Introduction When Hal and I initially discussed looking at the way in which I go about doing a project, it looked like a fairly easy task. After all, Hal has provided so much metacognitive material in his editorials dealing with how he went about building his collections. These articles had always been sources of personal inspiration and had led to a marked reconsideration of where my collecting was going. About eight months ago, Hal asked that I put together some thoughts about collecting, specifically how I would go about collecting for a new period. The idea of actually reflecting on the way in which armies get built in specific periods was scary. What rhymes or reasons structured how I accumulated the 80,000 figures in my collection? If the following piece sounds like a verbalization of some of the best of one of my favorite comics, Larry Leadhead, all that I can say is that sometimes art does mirror reality too closely! My first experience with gaming with miniatures was prompted by contact with a young man who was student teaching at the school at which I worked. When I indicated that I would consider a change from board gaming with cardboard counters, he approached with a plan. He suggested a rules set, Column, Line & Square, and a collecting strategy. He suggested that I start with a small force - two battalions of French, Swiss actually, and British Napoleonic infantry. These were fifteen millimeter Minifigs and the company had just released their new, blister packed figures. We had a wonderful gaming store, Waterloo, which carried the entire range as it was released. It took him a while to complete the figures I bought at his suggestion but the finished product had me hooked. This initial investment in some 150 or so figures over thirty years ago blossomed almost immediately. The three dimensional quality of the figures, the fact that there were others in the area who collected and played, and the availability of the toys became strong conditional motivators to begin collecting. The toys drove the hobby. Although I always had a strong interest in military history and collected board games since the venerable Tactics II in the early days of board gaming, the art of the figures and the fact that they could be played with drove me to rapidly expand my fifteen millimeter collection. In addition, the image of Rod Steiger as Napoleon in Waterloo would travel well as I took out the toys to play a game. As I reflect back on this period of my hobby life it becomes obvious that there are some underlying things driving whether or not I start a project: Historical Interest My personal library reflects a wide range of period interests. However, some periods hold my interest a lot more intensely than others. Perhaps, it is a sense of personal identification with a period such as World War II in which my aunts and uncles served with honor. Or perhaps, it is simple fascination with a period such as the American Revolution or War between the States. The latter interest is clearly reflected in my collection of figures. When I first started to think about collecting ACW figures, I made a decision to use the books in my own library to get a sense of what I would need to collect. My fascination with Gettysburg, marked by frequent visits to "The Hallowed Ground," was reflected in a collection which would eventually mirror the OBs for both sides at the battle, including troops that had been detached by both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia on the march to the battlefield. The Gettysburg Campaign by Coddington became an essential tool in structuring my purchases. Eventually these purchases would include enough figures to do both armies present at Gettysburg for the Fire &Fury rules set in 15 mm as well as about half that number in the 25 mm range. The problem was that as I began thinking about the process that had led to my collecting and building, and that it turned out to be far more complicated than it initially appeared. Why did I build specific collections over the years? What collecting decisions were keys in building what one person has determined to be "a mega hobby" collection? Where did the figures come from? What researching needed to occur to make the collections change from lumps of neatly shaped, shiny metal into tightly organized, accurately painted toys? What rules set will be used? And finally, what objective is the project supposed to achieve? Will it be a rules driven collection exclusively such as those defined by a set such as Armati which puts limits on collection sizes by the terms of the playing rules? Will it be driven by historical considerations such as unit sizes in skirmish games or the units in an order of battle for a specific campaign or battle? The first question, that of the motivation leading to a specific project undertaking, was the most fun to consider - and the scariest. When you start asking why you do things, some of the answers just might be a bit uncomfortable to consider. When it comes to an adult man collecting toy soldiers, the words immature, compulsive, and obsessive frequently get used. However, the good thing is that no one gets hurt (except for the occasional toy soldier casualty and the slightly bruised ego that accompanies yet another table top battlefield defeat) and the outcome is often quite a lot of fun. Motivation The most difficult question to answer is "Why?" What led to the collection df so many periods and scales over the last thirty-plus years? The answers here will not be totally exhaustive - some projects may have even slipped from short term memory - but they may hit a respondent cord among some of the readers. As I reflect back on this period of my hobby life it becomes obvious that there are some underlying things driving whether or not I start a project. My personal library reflects a wide range of period interests. However, some periods hold my interest a lot more intensely than others. Perhaps, it is a sense of personal identification with a period such as World War II in which my aunts and uncles served with honor. Or perhaps, it is simple fascination with a period such as the American Revolution or War between the States. The latter interest is clearly reflected in my collection of figures. When I first started to think about collecting ACW figures, I made a decision to use the books in my own library to get a sense of what I would need to collect. My fascination with Gettysburg, marked by frequent visits to "The Hallowed Ground," was reflected in a collection which would eventually mirror the OBs for both sides at the battle, including troops that had been detached by both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia on the march to the battlefield. The Gettysburg Campaign by Coddington became an essential tool in structuring my purchases. Cinematic Inspiration One of my favorite, most lovingly acquired collections and projects, was the Alamo project. This was completed some twenty years ago and was motivated by a lifelong interest in the heroic events surrounding the fight at the old mission at San Antonio de Bejar. As a youngster I had watched Davy Crockett At the Alamo, the Walt Disney version and asked to be taken to see John Wayne's Alamo at the largest screened theater in the New York metropolitan area. Even Sterling Hayden in The Last Command had become a favorite scene stealer despite his overacting and unhistoric persona. The idea of people willing to sacrifice everything in the face of certain death led me to scour the library shelves for everything that was available in print. And when SPI came out with their board game, I actually dragooned my best friend to go to the offices in New York City to play test the game on a Saturday morning in the middle of the winter! After doing some research and discovering that Santa Anna's total force was barely 1,500 men it was clear that the Cinema was going to have to take a back seat to reality. In this case, the cross over back to a love of doing history was a very useful tool. I was able to collect a variety of Minifigs and FreiCorps 15 figures to serve as the Texican defenders - all of them. Each figure was mounted on a half inch square of balsa and the name of each defender inscribed on the base. The Mexicans were done differently. Many of the figures were French Minifigs with some additional figures done from FreiCorps for the cavalry and artillery. The infantry were grouped into four figure bases for ease of movement and dealt with rather impersonally. The cavalry were placed on two figure bases. The numbers were daunting. Based on the idea of recycling casualties I decided on doing 400 figures with 24 of them being Zapadores. In addition, there was Santa Anna's grenadiers and the Mexican cavalry and artillery. The look would be distinctive with large numbers of figures wearing ponchos and sombreros as well as the more uniform look of dark blue for the veterans. I decided to eschew the look of John Wayne's Hollywood for a more accurate uniform look. There were no red-coated Vera Cruzano Fusiliers as he had portrayed and certainly no division between light and heavy troops as the Hollywood Colonel Travis had indicated in the movie. Research had indicated a much smaller force of barely adequately armed Mexican infantry. That's what I decided to model. In addition, I needed to decide what the model of the Alamo itself would ultimately look like. A representation of the Alamo done in foam board by a model builder at Historicon was acceptable but was clearly a stylization - painted light gray rather than adobe, the buildings larger and out of scale to 15 mm figures. There was an answer - Vince Clyant of the London War Room. Vince is a master builder and had done a large number of 20mm scale W.W.II buildings for me. My far-too-understanding wife, Karen, agreed to let me propose a commission to Vince to construct a museum quality representation of the Alamo. It was to be my big Christmas present and turned out to be one of the most memorable presents I ever received. Vince asked for pictures of the Alamo and, fortunately, we discovered a sketch with the dimensions of the Alamo. He then did some math and proposed that we reduce the length and breadth by a third but keep the height of the walls and buildings to scale. What he produced was absolutely first-rate and is now one of the prizes of my collection. The model he built rivals in every way the model in the visitor center at the Alamo in San Antonio. The vision that had begun as a youngster's fascination with a series of movies had become a wargamer's reality. New Products I really don't know how many times I have pored through a new magazine and was immediately intrigued by a new range of figures. The beautifully done shots of new figure ranges can often have me sitting with pad and paper attempting to figure out what I would need to spend to start a new project. Most of the time reality rings in and the worksheet goes into a folder but sometimes.... One of the recent projects I looked at was the creation of a campaign world occurring temporally sometime right after W.W.I and on the coast of Mafrica. It was the product of a number of releases, some of which I had seen in the British glossies, some of which I had read about in MWAN and on the Internet. The figures from Copplestone's Back of Beyond range are freely interspersed with, Old Glory's W.WI 25's, Bob Murch's Pulp Fiction Miniatures, a variety of darkest Africa releases, and Cannon Fodder Miniatures Yangpat range. The original plan was to take the Back of beyond Range and do a scenario "The Czar Must Be Saved" with the Bolshevik and Chinese warlord figures attempting to save the Czar. He, the Czarina, and two of the children were rescued by loyal Russians before the family could be murdered. The scenario had him fleeing to Siberia to rally those White Russians still loyal to the crown with a band of rather miffed Bolsheviks in hot pursuit. My original thinking led to the purchase on E-Bay of a structure very suited to represent a farmer's shelter on the Siberian/Mongolian/ Manchurian area of Asia. I purchased a very nice looking group of two dozen Russian W.W.I infantry and a dozen Cossack cavalry from Redoubt. They would be opposed by Copplestone's Bolsheviks who are among the nicest castings I've seen in the last five to ten years. The local Chinese warlord would have his moment in the sun as would an armed party of archeologists who just happened to be in the area. The latter figures were also from Copplestone. The beauty of the figures drove the collecting. And that's when the project began to grow ...really grow. A friend told me to check the Pulp Fiction Miniatures by Bob Murch. There were figures that could bring tears to the eyes of a crusty old wargamer. Superb German SeeBattalion figures, American naval figures straight out of the Sand Pebbles, and a variety of Chinese straight out of the pages of Doctor Fu Manchu. In fact, the dastardly villain of the local Tong is named "Doctor Ku." As I began to wrestle with how these fantastic figures could be integrated into this new project, it dawned that I had an old copy of the map for Mafrica, that fantasy continent which could easily become the centerpiece of a larger campaign. Certainly, the Germans might have a presence after a World War which was not quite as disastrous in its consequences as the real thing. A fictitious city on the coast of Mafrica populated with a large collection of inhabitants drawn from the new releases could allow and even encourage the painting of so many wonderful new figures. The decision was clinched when Lon Weiss of Brigade Games released some new adventurers including figures looking an awful lot like Rachel Weisz and Angelina Jolie. And who can leave out the great YangPat range from Cannon Fodder Miniatures in Australia. Although a bit smaller than Copplestone and the others in my collection, they provided an interesting addition to a world of simply marvelous period pieces. And all of this is topped off with a wonderful model of The Sand Pebbles done for me by Rich Houston and given as this year's "big Christmas present" by my wife. The fact that Bob Murch and Copplestone seem intent to expand their already superior ranges gives me hope that reinforcements will always be on the horizon. The combination of great figures and an appealing period in which to game was also responsible for my beginning of another period in what some gamers might see as an "alternate" scale. My best friend and I played in a 7YW game involving large attractively painted 25 mm figures at Historicon about four or five years ago. The figures represented both the Austrian and Prussian armies during the period and were a true joy to behold. Their esthetic quality and visual impact were a far cry from the hordes of 15 mm figures we owned for the same period. Yet, in order to collect an army which was more than a minimal force and which would look the way I wanted my figures to look was going to require an input of dollars with which, at that time, I was simply not comfortable. The solution for my dilemma came from a most unlikely source. A friend of mine, Hap Jordan, had commissioned and produced a range of 20 mm figures for the same period. More importantly he was running demo games with both his Napoleonic and SYW ranges. I was immediately taken by several things. First, the figures looked terrific on the table top. They were small enough to allow for a major battle to be fought on a ten foot by five foot table, yet large enough to have personalities and reflect a decent level of painting. Second, in discussion with Hap I discovered that they were cost effective - they were at least a third the price of comparable 25 mm figures - and would allow the building of large armies. Third, Hap had the figures mostly in production and they were available for quick sale. It was an easy read to figure out where my hobby time was going.  Was there a down side? Simply put - yes. Hap was the only producer of this scale of figure in metal although I understand that Revell, I believe, makes some plastic figures for the period. There would be no variety in figures the way a collection of 25 mm or 15 mm would benefit from multiple producers of figures. The figures suffered from a lack of command sets for units like hussars and command figures themselves were limited in appearance. Poses, too, never went beyond march/attack or advancing. All this said, the figures were still darned attractive and they would provide a very nice diversion from collecting W.W.II figures (still a passion) or my A.W.I. collection of individually based figures. Fact is, I had already decided upon a rules set predicated on having played most of what was out there and numerous demo games of home grown rule sets at various conventions that we'd attended. I wanted to use Warfare in the Age of Reason by Tod Kershner but with some modifications based on my own sense of what a battle should look look like in that time period. Appearances are very important when I do a project and I will not readily play a game which violates my sense of what a period should resemble or how a battle should unfold. I decided to modify the basing sizes shown going for a depth and width for the infantry of 3/4". Basswood is sold in doll house stores at this width and would give the clean, sharp edges I prefer for my figures. Cavalry would be based in pairs on 2" wide by 1.75" deep bases. Artillery crew were based on small washers and placed next to the guns. Firing ranges and movement rates would be as for the 25 mm figures in the rules set. The initial purchase was made to field to twelve unit "armies" for each side following the formula laid out in the back of the rules set. As the figures were quickly painted and fielded, something was "wrong." The units seemed to be shouting for "friends" and my research was indicating that the important actions of the period involved far more substantial armies with at least four times the number of units than I had collected. And, although WaoR includes substantial numbers of Grenzers for the Austrians, my sense of period battles is that they made very little impact on the main battle which was decided by clashes of infantry and dramatic charges of cavalry. Clouds of skirmishers were not used in this period and the "little war" at which the Grenzers were so excellent not something I wish to game. The goals for the project required adjustment to get the army "look" and "feel" that was desired. The decision for the project was to build an army reflecting the order of battle for both armies at one major battle in the period. I focused on Kolin as a solution - my initial reading indicated that both sides had moderately large armies. It would be possible to obtain the miniatures and paint them in a reasonable period of time. The orders of battle were available from several sources and, just as importantly, I had a board game which had a very usable map of the battlefield. The fact that the battle was to be recoded by an Osprey book around the time that this decision was made was a very pleasant bonus. The project is not yet quite completed. There are about seven cavalry regiments and a number of artillery batteries yet to do for the Prussians, a similar number of Austrians to paint up, and all of the Saxons. The latter figures will be conversions of Prussian figures since the range includes only the Hanoverians as minor allies for anyone. One last note, the rights and molds to the figures were sold by Hap to Chris Von Fahnestock of Outland Games who had planned to release the first part of his Russian addition to the range. These plans apparently were put on hold when Chris was activated for service. However, as the result of a recent private purchase, the armies will be easy to complete with some very nice "leftovers" to be able to do other battles or even a campaign.... The Push of Friends This last incentive to collect is one which has occasionally pulled me into a period. The original battle mechs are a good example of this as were a collection of 1:2400 ships for the age of fighting sail. Although I mostly paint and collect for my own study and satisfaction, every once and a while I will do figures in a period for which I have limited interest just to be able to "play with the guys." A recent example of this occurred when I picked up some American W.W.I Marines to be able to do some skirmish gaming with an acquaintance who owns the local hobby shop. The fact that the Marines will have a role to play in Mafrica is a planned-for bonus. The figures are good looking and very well painted by a friend of mine Chris Sebolt, who has a painting concern called The Dansville Wargamers. Generally, these projects are small in scope and stay that way unless they really catch hold of my imagination. My Age of Sail "fleet" remains at a mere ten ships while the Mechs found a good home with someone who bought them at a flea market. Most of the time this is not a problem since projects are usually done like the A.C.W. or Napoleonics are interests shared with others. It helps to know that someone else is sharing the burden of buying and painting additional pieces for a period. However, family pressures have reduced my club activities and now I look to collect all the possible forces for a period. That will be discussed more fully in Part II which will focus on the mechanics of research, painting and basing, and making choices for rule sets to use for each collection. Starting A New Project: Part II (MWAN 128) Back to MWAN # 127 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com