Tuesday 12 October 2021

A "Proper" Wargaming Post

Tonight I have some completed work from a couple of projects, plus some new arrivals. so hopefully something for everyone to appreciate/marvel at :)

First up, I have FINALLY completed a unit of 15 Old Glory War of 1812 militia - I think they are intended to be US militia but by carefully finding the ones who seemed the most "uniform" I have painted them as generic Canadian militia instead.....


The same view basically using two different settings on my phones camera - not quite sure what the difference is, I only just noticed the setting this evening!



Close up of the left of the line...


...close up of the centre, and....


....rather predictably, a close up of the right of the line

Next up, five new figures for the Border Reivers project. These are The Assault Group Border Militia and this time, I have painted them as intended, ie as English rather than Scots troops


The Warden of the West March and four Garrison men from Carlisle Castle







These are all very nicely detailed figures and come with the cross of St George sculpted onto their cassock, making them very easy to paint.

Finally, some new arrivals. A few weeks ago I saw another blog with some very nice ultra modern French infantry. The Blogger mentioned these figures were 3D prints and included a link to the site, which I now reproduce below


After a visit and brief browse of the site, I knew I would like to purchase a few figures to see if they came out as well as the images (which were computer generated and not pictures of actual models) The price at 1.90 Euros per figure was also attractive, as 3D prints seem to be pretty expensive at the moment (I am sure that will change in the years to come!). Anyway, long story short, I purchased a group of WW2 Soviet figures from the very helpful proprietor, Jean-Jacques, and they arrived after around 4 weeks in transit from La Belle France. 
(Regular readers will be unsurprised to learn these Soviet troops are all of the female variety!)

Here they are in no particular order - I have 21 I think in total but a few are duplicates or very close to duplicate so I have not photographed them twice.


Officer with field glasses next to a Warlord hard plastic figure for comparison. To be honest, this is my least favourite of the bunch, it looks a bit too rigid - the rest are better, honest!


My sample test figure under coated....


... and with lighter paint dry brushed to show details




Kneeling riflewoman


Charging sub machine gunner


Standing sniper


Kneeling medic defending the wounded


Katyusha reporting for duty!


Riflewoman


The only male figure - helping a wounded female soldier (or maybe she just had too much Stolichnya...)


A female medic evacuating a wounded comrade - I have actually seen a Youtube clip of modern Russian female soldiers practicing this casualty evacuation technique - from about 2m 30 secs through this...Russian army Barbie girl - Russian female soldiers (2021) - YouTube
(sorry about the name of the clip.....)


Riflewoman


Throwing explosive ordnance


Dismounted tank crew woman with LMG


"Marching as to war...!"


Prone sniper


Medic (perhaps?) with SMG

I have started work on the trial figure so she is likely to turn up here in a day or two, as long as I make a decent job of her face - I am slightly concerned that the rather "soft" detail may make it too hard for me to bring out all the detail that is certainly present on these very nice figures. I recommend checking out the website, there are male figures there too(!) - amongst other things he has a range of about ten or fifteen bicycle mounted WW2 German infantry, all unique figures, which would look great as a bike mounted platoon in France, 1940.

29 comments:

  1. Female medic defending a wounded comrade or…getting ready to put the poor bugger out of his misery with a bit of lead poisoning maybe?

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  2. I love those Border Reivers. Nicely painted too.

    The plastic Soviets are nice sculpts.great range of poses.

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    1. Thanks - the Carlisle garrison men came out very nicely, I thought. The plastic 3D prints are a b it soft in detail but the trial one I have painted up looks ok to me. The finesse of the detail possible with this production method is amazing - I will try to do a close up of the trigger guard on the SMG when I take pics of the figure - it is like 0.01mm thick!

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  3. A great mix of projects there Keith. 3D printed figures and vehicles are becoming more widely available, but in my chosen 'scale' of 10mm, the lines are too off putting for me I'm afraid. Those with better print quality are too expensive to justify their purchase, but maybe the costs will come down once the resin prices ease back a bit.

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    1. Thanks Steve - I think in a few years, its likely more and more gamers will have their own 3D printers - from what I can see, the STL files are pretty cheap and once you have it, you can produce as many figures as you like - also, with some knowledge, they seem to be scaleable - so you could potentially produce these same models in 10mm scale...losing some of the detail obviously...most manufacturers let you choose 15mm 20mm or 28mm at the moment - but the range is presumably infinite....

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  4. Great looking militia and border reivers! Nice looking prints, they do look a little delicate, I'd be worried I was going to break them!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain - the plastic figures are not too bad - the plastic is kind of in between true hard plastic like the Perrys and Airfix soft - it has almost a rubbery feel to it - so things like a rifle are more likely to bend than snap off if something untoward happens to them

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  5. The militia have turned out very striking with their redcoats and top hats. I like the 3D prints, a selection those amongst some of the main suppliers would add some nice variation to the bases.

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    1. Thanks Norm, I quite like these OG figures (just as well as I have over 100 more to paint!) I agree about the 3D prints - they seem compatible with other 28mm ranges, which makes scattering them through a larger collection eminently doable

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  6. Outstanding War of 1812 militia regiment.

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    1. Thanks Mark - I did them specially for you :)

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  7. Lovely painting on the militia. The 3d prints though are not to my liking, they just look a little lifeless ? Nothing against prints but so far the process seems better for vehicles and such like ?

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    1. Thanks Matt - yes, the detail on the prints IS NOT as good as it appears on the computer generated images - but I am happy enough with them and the price is pretty equivalent to standard metal figures. You will be able to judge when you see the painted example... I have seen some fantastic looking figures I could use in my Pulp project on line, but they can be $10-$12 each and then add $20 to post to NZ - no way I am paying $30 for one figure, no matter how cool it is!

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  8. Nice work, and I particularly like the colour combination on the warden. I purchased some 3D printed terrain which is a departure from the usual resin I buy, so I am keen to see how whether I like that as much when it turns up. The images always look good on the website but I have to remind myself I'm looking at a computer-rendered image.

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    1. Yes agree about the disparity between the computer-rendered image and the real thing Lawrence, but I have been happily surprised - I was fearing they might just be blobs, but see my comment above about the detail on the trigger guard of the SMG, for example. I would prefer the detail on the faces to be sharper a la Copplestone or Pulp Miniatures, but the one I have painted looks ok to me...

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  9. Nice work on the militia. Just enough uniformity to tie them in altogether

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    1. Cheers Scotty - yes, it is certainly easier painting them as the English rather than scraping off the cross of St George and trying to hand paint a Scottish saltire on their right breast! The answer of course would be for TAG to do some proper Scots for the period :)

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    2. Actually - I forgot about the 1812 figures - they are probably what you are referring to, so ignore my reply above!

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  10. Nice job! Though I don’t understand going into a fire fight while wearing a top hat. Seems like an odd choice of uniform. 😀
    The 3D printed figures look like board game pieces to me, but a good way to get figures that would be otherwise hard to find.

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    1. So are you saying an 18 inch bearskin was a more sensible hat to wear into battle Stew...?? Or perhaps a steel and brass crested fake Greco style helmet (whilst wearing a completely superfluous breastplate) is more your style! Compared with most 19th century military millenary, these top hats look pretty sensible to me! As to the 3D figures that's a pretty prescient analogy - and of course, people do paint up some board game figures! These ones would certainly benefit from a harder material that could reproduce the finer details more crisply but I am still quite happy with them - the poses would be impossible in metal!

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  11. The militia work for me: nicely done. The Reivers, though, I found of most interest, with the current trend in our group being skirmish level in the Elizabethan to Thirty Years War era. Do you have a set of rules that you intend to use for these? In their "naked" plastic state, the Female Russian plastics have a vaguely sci-fi look to them. I'll be interested, though, to see how they paint up.

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    1. Thanks Ed on all fronts! Three of us have been working on the Reivers project for about 12-18 months - I have a set of rules that were published in WI that we thought we could start off with - I have some other possible options too but as yet, we have not actually had any of the figures on the table! I dont really have room/facilities to do solo games at home so am a bit stymied till we can get together for FtF games - and of course when that happens, most of the team will want to have a big Napoleonic or Medieval game with rules we all know already...! I may post an image of the first painted 3D figure tonight - as I have said above, I am happy with how she looks..it helps that it is a pretty simple, minimalist uniform I think.

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  12. Your certainly keeping yourself busy Keith…

    The War of 1812… you know… I think I could be tempted by that one 😁

    All the best. Aly

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    1. LOL - hindsight is a wonderful thing Aly!

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  13. What a fine mix Keith. Those War of 1812 militia really grabbed my eye. They make for a nicely 'animated' unit.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks James - the Old Glory figures are not to everyones taste and quality can vary from period to period - and even within the same period sometimes - but in general, I think they are perfectly serviceable figures and a major advantage is their relatively low cost, particularly if you invest $50 on an annual Army Card that gets you a 40% discount!

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