Casting Season

 It's casting season here at the Lead Gardens. The weather has "springed up" and it's perfect for getting
outside and starting on some summer casting projects. Outdoor casting has the advantage of keeping the  nasty metal fumes out of the house.

I purchased three of the new 40mm Prussian molds from Prince August. I found the new moulds to be a nice change from the sometimes awkward poses of PA figures. The apparently have listened to those of us who war-game with these big guys and need a versatile figure that will paint up to most 18th century types.

Here are the wargame friendly features of the new molds:

1. The mould will cast two figures at a time, effectively halving casting time---particularly if you go for big units (mine are established at 40 figures) I got this new unit done in about 5 hours in two sessions over a weekend.

2. The moulds have two separate heads-- the basic infantry mould has both a musketeer in tricorn heads and grenadier heads in mitre two each so casting the mould will supply the optional heads as well.  The officer, standard bearer, NCO, drummer molds have tricorn and fusilier heads. I bought all three moulds so I've got lots of spare heads now (to do a fusilier unit will take a lot of officer casting because the fusilier head only comes in the drummer mold)

3. The detail is more accurate for the Prussians.

4. The pose matches the older infantry advancing pose, though I hear they will be coming out with a march attack pose later.

5. The heads cast separately but are very easy to attach thanks to a nice sturdy peg cast on the head in conjunction with a plastic rod that is inserted into the mould before casting. This ensures that the hole for the peg in the body of the figure is perfectly sized.

 I went with a unit of grenadiers that will represent one of the units from my Imagi-nations. I have been upscaling all of those figures from my original collection of 30mm RSMs.

The only downside of the casting session was having to do a bit of vent cutting to get the heads to cast properly. That is typical of PA moulds so not a big deal really. The only thing I had real trouble with was getting the officer's sword and had to cast (it's a separate piece)…but I think it's because I use old figures for my metal and I'm guessing if I used some of PA's higher quality casting metal, it would make things easier.

I'll be posting progress on the painting of this unit soon.

Cheers!

My Box of Britians

"Splendidity!"

I have a box of old Britains that have been with me for the past 11 years. I got them from my former girlfriend's father for Christmas and they are still with me even though the girl is not (she ran off with an Italian chef....but I think I may have got the better deal ;)!). Her father was a collector of toy soldiers and some of his collection wound up in the huge collection of Malcom Forbes, so he was a pretty serious collector at that. I managed to get some single figures and a partial "Queens Coronation set" one Christmas from him that are really nice even if a little less than pristine collector quality. As a gamer, I always have a bit of a "beef" against the high prices that those figures are bringing these days.

As I currently struggle with my pencil, pad and calculator to figure out how to make two "Little Wars" armies of the new Spencer Smith Little Britons happen here at the Lead Gardens, I took a few of these old figures out of the box for a bit of inspiration.

A Bengal lancer, ...one of my favorites!

If you look close you can see Her Majesty herself.

...after many years of service, this fellow is in need of some rest...perhaps

 

in a nice RTV rubber mold

This fellow in the pic is an old Britians that I found at a flea market almost 20 years ago with a few guardsmen in home service uniform. I think his is a pretty old vintage as the oval bases I think are pre 1940s.

I always loved this figure because of the stalwart pose and simple lines of the sculpting. I think the figure was repainted by a prior owner. I was thinking about this guy and wondering if I might try to make a rubber mold and try to recast a unit of these. These may be a bit hard to cast at home without a spin casting set up so I'm going to have to do some research to see if is at all possible. I think the horsemen would be difficult as I think they would require a three part mold.

All the figures in pretty tattered shape but they have stayed with me because I don't have the heart to sell them on ebay (even though I would probably sell them if I ever got an offer...)

I'm hoping all of my readers have a peaceful and fun holiday season. I'm splitting time shopping with my wife/taking care of kids with some progress gaming and also making some organizational changes in my gaming space to make the gaming a little more pleasurable and less disrupting to the household.

It seems this time of year is really a time for reflection and remembering the good stuff.
Happy Holidays!

An Odd Idea

 I was reading the classic "Little Wars" a few nights ago (something I do from time to time to get re-inspired), and an idea was rekindled in my head regarding how to make woods on the gaming surface. H.G. Wells had a set of large rectangles of wood planks that, when stacked, served as hills. Though it's not mentioned in the text (but outlined in some detail in his "Floor Games"), his approach to making woods involved having the hill boards drilled in a grid to take short branch cuttings from actual trees to make his wooded areas. You can just make out the grid of holes in the pictures in "Little Wars". I've always wanted to give that idea a try but never had the wherewithal to tackle it given that it seemed like a bit more than was necessary to produce woods. But the idea still hung around my thinking and finally ran into an opportunity to give it a try...now this is an odd idea for sure as it involves "damaging" a game I own...but I still thought it had good possibilities so I decided to give it a try.

A Reb unit assaults a wood defended by Union infantry and a battery of artillery. (The game board is a bit shiny and I was thinking a quick coat of matte spray might make the whole look of the game a bit more like a tabletop wargame rather than a boardgame.

Basically I took the idea of drilling the game surface to accept trees to one of my "Battle Cry" game boards to try a way of producing wooded hexes without having to use the flat tiles included in the game.

The result is kind of cool, but perhaps a bit "out there" if one wants ever to resell the game. And maybe just a bit too "fiddly"....I just drilled each hex vertices using a small bit (1/16") and sized to take the trunks of some nice little wire trees I got on sale at my local hobby shop. I forget the manufacturer of the trees but they are simple twisted wire trees with some clump foliage glued on. But when you stick them into the board surface it gives a fairly good alternative to the woods tiles. (I think this idea would work even better if you laid the gameboard on a piece of blue styrofoam insulation so the trees would hold better in the surface.

I'm still not completely sold on this idea. I just drilled a corner of one of the two Battle Cry boards I own just to experiment with it. I have to give it a few days to see if I really want to drill all of my boards this way. it just seemed to me that if I was painting the figures I should do a little more with the terrain. It kind of warps the boardgame idea...but the effect is pretty good.

I also want to do the full treatment of this idea for my 40mm homecast horse and musket stuff by doing up some layers of boards drilled to H.G. Wells specs. (...and not to mention the new Spencer Smith 42mm 'Little Britons" has got me on full alert... with calculator in hand trying to work out how to afford a classic set of "Little Wars" toys soldiers! (Many thanks to Ross for the link!)

Nothing like some experiments to get the gaming juices flowing!

New Prince August Molds

Just getting home and tucking into an afternoon martini after a tough day at work is usually enough for me to feel good, but today was extra-good... my mailbox was stuffed with a box from Prince August with a fat box of some much needed molds! These arrived here in Virginia in record time...a mere week across the pond. I think the folks at PA have made a nice effort with their new website and new molds to step up their business and I really hope all the PA fans out there encourage them. Also included is a nice new catalog with good illustrations of all the available figures.

I also realized that I had forgotten that I had submitted an order for 2, 40mm Karoliner "914" molds in loading poses so I now combined with the firing poses I already have, I've got the ability to cast up some "freikorps" light troops in half the time! I was also inspired to add a sapper/engineer company to my armies and have some base figures for conversions so the new artillery figures will do well in that regard.

...Now where are those bloody olives...

The Armies March

The English defend.

 I set up a new battle on my newly upgraded table (feels like a glorious 8'x5' after a few months relegated to the 6x4 dining table). This is actually the second battle but who's counting...

The defenders hold the bridge perimeter.

 In this scenario, I used a variation of the "Raid on St. Michel" campaign book (teaser 5) assuming a larger force holding a bridgehead and needing to hold the bridge open to get all its baggage (and loot) across the river while being attacked by a strong pursuing force.

Irish Regiment Bulkeley (now with a full compliment of 2 "companies" of 16 men) ...all that is lacking to be cast up is a mounted colonel, a second flag bearer and an NCO.

A church and walled graveyard dominate the center of the field

The French...Infanterie Regiment Lyonnais and a battalion gun on the flank facing a long march across an open field under the guns of the Brits.

I'm hoping to get this battle underway towards the end of the week...until then it remains set up. It makes me happy and reduces the end of the day work stress just looking at it, even if I don't get to roll some dice immediately.

Artillery Stick for "2/3s scale Charge"

 Working as I do in a school of architecture here in Virginia has its perks especially at the end of the term when students pack up their studio stuff to head home. It's usually a good time to check the recycling bins for useable materials that can be re-purposed for gaming. This past summer term found me in the possession of several nice 48" wood strips leftover from a shop project. I made off with them and did a bit of painting and lettering on one of them to make a pretty serviceable artillery stick for "Charge" at 2/3s scale.

The large number is the to hit number and just to the right the casualty D6 to be rolled...on the upper right of the range band is the to hit for light battalion guns (a house rule of mine...lower to hit probability by one, but the same casualty D6)

The end of the artillery stick has the 45 degree field of fire marked and with a bit of graphic flame to enhance the "abstract" look of the thing...which to me is paramount in an old school game.

I had some stencil templates to do the lettering and a coat of white artist gesso did good service as a basecoat. I did two coats with a light sanding between coats to make a nice smooth surface, though if you were in a hurry, the gesso covers in one coat. (the stencils are a hard-to-get metal reproduction of the classic set used by the famed architect Le Corbusier back in the 1920s...so they look pretty good and have a "workmanlike" look... but I think one could get just as nice an effect with an inexpensive paper stencil of the right size). The artillery batten is about an inch and a half wide so it works great to also indicate roughly any blocking of the field of fire by intervening friendlies.

I'm also thinking of doing some tweaking of the melee rules to take into account some things like grenadiers, light cavalry and lancers...that would have some advantage in the melee rolls but not as dramatic as the doubling of the D6 in the cavalry versus infantry melee situation.

I'm enjoying the 2/3s scale version of the rules (many thanks to Ross for the suggestion) and it works with my table depth very well.

Battle of St. Michel: Second Attempt- The Report

British grenadiers and the 12th regiment of Foot begin their assault on St. Michel

The battle opens with the British advancing smartly in column of companies to cover the expanse of open ground as quickly as possible.

The 8th Regiment of Foot (King's) deployed in line covers the flank of the assaulting column.

Attentive readers will notice I've mislabeled the Colonel's stand (in this game hit early...) as the Lorraine Regiment...They are actually painted as the Regiment Lyonnais....I am getting old and confused..!

British battalion guns do some serious damage to an exposed company of the Lyonnais Regiment.

I simulated indecision on the part of the French of when to release their cavalry by rolling each turn for their Brigadier to convince the reluctant CinC to charge forward. About turn three they finally surge forward.

French Horse bear down on the British line.

The 12th Foot and converged grenadiers move to assault St. Michel

light cavalry clash on the flank

In the center the French cavalry charge the 8th regiment of foot...

The assault column closes in...

overview about halfway through the battle...the French regrouping their horse after an unsuccessful charge and the British assault column closes in on the outskirts of St. Michel

The defenders of St. Michel, Infantrie Regiment Lyonnais

French CinC

Col. Skelton of the 12th foot leads from the front but is one of the first to fall...

The objective...the pay waggons

Light infantry skirmish

The British column begins to break up.

The French Cuirassiers make another charge on the British left.

cavalry action

Concentrated musketry and cannon fire shatter the British in the final moments of the assault.

The final blow to the British is delivered by a successful charge of French heavy horse.

This battle was fun...but had to be taken down fast.... but my sights were set on getting a larger table set up and some more figures painted up...so in my next post, another CS Grant teaser from the "Raid on St. Michel" book