Winter Update

 Not much new this winter, except all the snow.

We don’t get the big snowfalls like people down east with those Nor’Westers or people in Colorado with the huge snowfalls.

But we do get blizzards, which is sustained high winds and snow.

This year they’ve been a near weekly occurrence and we are getting blocked in by all the drifts.

So it’s been a great time to do favourite tv and movie rewatches, read a book and paint toy soldiers.

Here’s a scene reminiscent of Valmy. Hong Kong soldiers made into Revolutionary war period French.

Next are a few Thirty Years War types. The large base is a terico, made of figures from one box of Mars figures. The pikes are those provided in the set and a bit of an experiment on my part. I used to just use florist wire, but after I dropped a biscuit tin full of pikemen, I kinda walked away from them. These soft plastic pikes may not be painted (yet) but they stay in place. 

These next guys are actually lead 25mm Minifigs S range if I’m not mistaken. I bought a bunch of broken figures and these guys were in them. No swords, but they look ok on those Giant copy horses. Also there is  a squadron of Warrior Miniatures 25mm French Cuirassier.  

And finally here’s some of those medieval figures I bought and featured in the last blog post. They paint up nicely.

Back To The English Civil War

I always liked the Movie “Cromwell” with Alec Guiness and Richard Harris. I first saw it on late night tv as a kid. Yeah, once the battles were done I usually fell asleep, but those battles were pretty cool.
I especially liked the “cowboy hats” they wore as I used my Giant cowboys and Airfix Civil War Confederares in pell mell battles on the floor, pretending they were the soldiers on tv. Lacking the internet in those days, I had to rely on black and white reproductions of paintings like “Cromwell at Dunbar” in encyclopedias to get any sense of what these guys looked like for real.

As an ironic twist, now as an old man I find myself using these same figures in conversions of English Civil War armies.

Back to the movie for a moment.
I especially liked the cannons.
They were big, imposing pieces, belching fire on command.
Today, most of the 1/72 cannon available are pretty small by comparison.
It is only with the company Mars that there have been an appearance of big guns.
Here’s a recent purchase from the Ukraine:

You get 4 guns and crew per bag, but the price is getting sharp. Just check eBay.

The crew look good and the gun is beefy:

Here’s some of my cannon:

These next guns are home made, popcycle stick gun carriage and dowel barrel. 

The little ammunition cart is an idea I pinched from the movie.

What follows is a photo shoot of most of the ECW/Thirty Years War soldiers I’ve painted since I last posted. COVID was instrumental in my having sat down long enough to coat them all with Future floor wax.

This next set is cavalry made from those cowboys I bought from a Thai toy dealer a few years back.

So I’ll close out with a couple more shots from “Cromwell”.

Ain't It The Way....

After a long haitus I dug out my camera and boxes of painted toys only to find my camera doesn't work anymore.....
So I made an attempt with my android, and here's some "results".

Comic Book Toy Lucky Revolutionary War Artillery.

They look better with wheels pinched from Eagle Games Civil War figures.

Lucky Toys Cavalry as American Militia

American Regulars

The Command Base. One thing you get a lot of in these figures are drummers and musicians.

Some Converted Renaissance Swiss Pikemen

More Conversions. Emhar Rowing Vikings are now becoming Gothic Horse. Hopefully to be at Chalons some day to face my Hun's.

Mars Thirty Years War Artillery. Mars is really going all out with their TYW ranges. I read a couple of Brigadier Peter Young's books on the English Civil War and Edgehill, and guns in this battle were a real mixed lot and rather small in caliber. Not at all like the fire spewing behemoths seen in the movie Cromwell.

So that's some of my figures, the pictures aren't so nice, so I am waiting on a new digital camera.

My Myceneans, Well..., Not Really Mine

Years ago there was quite a source of 20mm figures showing up on ebay fom a place in Sarasota Florida.
I bid on many of the items and managed to land a few. Those little mounted knights from Scruby were among my successes.
Well I won this lot, and set them aside and by passed them.
I was snooping downstairs when I rediscovered them and brought them up to base and finish.

The owner/creator referred to the figures as 26mm. What they are in fact are home cast copies of the Giant ancient Romans, which were themselves tiny copies of larger 54mm English made plastic figures.

There are some 200 miniatures, almost all are painted and are rather clever adaptations of the Giant figures.
A quick look at Peter Connolly's book "Greek Armies" shows the similarities:

Not too bad for homecast figures.

There are a few partially painted figures and some that are obviously personality/hero figures:

Also included in the lot were these Egyptian figures. A close inspection of the shield shows hieroglyphics on the shield with a peep hole near the top:

All in all a nice selection of toys that will fit in well with Atlantic/Nexus Greeks and Trojans.

I've also been up to other things. Here's a few pix:

English Civil War Regiments from various manufacturers.

A Hinchliffe French Marshal.
and  finally a project that never really got off the ground, the US/Mexican war. Plasticine conversions of cowboys on recast Giant horses.

The large bases are for hex boards I've been toying with.