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Good afternoon all,
I've been a member of this forum for many years. Finally, at the age of 23, I have the space and spare money to finance a wargaming project. I am opting for 1/72 plastics to keep the costs lower and tempt a few friends to the party along the way. I am setting up this thread to keep everything together and hopefully motivate me along the way.
It's all started with a copy of Black Powder (First Edition) which I managed to pick up on Ebay for £8 which I was quite pleased with(see attachment one). Also when clearing out some bits and pieces at my mum and dads house I have uncovered a couple of bags of 1/72 napoleonics including Highlanders, British infantry and French Infantry (see following attachments) so a good corner stone of each army is already in place.
I am no painter by any stretch of the imagination so the initial plan is to get all current models based and organised into units as per Black Powder Rules, so I can start playing out a game or two. Progress will be slow and steady, with hopefully a battle report or two thrown into the mix.
Sites set on acquiring artillery and cavalry to bolster both forces over the next month or so.
Thanks for looking,
Steven
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Those look like good old Airfix Napoleonics, great detail and easy to paint. Good luck with your project.
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You'll not go far wrong with Airfix...
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=105509.0;attach=73414;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=105509.0;attach=73418;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=105509.0;attach=73416;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=105509.0;attach=73417;image)
:-*
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Thank you for the support chaps!
AdamPHayes you are correct, I can remember getting the whole lot for about £4 on Ebay years ago. Absolute steal! Has got me off to a great start with both of my armies. I'm currently stock piling cardboard at work for basing the troops as soon as possible!
Harry Faversham, I hope to get up to that size of force as soon as possible! Thank you for sharing! Interesting to see how you've based them together as I've been group them into pose currently. Wasn't sure whether to base the musician and standard bearer with the cavalry mounted officer or have those based separately. Decisions, decisions!
Cheers guys! More pictures soon!
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Basing on cardboard? :o Now that really is Old School!
I know that you are on a budget, but ready made laser cut MDF bases are very cheap and far more durable, would save you a lot of cutting and would probably last your whole wargaming life. You will only have to base them once....
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I, like many others here, are what one may call the Airfix generation. That is, we grew up when Airfix was liberally stocked on the high street and they were probably the main the 'pocket money' purchase for boys, so that by the time we got to teenage years and discovered wargames, we had plentiful ready forces to hand and of course Don Featherstone encouraged us to understand that :-) . So that correlation with your new voyage of discovery makes this post a very interesting project / proposition to follow.
Black Powder does not take individual casualties, rather the unit as a whole has casualties recorded against it, so there is no real systemic need to base figures individually. I would put your officer, standard bearer and musicians on a single base and call that your command base within the unit, which is important to have one in BP.
Make sure your figures are washed in a warm water with detergent to get release oils off them and then do a bit of research online to see which are the best undercoat paints for soft (poly) plastics and which glue works - two things that will become important to you.
Painting up two armies can be an arduous task (or a pleasure - that depends on your likes), but to maintain your enthusiasm for this project, the faster you get units based and up onto the the table to game with, the better. So I would suggest you base your unpainted figures now on temporary bases now, so that you you can game some while at the same time, cycling units across the painting table, growing your painted forces. The best way to do this is to use a latex glue like Copydex, as you will be able to detach the figure easily in the future, though that may damage some of your card bases ... so for these bases, just use any old scruffy card.
If you are going to buy cavalry, you might prefer to source some HaT or other soft plastic /72 manufacturer rather than airfix ... only because Airfix have their horses and bases as separate items that need to be blued together and they were something of a frustrating task. Most of my stuff had a dress makers pin pushed through the base from below and up into the horses belly in efforts to pint the base and horse together. There are probably better glues these days, but going with a manufacturer that has the horse and base as a single integral piece may be a better way to go.
Anyway, good luck with your project, it is a delight to see a post about the reality of starter gaming and budget gaming and I think you will find that several of your readers here will enjoy the nostalgic aspect to this project, when they were first starting out and facing the same challenges and pleasures as your good self.
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This is what your lads will look like once you get a lick of paint on 'em...
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=79034.0;attach=32382;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=79034.0;attach=32384;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=79034.0;attach=32386;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=79034.0;attach=32388;image)
Airfix... from the dawn of time!!!
:-*
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I picked up loads of those Airfix miniatures recently at a car boot sale for 50p a bag. Nice and cheap and a great way to start some forces, having a mixture of Prussians, Highlanders, British and of course French old guard. Nice figures but I still haven't figured out how to base them, so I will be looking out to see what you do as I wanted to be able to change their formations and what not. Hat Industrie do a nice range of figures, I bought some dutch for Waterloo and British rocket troops myself and they are not badly priced. Italeri is another good brand as they do the 95th rifles, but a little more pricy. Excited to see what comes next.
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Vodkafan - Someone once said, no school like they old school? lol lol Cardboard bases are definitely a temporary solution to just get a few games under my belt early on and build up a love for it. I've been drifting in and out of the hobby since I was about 11 years old via Games Workshop and various other places. So 12 years later, it's time to get serious and the sooner I can game the better for me. If you could PM me a link with some MDF laser cut bases that would be really appreciated? I will get some on order when paint supplies begin to arrive.
Normsmith - I'm jealous you had them so readily available and I am glad that I have provided a rush of nostalgia! I appreciate your numerous points of advice also. I wasn't sure whether to include the cavalry officer with the standard bearer and musician but will certainly do so as per your instruction. I also hadn't thought of what glues and paints will work best with the lower quality plastics so thankyou for that tip! It's funny that you should mention HAT. I've been looking at getting most of my figures from Drum & Flag and by cross referencing with Plastic Soldier Review, the HAT sets really appeal to me and I hope to flesh out a large chunk of my force with those models.
Work is painfully busy over the next week or so, so not sure if I will get much chance to get the bases cut and all soldiers mounted. I hope to at least have an infantry face off in the next week or two so I can get a feel for the rules and I will include some pictures of the shakey battle report. Feels really good to have finally set the wheels in motion and get something table ready so I can play.
Harry Faversham - At some point in the near future, I hope to be able to fire over some similar looking pictures of my own models for your comparison. Nice to have an idea of what it will all look like when it's done. I appreciate it.
Donkeymilkman - I am jealous of those finds! I will have to take a look at some car boot sales in the near future and hope and pray! I'll be basing them roughly off Black Powder rules so I'll hopefully have some pictures for you soon to give you an idea! HAT definitely appeal to me on price point as well and it's interesting that you mention Italeri, although definitely slightly more expensive, if you look at their models via Plastic Soldier Review as previously mentioned, they certainly have a higher quality sculpted look to them (most sets anyway) so that's possibly why?
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I'm a big 1/72 scale fan as I found it as a cheap alternative to games workshop, warlord games etc. If your looking for more sturdy bases Warbases (first website if you google it) are a good company which I have ordered from before as I needed some for 1/72 WW1 Ottoman cavalry by early war miniatures and there is a huge variety on Warbases website. I find Italeri a bit hit or miss as they can be quite inaccurate compared with Hat but when they get it right the figures can look spectacular. I believe on Amazon they sell a revel battle of Waterloo starter set with I want to say 250 different figures but I might be wrong for £10 which might help you as, of the top of my head, it contains British cavalry of some sorts possibly House Hold, Prussian Landwehr (shocked I spelt that right) and French infantry (can't remember if it is old guard or not). Humbrol acrylics are my prefered choice however for base coating I bought some cheap Crawford&Black black paint for £2 which I now use for pretty much everything.
Hope this helps.
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Donkeymilkman - All help greatly appreciated! I know the very set you mean from Amazon, it's down from £20 to about £11.99 and contains British Infantry, Prussian Cavalry and French Guard. I'm toying with the idea of picking it up to bolster both forces.
I will get Warbases book marked and look at picking up some of those paints. I'm definitely concentrating on getting both armies based for games firstly. Then I can start financing the painting and modelling side of everything.
Appreciate you coming on board and I look forward to seeing your own models.
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I think you have the right idea getting them ready to play a game, rather than painting them, as normally I do the latter first which has caused me to have hundreds of useable figures shoved in boxes instead of getting them out and just having a go with them, just because they are not painted.
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Nice to have an idea of what it will all look like when it's done. I appreciate it.
Here's a bit more inspiration, these were painted in the early seventies...
your standard of painting will be much higher! :)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=77552.0;attach=32272;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=77552.0;attach=32273;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=77552.0;attach=32274;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=77552.0;attach=32275;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=77552.0;attach=33255;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=77552.0;attach=33256;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=77552.0;attach=33257;image)
(http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=77552.0;attach=33258;image)
;)
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You hold me in to high of a regard, my painting may leave a lot to be desired! Excited to get my Cavalry and Artillery ordered for both armies!
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Here's a bit more inspiration, these were painted in the early seventies...
your standard of painting will be much higher! :)
By any chance is there a bridge just out of shot of the picture.
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I think so!? If memory serves the game was one of the 'one hour wargames' scenarios.
???
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Good evening Gents, I hope you've all had a nice weekend.
A poorly girlfriend allowed me to get my command squares (as per black powder rules) based. I actually think they look a lot better than originally anticipated.
Pictures attached to follow, we have:
3x Highlanders
2x British Infantry
3x French Infantry
Now I'm starting to base them I realise there's a few models missing in some areas. So I will make do with what I have. British force will predominantly be Highlanders and the French force will be a lot smaller in comparison.
Thanks for looking folks,
Steven
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Great start. There is a lot of good animation in these figure sets.
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Normsmith - Cheers! Now I know the cards acceptable etc, I should hit the ground running quite comfortably. Admittedly as pointed out by someone earlier, there's a lot of cutting to do! But I've got plenty of cardboard to do it currently lol wish me luck, I may go crazy o_o
Can't fault the animation in the three sets I currently have for sure! Going to try and group them together as best as possible so they stack together well!
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They are looking good. Made me have to look through my stuff realising I had none those English command figures and now I can't find my French old guard however I did find an old 20mm Napoleon figure that once I find my old guard I will base to make a command unit.
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They are looking good. Made me have to look through my stuff realising I had none those English command figures and now I can't find my French old guard however I did find an old 20mm Napoleon figure that once I find my old guard I will base to make a command unit.
Brilliant news! I don't think the command unit matters too much, I'm just trying to stick to the Black Powder rules, I'm sure it comes down to whichever rule set you use?
I'm now up to 22 bases cut to size, so I now have enough bases for 88 troops. Intend to get them done over the next few mornings before work. Expect pictures as soon as possible.
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Excellent! Can I ask what size the bases are? (As in Lenght and Width.)
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Looking at those ranks of old Airfix plastics stirs up strong and fond memories. I game in 28mm metals and plastics these days and have come a long way since my teens and wargaming in the 70s and 80s. But looking at your images and this project makes me realize that for all the fancy figures, and skilled paint-jobs I don't think I'm having any more enjoyment than I did playing Donald Featherstone's rules or even WRG with my old faithfully painted plastic Airfix figures.
I watch with great interest - keep us updated and thanks for sharing.
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Excellent! Can I ask what size the bases are? (As in Lenght and Width.)
I've cut them at 40mm by 40mm (that was the guidance in Black Powder for 28mm figures but I think it works fine for these chaps too. I'll probably base my cavalry the same to keep it easy and see what fits best for the artillery figures when they arrive.
Looking at those ranks of old Airfix plastics stirs up strong and fond memories. I game in 28mm metals and plastics these days and have come a long way since my teens and wargaming in the 70s and 80s. But looking at your images and this project makes me realize that for all the fancy figures, and skilled paint-jobs I don't think I'm having any more enjoyment than I did playing Donald Featherstone's rules or even WRG with my old faithfully painted plastic Airfix figures.
I watch with great interest - keep us updated and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for joining me! Glad I've brought someone else a flood of nostalgia. I think I get what you mean, I would love to finance two large 28mm armies but it isn't in a realistic time scale. Maybe in a couple of years I can start putting funds together for that and then have a real long winded project.
Obviously it helps that I've found enough infantry for two starter armies. I've priced up cavalry and artillery and I'm looking at about an extra £25 and both armies will be ready to face off. Shipment is due at the end of the month so hoping to have all the infantry based by then.
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A surprise day off meant I could put the bases to use that I'd chopped up the other night. All French infantry are now based.
Hoping to get the rest of the bases chopped to size and either all British or Highlanders based as well. But not sure I'll make it through them all.
Thanks for looking,
Steven
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They're looking good.
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There looking good.
Thankyou Donkey! Used up all my cardboard bases and all of my glue finishing off the British Infantry but I've now got enough for a little face off this afternoon when the glue has dried.
Pictures of the British.
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Would be great to see a battle report.
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The other thing I find very interesting about this project is it's focus on actual wargaming. AB's not dithering, he's getting his lads straight into the action! I'm fascinated how this will pan out. Will the actual battling enthuse him and lead to two nicely painted plastic armies in the coming months? Or will it be a big anti-climax, like so many of mine/our projects (but in reverse order!) and just fizzle out?
???
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Mr. Faversham your pics nearly brought me to tears of joy!! What great stuff. I'm 56 and Airfix figures have been in my life nearly the entire time. So I thought I would add a few pictures myself.