What I’ve done in April for Ann’s Immaterium “Paint All The Stuff You Own” Challenge

This April of Lockdown and Furlough has been one of finishing what figures and projects that you have to hand, encouraged by Ann’s Immaterium Challenge to “Paint all the Crap You Own”. Ann’s challenge completes on May 3rd 2020.

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/05/anns-immaterium-painting-challenge-april-2020/

What have I managed to paint or complete in this time from stuff that I owned before April 1st 2020?

First, I had a good look through my old gaming bits and bobs Blue Box from the 80s. I found lots of figures to finish over the next few weeks or months of Lockdown.

See what I rediscovered at: https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/11/unboxing-my-blue-box-of-1980s-gaming-figures-time-capsule-part-three

Peter Laing 15mm ECW unit complete at last …

From this Blue Box, I have added some old ‘new’ units for skirmishes including a unit of Peter Laing 15mm English Civil War Pikemen to complete a ‘White Company’ with a flag, an officer and the pike half of the unit for the first time.

I started painting this unit in the mid 1980s. They are now finally based and equipped with pikes.

Finally based about 35 years after being painted …

The Blue Box was one source of unfinished figures. Another source of figures was a box where I stored random figures from job lots bought over the years, whilst searching for Peter Laing figures.

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/19/scrap-napoleonics-ready-to-scrap-forgotten-minor-states/

Some of these job lots were figures that were sold as painted scrap which I have turned into units from some ImagiNations ‘Forgotten Minor States‘ in Europe of the 18th and 19th century.

Many of these Forgotten Minor States (FMS) ‘existed’ as small Principalities and Dukedoms along the Alpen fringes such as Pompomerania, Higher Plumea, Reissenshein, Verdigris, Weissenstein, Gelbania, Hesseansachs, Thyer Brigadia and then some were larger countries such as Bleudelys, Uwessae, Great Butlinnia and Hibernia.

One of my favourite small FMS units, some of the Volunteer Militia of Thyer Brigadia

Stray figures can be allotted to these units as they appear, allotted by colour and head gear. You can see these scratch 15mm national units here:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/19/scrap-napoleonics-ready-to-scrap-forgotten-minor-states/

I made up a border watchtower and some barricades:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/at-a-border-watchtower-in-one-of-the-forgotten-minor-states/

32mm Pound Store figures man a barricade made of tile spacers and long matchsticks

Amongst the remaining 15mm Napoleonic scrap figures were a handful of painted and unpainted scrap American Civil War type figures from various makers in mixed uniforms. I based and painted these in grey as Confederates, generic rebels or Revolutionary forces. They have improvised themselves a dramatic Revolutionary flag.

Broken figures made a scratch rebel gun crew, using a cannon from the Napoleonic Risk board game.

Another ‘unaligned nation’ that can provide a threat or an enemy for any of these FMS Forgotten Minor States forces are a small number of 15mm painted colourful pirates of mixed makers found amongst job lots of 15mm figures.

15mm Pirates with muskets and Blunderbusses

15mm Pirates or Brigands with long pistols

Some guerrilla or sailor looking types in white shirts with muskets or rifles are generically useful.

15mm Scratch pirate gun crews to patch up and convert …

An attractive Long John Silver type Treasure Island 15mm figure

Hopefully who ever painted these pirates, game worn as they now are, would be pleased to know that they are based and back in use.

Amongst the pirates were lots of unpainted Tricorne figures with short muskets or carbines that could make a scratch unit of Redcoats or Preventive or Excise Men, the Riding Men or Dragoons. Not sure who made these 15mm figures.

These could double up for Close Wars type French Indian Wars skirmishes against natives in the forests of America.

No messing around with painting turnbacks, cuff or tricorne lace at 15mm scale. These are practical Redcoats roughing it in the forest wilds or along the cliffs and coast searching for Natives or Wreckers.

These have just come off the painting table, leaving some Jacklex ACW 20mm command figures from Christmas waiting their turn at the moment.

This portable Port, pirates and Redcoats was partly inspired by finding a Murray King postcard of Cornish Wreckers bought on a seaside trip a year or two ago. Redcoats! Smugglers! Wreckers!

Pirates and Preventive Men of the Customs and Excise need a port and this gave me a chance to use some wooden block scraps and wooden buildings from Christmas adapted into warehouses.

Ports need protection and sailors need proper lighthouses to avoid the false lights of the wreckers, so a craft shop lighthouse was added in wartime grey.

Fort Crumble – Very proud of the swivelling cannon …

Coastal protection requires a Martello Tower for which the scraps and recycling box provided the materials. See how I made this in more detail at

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/28/making-a-martello-tower-from-scrap-fort-crumble/

Add to this in April I put Man of TIN onto Twitter @ManoftinMark and joined new Facebook groups about ImagiNations, Homecasting and Prince August castings.

Busy old Lockdown month – lots of stuff in storage finally painted and based.

Blog posted by Mark, Man of TIN 30 April / 2 May 2020.

Making a Martello Tower from Scrap – Fort Crumble

To match a bunch of 15mm pirate and Redcoat preventive men from another random job lot of figures, I have added a coastal defence fort.

This is not the familiar Airfix WW2 one of my childhood but an original Napoleonic one – the Martello Tower.

I remember seeing these curious flowerpot coastal castles on childhood holidays to the south coast. I have a feeling I might have been inside one as well. We visited the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch area of Kent, the curious home of light railways, Dr. Syn, smuggling museums and marshes. All equally fascinating to a small child.

Martello Towers are the ultimate bucket and spade seaside sandcastle with a flag and a cannon on top.

If you are not familiar with them, there are several websites about them. Wikipedia has a wide range of information and a useful photo gallery from round the world on Martello Towers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martello_tower

There is an entire dedicated website to Martello Towers, including ones that have been undermined by the sea revealing parts of their construction.

https://martellotowers.co.uk/armedforces covers the garrison of 24 men (cramped), Napoleonic era gun crews, Artillery Volunteers, Militia and “sea fencibles” (or ‘reformed’ smugglers).

There are in their 1990 English Heritage Martello Tower no. 24 booklet online here some wildly imaginative LacePunk / Steampunk original Napoleonic era prints of how the French might invade by raft, balloon and airship etc. – “typical shabby Nazi, sorry, Napoleonic tricks” as the 1805 version of Captain Mainwaring would say.

https://theromneymarsh.net/martello24guidebook

Cinque Ports Volunteers reenactors https://theromneymarsh.net/martello24#inside

Some smart Militia Volunteers, perfect for my scratch 15mm Napoleonic era garrisons of Forgotten Minor States.

Lots more at: https://theromneymarsh.net/martello24#inside

https://www.papershipwright.co.uk/product/south-coast-martello-tower/

Several manufacturers make resin or even Paper ones on the unusual Paper Shipwright website (which has free downloads of some things).

Some useful Martello Tower words for instant expertise: The roof gunnery platform floor is called a terreplein. The irony – a French word for a seaside castle cannon platform against Napoleon. Impressed?

Building your Crumble Pot Martello Towers

So where to start?

What first gave me the idea was a bit of scrap recycling from a recent sweet treat gift, some mini crumble puddings.

“First eat your puddings …”

Add in the plastic top to some lovely lunchtime Itsu noodles, the only unrecyclable bit but which also comes in handy for flocking trays.

So in Blue Peter style you need in suitable size or scale for your figures, in this case 15mm:

Two plastic containers or flowerpot shapes, one cut down to sit inside the other to give the roof space.

A base or lid upturned to give extra height if needed

A spare cannon such as this one from the Risk boardgame,

Some lolly sticks for the gun pivot

A drawing pin for the pivot

Acrylic model paint to coat the plastic

Scalpel or sharp scissors to cut out the roof hole and cut down the inner pot.

Cut a neater hole in the base than I did (wrong sort of jaggy plastic, didn’t want to try the candle / knife method to smoothly melt the edges). This gives you your roof opening.

Place this cut open base over the other pot and work out how much you need to cut off to give you the gunnery space and shelter for the Gun Teams. Pop a figure and the gun inside to get an idea of size.

Cut in stages or strips away at the bottom part of the inner pot until your figures and gun sit right inside. Like Lockdown haircuts, you can’t add it back once you’ve cut it off.

The swivel: The gun is on a raised up platform to give that 360 degree swivel. Measure the lolly stick from middle of the pot top / base. Insert drawing pin as pivot. Put through plastic top. Secure pin bit underneath with a piece of thick card or balsa.

Paint the outside of the tower with an undercoat of white or light grey. Don’t forget to paint the inside (pot base) of the tower roof gunnery platform before you start sticking these together.

Stick your gun onto a short piece(s) of lollystick to step it up step by step on the swivel piece until it can freely move around the rim of the tower.

Dry Run – Once you have tried all the finished bits and bobs together, then glue the cutdown pot onto the noodle lid, and add the top pot.

The stepped cannon is the last fiddly bit to add, the barrel poking above the battlements and freely pivoting.

Avoiding cutting out recessed windows and doors into jaggy plastic, I used thin card to make the door and window frames.

These doors and windows were on the landward side to protect them from ship attack. The seaward walls were slightly thicker brick walls to cope with attack from the sea.

An external ladder from the Airfix Commando set was added but could be made from card. The doorway platform and ladder were designed to be easily taken inside or demolished by the tower gun crew.

Cleverly the towers had a rainwater collection from the roof to basement water tank or internal well to survive sieges. Tucked away are musket racks inside, gunnery stores, shot lockers, ration stores. Officers quarters were small but separate from the men’s. It is part castle, part stone naval ship.

Martello Towers were built all around the world so I can feature them in some ImagiNations and Colonial games like the Forgotten Minor States.

What next for gaming scenarios with the Martello tower?

Add some sandy coloured felt and blue felt,

• a lighthouse, quay, warehouses and scattering of wooden houses,
• my random job lot 15mm pirates and tricorne men
• a cheap plastic boat / ship (what is the difference anyway?) from a seaside toy shop pirates set stocked away for rainy days,

All this is surely a scratch recipe for a coastal / pirate / naval game of Close Little Pirate Wars! Pistols, cutlasses, cannons, blunderbusses, muskets …

This lovely Murray King postcard of Cornish Wreckers vs the Excise or Preventative Men gave me some uniform colour ideas. I have some random tricorne figures to paint up as Customs redcoats.

I mocked up a quick harbour scene with the Martello Tower in place, using a Tamiya stone paving baseplate.

I blame Gridbased wargaming for his St. Nazaire raid game last year https://gridbasedwargaming.blogspot.com/2020/01/st-nazaire-raid-game-report.html

I think you can see the influence of this St Nazaire harbour game in my simple dockyard buildings and warehouses using some crafty Christmas decoration presents:

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/01/to-the-lighthouse-more-christmas-gaming-crafty-surprises/

These ‘make your own Christmas decoration houses’ were easy to transform into flexible 15mm warehouses. Other blocks of wood were used to add storehouses.

Further Gaming Scenarios

After 1815, Martello Towers around the world were reoccupied as needed by troops, coastguard and preventive men throughout troubled times in the 19th and 20th century. Some were adapted as signal stations.

Others were reused in WW2 for coastwatch, observer Corps and effectively as pillboxes against German invasion.

So Captain Mainwaring lives on, he can again guard the coast of the Novelty Rock Emporium to the Pier at Warmington on Sea against seaborne and airborne German troops – disguised as nuns? – another “typical shabby Nazi trick”. Mainwaring really ought to have a Martello Tower to defend as well.

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/01/to-the-lighthouse-more-christmas-gaming-crafty-surprises/

Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN 29 April 2020

Safari Toob Pirate Set

Handy barrel, rope and cannonball scenery feature as well as duelling figures in the Safari Toob pirate set.

Some really useful Treasure Island type figures here, some that no doubt early gaming writer Robert Louis Stevenson would have enjoyed.

A tiny Pirate ship in the background, this Skeleton Compass leads these two Toob pirate figures onwards in their map hunt for buried treasure. Palm tree is a Tiger stores cocktail stick. (Photo: Man of TIN)

Safari’s   Pirate Toob set has some interesting and useful 54mm or  1:32  plastic prepainted figures for gaming in the 18th and 19th Century.

The duelling figures with swords out would work really well with Donald Featherstone’s simple sword fight rules in  one of my favourite Featherstone chapters “Wargaming in Bed” in his book Solo Wargaming.

Nice touches like the monkey on the shoulder.

This Toob pirate reminds me of a pirate book illustration by American painter Howard Pyle. Shame about the wonky musket.

“The Buccaneer was a Picturesque Fellow” by Howard Pyle is the oil painting, which the illustration was of, was sold in 1905 under the title The Buccaneer, and is currently part of the Delaware Art Museum’s collection.

Howard Pyle’s The Buccaneer.  (Source image: Wikipedia)

Again, nice detail seen from the back like the pirate parrot or macaw. Useful atmospheric barrels, cannon balls and rope cluster.

Excellent injured pirate or veteran

Good back details on this peg leg pirate.

Hmmm. Something vaguely 1980s pop star or biker about this pirate. One for a paint conversion … nice cannon though!

The set also has a useful lady pirate based on contemporary illustrations of Mary Read and Ann Bonny. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny#

Female pirate based on Ann Bonny, less scantily clad than the engraving.

Ann Bonny

Contemporary image or engraving of Ann Bonny (Source image: Wikipedia)

Safari Toob figure sets or Toobs are not cheap so probably do not qualify for inclusion on my Pound Store Plastic Warriors website:

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com

They do sit well alongside the much cheaper Hing Fat pirates which almost qualify for (seaside) pound store status.

Lots of conversion possibilities!

More about this Toob and Safari figures at their website:

https://www.safariltd.com/toobs-pirates-figurines-680804

They are about $12 dollars from Safari Ltd.com or from Amazon UK about £12 (to £15 RRP).

This gets you 6 figures, 7 if you count the skeleton,  along with the  cannon, barrels and the tiny ship.

I will post further Safari Toob figure set reviews over the next few weeks, the Jamestown settlers and Powhatan Indians and Native American Indian / Wild West set.

American customers have access to a range of Civil War and Revolutionary War figure Safari Toobs.

Posted by Mark, Mr MIN Man of TIN blog, December 2016.