Some fifteen years or so years ago, perhaps more, when FRONT RANK first came out with their 25mm Seven Years War line, I decided to take part in a "Charge Project" that Bill Protz of the Seven Years War Association had started. Most of you are aware of the book by Peter Young and J.P. Lawford "CHARGE! or How to Play War Games" (published in 1967 and republished in 1986 by Athena Books). It was, and remains, a lovely book to read over and over again. I took it out again last night and enjoyed it greatly! The premise behind the "Charge Project" was that you would build armies of very large battalions (around 50 figures of foot, three 16-figure companies and then command figures, for example, and 24 light infantry or cavalry per unit), paint them as you saw fit, mount the figures individually and name the units. They didn't have to be painted historically, rather, you could select any uniform colors you desired. This had a real attraction for me!
I remember being at the Seven Years War Convention one year and seeing these large battalions on the tabletop composed of Suren (by far, the "top" figure manufacturer at the time and a line I could only dream about due to the cost) or Staddens -- all very well-painted. I think this was the first time I became aware of the fact that you could pay someone to paint your figures for you! Simply out of the question for me at the time.
I decided to have "Prussian" and "French" type armies. I studied the FRONT RANK listings for these two countries and liked the foot poses for the Prussians -- march attack and advancing; however, I wasn't crazy about the French foot pose -- standing to the side with musket held against the
Austrians and realized that the Hungarian poses with the "funny shoes" wouldn't look right as "French-type" troops so it was on to the Russian listings. They seemed fine although I'd never heard of the Observation Corps (with the black leather knee-high boots) -- had no idea what they looked like.
I don't remember how I decided upon my organization; perhaps I was influenced by Bill Protz's SYW rules, but I decided upon 36 foot figures per unit with a mounted officer. Horse units would be twenty-four figures as would light infantry battalions.
I have no idea how I came up with enough money at the time to make a large order to FRONT RANK for twenty battalions of 36 figures each as well as a mounted officer for each; two battalions of light infantry, ten regiments of cavalry, and twelve guns with 48 crew along with limbers and draft horses.
I can still recall when the figures came and I had a great time organizing the units and gluing figures to metal washers. I had a rather large painting table at the time and arranged all of the primed unpainted castings in units on both sides of the table and went to work!
I set up a schedule of finishing one unit per week -- a unit being either a foot battalion, horse regiment, or artillery battery of two guns. I pretty much stuck to this schedule and in fifty-two weeks, I remember that I painted 48 "units" -- I think I must have added a few units during that year!
I never have been a "good" painter but I took my time on these figures and I can say that I have never enjoyed painting a project as much as I did this one. It was very exciting to finish a unit and record the number of figures I did each day and the totals for the month!
Fortunately, I painted the Prussians historically as well as the Russian cavalry. However, and this is the subject of my column for this issue, I painted the Russians in an off-white uniform with various color facings: red, green, blue, yellow, purple, etc. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
I used what was called at the time, a "staining" method of painting where you water down the main color -- the coat -- and apply it so that it sort of runs. This provided, to me, a very nice look. However, the problem was that you end up with a "light" color when you should have a darker color. Thus, my Prussians ended up with very attractive light blue coats when they should have had a very dark blue coat. Didn't bother me then -- I sort of liked the look.
As my 25mm SYW collection grew as more manufacturers came out with SYW lines, I went the historical route as far as painting units was concerned. I added Russians, French, British, Hanovarians, and more Prussians, of course. I never quite knew what to do with those nine battalions of Russian infantry I'd painted for the "Charge Project." They just never fit except to be used as Austrians. The casual observer wouldn't notice anything about the Russian line musketeer units, but the two grenadier battalions with the distinctive Russian mitre and the three Observation Corps battalions with the knee-high boots certainly didn't resemble Austrians.
It didn't take long before I realized individually-mounted figures take a long time to move on the wargames table, no matter how nice they look that way. Thus, I mounted the foot six to a stand and horse three to a stand. I was left with a mounted officer and always had been impressed by Peter Gilder's Napoleonic infantry battalions where he placed a mounted officer on the command stand, so, that's what I did. George Johnson of GAJO always remarked on my cleverness of coming with such a "main-stream" organization of thirty-seven figures per foot battalion!
As the years went by and I put together other collections, I thought from time to time of selling my 25mm SYW project. There were always reasons why I didn't move ahead with this thought: it was very large (over 4,000 painted figures); I still liked the period, scale, and figures; AND, I had all these Russian figures painted "sort of like" Austrians or French carrying Austrian flags. In addition, the Prussian infantry were in light blue coats instead of dark blue. So, in the end, I'd always change my mind and decide to keep them. Another reason for keeping the collection was that I always HATE to sell painted figures sight unseen. I have little confidence as a painter and as the years have gone by, it seems as though we see an upgrade in people's painted figures.
Then, about six months ago, I became determined to sell them. After parting with perhaps 50% of the units, I began again to "miss" my 25mm SYW collection. I remembered how much I enjoyed painting them, how nice I thought they looked on the tabletop, and I had a strong attachment to the original units I'd started the project with.
Luckily, I was at the point in the sale where I could salvage sufficient enough units to do this. All of the units I'd originally painted, except for two Russian Cossack regiments, were still in my possession. I sat down and worked out what I'd do with the collection -- concentrate on Prussians, Russians, and Austrians, and have smaller forces for England, France, and Hanover.
But, the question remained -- what would I do with the nine battalions of Russian infantry painted incorrectly? I'd thought of repainting them in the past, but the thought of repainting 324 figures always put me off. It wasn't a simple matter of repainting the coats. Facings, most in bold colors -- we love those bold color facings, don't we -- would not easily take another color without bleeding through.
Then about a week ago, I took a battalion and popped the figures off the stands. Before I had a chance to think anymore about it, I started applying a primer color, off-white, to the facings, collar, cuffs, waist-coat, and black leggings (Russians wore white leggings in the summer and black in the winter; all of the battles of the SYW involving Russians were in the summer). Scary! Well, I had committed myself, at least for this unit.
I was surprised that it went so well; not fast by any means, but well enough so that after completely repainting one figure, I thought -- I can do this! Within a week, I had three battalions of 108 figures finished and had started working on a fourth. I didn't have to do any repainting of heads, hands, or the musket. I was careful enough in my painting not to get paint on other portions of the figure. I did take the extra time to add a brass color to the fittings on the musket and to add white lace between the hand and the cuff, something I'd never taken the time to do before.
When I remounted them on double-tempered hardboard stands -- this time minus the mounted officer, George -- I loved the way they looked! Very motivating indeed!
Now after making a mistake such as I've described with nine battalions of figures, you'd think I wouldn't do something so stupid again, wouldn't you. Well, there's the fact that I have an additional nine battalions of FOUNDRY Russian foot in waistcoat. I don't remember how or why this happened, but the first unit of thirty-six was painted with a green waistcoat instead red and since one unit was painted incorrectly, I just went ahead and had the rest painted incorrectly as well. I painted up four of those battalions and had other people paint the other five. Now it doesn't seem so bad to have to only repaint the coat, especially when it is considered that the four battalions that I painted have a lighter shade of Russian green than the other five which are in dark Russian green. However, I can tell that they will require a white primer prior to applying the dark red, otherwise, the green will bleed through. Let's see, nine battalions times thirty-six -- ummm, 324 figures (again!). I can't believe I did this! Eighteen battalions of Russian infantry (648 figures)! Oh my gosh!
Well, only time will tell how this is going to end. Having finished three battalions of FRONT RANK Russian infantry, can I finish the other five? If I finish the nine battalions of FRONT RANK, will I feel like stepping right into another nine battalions of FOUNDRY Russians?
Anyway, that's what I've been doing in the hobby. What have you been up to? Can you top my efforts?
I've mentioned this several times over the years in MWAN -- what if you could only have one period; which one would you choose. When I raised that point some years ago, I had the best response from MWANers that I ever had on any subject. It comes to my mind because in my rereading of Young and Lawford's book last night, their closing paragraph consists of the following:
- "If you are enormously rich and have plenty of room, you may he tempted to build up war game armies of several periods. This is enticing, but it is madness! We would command you to choose your period, stick to it, read up the subject, and get the atmosphere of the age. This is the most rewarding approach to a pastime which, while not lacking excitement, is decidedly more agreeable than dropping atomic bombs on one another."
Whenever I read this, the thought of having only one period sounds so appealing. It may have been the case in 1967, when this book was written, that it was somewhat more difficult, though not impossible, to build up large armies in more than one period. However, who amongst us at this time, can say he has only one period? I don't think there is a single person who falls into this category.
MWANer Brian DeWitt responded to my inquiry as to if I am the only person who has periods in the 20mm scale:
- "I thought I was the last 20mm scale gamer but I see that I was wrong. I have 20mm armies for Ancients, American War of Independence, American Civil War; and Marlhurian. They are all very hard to find figures to add to the collections. The Ancients are Scrubies which I bought as my first venture into miniatures hack in 1982 when 1 was in college. The others I have added over the years. The AWI army is the one 1 have been searching hardest to add figures to the last few years. I have many militia units but only a few British units. What I have resorted to is using 1/72 scale plastic figures for some units so that the table has a prix of plastic and metal figures. Some of my 20mm metal figures are really the same size as 1/72 plastic. I did find someone selling unopened boxes of Kriegspelers (I think I have this spelled Wrong) at HiStoricon a few years ago but they were all militia units. 1 went ahead and bought all of them on the hope that I would someday find some more British units. I left the figures in their boxes. Maybe you know someone who might he willing to trade some 20mm British for my extra Kriegspelers. Kriegspelers come painted and I think they were sold in the 70s but do not know for sure.
For the ACW 20mm I have two different collections. One is Stone Mountain leaders and artillery mixed in with 1/72 plastic infantry. The second collection is Thomas figures which are smaller figures and not quite the quality. The Thomas figures are interesting in that the have a very wide variety of musician figures. I only have about half the Thomas figures painted. I use to mostly paint figures in the hotel when I was traveling but the airlines have paint on their restricted list now so I have given up on this practice since 9/11."
Thanks, Brian; I had some THOMAS ACW figures when I first started in the hobby. Brings back memories!
Lastly, MWANer Aron Clark had these thoughts about roads:
- "I read your column in issue 129 and you seemed a hit undecided how to model some roads, especially for those that must climb a contour After reading of your current method (masking tape) and your considered alternatives (flexible rubber types or sculpted terrain) I thought I would write and tell you of my method to model roads. It is very inexpensive, gives a consistent uniform look, and can climb / adhere to contorts very well ... I use felt. I'm sure you're very familiar with felt being used to represent water, woods, and the like. It also makes very serviceable roads. The problem can he getting one road segment end point to match another's starting point, or keeping with road width uniform along the segment length. Both these problems can be solved with a geometry compass, the type that holds a pen or pencil on one leg and has a metal point on the other. Felt is available at my local hobby shop in 8x10" sheets in a wide variety of colors and my roads are made a light tan. Fix a suitable marker to the compass then set the compass your desired width, I've used 1.5" but you could easily scale the width to match your figures. I'm certain this approach will work for something as small as 0.75" up to 3" wide. Using the markerfixed to one leg of the compass draw out one side of your road, from edge to edge of the felt.
This line can have slight bends and turns, or he as straight as you like. Then rotate the compass so the metal point rests along the line you have drawn, draw out the other side of your road. You retain the same width by allowing the compass' metal point to track along the first line. You can easily get a dozen or so segments from a single 8x10" sheet of felt. After cutting the road segments free you will have pieces that align perfectly with their counterparts and have a uniform width. The felt lays down smooth on the table top and easily adopts to contours. I think you'll find that it even sticks slightly and should climb steep surfaces very well. You could even apply rut marks to the road segments with a dark brown marker if so desired. Well there you have it my economical solution to the road dilemma. I've even done rivers and streams with this method too. I hope you'll find it useful, or perhaps inspiration for some other project."
Thanks to Brian and Aron for their contributions! See you next issue!
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