An MWAN Story of Love Requited Here on the 100th Anniversary of The Boxer Rebellion (June, 2000 AD) it seems fitting to tell a story typical in the hobby yet unusual in 54mm. It all started when fellow MWANer Paul Trapani, a craftsman from Mississippi, began a corresponding friendship with me, to encourage my writing about The Big Scale. A figure painter and converter who does work for other players and collectors, Paul wrote about beginning some projects in 54mm, where previously he had worked mostly in the "normal" smaller wargame scales. One of these projects was to be The Boxer Rebellion. Both of us had begun to convert figures from other sources, there being no 65mm Boxers available until recently this year, with the issue of Armies In Plastic Boxers in many colors (See boxes of Boxers in the background of some of the photographs below; although the figures themselves are not shown, they are excellent). I had been simply changing Timpo ACW figures into Imperial Manchu soldiers by cutting off kepi brims and repainting (see "Three Battles In China" in MWAN #100). But where my specialty lies in writing rules and scenarios, Paul, who is a fine artist, does museum quality work on the figures themselves. Working mostly with inexpensive plastic men such as the Call To Arms 24th Foot and BMC playset figures such as their Gettysburg and San Juan Hill sets, he has produced masterpieces. Take a look at the phots below, to see the result. The unique Asian hats were formed with actual metal washers with putty to build up the form! This kind of work astounds me--I don't consider myself a craftsman of this type at all. Note the flags downloaded from the web (the latest in 21st Century hobby technology). Each figure is individually based on flocked cardboard squares. So are the artillery pieces you can see in the background, some bases still unpainted. These Boxers are made from BMC Spanish infantry figures. Since the photos are in black and white, imagine the tunics in red, purple, yellow, orange and dark green, mostly with dark blue trousers. They are lead by a general in yellow, an amazing figure (not unfortunately shown in photos), converted from the BMC General Longstreet piece. Now let us pass to the Europeans. Since the project was incomplete when these photos were taken as sales aids, the Japanese, Americans, and Russians are not represented (some primed but unpainted figures were included, as were almost two hundred AIP Boxers in the same condition). Note by their flags the British Royal Welch Fusiliers (the only British regular infantry in China at the time), the French Marines, the German Seabattallion (flagbearer only in photo), and the Italian Bersaglieri (in tropical helmets), all made from the same four poses. Each 17 figure unit is made up of one 16 figure Call To Anus set of 24th Foot plus a converted BMC flagbearer. There is also a unit of British sailors in blue square rig and wide brimmed straw hats (BMC Americans from San Juan). But before I continue, let me explain how my love of such craftsmanship was truly requited thanks to the internet. A short notice appeared recently noting a "54mm Boxer Rebellion army" for sale. Seconds after reading it I was in contact with a fellow hobbyist, who it turned out, was a friend of Paul's. His message had been posted on one e-group and reposted by Ross McFarland, our Fearless Leader of Little Wars (littlewars@egroups.com), that famed 54mm discussion group. Imagine my joy and hunger after downloading these photos in color for the first time! And all were being offered at one low price (which I'd blush to disclose--it was a steal). Paul had decided to let the entire Boxer collection go and concentrate on other projects. Whew! Needless to say, I am now the proud owner of The Paul Trapani Boxer Collection. As for Paul, he goes on to his next project, a 20mm representation of WWI in Africa. Thanks again, buddy! I have already offered to kiss his feet, but luckily for him he lives far away from Brooklyn, so he's safe for now from that. Ahem. To continue... The "pagoda" you can see in some of the photos is an ingenious conversion of the BMC hacienda from their San Juan playset. Paul has painted the red Mediterranean roof blue, the house white, and the staircases (there is another in the rear of the building) red. First notice the rocky base, which is simply four thick cardboard pieces coated with pebbles of various sizes. Then he stacked one hacienda upon another to make a three story structure. Finally, it is topped off with the guard post painted white with a black roof (all original pieces except the roof were originally tan). Finally he has painted the flagstone floors tan, with dark brown cracks (ink?). Taking time to paint the cracks is the kind of thing we insane hobbyists do best! Wonder if he stroked each one individually, or came up with some gravity method to do it faster? But its excellent work, an anyone stopping by to visit can share the enjoyment of viewing the piece in person. The artillery is mostly inexpensive field guns and gatlings from the BMC San Juan. There are also two Imex Parrott rifles and one Inire Risely metal Parrott. Paul was planning to convert the BMC caissons to rickshaws--what an imagination! I'm afraid in my hands they'll remain caissons, unless I can get one of my own craftsman pals to break off one of their own projects and ... hmmm... My only rickshaw so far is the one from the Atlantic "Mao and the Chinese Revolution" set! Since receiving this collection in the mail, I have been hard at work. The German marines are now painted, along with thirty Ghurkas. Of these last 30 figures, most are Imex ACW (both sides), which were also used for some of the Boxers in the photos. All now have cork hats to simulate the flat pillbox caps of the period. There are also some metal artillery crew. I have also finished a unit of thirty tigermen (skirmishers), from the AIP Boxer figures. Paul painted them up as per the Osprey book, in blue with back and yellow stripes here and there. I have finished the unit, which now resides on my main table on a plastic cafeteria type tray, along with the others. Soon some of my pals will be over for the 4th of July weekend (we're going to see The Patriot with Mel Gibson, of course), to see this collection. But I thought I'd give you 'first peek,' especially since Paul is too modest to write you about his fine work himself. So that's the story and description of an unusual event where I actually bought someone else's work in 54mm. Since I already have 300 figures in 60 figure regiments of the new AIP Boxers in blue, red, yellow, brown, and green using the base color as a uniform color, and since Paul had already primed the rest of his own figures in white, which they actually wore historically, all I have to do is keep the primer color and paint in red trim on hats, sashes, socks, trim, etc. Then there are all those American figures Paul primed up for me, including MG teams. Since I've already painted similar figures up myself in the original Spanish American War motif-, I'll have to think about what to do with them. Now Paul had included with his set a miscellaneous bag of camels, an ACW cavalry squadron (for conversion), and some BMC ACW figures. Maybe I can make the Union troops into Boxer era Japanese? Huh. We'll have to see ... but what a delicious dilemnin. Then there are all those sandbag pieces and the barbed wire ... did Herbert Hoover have any barbed wire when he planned the defenses at Tientsin? Did the Chinese army use supply camels? Maybe I'll ask around at some of the upcoming Historicon Boxer games! Thanks, Paul! Back to MWAN #108 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com