Assorted Ancients now on display.

 Following on from the previous post, here are closeups of the second new shelf.  The shelves are inside a pine wardrobe built into a chimney alcove, long since unfit for purpose but I'm averse to ripping out period features so it now houses toy soldiers and the original doors provide some protection from the dust.

In the background are a group of  Neanderthals made in France by Starlux.  

In front of them are hoplites made in Greece by PAL and later versions made by Athena (Aohna), the easiest way to tell them apart is the earlier PAL figures have a flat square base with no markings underneath while the Athena ones have a sculptured base marked Aohna underneath, the PAL versions also have metal pins attaching their arms.  

In the left foreground are Greeks/Romans made in Italy by Tibidabo (green bases) and to their right are two made in France by Clairet (tan bases)

In the centre, various Roman signifiers by Atlantic, REAMSA, Marx and Elastolin, in front of them are three large rubber figures made in Italy by Xiloplasto.

The large colourful figure in the sentre is one of the Louis Marx Ancient Chinese Warriors.  The large blue Romans beside him are reissues made in Spain by Oliver. 

The two Samurai at rear left were made in Poland by PZG (the Polish Association of the Deaf), in front of them are Ancient Egyptians made in Spain by Jecsan, with more Samurai to the forefront, these ones made in Italy by Res Plastics for Kinder eggs.

A better view of the Res Plastics Samurai, I started picking these up with the intention of creating a wargames army with them but the fiddly parts and loose weapons made them impractical for this, so they are now consigned to the shelf and my Samurai armies are now made up from Technolog, Furuta, gashapon and various kit figures.

In the centre the unpainted Roman and Tribune in red cloak were sculpted by Peter Evans and cast in Resin by Peter Cole (before he set up his company Replicants to make figures in plastic), the idea was that they would make additional poses to go with the Louis Marx Ben Hur playset which had just been reissued from the original moulds by a company in Mexico.  

To their right are two coffee premiums made in Belgium by Cafe Storme.

The four Carolingians marching in the foreground are 45mm solid lead figures made in Germany by Heyde.

The large mounted Roman on the left was originally made France in hollowcast lead by JSF (Jouets Standard Francais), this is a plastic version made form the original mould.  On th right next to him is another mounted Roman, made in Hong Kong it is a copy of a Crescent foot figure on a copy of a Herald horse.

This is the set of four made by Res Plastics for Kinder eggs, they are often described as being Samurai but I am advised (by someone to knows vastly more than I do about ancient armour) that they are in fact Ancient Chinese (they still look like Samurai to me, what do you think?)

Fleamarket finds from the weekend.

 It always seems to be feast or famine at the local car boot sale but last weekend I managed a reasonable haul:

This lot set me back £20, which I thought was very fair, there's nothing rare or special but it's quite a nice mix and they will add to several of my existing projects.

A few more Conte Normans are always welcome, my existing ones have been painted up as they came so I can afford to use some of these ones for conversions.  They are made from a firm rubber which leaves the weapons prone to bending, after straightening by hot water treatment I give the bendy parts a coat of wood glue (which is an industrial strength PVA used by carpenters) to keep them from reverting to their previous shape.

The four Timpo Vikings all need repair so I will have no qualms about basing them for wargaming, the two AWI have been added to a display shelf and I have suitable mounts for all the others.  The Marx reissue of Paul Revere in white is very versatile for conversion to many periods.

REAMSA remoulds from the Willian Tell set, I think the figure of Landburgher Gessler is particularly well sculpted, he looks just like the character played by Willoughby Goddard in the 1950's "Adventures of William Tell" TV series.

The more collectable items: a Franciscan monk and Mousquetaire du Roi made by Starlux, the grenadier drummer made by Cavendish is rarely found in white plastic so is probably an early example. The Cherilea Numidian, Lone Star African Native and Crescent Sheriff of Nottingham on the bottom row are all destined to be converted.

Malcolm III and William Rufus 1093 - Battle Ravens

Since discovering that the boardgame Battle Ravens translates so well to the tabletop for a wargame with 54mm toy soldiers we thought we'd give it another outing.

  Our first trial of the game was a standard shieldwall encounter between Vikings and Saxons, but the game also offers sets of cards to portray the national characteristics of Scots, Welsh and Normans so we decided to try something different. 

  For a scenario I chose the border raid in 1093 by the Scots of Malcolm III, in support of Saxon refugees, against a frontier outpost held by the Normans of William Rufus. 

A Frisian trader has beached his ship alongside the Norman keep and is unloading his trade goods in exchange for Saxon slaves, when the alarm is sounded!  A Scottish warband has been spotted approaching the stronghold.

The Frisian crew join the Norman garrison and form shieldwall outside the stockade to protect the ship from the Scots and their Saxon allies.

Lessons learned from our previous encounter meant that the action flowed much faster and furiously this time around, more risks were taken and the subtle nuances in the rule system became more apparent. 

The game is played from two static shieldwalls and despite the lack of manoeuvre there is still a great deal of movement as warriors are pushed back and forth to reinforce holes in the line.  

The Playmobil viking ship with sail down serves as the Frisian merchant vessel, it only acts as set dressing but adds depth to the scenario.

The Scots command group, King Malcolm with his retainers and priest.  The standard bearers here and below are conversions by Eric Kemp acquired at the Plastic Warrior Show in May.

There is a temptation to press heavily on one sector of the enemy line and attempt a breakthrough but this can have repercussions later on, in the long run it's often better to give ground and degrade your opponent's forces.  

The game plays comfortably in a couple of hours but you could easily expand it by allowing reinforcements to be fed in at set points.  It would make a great demonstration game at a convention, easy to transport, limited number of figures involved, several participants could take different sections of the shieldwall and the larger figures add a bit of spectacle for the spectators.

It was a close run thing and looked as though honours were even but on closer inspection and a recount the Normans carried the day by one point.

Those with sharp eyes will recognise figures by Timpo, Johilco, DSG, TSSD, Emhar, Cherilea, Del Prado, Jean Hoefler, Elastolin, Jecsan, Reamsa, Oliver, Conte, Fontanini, Replicants, Marx, Armies in Plastic, Starlux, and Cafe Storme.

Milliput or Green Stuff?

For several decades now I have been happily converting toy soldiers using the two part modelling compound known to all as Milliput, which does have it's limitations and sometimes causes a bit of skin irritation.  In the meantime, the rest of the world seems to have passed me by and moved on to using a similar product known as Green Stuff.  Not wanting to miss out, I wandered down to Games Workshop to see what all the fuss was about and bought some.

I spent much of last year basing and painting up just about every Viking, Saxon and Norman figure that I could find, so in order to get a bit of variety I started combing through the junk boxes at toy soldier shows looking for damaged figures to repair and anything that might be easily converted without too much effort.  My first attempt with Green Stuff was just adding beards and extra hair, nothing too ambitious!

In The Works (a UK book, toy and craft shop) I found some rather useful little wooden disks, they come in three sizes, the middle one is perfect for circular shields on 54mm toy soldiers, while the small one is good for bucklers etc and the largest I will use as an alternative to metal washers for bases.  The same store also provided "Pearl Stickers" I'm not sure what you are supposed to do with these but they are little half domes of plastic, sticky on the flat side, and perfect for making shield bosses.

The look I was going for was a sort of generic Hiberno, Celtic, Pictish barbarian look.  The first two above started life as Indians in the Jean Hoefler (German) Wild West series, with feathers and trouser fringes trimmed off, then facial hair, shields and suitable weaponry added, the monk was a Hoefler nativity figure of Joseph who has had a crucifix on a pole added.  Finally, a Cherilea (UK) Saxon, who had lost his spear has been rearmed then given a shield and painted up as a "Wild Irish" noble.  

Another wild west Indian, this time by Cherilea, brandishes a new sword while hurling insults at the enemy.  A Cherilea Saxon archer who had lost his bow is now throwing a dart, a peculiarly Irish weapon of the time, the scar from the quiver trimmed off his back has been hidden under a shield which is hung on a strap cut from metal foil.  Next a REAMSA (Spanish) Viking is unaltered, just painted up to join the Irish warband.  The last figure is from a recent wild west set made in China, I think sold under the brand name Supreme, the rest of the range are really rather poor but I quite liked the pose of this one thrusting with a spear.

Three more recruits for the Irish warband, a Hong Kong copy of a Marx (USA) Viking has been given a long handled axe, another REAMSA Viking just given a paint job and a Beja Tribesman made by Armies in Plastic (USA) who is suitably barefoot and ragged to look the part.

Getting back to the Green Stuff, I found it easy to mix and easy to apply but it hardens much faster than Milliput so you have to work fairly quickly, I wasn't expecting that and I don't see how some modellers on other blogs can do such extensive and intricate work using it. I guess it's a bit of a learning curve but on balance I think I still prefer the Milliput.

This lot would never win any prizes in a modelling competition (not that I go in for that sort of thing) but I think I'll get away with it when they're all mixed into a horde on the wargame table.  At the end of the day it's all just a bit of fun...……..isn't it?