AWI Militia Pictures

I have been busy painting samples of my new Fife & Drum AWI Militia figures over the weekend and I managed to start the basing process as well. I thought that everyone might want to see the "before" and "after" pictures over the next couple of days. This afternoon, I started on the bases, creating a stone wall section on each base, gluing the pebbles onto the stand with white glue. The glue will have set by this evening and then I can add the spackling compound for the texturing process on the bases.

I kind of assumed that militia would naturally seek cover, hence the idea of the stone wall, which I also used on my Minden Croats. So I went out to the roadside in front of my house and picked up a number of small rocks and twigs to use for this project.

Originally I was thinking of having 24 or 30 figure militia units, but then decided that 5 figures scattered randomly on the stand looked less formal and more "militia like. I like the way the stands turned out. The number of figures on a stand doesn't really matter in my rules, each unit gets one firing die for every four figures so the size of the unit can vary as you see fit.

Another view of the militia from the Montgolfier Bros' hot air ballon. For more information about the Fife & Drum range, click on the following link to my separate Fife & Drum blog:

http://fifedrumminis.blogspot.com/2011/04/american-militia-painted-examples.html

RSM Austrian Units For Sale

Austrian Command Stand Featuring Marshal von Daun (center), a Front Rank figure and he is flanked by two Crusader figures, mounted and dismounted, as aides.

ALL SOLD!
(don't worry, I have more items to sell in the future)

I was saving some of my RSM cavalry to use in my convention game that I was going to run at the SYWA meeting. They fit in nicely with the Minden figures so they would have saved me some time in building my Austrian cavalry force. Now that the convention is over, I can free these units for release to a new Inhaber or Erzherzog somewhere in Central Germany.

I am offering four RSM Austrian cavalry regiments (20 figures each) and two RSM Austrian infantry regiments (30 figures each). If anyone offers to buy the whole lot, I will add in the Marshal von Daun command stand for free. The cavalry contingent consists of two cuirassier regiments (Alt Modena in blue, and O'Donnell in red) and two dragoon regiments (Sachsen Gotha in red coats with light blue facings and Hesse Darmstadt in red coats with green facings).


The whole cavalry brigade. Click to enlarge. Cuirassiers were painted by Der Alte Fritz and the Dragoons were painted by Bill Biles.

The infantry consists of the Macguire regiment with red facings and the Wied regiment with green facings.

The cavalry regiments of 20 figures each are priced at $10.00 per figure or $200 per regiment. The infantry figures are priced at $6.00 per figure or $180.00 for each regiment. The total brigade would be$1,160.00 but I would offer the whole shebang for $1,000.00 plus the free Marshall Daun command stand.

Now for some pictures:


Alt Modena Cuirassiers - the only regiment that had blue facings.


The O'Donnell cuirassiers, in red facings.



The Wied-Runkel Austrian infantry regiment in light green facings.



A closer view of the command stand and the grenadier stand. Note how the musketeer pose has been converted into a standard bearer.


The MacGuire Austrian infantry regiment. I have six more figures that were not based at the time I took this picture - so there are 30 musketeers. No grenadiers, but if I can find some castings, I could paint them for you.

Take a close look at any of the pictures by clicking on the picture to enlarge the view. The proceeds of this sale are going to be reinvested in my Fife & Drum range of AWI figures.

If you have an interest in purchasing any or all of these figures, then send me an e-mail at:

altefritz1740 (at) yahoo (dot) com

and we can make the necessary arrangements to transfer these fine figures to your army.

Little Wars 2011 Convention Report

Spectacular 28mm terrain for a French & Indian War skirmish game. Note the painted backdrop. The fort was magificent and there was a really cool looking British ship sailing up the river to attack the French fort.

I spent Saturday afternoon at the HMGS-Midwest's annual Little Wars Convention and had fun looking at all of the games and investigating what new treasures there were in the dealer area. I was not particularly enamored with the new venue, largely because it is about a two hour drive from my house, whereas the old site was just fifteen minutes away. Oh well. Other than that, the venue at the DuPage Expo Center seemed OK, but it was about half the size of the Marriot Tennis Courts used in previous years. Games seemed to be packed in a little bit tighter, as you might expect.

There did not seem to be as many dealers attending this year, but I could be wrong about that as that was just my impression. The one thing about the convention that really stood out was the quality of the games and the terrain that the game judges were using. I would estimate that about one third of the tables had custom-made terrain boards that were by in large, very impressive.


ACW game in 28mm using Hotz terrain mats and beautiful Old Glory 2nd Generation figures.

The game shown above was really an eye-catcher due to the high quality of the painted miniatures. The game judge told me that they were painted by the fellow who has the blog titled, "McPhee's Miniature Men". He used a mix of Foundry, 2nd Generation Old Glory and Crusader, to name a few, but it was the 2nd Generation Old Glory ACW figures that really caught my eye. They are really beautiful figures and evoke the style of the late Dave Alsop's original OG ACW range.


54mm Alamo game is a perennial favorite.

The Alamo game, in 54mm, has been at the last couple of conventions and it never fails to draw a crowd of onlookers. You can tell that all of the players are having fun participating in this game.

And now for a couple of WW2 games that looked very good to me. I also had a picture of a spectacular 28mm Arnheim game, but alas, the picture was a bit too blurry to use on this blog.



This looks like a Flames of War game. Note the build up of the contours using pink insulation board. The terrain included a nice resin-poured stream.



I think that this was a 28mm or a 54mm Stalingrad game. This one has been at Little Wars for several years now. The ruins are scratch built and the rubble consists of colored cardboard pieces that are randomly scattered across the table. Simple, but very effective idea for rubble.

Now, on to the dealer area:



Some of the new offerings from Miniature Building Authority: Spanish or Caribbean town in 28mm. The Governor's House on the high ground was very attractive. I almost got weak in the knees when I saw it. I really, really wanted to buy it, but I resisted.



Rich Houston's scratch built ships. By the end of the afternoon, most of the models on the table had been sold. The paddle wheel steamer was priced at $500 (the kit alone cost $300) and was very well crafted.


Hasslefree Miniatures' 15mm flying boat decorated the Miniature Building Authority display. I want several of these. Hmm, gives me ideas for my 18th Century Flying Machines Game that I have been thinking about doing one day.

I didn't do much shopping this year as I was meeting Herb Gundt at the convention and picking up some Highland Crofts that he made for my Jacobite Rebellion army, plus another dozen or so large trees that Herb creates to a very high standard. So that kind of tapped out my spending funds. However, I've now got the Old Glory 2nd Generation ACW range, the MBA Caribbean buildings and a few other items on my radar for future purchases.

In summary, Little Wars was a bit further drive from my house, the new venue is a bit cozier, but the quality of the games was noticeably better. I did not run a game this year, as I am still feeling a bit burned out from gaming, plus, I wanted to see the lay of the land and determine what the logistical requirements would be at the new, but unfamiliar site. I will probably run an AWI game at next year's Little Wars convention in April 2012.

Fife & Drum Blog Is Set Up

I have set up a mock up of the blog site that I plan to use, initially, for posting information for the new Fife & Drum Miniatures range of AWI figures that are sculpted by Richard Ansell. This will be a temporary arrangement until I can get a proper web page and shopping cart feature set up.

http://fifedrumminis.blogspot.com

My caster informs me that the American Militia and the British Light Infantry figures have been cast, and I am awaiting the receipt of the inventory before I "go live" with the new blog and start selling figures. In the short term, I plan to follow the model used by Frank Hammond for sales of his Minden Miniatures SYW figures. So if you want to place an order, then contact me via e-mail at: altefritz1740@yahoo.com with your order and I will send you a Paypal request for the payment.

I am setting April 20, 2011 as the probable start date, although once the inventory arrives, then I will make a proper announcement on this and my Fife & Drum blogsite.

I have been busy the past week painting some sample American Militia figures so that I can put one wargame unit together for picture taking purposes. Gee, I'm glad that I held onto all of those Colonial America buildings that Herb Gundt made for me.

AWI American Militia

American Militia figures from Fife & Drum Miniatures. Click to enlarge.

I am posting a few pictures of the eight new American Militia figures that we will be offering for sale shortly. I'm not going to promise any deadline, because the production end of things is out of my control. Hopefully, we will have them sometime in May, along with the British Guards and the British Light Infanty.

Close up view of the four firing figures.

In the firing group, we have one fellow kneeling firing, two variants standing firing, and one fellow cocking his musket. The tricorn wearing figures could probably also be used in the armies of those who have "Imaginations" forces, in addition to their intended use as militia.

Rear view of the same figures, showing the detail of their equipment.


The four advancing poses, including the Militia officer.



Rear view of the advancing poses.

That gives you an idea of what the eight poses look like and how they turn out once they are painted. I found that they were rather easy to paint and had fun working with them. Over the next week or so, I will increase this to a 24 or 30 figure unit for my AWI armies.

AWI Light Bobs

Some of the new Fife & Drum AWI British Light Infantry

I received a couple sets of sample figures of our new Fife & Drum miniatures AWI figures and am posting a couple pictures of the British Light Infantry. These are not ready for production yet, but I thought that everyone would like to see how they look painted.

My first reaction upon painting these was "Sweet Monkeys, but these are nice!"

They are really a joy to paint and I can't wait to get them into production. By the way, Richard Ansell is currently working on some AWI Continentals for us - 13 figures and one standing horse (for the mounted officer). When I look at those redcoats, I can start to envision how this range of figures will look when we have all of the basic combat arms completed and then I can get down to the task of using them in wargames.

Today I was working on painting one each of the AWI American Militia and I expect to have them finished within a couple more days and will probably post some pictures mid week. They look like they could be used in some of the Imaginations armies that people are building all over the world.

After the Continentals are done, we will put the British line infantry and a mounted officer next in the queue. After that, we will focus on the artillery pieces and some crew for each side of the conflict. At that point, we will have the basics into production and then we can go back and add in various other uniform types for both sides. Personally, I'm drooling at the thought of Ansell-sculpted Highlanders one day.


Another closer view of the British light infantry. The fellow kneeling is a little bit out of focus, but I was in a hurry to get some nice piccies up on the blog this evening. I really like the two poses on the second stand from the bottom - standing firing and NCO pointing.

Well that is all that I have for Show & Tell today. I'm sorry that I can not give everyone a date for when we will finally go into production, but I hope that we are ready to go in about another month.

By the way, it seemed like the End of The World today in Hesse Seewald what with the strange weather we have had. It started with torrential rain showers, then a lightening storm, then hail stones the size of ones thumbnail (scary stuff, that). Then that was followed by a short break, which enabled me to dash outside with the dogs before the next wave of storms came in. Then it was pitch black in the middle of the day and more hail. I half expected a cloud of locusts to descend on us next.

Oh well, I have some American Militia waiting for me downstairs at the painting table. So I will see you later.

Minden Hussar Horseholder

Minden Prussian Hussar horseholder, painted as HR5 von Reusch, or better known as The Black Hussars or Death's Head Hussar regiment. Click pix to enlarge the view.

Since I am no longer a slave to a painting deadline, I decided to work on a couple of vignettes over the weekend. The first is the set of Minden Prussian Hussar Horseholders that I've had sitting on the work bench for awhile. The only conversion work that I had to do was to drill very tiny holes into the muzzle of the two horses, shown above. This would accomodate a short strand of florists' wire that I passed through the holes and into the hands of the hussar, to simulate the reins that he is holding.

Another, more distant view of the same vignette.

I have a box full of the new dismounted hussars in mirlitons that are winging their way across the Great Pond and should be arriving at any day. I will add the dismounts to my Black Hussar regiment plus a few more horse holder stands that I can set on the table to indicate where the horses are being held while the men skirmish on foot. As I was painting the shabraques, I was having trouble painting the fine white lines of the "Van Dyking" pattern on the saw tooth red edging of the shabraque. Towards the end of the painting session, I hit on the idea of just painting one white dot at the tip of the red tooth rather than attempting to paint in all of the edging. I think it looks better and only wish that I had thought of this before I was half way towards completion of the Van Dyking. I will use this technique on the next batch.

Mounted Austrian Grenadier Officer Conversion

Original Austrian mounted colonel (left) in tricorn and the same figure with a new grenadier head (right). Click pix to enlarge the view.

Now that I have two converged grenadier battalions in my Minden Austrian army, I decided that I needed a mounted grenadier officer to command this little brigade of grenadiers. Since each musketeer regiment has a mounted officer, so too should a pair of grenadier battalions. Alas, Minden does not make a mounted grenadier officer, so a conversion was necessary.

Out came the Exacto fine tooth hack saw and I immediately set to work in sawing off the head of the mounted infantry colonel figure. Then, I selected the German Grenadier NCO (because it has no musket to interfere with the head removal) and removed his head in the same manner.

The next step was to take a pin vise (a miniature hand drill) and drill a hole in the torso of the mounted officer, where his head had been, and then do the same thing to the grenadier head. Then I found an offcut from North Star wire spear to use as a pin to secure the head to the torso, sized it up and made sure that the new head fit snuggly onto the torso of the officer. I had to do a minor amount of filing under the grenadier head to get a tight fit, but things lined up rather nicely (even the pigtail or que on the back aligned up nicely with the new head). Then a little bit of Zap-A-Gap super glue and I was done.

A close up view of the original figure and the converted mounted grenadier officer.

I had never done a head swap in all my years of wargaming and painting and modelling, so I was not sure of how this would turn out. I think that the pictures show that the results were very good. I would have to say that this type of conversion is very easy to do. So in the future, I would not hesitate to do this type of conversion if the situation required it.

Thank You For All the Kind Comments

I want to thank everyone who left a comment on my last blog post as well as those who sent me e-mails for providing their support for me and my decision to change the focus of my wargame hobby. It is really gratifying to know that I have so many friends out their on the internet and it really helped me to "get out of myself" and let go of the baggage from the past. I felt like a great weight has been removed from my shoulders now that I don't have to burn both ends of the candle trying to get the last figures ready for a game. I feel even better knowing that I do not have to "compete" at a convention in order to derive some fulfillment from this hobby. My fulfillment comes from tinkering in the basement on some new vignette or adding another regiment of infantry or cavalry to my Austrian and Prussian armies and sharing the results with my followers on this blog.

best regards to everyone,

Der Alte Fritz