I am a wargamer, a figure painter, and a toy soldier collector. So it was natural that I would try to combine all three into one project. I have also recently retired from the U.S. Coast Guard, bought a house, started a new job, and sent my oldest son off to college so any project would have to take into consideration my poor financial state. I wanted to do a WWII - Modern skirmish game using a tog soldier type figure. There are a few toy figures available in this era but they come already painted and are too expensive for my Funds. looking through mg extensive stock of catalogs C too extensive For my wife's tastes), I found what I was looking for, 2 molds From the Dunkin Co. of Calvert TX. These molds were From their classic collection and unlike modern rubber molds these were made of metal. I believe originally they were marketed in the fifities For youngsters to mold their own armies. Something about kids pouring hot lead into hot metal molds makes this Nineties-kind-of-consumer shudder. Anyway these molds were of American soldiers in seven different poses, and 40mm in size. I planned on using 60 of these. The fully prone firing figure would have to wait until I added that feature to my rule set. Receiving my molds, I excitedly began pouring lead. After an afternoon of hot work I had quite a few figures. I decided to group them into five man squads and then combine these squads into platoons, adding the appropriate support weapons. The original plan was to paint up two different units of Americans, designating one the red team and the other blue. But after painting the first platoon of 12 figures I got the idea of just changing the paint scheme and create some other nationalities. Getting out the Osprey books I went to work. After a few paining sessions I had some Waffen SS, Wehrmacht, and Luftwaffe ground troops. Not only was it Fun trying to see just how Far I could go with this, the figures also looked good. I then went to the modern era. A platoon of Dessert Storm GIs, Iraqi Republican Guard, regular army Iraqis in there multi-hued uniforms, American airborne Viet Nam, 2 types of Viet tong in black pajamas and khaki, and NVA in green uniforms joined my growing toy soldier forces. I kept modifications to a minimum. Just by filing the American helmet into cooly hats, ball caps, bonny caps and side hats the Figures took on a new persona. One of the poses was a soldier kneeling firing a bazooka. By shortening the barrel a LAWS rocket launcher was created. the end to lock the round from an RPG7 which gave my Soviet supplied forces shaping the end of the bazooka to look like a round from an RPG7. I gave my Soviet supplied forces some potent hitting power. I also needed a MG for my Forces. None of the figures had a machine gun, so I used the advancing with rifle across the chest figure to represent LMGs, modern LMGs such as the M60. For WWII I am toying with the idea of two man crews. I always liked the image of the German gunner steadying his weapon of the shoulder of his teammate, so I think I will use the standing firing soldier with his rifle barrel on the shoulder of the guy. For the Americans I could easily use the adv type as a BAR gunner, but want a 2 man team like the Germans. So I plan on combining the marching figure, adding an ammo box to his free hand, end the adv guy to represent a 30cal MG team. The two remaining figures are a grenade thrower and an officer looking through binoculars. The officer Figure is use as the NCOs and LTs commanding mg Forces. The grenade guy I just added to each squad, but I am thinking about using them as special assault troops; like the NUA sappers. For terrain I built three houses from foam core board. They are modeled after flat roofed Middle East houses, but can also use them as a Central American village, or an East Asian plantation. For trees I again took the tog soldier route. I had on hand two trees and a bush I had purchased from the Eccles Brothers of Burlington Iowa. These trees while flat had good detail. I attached these three plants to a foam a base and added some flocking. They looked great. Not only did they fit into my toy soldier theme but it was easy to see if a figure was in the woods and it was simple to place them into the center of the woods. I immediatly sent another order for eight more trees and bushes. As a note these trees come in a 4" pine, 4 3/4" palm, and what looks like a maple. The maple and bush come in 2 1/2" and 3 1/2" sizes. Well so far that is where I stand on my project ( I call it a project because then it sounds better when I tell my wife that I need this certain item to add to the "project"). For rules, I wanted to keep them simple, fit onto one page, and be easily learned by anyone at a game convention. I found a set by Don Featherstone in the "Practical wargamer" May/June 1992 issue. With some added modifications, such items as grenade launchers, snipers, and different grades of troops, I think these will fit the bill. In the future I hope to publish these rules and scenarios in MWAN after I have play tested them some more. Back to MWAN #67 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1994 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