Monday, January 10, 2011

Naval Brigade (Great War)

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


These are actually figures I modeled, moulded, and cast myself. They’re a little wonky. Like, even wonkier than my more recent ones… but no one notices these things in the heat of battle, so…

I’ve been pondering another crack at Contemptible Little Armies – hence the naval brigade. Though, honestly, they probably won’t be seeing action in the Great War – they’ll more likely be defending English naval bases in some (Very British) civil war action!

I’ve also been dusting off my Vimy figures... and… er… re-basing them!? Once that’s finished I’ll dig out the actual terrain boards and see what sort of sprucing up they’ll need. Only six more years until the 100th anniversary of the battle – for which I had originally planned to do the whole corps attack – So by 2013 I should have another division finished (probably the 3rd Division - being next in line from the 4th, which I have already done), by 2015 another (the second?), and for 2017 the last (the first)… Of course it’s not just the Canadians I have to do but the germans opposing then and the terrain boards – of course I started with the easiest – the fourth division – which had the shortest distance to go (thus the smallest terrain boards, and also only two brigades attacking (the third being held in reserve for the assault on the pimple, planned for the following day….). I've also been adding a couple figures to each battalion to make them 15 (previously they had been 13 figures per battalion).

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hmmmm.... French Cavalry...? British Cyclists...? Who knows!?

7 comments:

  1. I think these miniatures are quite respectable! I rather like them, in fact. I wonder what you consider wonky about them?

    Nice job!

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  2. Thanks.

    If you saw them from the back it'd be more clear. Their hip and upper torso look way out of line.

    Also the castings aren't all that great...

    Like I said, though, when you look at the unit as a whole - amid many other units, all painted to a reasonably decent standard - no one notices these things...

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  3. It is pretty cool to get from concept to a painted unit; well done! I only managed it once and then someone else did the casting for me.

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  4. Very cool. You should be proud of them! Sculpting and casting my own figs is something I have always wanted to try but never seem to find the time or self-confidence to do. Can you tell us a bit more about your tools and materials for the scuplts and the molds?

    Cheers,
    Millsy

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  5. This lad is from the milliput era - waaaaaaaay back. since then I have used green stuff and brown stuff. Honestly I haven't done any new sculpting in over a year. I did pick up some different putties to have a go with at the boxing day sale, so we shall see...

    I make two part moulds with RTV rubber...

    cast with a led/tin alloy...

    One of these years I'll get around to sculpting and casting again and maybe find some time to do a post about it.

    There was a great article in (I think) Historical Miniature Gamer a few years back about sculpting... and there's been some good blogs... I'll try and find them and post links here in a moment...

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  6. Fitz-Badger of the Soweiter League did some great posts about his method around the middle of 2008. Here's one such post:

    Making Moulds

    Snoop around the blog around the same time and you'll find others.

    Another blog I was following around the same time was Making Miniatures. Again if you snoop back throught the posts there's some good info.

    On my own blog the "New Masters" label will direct you to some older posts about sculpting and maybe a bit about casting...

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  7. Super figures, I am sure they will be a succesful unit...stout chaps you should be very proud of your hard work!

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