with some time and imagination and not much money.  We recycled that idea a few years later as the Battles for Beginners Contest, but that's a story for another day...

In any case, PAR was built, for nostalgic reasons, from a few boxes each of recent production runs of Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood figures.  When I was a 10-year-old getting started in this hobby, that was pretty much all there was for inexpensive medievals figures, and I had what I then considered to be quite a few of them.  So, using them again as an adult was a deliberate nostalgia choice, made despite the fact that significant numbers of probably better sets were available in 2001 (let alone what you can get today...)  After running the game for a couple of years, they have been shelved since 2003, so I didn't think I'd be missing out on anything by repurposing them.  I originally mounted them as individuals on pennies or larger washers for the horsemen, and I had a few problems getting some of the foot back off.  Nevertheless, I was able to assemble the group shown below, of six mounted stands (either riders or knights--I enjoy Hordes flexibility...), a stand of blades, a cleric, four shooters, and five hordes (or warbands, if one is inclined to be generous about their fighting ability.)

I set this aside for a week for the hurricane, but got the basing finished off this morning.  I hope to try them against Norman's Dinotopians this weekend, and I'll post some pictures if we do that.

Army overview

Blades stand from Sheriff of Nottingham figures

Friar Tuck as, what else, a cleric

The flag is somewhat the worse for years of wear, but this should be the general stand

A rider or knight stand

Shooters, with warband or hordes in the background

Interlude

After a week of intensively finishing off a proofreading job in all of my free time two weeks back, and a week devoted to the final preparations for my first outing to a ballroom dance competition this last weekend, I am hoping to get back into a gaming and painting groove for a while. This past Friday I invested most of my available home time into cleaning off my painting desk. Norman and I also sorted our 40mm NQSYW castings into unit sets and assessed our shortfall areas in anticipation of casting next weekend, AND I rebased a number of Airfix Sherriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood figures into a hasty Hordes of the Things medieval fantasy army, as both sons have armies nearing completion. I haven't, however, had time to finish terraining the bases since then.

I was given a few Meisterzinn 40mm semiflat Renaissance molds today, by a work colleague, which may see use as soon as next weekend...I'm still pending a discussion with Ross about next year's concentration on the 16th Century for convention games.

I have a feeling that trying to do less would result in more things actually being finished ....