Portable hex games board with Turn notes in progress; Vintage Airfix desert warriors versus 1960s Airfix 8th Army (first version) fight over Heroscape sand and rock hexes. White aquarium gravel and tufts of artificial grass set the arid scene (Board / photo: Man of TIN)‘Aerial’ photo of the two box lid, recording where figures were during a break of play in my Peter Laing WW2 skirmish game. End of Turn 2 (shown by the dice)
My portable game board is a real ‘hex-scape’ in a busy working week and a busy household. I can pick it up, ponder a few turns of a solo game and then pop it safely away on a shelf with figures in situ.
In chatting by email / through the comments page of this blog to John Patriquin from “The Wargames Hermit” blog in the USA (a fellow hexboard / Peter Laing / old school game enthusiast and long established blogger), I said I would write more about how my current game board came about and what’s working well or not with it.
Chess boards are something that I have not yet used but it’s an approach to gaming that Wargames Miscellany blogger Bob Cordery has written extensively about on his Portable Wargames website and is now writing a book on the subject. Quite often I’ve seen wargaming described by Donald Featherstone as “Chess with a thousand pieces” (and pieces with some very variable moves, attack value and morale!)
Putting a portable games board back on the shelf and picking up the game again sometimes days later doesn’t work well without notes. A few “End of Turn” notes scribbled help greatly the next time I come back to it and help me when I want to write up a Games / Battle report, reflect on rules play testing etc.
My current portable game board with Peter Laing redcoat figures versus assembled Laing natives – watch out for the plastic crocodile lurking in the river, in case you think of fording it!
My current portable games board is created from a hinge-damaged wooden storage box lid, as I have few carpentry skills, few tools and currently no workshop.
Like many gamers, I look at household, work or pound store scrap and think, “What could I turn that into?”
The other half of the wooden storage box is still in use, with favourite war games books and notebooks stashed under the bed.
This nomadic wargames board is usually moved if the dining table is needed or it gets too late, not having a dedicated gaming space or workshop at the moment in our busy family home, just popping the board atop my desk. Nothing has changed since childhood where the dining table was cleared as wanted when everything stopped for tea, dinner, whatever!
Finding the right box
If you have no useful wooden storage lids sitting around, you have to go box hunting. The original box was bought about a decade ago in a UK Focus Do It All / B&Q / Homebase type store.
Equally a deep sided lidded plastic box lid such as the Really Useful Box company might work, but a wooden lid has some stability and shock absorbing properties that stop figures, hexes and terrain pinging around or falling over when you move the board.
I wonder if one of those TV dinners trays with bean bag base for putting on your knees would work as well? Too tippy?
I often reread the very amusing chapter by Donld Featherstone on “Wargaming in Bed” in his 1973 Solo Wargaming book (available in reprint from John Curry). Featherstone writes amusingly (from real life or fantasises?) about a stricken gamer in hospital bribing a wife or nursing staff to pop out to the local toy shop to buy 54mm Swoppet armoured Knights toy soldiers (unlikely in a busy British hospital today). This is his aid to recovery:
“gathering bodily strength while marshalling his physical resources in manoeuvring a mere handful of figures around a lone tree perched on one of those tables that wheel over the bed.”
If you fancy a lid / board with a plastic dust cover, you might find one of the right size amongst the propagation trays from the local garden centre. The plastic garden tray itself if you use it might be too flexible and flimsy, so might need stiffening with board as a base or inset.
The same hinge break has recently happened to a slightly larger box lid, so a larger board or an extension to the original is now possible!
Redesigning or rejoining the board edges, I have changed how the grid is set out down the side. The grid numbers / letters are used for planning staggered entry of reinforcements and random deployment of troops and terrain features.
At present one short axis / side of the rectangular board has six letters A to F, the other longer axis was 1 to 8. I have now changed this to be 6 zones on both sides, so easier to determine by d6 dice.
The visual barrier of the two box lid edges can be seen here ahead of those Peter Laing Confederates … Just carry on and pretend it isn’t here.
This makes it possible to allocate simple grid references in scenario set ups and call in indirect of random programmed fire like the Suvla bay and trench scenario / games mechanism in Stuart Asquith’s Solo Wargames book.
Grid references also allow you to map out your game board on photocopied template / paper if keeping a record of what happened.
Dice generated starting positions recorded on a Grid map of my box lids for a recent Peter Laing 15mm Hicksville Valley American Civil War skirmish game – see previous blog posts.
Playing solo as I usually do, I can also sit the other side of the board, turning the board gently without dislodging figures and see what the other side sees, check line of sight etc (with or without a reversed Lionel Tarr type periscope).
At the moment I use a sheet of felt below the board on a table top, so the board slides smoothly around as needed without jolting. You could alternatively use one of those Scrabble game board turners, a plant pot wheely base or recycled old Microwave oven plastic circular runners found under the revolving glass tray (possibly sourced from your old microwave / friends / the household recycling centre / tip).
I also now more clearly mark compass points, so that you can assign entry and exit points etc. for different groups at North / South etc. rather than just left / right / top / bottom.
Squeezing hexes into a square lid creates some gaps at the edges which have to be filled somehow. I use thin strips of AstroTurf or model hedging to fill these gaps.
You could mark out squares or hexes on the wooden base if preferred. Bob Cordery at Wargaming Miscellany and blogger friends have been looking at portable hex or square boards using Chess boards etc, following up Morschauser’s grid ideas. However you would probably need to build / enhance a chess board with built up wooden edges if you wish to move the board around with figures on, pop it away and also use some non-slip figure basing.
Having two matching box lids means that I could repair the hinges and join them together to make a box that closes up for travelling. Truly portable. However the top lid hexes would fall off upside down unless stuck down to the box lid base.
I like the option of one lid or two lids that can both be stored on separate shelves without damaging or disturbing what is on each. A simple tea towel over the top of each keeps the dust off!
Little tufts or clusters of artificial grass fill in the gaps between hexes and the side. A square or rectangular board also works well with railway scenery papers from PECO. Vintage Airfix figures in action. Photo: Man of TIN
The Joy of Hex!
The Heroscape hex tile clusters fit in reasonably well to the women lid / game board but leave some edge gaps however you combine them. I fill the gaps with clump scraps of AstroTurf/ artificial grass, cut down from the offcut tiny trimmings from an outdoor seating area project at my workplace. These would otherwise have been tidied and thrown away.
The basic MB Games Heroscape starter sets are easily available from online auctions, and some gamers like John the “Wargames Hermit” blogger in the USA and others have painted them all uniform colours as a great basic game board.
Flocked hex tile and Peter Laing WW2 British infantry awaiting flock bases.
Alternatively you could sand / grass flock or scenic them appropriately, as long as they still stack.
An interesting idea I have yet to try from Iain Dickie’s useful book Wargames on a Budget in his Wargames terrain boards section is to paint the base blue or swamp green, whatever you may want showing beneath any blank hexes to show a stream / river / coast edge. I have tried this with out dark blue paper and it does work well.
A tray lining of blue felt or blue card as this base would work equally well, with hexes then built up for each game on top. I find the flat blue water Heroscape hexes are quite fiddly, thin, brittle and break easier than the standard chunky hexes. However without being squeezed into the box lid frames, hexes shift around a bit.
Hex clusters also make great islands in the middle of a blue felt tabletop or floor sea, inspired by Pijlie’s blog but that’s for another day …
Planet: Yarden / Location: in a galaxy far afar away (but strangely, just round the corner of my house)
Scenario: A captured red hat enemy staff officer of the Imperious Forces (usually the bad guys) has revealed the whereabouts of the secret Imperious Space Base on Planet Yarden.
Rebellious General Yodel uses Mind Force to interrogate a captured Imperious Staff Officer, watched by an Astromech droid and Princess Layla.
He is interrogated with mind control by tiny General Yodel.
Rebellious or Revolutionary Commando Troops from many nations and planets led by the tiny General Yodel and feisty Princess Layla are heading there to destroy this base.
Its giant super laser cannon is capable of destroying entire planets / space ships / etc, yardeh yardeh yardeh …
Any similarity to the characters and plots of well known space films by George Lucas and Disney are entirely coincidental or in your own mind.
Meanwhile on Planet Yarden, the Rebellious or Revolutionary Troops head towards the Imperious base with their star crawler packed with Space TNT.
Rebellious Troops- Figures from the 1981 Airfix Space Warriors set and recent Star Wars Command troops, past the tendrils of mysterious creeping plants. Discer laser grenadiers in the background.
The secret Imperious base is protected by watchtowers and a smaller guard base.
The smaller Imperious Guard base with khaki pound store Imperious troops and 1960s spacemen.
Luckily the Rebellious or Revolutionary troops have a secret weapon, a heavy space ballista mounted on a space ship.
Space Freighter Ship and Space Ballista with Rebellious Revolutionary Crew and Astromech droid pilot. Yodel, Layla and their captive can be seen in the hovel behind them.
In Turn 1, whilst most of the figures are out of weapons range, the Rebellious troops land a direct hit with a space rock on several of the (Cylonic looking) Imperious Troops behind rocky barricades, guarding the smaller space cannon.
Rebellious Captain Lush and his heavily armoured Laser sword wielding troops of The Rebellious or Revolutionary Forces (all Airfix Space Warriors).
In Turn 2, Captain Lush and several of his Rebellious laser sword warriors are killed in a melee with Imperious Troopers.
Direct hit on the Space Ballista and freighter, whilst Imperious troopers head towards Yodel and Layla’s position.
Turn 3 – The giant space cannon of Imperious Trooper Base lands a direct hit on the Rebellious Space Freighter and destroys the space Ballista and its crew. A dice throw sorts out if it is repairable; it isn’t, cutting off the Rebellious chances on escape by ship.
Rebellious forces storm the laser cannon position and prepare to climb the ladder to enter the Imperious Base, drawbridge guarded by pound store imperious space troopers. The irony of Plastic rocks in the garden. Lovely 1920s spring cannon firing laser Q tips / cotton buds.The smaller Imperious Guard base is blown up by the TNT onboard ‘fire ship’ of the Rebellious Half track Space Crawler.
Fortunately in Turn 3, the crew of the Rebellious Space Crawler packed with Space TNT roll the right d6 number: 4,5,6 to blow up on this move. The smaller guard base is breached, killing several Imperious troopers. The Rebellious crew bale out and head towards the larger base.
Turn 4 – A desperate fight takes place on the entrance ladders and drawbridge of the larger Imperious Space Base.
Turn 5 – Meanwhile some Imperial troopers threaten to capture General Yodel and Space Princess Layla and free the Imperious Staff Officer. However Layla grabs a space blaster rifle and Yodel uses his Mind Force (two d6 compared to 1d6 in the melee) to fight off the Imperious Troopers.
The Imperious Base in lockdown, drawbridge and telescopic space cannon withdrawn. The fallen Rebellious and Imperious Troopers lie scattered where they fought.
Turn 6 – A dice is thrown for when Rebellious troops might continue to attack and take over the base or withdraw into the forests.
Similarly the Imperious Base Commander dices to see when the base goes into lockdown.
The main Imperious base being in lockdown, its smaller base destroyed by the exploding Rebellious half-truck , their own Rebellious space freighter ship irreparably damaged – it’s time for General Yodel and Layla to escape into the forests and undergrowth of Yarden. Time to fight another day …
Watching their backs! Layla leads the surviving Rebellious Revolutionary Forces and Imperious prisoner into the planetary undergrowth.
Figures, Vehicles and Buildings
The 54mm / 1:32 scale figures were a real mix, cobbled quickly together for this game, so many are unpainted. If I had waited to paint figures and vehicles or scratch build a space base etc, the weather may well have turned and I would not have got this solo outdoor game in.
Sterne the Imperious Base Commander and Staff Officer prisoner are Lone Star Afrika Korps. Colourful 1960s spacemen man the smaller space cannon.
Pound store figures in khaki form the bulk of the Imperious troops, commanded by Imperial Empire Star Wars officers. Airfix 1981 Space Warriors and Star Wars Command figures (from Pound stores / Wilko) form the rest of the Rebellious troops, led by a zoo ranger as Princess Layla. Pound store police formed some dark blue space marines.
The space freighter ship is a lucky ‘handmade’ wooden ship find from the 1960s, topped by another junk shop find of a plastic ballista (Timpo?) This had to be strapped on to fire properly.
The smaller laser cannon is really a spring loaded metal cannon from the 1920s, it had a good range of about 2 feet of more firing cotton buds / Q tips.
The buildings are an Airfix Strongpoint Bridge watchtower (off show in photos) and a small roofless ‘pet house’ to hold the Imperious Staff Officer prisoner.
The main space and guard bases are the black plastic delivery bases of those PC / computer server boxes, obtained spare as packaging from a local workplace. The plastic space domes are seed incubator tops from the garden centre. The deadly large space gun is a Tiger.com £1 periscope.
Rules and Playtesting
The Close Little Star Wars version of Close Wars were scaled up for the Yarden / Garden and 54mm figures.
Buildings such as the bases seemed too impregnable, without firing the Q Tip weapons.
Any umpire type command decisions (playing solo) were solved by creating special d6 dice throws such as Is the freighter reparable? Will the Rebellious troops withdraw? Will the Imperious base and big gun withdraw into lockdown? When will the TNT in the half track blow up the Guard base?
Many of the troops only had close quarter weapons such as laser pistols or laser swords, meaning they could only be used up close or in melee phase.
The Airfix space Warriors with the disc / boomerang thing were used as Laser Space Grenadiers. Range of 12″, throw 4 to 6 to hit home. Throw d6 to see how many troops are hit.
Luckiest Shot? The Space Ballista worked well firing in trials at first chunky dice (too heavy) and second, pea gravel. This took out several of the ‘Battlestar Galactica’ type Cylon figures from the Airfix Space Warriors set who were safely behind barriers serving with the Imperious forces. Ironic to be using plastic figure pound store rocky outcrops outdoors in the Yarden.
I hope H.G. Wells would approve of this stellar mash-up …
Great fun, possibly the last garden game maybe of the year as it gets colder and wetter going into autumn.
They may be Airfix but …Space laser swords and space blaster pistols? What would Donald Featherstone think?
As a further insult to Donald Featherstone’s Close Wars appendix rules to his 1962 book War Games, I have scaled these up to 54mm and taken them outside to a bigger outer space and another planet, the far off galaxies or planets of Yarden. How will they work out?
Previously on Man of Tin blog we have featured my hexed up version of these Close Wars rules:
Rainy day? Crowded alien planets work quite well on your tabletop (if forced inside by British wet weather) using different borrowed pieces of your Yarden (Yard / Garden). Fake plastic or real plants, rocks, stones etc create a sense of a cluttered planet / terrain etc.
As a child growing up in the 1970s, life changed around about 1977/78 when Star Wars came out as a rival to Airfix, Weebles, Cowboys, toy cars, Knights, Busybodies Etc.
This is primarily a ground troops / infantry based space game without much in the way of space vehicles or larger laser cannons, otherwise the ranges become toooooo big!
Create your own big laser cannon range and dice hit rules as needed.
Imperial (Earth) measurements and Earth GMT time will be used throughout (with Metric for those as likes)
Weapon Ranges
Space Laser blaster pistol – 12″ or 30cms
Space Laser blaster rifle – 24″ or 60 cms
Space laser bow – 12″ or 30 cms
Space Laser swords – melee weapons only.
Space Laser spears – 6″ or 15 cms
Movement ranges
Natives / Aliens / Savages – 18″ or 45cms
Space Infantry (<4) – 18″ or 45 cms
Space Infantry (groups of 4+) – 12″ or 30cms
Astromech droids 6″ or 15 cms.
Humanoid Robots – 9″ to 12″ 22 to 30cms
Hover Infantry on Space Bikes – 36″ or 90cms
Star Crawler vehicles, lunar buggies – 24″ or 60cms
Usual Melee Rules. Usual hit d6 Dice throws. Featherstone savings throws if you like them.
Add other rules, weapons and characters as you see fit.
Mark up a garden cane with 6″ intervals or use a metal retractable ruler as needed.
Find some knee pads or a garden kneeler if playing outside.
Before you play, some essential research for your Close Little Star Wars:
a) watch movies and TV, from Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica to Flash Gordon (Black and white 1930s) or the colour movie 1980, choose your favourite. Flash, ah-ah!
There’s the very odd Britain’s 1980s metal based Star Guards range with vehicles and aliens. There are more recent 54mm Star Wars Command plastic figures that were cheaply available c. £4 a box in branches of Wilko (2016). Some good deals on the eBay / Amazon / internet too!
Pound store fire fighters and their equipment make good space stuff.
Alternatively you could upscale the rules to use old or new 10″ Star Wars play figures (buy bundles of the more battered ones on EBay) but the fiddly weapons tend to get lost in gardens. The Playskool Heroes Star Wars series for younger children have weapons moulded on.
Hopefully H.G. Wells, father of modern science fiction, would approve of this futuristic version of Little Wars.
Let play commence in a galaxy / planet / garden “far far away …” in my next blog post.
Today’s gaming inspiration: a vintage toy wooden wagon from our family collection.
It’s a bit bashed and bit delicate but crying out to be carefully used in a games scenario.
Will it be robbed by bandits?
What or who does it contain?
Does it need an armed escort?
Is it full of ammunition and supplies for a besieged garrison?
Will it explode if attacked with flaming arrows? (Too many western movies …)
Will it be used ‘fireship style’ to detonate next to a castle or town gateway or bridge?
Has it become detached from the baggage train?
Is it carrying prisoners or notorious villains to be rescued?
Has it cast or thrown a wheel and does it need to be rescued with a spare wheel and a wheelwright from the local town or castle?
More scenarios
There are two interesting scenarios – a medieval one, the Free Company and multi period Scenario 8 ‘Wheel Meet Again’ (excellent pun!) – involving wagons in Stuart Asquith’s excellent Military Modelling Guide to Solo Wargaming published by Argus 1988/89, available online secondhand. A fresher, more recent revised edition by Partizan / Caliver:
This toy wooden waggon has a timeless look from medieval (Robin Hood) through Napoleonic to late Victorian and Wild West. It has charming moving wood ‘button’ sort of wheels and its driver is about 20 to 25 mm scale.
The ToyTown Defence Volunteers! Those old fashioned wood and shavings boxes full of willing wooden warriors (Photo / figures: Man of TIN)
It complements well the old fashioned wooden toy soldiers packed in round boxes and straw, of which I only have one box currently all in red. A lopsided or one sided game!
Maybe I could buy or even make some more on a borrowed lathe!
Wild and weird world of wooden warriors and civilians from various makers and those wooden village sets. Wood turners with a lathe could bash out many of these.
Other superb waggons can be found in the ever useful Airfix Waggon Train OO/HO set from the 1960s, reissued a few years ago.
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Peter Laing 15mm figure enthusiast Alec Green sent me photos of one of the starter or collector sets of painted wargames figures sold by John Mitchell using Peter Laing’s 15mm figures.
I asked in these previous John Mitchell / Peter Laing related blogposts if any reader had bought one of these painted sets. Alec Green bought these delightful Indians from an online auction site.
Photo courtesy of Alec Green
These well painted Peter Laing figures shown in the box appear to be:
F3007 Indian with bow firing.
A3007 Buffalo.
M3007 Mounted Indian with bow, charging.
M3008 Mounted Indian with rifle, charging.
M3009 Mounted Indian with spear, charging.
The hand drawn box lid is similar in style to the ECW starter rules and advert by John Mitchell posted previously – see blog links above.
You can see the same hand-drawn style in this 1980s advert.
John Mitchell recently passed away in June 2016, aged 83 in Malvern.
John Trevor MITCHELL of Ledbury, formerly of Hook Bank Park and Malvern, passed away on June 19th, aged 83 years. Beloved husband of Janet and much loved dad of Sally. Will be sadly missed by all Family and Friends. The Funeral Service [was] held on Wednesday June 29th, 2016 at Hereford Crematorium. (Published in the Malvern Gazette on 24 June 2016)
Off in his own worlds, Donald Featherstone, visionary …
I am always surprised by how rich in ideas Donald Featherstone’s original 1962 War Games book proves to be.
Reading through it as I often do, as its my ‘Desert Island Discs’ sort of book, I came across this interesting paragraph on page 46:
On the other hand, a completely mythical campaign is often conducted, using fancifully uniformed troops of imaginary countries and with highly coloured reasons for fighting the war.
What If? British Redcoats with flame throwers for Imagi-nation Victorian Sci Fi / Steampunk scenarios (work in progress paint conversions from Airfix WW1 Germans)
It’s what we would now call Imagi-Nations gaming:
This can be fascinating, as ruling houses, petty dukedoms, jealous heirs and dashing princes provide excuses for one state declaring war on another adjacent dukedom, or fir those gaily coloured Hussars to be sent to the distant frontier where they will due gallantly fighting off the hordes of savage tribesmen threatening their country.
This seems almost Game of Thrones stuff!
Whatever the type of campaign, the first essential is a master map … (Page 46)
The only thing Donald Featherstone doesn’t quite describe in War Games is the 1970s rise in science fiction / space / fantasy style gaming. Or does he? Arguably his Ancients rules demonstration game the “Battle of Trimsos” based on Tony Bath’s Hyboria campaign is kind of fantasy wargaming there in embryo also.
Minus the orcs, of course …
This battle was fought in an undefined period of the chequered history of the mythical continent of Hyboria – a vast land mass dreamed up by Tony Bath of Southampton, which contains nations of almost every type of known warrior of our own world from its earliest times.
These countries fight each other on the slightest provocation, make pacts, break pacts, invade, repel and generally carry on much as did our own ancestors in the earliest recorded days of history… (Page 75)
Somebody else’s ‘found in a jumble bag’ blue coated paint jobs on British WW1 Airfix soldiers? Which nation are they? Why are they fighting?
And as Donald says in his opening chapter:
For the player who finds nothing of interest in this list [of wargames periods] there are imaginary campaigns that he may fight without limit. He can form his own imaginary world, with continents and countries each of which will make war on its neighbour on the slightest pretext.
The French find themselves involved in wars with America,the British take on the Russians in period 1900, and great wars take place between countries who, at the actual period in time when the campaign is deemed to be taking place, were the very best of friends in real life!
Therein lies one of the fascinations of war gaming – one can remake history to suit one’s ideas, can alter the complete trend of events by re fighting a major battle such as Waterloo and making the French win it …
Sketches for Imagi-native redesign of pound store figures …
Donald Featherstone’s books are always so enthusiastically written with assured knowledge that you will receive genuine pleasure and fulfilment in this solitary or shared hobby:
There is a great deal of satisfaction in making one’s own armies, either in entirety or by conversions …
It’s true what Don Featherstone says. Who could resist such conviction?
Who could resist that ‘Avuncular’ tone of a knowledgeable ‘Uncle’ Donald ?
My copy of War Games is the sold-off ex-library stock hardback copy that I used to borrow and read as a child. Thankfully War Games has been reprinted recently in paperback by John Curry.
I hope you have your own ‘desert island wargames book‘, the one you keep going back to and finding fresh ideas (despite the familiarity) for your own real world or imagi-nations gaming.
War Games is my ‘go (back) to’ book for ideas or just comfort reading. What’s yours?
Happy gaming! Leave comments, explore past blogposts or follow my blog.
Another work in progress: Some of my enemy troops from my Cakes of Death polymer clay Fimo forces from silicon cake decoration moulds.
More about Imagi-Nations on a previous ‘Tintin’ blogpost:
I’m preparing a series of solo skirmish games this winter once I’ve worked out the (confusing) imaginary kingdoms or Bronte 1820s/30s Imagi-nations of Gondal, Gaaldine, Angria and Glass Town, for which a Bronte sketch map exists!
This along with my ‘Generic-an forces’, from my fictional country of Generica, should prove to be an interesting winter’s gaming.
The Coast of West Africa 1820s reimagined by the Bronte family as The Glass Town Federation and Angria (Wikipedia source).
And the Title of the blog post? Imagi – Seven Nation Army?
Check out the fabulous and irresistible sultry ’30s New Orleans sleaze’ / Jazz rendition by singer Haley Reinhart and the U.S. band Postmodern Jukebox of this modern White Stripes number, available on I-Tunes but to view free on YouTube! Just type in Postmodern Jukebox on YouTube and enjoy the many musical styles they play with in their ‘musical time machine’ … Or visit http://postmodernjukebox.com
Happy Listening! Happy Gaming!
Blog posted by Mr MIN, Man of TIN, September 2016.
To try to separate the joy of ‘Pound Store Plastic Warriors’ from the other gaming content on the Man of Tin blog, I set up in early September a sister blog site for this material in future, subtitled “Little Wars on a Budget“:
Some useful artillery park accessories – A127 “Piled arms” (muskets / rifles), A121 mortar, A129 powder barrel and A125 pile of large cannon balls, all very useful in many periods.Peter Laing 15mm Marlburian Artillery TrainAnother favourite figure the Peter Laing Marlburian (A112 Muleteer?)
Peter Laing’s first figures – the first 15mm Wargames figures ever produced in October 1972 – were a small range of Marlburian figures. Literally a small range as they are somewhere between 12mm and 15mm and very slender!
I have been chatting by email with fellow Peter Laing collectors Ian Dury and Alec Green in the Midlands about this Marlburian range, a few of which I bought directly by post from Peter Laing and painted c. 1983. Recently I found a small group of a few unpainted Marlburians, mixed in with other figures in a 15mm figure job lot online.
What I liked about Peter’s range were the link items or his suggested possible “Dual Use” items that fitted more than one range – more for your money if the figures could be (painted to be) used in several periods. I have some of these lovely Highlanders, but that’s another blog story.
Marlburian limber (A108) for artillery, painted c. 1983 with Muleteer (A112) and draught horse walking (M104).Marlburian drover (A106) and limberPeter Laing 15mm artillery equipment – waggon(A???) cannonballs (A125) and powder keg (A129)Doing the Lambeth walk? Close up Peter Laing 15mm Marlburian drover (A106), a figure to use across many periods.Peter Laing 15mm Marlburian Mortar (A121) and escort – Private marching (A102)Keep your powder dry with this A113 Powder Cart.
Lots of tricornes, horses and turn-back long coats abound in this Marlburian range, it’s like an outbreak or episode of Poldark. Or Smoldark as it / he is known amongst the ladies at work …
Not part of Capability 300 to celebrate landscape gardening but the Marlburian gunner with bucket (A119), another lovely figure from Peter Laing in 15mm.Peter Laing Marlburian gunner with sponge horizontal (A102), with a very delicate but well-proportioned sponge.A game of bowls? No, a surplus of Peter Laing 15mm Marlburian artillery gunners (A120) holding cannonballs!Peter Laing 15mm Marlburian infantry (grenadiers on the right) F122 Private advancing, F102 Private marching, F101 Grenadier marching and F120 Grenadier throwing grenade.Peter Laing 15mm Marlburian F117 grenadier drummer, F104 infantry drummer marching, officer F114? and sergeant F116? standing with half pikes.Rear view of these figures.Peter Laing 15mm Marlburian infantry painted as French-Indian Wars in America, French troops, painted c. 1983. F109 Private standing, F124 Private kneeling.Rear view of these ‘French’ troops.Peter Laing 15mm Mounted officer (M103) – is it Marlborough himself? Mounted dragoon, musket slung (M101).Beautifully modelled Marlburian dragoon with slung musket (M101) and mounted officer (M103).Three different paintings of a Marlburian mounted kettle drummer (M106).A fine Peter Laing 15mm unpainted Marlburian mounted trumpeter (M107) and drummer (M106).A spirited Marlburian cavalry trooper charging, M105 in the Peter Laing 15mm range.
A cross-posting from our sister blog site: 
To try to separate the joy of ‘Pound Store Plastic Warriors’ from the other gaming content on the Man of Tin blog, I set up in early September a sister blog site for this material in future, subtitled “Little Wars on a Budget“:
Man of Tin blog 