A couple of days ago the advance guard of the 7th US cavalry arrived (troops A,B and C) in the form of 60 mounted figures specially commissioned by Mark from Andrew Stadden (son of Charles Stadden who requires no introduction here). The horses are by Qualiticast. I have to say that on opening the box my first impression was simply one of awe at the animation and period feel of these 20mm sculpts, but also how traditional they are with fine engraved detail and faces full of character. Mark pointed out to me that he commissioned the sculpts from Andrew as he is one of the few these days who still works in metal, no green stuff etc and this shows in the figures. I have no doubt that they will be pure joy to paint when I get to them next year - I still have around 280 mounted Indians to paint yet - and may even sneak in a couple of test paints. Troops D,E and F will follow in due course (who remembers the old US TV series 'F Troop'?
They arrived with some basic painting instructions but basically Mark wishes me to use the old Peter Gilder 7th cavalry from his Pony Wars collection as a reference for colours etc, the link to which I posted a few posts ago here. A nice touch is that all bases are labelled using names of those who fought at Little Big Horn where possible with some fictional characters.
Meantime I have started to enjoy my DBA in a box and had a Classical Indian v Macedonian game the other morning which resulted in a resounding Macedonian victory. Clearly the Indians are going to take some time and play to find the best way of deploying them, my idea had been to place the light bowmen out in front with elephants at rear in order to soften up the phalanx before trampling them with the big beasts but the phalanx simply smashed them aside! The range of bows is 200paces and the move distance of the phalanx is also 200 paces so you are only going to get off one shot before the heavy infantry are on top of you. Elephant v Phalanx is interesting, can go either way resulting in broken formations, base v base fighting, but the double ranked pikes certainly packs a punch.
One issue came up, moving the phalanx on the flocked board required careful handling to avoid bending the pikes, I have a light hand but it occurred to me that a surface where the bases could be pushed/slid forward would be better and I am wondering how/if there is a means of 'fixing' the surface without damaging it? Spray varnish possibly? Any thoughts would be most welcome, thank you. Laying thin plastic transparent sheet over has been suggested and I thought that rather clever but I really need to keep the project portable in the small box.
I agree those cavalry look like gorgeous sculpts.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 'DBA in a Box' I can't think of a way to make the gaming surface more 'slippery' but what are the troops based on? I would've thought that if that was smooth plasticard or ferro-mgnetic sheeting they should slide along fairly freely. The latter would also allow safe magnetic storage.
Hi Rob, all of the bases (and storage boxes) are now magnetised so fairly 'slippery'. It's not a major issue, it's only the Phalangites as the pikes are a bit fragile and bendy, a solution could be to place them two deep on a sabot base of magnetic sheet.
DeleteThe US cavalry figures look nice old-school miniatures. Good luck with the painting.
ReplyDeleteI am aware of F Troop but don’t recall very much of the plot - from what I recall it was very similar to the Carry On sort of humour. By coincidence I was checking Wikipedia only a few weeks ago, mostly to check which of the F Troop actors were dead (***Spoiler alert*** the vast, vast majority of them) and which were still alive. I recall watching the show, but don’t think I’ve ever seen any repeat broadcasts.
A flocked terrain board is a tricky thing, needing careful handling. And there’s also the tendency to “shed” somewhat. I would perhaps go with a terrain board purely painted but, if you want flocked items, try to keep that just to the items placed on to the terrain board (so things like hills, wooded areas, rough terrain etc).
Good luck with your continued experimentation on the pike -v- elephants front.
Cheers,
Geoff
Hi Geoff. I have decided to build another purely painted gridded board for Portable Ancient Wargames and stick with this as it is. Best of both Worlds :) I recall F Troop as a child but it blurs into all of the old westerns of the time, and then of course there was Carry on Cowboy! Charles Hawtrey as Chief Big Heap! Sid James had a great line in that 'You never know where you are with these Indians, one day it's peace on the next it's peace off'.
DeleteI like the cavalry, you will no doubt get to a point of looking forward to doing them once you start seeing indians in your sleep.
ReplyDeleteThe 3mm game looks excellent, a nice sense of mass and good to see you enjoying rolling dice again.
Hairspray might work for fixing, I have seen others recommend it for flocked trees etc. Might be worth trying on a sample piece.
Thanks again Norm. I'm now thinking I may just call it done and leave alone. I have spoiled a few projects by not knowing when to stop :)
DeleteLee
Does anyone remember watching the series 'Boots and Saddles'?
ReplyDeleteThe name rings a bell, but I cant remember the series Rob.
DeleteThose cavalry are excellent, Andy sculpted quite a lot of figures for my Crann Tara range, his work is excellent and these days unique. Your playing an earlier edition of DBA than I do but yes get those bows against mounted formations.
ReplyDeleteHi Graham. I had forgotten that Andrew had sculpted many of your excellent Crann Tara figures, they were/are beautiful figures, slim and elegant and certainly stood out 'from the crowd' for me.
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