Mark's Little Soldiers

[FramFramson]

I want to love these and I do. But when chatting to guys at club they quite correctly pointed out that we have thousands of 30s figures between us. Namely 38!
I however have jumped on every Copplestone band wagon. Back of beyond then RCW and High adventure. Not to mention 1670 and barbarica. Most ranges I feel were never finished.

Wait, 1670? What's this? Never heard of a 1670 Copplestone line and google doesn't seem to show anything but a couple old Spanish sculpts done in his Foundry days.

[nicknorthstar]

Wait, 1670? What's this? Never heard of a 1670 Copplestone line and google doesn't seem to show anything but a couple old Spanish sculpts done in his Foundry days.

It's this range:
https://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=123&page=1

It was originally a Copplestone Castings range, we've only added a few packs. Bit unfair to say it's 'unfinished', I've a French & Dutch army, apart from some more Generals and skirmishing models, it's pretty complete.

[nicknorthstar]

We're taking orders now for Wave One of Mark's Little Soldiers.
Every deal ordered comes with a free 'War Reporter' figure. He may be on sale with other specials in the future.

We hope to get a Wave out each month, here's the list: http://nstarmagazine.com/marks_little_soldiers_1.htm

[armchairgeneral]

I don’t do Instagram so will there be some official rules coming out with this range which include back story for each of the fictional nations?

[nicknorthstar]

Mark has a set of rules he's using, he's got to write them up before we'll ever see them in print.

I don't think we'll see back stories to the nations, this is Mark's thoughts on his range:

Over the last few years I've realised that all the detailed beautifully painted historical miniatures and
realistically modelled terrain that surround modern wargamers don't interest me any more. I still admire
the skill it takes to make them, but I really don't find them exciting or evocative. At the same time I started
to spend more time looking at vintage toy soldiers. They had period feel, but they weren't quite what I
wanted. And they were mostly too big. I didn't want to recreate 'old school' wargames, although I could
see the appeal.
I decided I was suffering from what I thought of as Pseudo-Nostalgia: I could see in my mind's eye toy
soldiers that might have existed, but never had, and I wanted them. The only answer was to make them
myself.
I knew I wanted them to be stylised, sturdy, around 30mm tall, easy-to-paint, have integral bases big
enough to stop them falling over, come in limited poses and be soldiers from imaginary countries from
the 1920's and 30's. And they had to feel nice when you picked them up. To get the flavour right I wanted
a splash of Tintin. a good measure of interwar Hausser -Elastolin and a pinch of Holger Ericksson's
'Swedish African Engineers' ranges.
The easy-to-paint bit is important: sometimes you just want to get an army on the table quickly but still
feel you've done the best possible job. With this style of miniature you can do that – there's no shading
or detailing to do, so with a steady hand you really can paint my Little Soldiers as well as Kevin
Dallimore. If you really want you could paint the detail on, but why bother?
You can have fun making up your own imaginary countries and their uniforms and mix-and-match the
packs – or you can paint them up like my Berglanders, Slovskans or Panovians. Honestly, I've found it
liberating. I hope you do too.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

I was going to mention the rules are mentioned on the Army packs pages.

They look interesting. Certainly contemplating getting some.

Earlier in the thread there was mention of using the ex-Copplestone vehicles, I suspect they would be a bit small (I remember them being scaled at 1/55). There is a comparison between the FT and a 30mm lipped base here:
https://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.com/2022/08/empress-ft-tank-scale-comparison.html

I do have some questions (they are not criticisms):
Are there just two types of helmet for the infantry? I can see the Panovians have boots and the Slovskans have puttees.
Are all the guns the same?
Do both of the guns have the recuperator under the barrel?

I am looking forward to something I can paint, it has been a while.
https://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.com/2021/12/pandyman-entertainment-police-office.html

[leadboy]

I was rather taken with Mark's "2D" aircraft as seen in some of his photos.
It seems however that they are scratchbuilds, rather than to be produced.
The alternative might be these "Cheep Chinese Planes" readily available
(again) from Ebay at a good price. Very 1930s looking and can be quickly
converted into monoplanes from their biplane configuration.

I painted some of these up in RAF colours last year (plus BUF and Soviets)
see : https://hereford1938avbcwtng.blogspot.com/2021/01/lifting-off-out-of-lockdown-raf.html
Their rather cartoony look might well fit with the 'toy soldier' look of Mark's Little Soldiers.

[Redmao]

Just learned about this line and I love it's "retro-simplicity". As soon as I saw them, I thought about the various warring nation in Tintin's adventure and I wasn't wrong.

[nicknorthstar]

Mark Copplestone expands on his design behind the new Little Soldiers range:

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=23&page=1

[fred]

Mark Copplestone expands on his design behind the new Little Soldiers range:

https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=23&page=1

Is that the right link Nick?

[nicknorthstar]

Nope 

This is it:
http://downloads.northstarfigures.com/newsletter/newsletter275.htm

[fred]

That’s the one! Ta

[AKULA]

This is it:
http://downloads.northstarfigures.com/newsletter/newsletter275.htm

Love the release schedule!

If I may be so bold as to suggest that Mark might want to consider a marching pack, and possibly even a standing to attention pack?

 

[fusilierdan]

Will these be available from Brigade Games in the US?

[NickNascati]

More likely Badger Games, they handle Northstar.