Dripping and Glistening Figures

I'm taking a break from reporting on my Tannenberg Campaign to submit for your approval some recently painted eye candy.

These are one-half of my new AWI collection (Americans will come later).

Some will take these as an affront to wargaming decency, because they are dripping and glistening with three coats of high gloss varnish.  Sally Hansen 'Hard as Nails' nail varnish, actually, with no matt finish spray added on top.

Dripping and Glistening with Three Coats of High Gloss Varnish

"How? Why? ..." some may ask.

These have their origin in three sources:

1)  I recently read an article in a gaming magazine (Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy #135)  about how to collect miniatures. The approach is called 'Stillmania', after Nigel Stillman, and is designed to keep your gaming happiness level up.

It involves the following steps:

1. Research the period that you're interested in before buying a single figure.
2. Decide upon army composition.
3. Paint the collection.
4. When finished painting, apply three coats of high gloss varnish to the entire collection.
5. Never change or add to your army list ever again.
6. Play for the fun of playing.

2) There has been a trend recently in collecting and painting 'retro armies'. These figures are obviously from two sources: Airfix 1/72 British Grenadiers and Washington's Army I picked up about 200 of them for about five bucks from the Bring and Buy at the recent Trumpeter's Salute, probably for sentimental reasons. I thought I could do something with them.

3) I have some stuff floating around in my 'bits box' which flesh these out.

So there you have it. It's not a huge collection: about eight or nine units aside, but that's OK. I just wanted to see how they would look, and the AWI battles are usually pretty small. The figures wouldn't support a more detailed paint job.

You know what? While the figures are individually pretty ghastly, the army as a whole doesn't look too bad when it's on the table top. 

It has an old-time appeal to it -- evocative of gaming past.

Just don't look too close. You might go blind and pass out from the fumes!

Below are my AWI Americans (well, not all Americans were Rebels/Patriots, or the top half of North America wouldn't be Canada -- here, good King George won. But let that pass ... ).

Right to Left: Backwoods Riflemen; Militia; Continentals in hunting shirts; Continentals in blue.
 

Continentals

So, after a painting blitz, this gives me:

• British - three mounted officers; five units of line; two units of lights/jaegers; three guns
• American - three mounted officers; four units of regulars; two units of militia; two units of lights/rifles; three guns

If one unit is taken to be a battalion of 400-600 men this lets me do a battle of about 2500-4000 British versus 3500-5000 Americans, more than enough to refight the great majority of actions during the war.

I find the Americans contrast nicely with the British. I could always use a few light cavalry and some Indians but this will do for now.

Painting up this 'retro collection' put me in the frame of mind of the old-timers' philosphy (Featherson, Grant,  et. al.):

• Choose your period and stick to it (you can always game other peoples' periods, too).
• Research it to death before buying and painting anything.
• Buy and paint only exactly what you need, and paint them to last.
• Never buy or paint anything ever again.
• Game happily away -- campaigns, battle, etc., -- for the rest of your life.

Sort of like buying a car. Shop around as much as you like, but once you've got your vehicle, stop looking!

All of that is too late for me, of course, but it does make one think.

And not bad for buying used for five bucks. The Industrial-Wargaming Complex didn't get a dime of my money!