Little Wars Little Men Part 1

I now have in front of me 60 packs of 6mm Heroics and Ros colonial figures, 24 different packs each containing a variety of poses and a few pleasant surprises.

British infantry packs are mostly riflemen, with the skirmish pack containing 5 different figures not including command officers, musicians and standard bearers, one of the figures with a rifle and pointing paints up as a fine color sergeant. The mounted officer astride his horse rides arrogantly with chin up. I painted several of these as stuffy yet professional personalities. The British Naval Brigade infantry and gun packs are excellent. Four infantry poses with officer compliment the Gardener guns and light artillery brought ashore, these to be moved by crewmen with hand haul ropes. The infantry do have cutlass side-arms. Royal artillery is straightforward with 12lb guns and a limber for each. Four or six of these deployed do look like a battery.

The Indian Army packs follow the British format with the Indian officers being little personalities in themselves. The Indian mountain gun is a little gem in itself and can be deployed ready to fire or in march order broken down on mules with ammunition loads and handlers. The elephant towed guns should be displayed in diorama form with its traces, limber and 30lb gun and crew.

Cavalry packs are all lancers British or Indian with the Indian being the better of the two. Both have command figures of really nice officers and buglers. Now for the Natives.

The Zulu pack provides all you need for the impis. All poses come straight out of the Osprey Zulu War book plates, 10 in all including a Zulu with rifle that can be painted in scarlet tunic and a Zulu pointing with knobkerrie that makes a perfect Induna. The shields are large enough for regimental colors.

The Pathans contain all you need to form convincing tribal units, warriors with sword and shield and various poses of Jezailmen. Mounted on rocky terrain bases they look as ferocious as their 25mm counterparts.

The Sudanese packs are by far some of the best. The Ansar contain 6 poses including spearmen, sword and shields, rifles, and standard bearers. Only drummers are missing. The Fuzzy Wuzzies all have the required Rhino hide shields and are very impressive en masse. Cavalry and Camelry are well done and varied. The guns are superb! The artillery contains Krupp guns and brass smoothbores, painted up with crewmen in patched jibbas, 5 of these guns on a wargame tables is an unusual point of interest.

Even with this amazing variety of 6mm colonial figures there are many gaps if a full compliment of colonial armies are required. But fear not, nearly everything you need, can be converted to fill the gaps. This is where the real fun begins.

Conversions for 6mm can be as simple as a different paint job. Some minor alterations with knife, file, and a touch of putty opens the door to endless possibilities. These are a few of the conversions I have done and was pretty satisfied with.

Ansar figures with rifles were painted up as Ashante warriors. Mounted on bases with plenty of scrub they look convincing. British artillery with a Krupp gun painted as Orange Free State artillery in dress uniform (had to have one) for the Boer War is a truly unique unit. British infantry were painted up as a small unit of German Seebattalion complete with Imperial flag, and also as Italian infantry for the Adowa battle, a small plume added to the helmet. For Egyptian infantry I used the Gurkha pack by adding a fez with a touch of putty, it works well for Sudanese also. The British cavalry pack can be used to create any of the required colonial cavalry by removing the lance.

A pack of American Civil War Confederate cavalry was painted up, with some slight modification to headgear and removal of swords, as a boer commando unit. Dismounted figures serve well as Boer infantry, these mounted in heavy rocky terrain. I could go on and on.

Being an average painter I decided to spend extra time on the units nd bases, I wanted them to look good. Stripes were painted on tunic sleeves for the color sergeants, Zulu regiment shields are the correct colors, Mahdists jibbas have patch patterns and extra time was spent painting British, Egyptian, Sudanese and Mahdist flags. It was well worth the effort. After a couple of years of painting, basing, planning a campaign and rule writing (I ended up with a homegrown solo set) I was finally ready to put my 6mm armies to the test with a sword and a flame!

(The editor stupidly comments: Holy Cow! Convert 6mm figures!!!! You’re less sane than I. Also, you must have better than 20/20 vision to see the little buggers. Good Grief! Next you will be telling me you paint their eyes in. I put a 6mm under a high power magnifying glass and it still looked small. They’re only knee high to a 28mm fig.

All kidding aside, well may be not, Jim you are to be much congratulated for attempting to convert 6mm figs. I rarely convert 28mm as too much trouble – You’re a better man than I Jim Zylka!).

More Little Men

Little Wars Little Men Part 1
Little Wars Little Men Part 2
Little Wars Little Men Part 3