Inspired by Bob Cordery’s DayGlo Castle

Last week was enriched for me by watching Bob Cordery on his Wargaming Miscellany blog transform a flourescent My Little Pony-esque aquarium castle …

http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/a-day-glo-castle-what-was-i-thinking.html

into a promisingly odd Ruritanian war games castle in finest shades of grey. Inspired.

http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/the-former-day-glo-castle-begins-to.html

This made me think it was time to start work on another recent seaside gift shop impulse purchase that I saw and thought, “That might just be …”

54mm Tradition of London metal Confederate infantry and Herald Confederate Bugler in the original unaltered  “Summer House”.

It took me a while to work out exactly what the house was for. Looking at it outside the shop, hidden beneath its very reasonable price label of £6.99, I spotted a fairly obvious hole.

40mm Prince August homecast cowboy figures (designed by HE Holger Eriksson)

A hole which could be turned from looking through a “round window” into a “square window” (memories  of 1970s BBC Playschool flood back!)

An  unusual  hideyhole for a sneaky Yankee sniper … a stylish Herald 1950s 54mm Union infantryman.

I looked at this and thought that underneath the charmingly rustic addition of moss and pine cones, there was a simple solid little building, albeit one a little grand in its gables and roof work.

Maybe it could be a Wild West Train station? A mail or trading post?

It could be an excellently rough toy-like building for the wargames table or garden war game, representing a range of periods. With a little work …

Simple plain back wall. Beautifully painted 54mm Confederate Butternut infantry from the Tradition of London’s old shop in Shepherd’s Market, London.

It works with a range of figure scales from Lego minifigures and 40mm Prince August Cowboys through to 54mm.

Already stripped of some of its stranger decoration, its lazy potential begins to show. Suitable American themed Lego minifigures.

A touch of Andrew Wyeth or Grant Wood’s American Gothic …

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/hobby-learning-1-andrew-wyeth/

Further Renovations

Short work with a craft knife removed the oversized blue hat, bird house, pine cone roof decorations, hanging string thread and twisty branch things. Much of it was originally hot glue gunned in the factory, so not too difficult to remove. I wanted to keep the rough and ready nature of the building and its materials

Some of this removed scrap was reused such as the staples, reused to hook on the removable Station and Stores signs, which were made from thin balsa wood. These hooked over the existing “Our Summer Home” Sign. In this way different language signs could be used for different scenarios. The new looking Balsa signs were aged by staining with a tea bag, confident that the lettering would not run as I used artists fine liner waterproof ink pens.

The separate “miniature bird house” on the pole is now an ornament in my kitchen.

Tracks laid, the railway halt is open and a photograph taken to mark the occasion …. Tradition of London 54mm figures except the Station master / guard with repaired flag.

The official railway halt  opening photograph, June  18## (reproduced with permission from our tiny blog photographer).

The altered bird house entrance / round window can be seen here.

Watch out! The Rainbow Gang are in town … Red, Blue and Yella (no coward, he!) Lovely Britain’s hollowcast figures.

A simple square window was added to the rounded bird hole and the small round perch removed. This was glued at front as a log next to the giant axe. Small wooden patches of damage from removing items were repaired either by brown felt tip or coloured / stained coffee stirrer ‘patches’ superglued in place. Good and rustic.

Changing the signs around and adding a female and child figure from the Safari Toob Wild West Settlers set brings the look of a proud couple of homesteaders being photographed outside their store.

Balsa, coffee stirrers, felt tip pens, and a bought bird house – all this saved me time, paint and mess especially having no workshop and few woodwork skills. Like Bob Cordery’s greyed dayglo castle, I may add some flock but the base feels like a wooden veranda or porch.

A happy bit of “Kit Bashing” on the kitchen table, which certainly saved me some woodwork. It should provide an interesting focus to a suitable backwoods scenario game.

If anyone asks what I do outside work, I can say I am now a proud home owner or property developer, renovating an interesting period property with no previous owners.

Or should I have painted up my carefully hoarded boxed 1978 Airfix Bluetits kit from their Nature Series and let them move in?

Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN, 9 June 2017

 

 

 

 

 

Garden Wargames and Lost Dumb Soldiers

Garden Wargames blog post – Dumb Soldiers: The Past and Future of Garden Wargames? – Cross-posting from our sister blog site Pound Store Plastic Warriors https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/04/23/dumb-soldiers-the-past-and-future-of-garden-wargames/

(Picture of beach found plastic soldiers, lost in the biggest sand pit for miles around!)

Baling out and unfreezing the sand table

The recent nearly but not quite named ‘Storm Doris’ did minor damage in my garden overnight a day or two ago, flipping off the tied on and weighted-down lid of my improvised “sand table”.

A drowned landscape and forgotten flag …

This ‘sand table’ was flooded with rainwater and a topped with a thin sheet of ice  this morning.

Quite surreal, as this was how it was otherwise left at the end of a game.

The sculpted sand terrain had smoothed away underwater. Eerily many of the troops were standing or lying still where they had last fought.

In reality the ‘sand table’ is  a bright blue plastic family sand pit filled with fine play sand but it does service for garden games for all ages of family.

Cold War? Army transport with rocket launchers entombed in the ice.

Revealed frozen underwater was the end of a last summer  ‘pound store plastic warriors’ sand pit game, literally frozen in time.

I had forgotten to put this game away months ago, just tied the lid on and weighted it with stones.  The weather has not been great in the UK for outdoor garden gaming over the last few winter months.

Unpainted, these simple pound store troops about 25-30 mm high in three different ‘national colours’ looked surprisingly good underwater, especially this silver cluster.

I have never built a proper sand table Donald Featherstone style, having heard or read of several near disasters with the weight of sand indoors and the sand’s ability to get everywhere  – “can be rather messy, as sand does not always keep its proper place on the table” as Donald Featherstone points out.

Wise advice on sand tables  from Donald Featherstone in his War Games 1962

Gaming in the sand pit was always a good garden standby in childhood, mostly using  a rough pile of builders sand in the garden / yard left over from an extension. Growing up with dogs, the sand pit did not thankfully become a litter tray for the neighbourhood cats.

Figures occasionally vanished, sometimes to resurface during later completely different period games. Some were never seen again. By now the entombed 1970s Airfix plastic will have crumbled to dust if that childhood sand pile is still there.

The Sheil website has ‘sand pit’ rules  for those who want to try this in an undrowned sand pit (with well attached roof).

http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/piratgme.htm

http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/westgame.htm

Happy gaming!

Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN blog, February 2017.

 

In a Garden Far Far Away

Play testing my Close Little Star Wars / Close Little Space Wars blog post rules https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/close-little-space-wars/

Star date: 9.25.2016

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.

Posted by Man of TIN blog, September 2016.

Pound Store Plastic Warriors our sister blog established

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“:

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com

It will also extend my ‘free’ 3GB allowance of photos per blog on the WordPress site system as this is soon used up photographing games or figures.

A summary of some previous pound store links on the Man of Tin blog:

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2016/09/07/pound-store-plastic-warriors-previous-blog-links/

Some thoughts and links on Garden Wargames:

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/garden-wargames-1/

Posted by Mr MIN, Man of TIN, September 2016.

 

 

 

Close Little Wars scenarios and inspiration

Retail Design World website / newsletter is an unusual read for a gamer (it informs part of my day job) but it has pages  of VM (Visual Merchandising) inspirations inspired by exhibitions, shop windows and other unusual  objects.

In the same way, I’m sure each gamer has their own scrap box, postcard, Pinterest board, DVD and bookshelf inspirations for their current games.

Here are some inspirations and scenarios I’ve  come across whilst developing Donald Featherstone’s simplest two page rules Close Wars (Appendix 2) of his 1962 War Games, my favourite gaming book.

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/close-little-wars-featherstones-simplest-rules/

A keen Colonial gamer, Featherstone was focussed here on “the type of fighting that happens between small numbers of men in forests, such as in the French and Indian Wars of the late eighteenth century in America” (page 149).

My version has morphed over years into what I call “Close Little Wars“, “Bish Bash Bush” or “Bish Bash Am-Bush“, mash-up simple rules inspired by hex games, H.G. Wells, garden wargames, skirmish games and a passion for cheap plastic or glossy toy soldiers.

Scenarios of natives versus troops: 

A recent Christmas book token was swiftly transformed into five Osprey books, all with Close Little Wars applications. In no particular order:

1. Teutoberg Forest AD 9: The Destruction of Varus and His Legions by Michael McNally Osprey Camapign 228

Close Little Wars scenarios for Airfix Romans meeting  Airfix Ancient Britons. Or maybe my Cakes of Death inspired ‘Ancient Warrior’ figure?

2. Fort William Henry 1755-57: A Battle, Two Sieges and Bloody Massacre by Ian Castle, Osprey Campaign 260 

3. Tomahawk and Musket: French and Indian Raids in the Ohio Valley 1758 by Rene Chartrand, Osprey Raid series no. 27

Slightly later in the eighteenth century, the Revolutionary Wars in North America provide another Close Little Wars type scenario:

4. The Swamp Fox: Francis Marion’s Campaign in the Carolinas 1780 by David R. Higgins, Osprey  Raid Series no. 42. 

On another continent or island, New Zealand:

5. The New Zealand Wars 1820-72 by Ian Knight, Osprey Men at Arms series No. 487

The New Zealand Wars of Pa forts and Pakeha European troops versus successful Maori natives was a period I first read about in a series of articles in Miniature Wargames  (issues 27 to 29 August to October 1985) brought home  for the history articles by my Dad. Andy Callan also published a short set of Maori  Wars rules in Military Modelling in 1983; I never got the hang of them from the tattered magazine I bought from our school library but they had great pictures of Peter Laing figures attacking a twig stockade on shaggy deep pile carpet terrain!

Each of these Osprey books temptingly has a back page full of Related Titles on www.ospreypublishing.com  Tempting but expensive. There’s always second hand, EBay or the library ….

Figures for Close Little Wars 

1. 40mm HE figures Holgar  Eriksonn figures from Prince August sourced home casting moulds – Cowboys and Indians, Seven Years War / 18th Century figures.

http://shop.princeaugust.ie/40mm-cowboys-and-indians-he/

http://shop.princeaugust.ie/40mm-seven-years-war-moulds/

http://shop.princeaugust.ie/40mm-french-regiments-1750/

Enjoy their wide range: http://shop.princeaugust.ie/moulds-by-theme/

2. 30mm Spencer Smith Miniatures of American Civil War / Wild West / Eighteenth Century / American War Of Independence – first bought in plastic, still available in metal and many designed by Holger Eriksonn!

http://www.spencersmithminiatures.co.uk/html/ssm.html

Close up of excellent 30mm settler figures in buckskins and raccoon skin hats, Spencer Smith miniatures (photo / collection: Man of TIN)

I will post a separate blog post on using these charming simple Spencer Smith 30mm figures for Little   Close Wars.

3. Vintage Airfix

Ancient Britons and Romans, Washington’s Army, British Grenadiers, Cowboys, Wagon Train, Indians, Union Infantry, Confederate Infantry, American Civil War Artillery, Napoleonic troops, Airfix Gurkhas or Australian Infantry, Japanese Infantry.

Vintage Airfix 8th Army versus Bedouin desert warriors – desert hexscape for my Close Little Wars scenarios. Photo/ figures: Man of TIN. 

Many other plastic 1:72 figures are now available for almost any period  – I still have some Esci Colonial Infantry,  Zulus and ‘Muslim Warriors’ from the 1980s and the Atlantic ancient Romans, Greeks, Egyptians and fabulous Wild West series with everything from teepee camps, gold mining camps, Buffaloes. All useful for scenarios of Close Little Wars.

But vintage Airfix, big and little, crumbling  as some now vintage ones now, unless if you have the recently reissued Hat or Airfix, remain for me the standard figures for conversion or play.

Pound Store Warrior Knight

Pound Store Warrior Knight

4. Pound Store plastic Cowboys, Indians, civilians, ‘ancient Warriors’ Romans and Knights. Usually in 54 mm scale.

5. Make your Own from Polymer Clay:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/more-diy-gaming-figure-making/

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/back-to-basics-toy-soldiers/

 

Little Close Wars Terrain – not seeing the Wood for the Trees: 

Donald Featherstone  raided his Southampton garden for his early gaming materials:

“Trees can be purchased in plastic that look very real and are quite cheap. They can also be made from loofah sponge or from plastic dyed green and stuck onto pieces of twig, or there is style of lichen moss available that makes wonderful trees. When Wargames started in the writer’s house, trees were made plentifully from pine-cones dyed green and fixed to the table with a daub of plasticine. ”  Donald Featherstone, War Games, 1962, page 41.

Featherstone’s Close Wars appendix terrain list is pure garden, park and woodland finds, a proper Nature Table.

If not blessed with a suitable garden source, there is an Australian company Bold Frontiers who make a range of trees to complement its  Armies in Plastic forest rangers and other figures http://www.boldfrontiers.com.au

http://www.boldfrontiers.com.au/index.php/component/virtuemart/scenery/tree-sets

Not sure if Bold Frontiers  have UK stockists or international shipping for their trees. Armies in Plastic figures are available online from several UK sources including Steve Weston: http://plasticsoldiers.co.uk/index.php/manufacturer/armies-in-plastic/ 

We started with books to inspire interesting figure game scenarios, so let’s end this post with another interesting link on the Bold Frontiers website. As scenarios go, they have an interesting reading list for boys (and girls?) of all ages:

http://www.boldfrontiers.com.au/index.php/using-our-products/adventure-stories-featuring-forests-and-jungles

Their Wilderness Battle Tactics page quotes some of the same Osprey reading inspiration as I have Above (more full circle): http://www.boldfrontiers.com.au/index.php/using-our-products/wilderness-battle-tactics?showall=&start=2

I admire their slogans and ethos for a new generation of younger gamers, effectively saying to parents buy these for your kids as “the Great Alternative to Digital Games“. Bold Frontiers claim that “Boys can STRETCH their Imaginations and live the Adventure” (Boys? What about girls, including H.G. Wells’ “more Intelligent sort of Girl who likes Boys’ Games and Books“.

They  subtitle their Bold Frontiers site with a slogan close to my garden / gaming heart:  “Bring the great outdoors, indoors!”

So get offscreen, grab a bag of poundstore figures, raid the garden  and get gaming!

Posted by Mr. MIN, Man of TIN, June 2016.