Hello All!
Inspired by a number of pics I've found on the 'net such as this:
and this:
and this too:
I've just done a potentially very silly thing, and dropped a bit of spare cash on 60+ of little yellow-skinned plastic fellows and their plastic kith.
These are not genuine Lego-brand 'Minifigures' alas, but considerably cheaper Chinese copies of admittedly dubious intellectual property. But, around AU$2.00 per figure makes them fair fodder for a project I've been contemplating for a while now;
The Armies and Enemies of the Kingdom of Martavia! This will (hopefully) be the start of a couple of forces for fighting with H.G. Wells' classic
Little Wars rules in a 7YW / Napoleonic setting, complete with Lego spring-cannons, cavalry, field hospitals, etc. I think the image of these shiny souls maneuvering around Lego buildings and forests is really very appealing. Also, they should prove terribly easy to 'paint', as I can switch parts of one colour for another, etc.
As you can see from the beautiful examples I found on Lego forum 'Eurobricks' some AFOLs (Adult Fans of Lego) do fantastic jobs of customising their figures into splendid representations of Napoleonic pomp and pageantry:
Inspiring stuff!
As anyone who has stepped on a Lego brick in the middle of the night knows, the ABS plastic from which they are made is damned hard. That in part is why I think they will do superbly in the shooting-gallery of a
Little Wars battle in which shooting is resolved by actually firing projectiles at the troops. These foot-crippling tough guys should emerge relatively unscathed compared to their painted, cast metal or styrene counterparts.
I'll be setting the wars of Martavia on the Isle of Brich, which is the whimsical setting of my to-be-built-when-I'm-rich* Lego railway layout. (The place-names are in-jokes for Lego fans.)
I'd better retrograde the map to represent the Isle pre-industrialisation. (Better name the rivers, too! Good names for battles come from rivers.
)
To personalise my forces, I'll be sculpting some new headgear, packs, sabretaches, etc, plus issuing new uniforms by way of decals. (I'm not going to try painting all this lot! That's what my 'proper' toy soldiers are for!) Here's some sneak-preview artwork of their new togs and some Regimental colours for them to valiantly defend:
I've yet to design the antagonistic forces for the Invasion of Brich, although they are very likely to be wearing a fetching shade of blue. The first batch of figures should arrive next week, so I'll look forward to lengthy evenings of stripping off their printing and getting them into their new uniforms.
A bit of silly fun, to keep me light-hearted during these relatively dark days. I hope you'll get a giggle from my endeavours as they progress.
More to follow soon!
*If you (or your partner) think wargaming is a costly hobby, pick up a copy of a model railways magazine and see how much money we wargamers
don't spend!
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April 19, 2024, 08:15:46 PM
May 01, 2011, 09:41:01 AM
