Back Again

Just a few pics of Jacobite Rising figs, Barzso, Replicants, AIP, ACTA, HELMET bits and bobs, loads of greenstuff and humbrol.

More later

Eric

Siege!

After a short delay we present to the world the results of our recent labours, namely a great big wooden siege tower from the medieval era. I have been painting and converting some of the Replicant figures, archers and men-at-arms from their Battle of Lewes range, as shown in close-up in the fourth photo. The slightly altered original figure is on the right, the second chap uses the legs of the original, a metal head from Irregular Miniatures, all joined together by the body (drastically built up with greenstuff of a Marx AWI Continental.

The star of this however, is the tower shown in the second photo with a 1:32 figure for scale, the first picture is a rear view showing the top manned by archers and the third pic has the ramp down and a crowd of ruffians charging across into, well, mid air and death actually.

The construction of this beast was comparatively straightforward with a timber frame clad with coffee stirrers liberated from a well known high street coffee chain. The wooded wheels were cheaply acquired vie ebay. The only problem we encountered was when the thing was finally built, it proved top heavy so we had to glue metal weights into the bas area to balance things out. Maths and physics were never my strong point, what matter to us is that the thing moves and operates pretty much as it would have done a few hundred years back. So raise up your drawbridge and man the walls the Kemp Siege Machine approacheth!

Cheers from Eric and Jonny Kemp

What only a week since the last blog, has this man gone mad? Probably!

I went to the Plastic Warrior Show at Richmond (UK) yesterday, helped out a bit with the setting up and taking down of tables. HELMET had a stall, manned by our boy - Jonny- while the lovely Mrs Kemp sold the entry tickets and was generally helpful to the paying public. Steve Weston had a number of new items including test shots of British Camel Corps of around 1885 from Armies in Plastic, and a new set of ACW Union soldiers (ACW) sorry didn't get the makers' name, but some of them looked sort of familiar.... Peter Cole of Replicants was also on hand with a new set of medieval foot soldiers from his Battle of Lewes project and four British Infantry from the Battle of Culloden, I helped a bit with the research for these, some of whom - spooky section coming n0w - are moulded with an additional grenadier head on the base to allow for head swaps, great stuff. There was also the usual selection of traders selling old and new (ish) plastics including Don Ducotte from Florida with his innovative "swappables".

My good friend Nick came along with his wife, he is not a collector but he had seen the room where I paint and convert and have all my books and stuff, his verdict on that visit was that there were "elements of insanity here" and having seen the mass ranks of traders and collectors yesterday I feel that impression was confirmed and multiplied. It's sometimes interesting to get the observations of a complete outsider on how the hobby is perceived, not in a negative way but from a perspective that gives insight and might help in looking at what attracts newcomers to the hobby and perhaps importantly, what turns them off and prevents their becoming collectors, any thoughts?

A couple of pictures above, first two are my attempt to overcome the lack of Napoleonic line infantry, a long conversion project which inevitably means that someone (Hat has some in the pipeline I think) will bring some out soon. Most manufacturers are represented here they all have been given HELMET heads. The biggest problem was in cutting away a crossbelt on most figures and adding the bayonet to the remaining belt that the French fusiliers used, uniquely I think, throughout this period. The jackets themselves ended up as a sort of hybrid that I call "not quite the 1812 regulations", remember they are only toys.

The others photos are an experiment in producing a French Dromedary Corps Camelrider from Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt dated around 1800. The man is mainly HELMET with a Rose metal head and the beast if an old zoo model from Britains bought very cheaply on Ebay. All the saddle and equipment, which hides the fact that the camel is in fact a bactrian, is modelled in greenstuff. I'd like to do a few of these and have a skirmish game with mounted Mamelukes time and everything else permitting.

That's all, comments, queries and insults welcome.

Cheers

Eric

I really don't know what to say, it is well over a year since the last posting, if anyone wants to know the reasons for the lack of activity, and want to hear some hard luck stories, please contact me off-blog. In the meantime I have finally completed a project begun sometime in 2009, the end result can be seen in the photos above, a British limber team of around 1812.

I had previously finished the two drivers and their horses and the two other horses were converted but not painted. The men are simple constructs from HELMET spares and the horses are old Britains, two with new Lone Star heads. The Harness (tack?) was made from gift wrapping tape, miliput and a lot of foul language. The limber - not at all accurate but good enough for a country boy, is an adapted Imex ACW piece; the shafts are from steam-bent bamboo and there are some additions to the box from red wine bottle foil painted black.

The gun is from A Call to Arms.

I drilled two hooves on each horse and pinned and glued these two animals at a time to the plastic card base. The linking harness is lengths of picture frame wire with the end loops from thinner copper wire, these were super glued to metal pegs driven into each horse at the conversation stage. The wheel pair was completed and ground work for them and the limber before the lead pair were fixed. The whole assembly phase took about 4 hours and nearly drove me mad..................

The base is just over 12 inches long for oldies like me and around 310 mm for the younger ones. I read that at Waterloo the horse artillery 9pdr teams had eight horses, making a team of four is big and complex enough.

We took plenty of photos this morning so should be posting again soon........fat hope.

All the best,

Eric

Some more pictures from the Boxing Day wargame, episode 1 published yesterday

Picture 1 shows French Guard Foot Artillery deploying with Guard Infantry in the background, the latter comprise a mixed company of Fusilier Grenadiers (AIP, Aifix and Hat conversions) Old Guard Grenadiers in campaign dress (Airfix with ACTA leg-extensions (!) and Hat with Airfix heads, and, four Old Guard Foot Chasseurs (Hat conversions). In the foreground are some of the Light Infantry screen all laboriously converted just in time for Hat to bring out their own, much better versions.

The second photo is of Allied Cavalry advancing in support of the Light Infantry - these are Prussian and British Hussars (HELMET) and British Light Dragoons (Italeri).

Picture 3 shows the British Foot Artillery deployed having established a clear field of fire, British Commander and servant from the Staff Corps in the middle distance. The guns fired on four successive turns and my usual facility of throwing regular dice scores of "1" held true throughout!

Next a longer shot of the French deploying, this is about move 4, and most of the French Heavy Cavalry are yet to form up.

Last pic shows Russian Allies. Line infantry and Militia nearest the camera along with 1805 period Grenadiers, behind the Infantry are Cossacks (Replicants) and Dragoons (HELMET). The Infantry are a mixture of Black Cat 1812 Line Grenadiers, ACTA Militia conversions, mainly from ACW figures and many additional conversions to bulk-up the 1805 Grenadiers originally from an unknown Russian manufacturer.

More soon if requested, comments and feedback always welcome.

Thanks

Eric

This is my first Blog posting for some considerable time, and as usual I have plenty of excuses for the non-arrival of any new news. However as this is a toy soldier Blog and not another of those that allow the author to sound off on their favourite subject (themselves) I shall limit my defence to the fact that I needed to find gainful, full-time employment and following a period of contract work in the Autumn, I started a five day week at the end of November. All this has meant that I have not been able to focus on HELMET Soldiers at all, nor this Blog. Excuses over.

I have been painting Napoleonics in my limited spare time in order to have a decent sized wargame starting on Boxing Day. I tend to paint the British with an eye to the War of 1812, so generally light on troops that were in both America and Europe in the period, but more of that later.

I took the opportunity of attending the London Toy Soldier Show in early December, as a punter and not a trader, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, my wallet took a hard pounding, mostly on the new Harpers Ferry figures by Replicants, bought from the ever friendly Steve Weston, I also picked up some useful bits and bobs, spare heads and stuff for future conversions. Finally I had a brief chat with a fellow converter ending in an agreement to produce some figures for a possible Siege of Vienna, 1683, game sometime soon............. more news later.

I also bought, via mail order, a box of the new(ish) Victrix Napoleonic British Infantry in hard plastic kit form. These are great with terrific characterisation and detail, the downside is that they are large figures and will not fit with any of my existing regiments. I guess they could be used separately as skirmish pieces.

So to the pictures. Our son, back from Uni, and I try to start a wargame each Boxing Day, and these few photos show the start of that event, if people are interested I'll post more to show how the game develops. We use our own simple rules which are still sort of in development, we need simplicity due the the large (ish) number of figures we deploy and the need to keep the game moving along.

The first picture shows Jonathan - the new Corsican Ogre - beginning to set up the Frenchies, I took this photo without him knowing, or so I thought. He took the second picture, of yours truly, setting up the gallant allies, definitely without my knowledge. So ignoring the ugly old gentleman in the background, it does show the very basic terrain,a crossroads with a scatter of walls and ruined buildings. The third picture shows some of the first British to arrive, Light Infantry and Rifles on open order scree a Foot Artillery Battery, a weak company of Redcoats and some Light Cavalry acting as escort to the general, in this instance Lord Peregrine D'Arcey and his servant, a corporal in the Staff Corps.

Picture 4 shows some French skirmishers, dismounted Vistula Lancers and Foot Dragoons, part of a screen also comprising a full company of Light Infantry, apart from the Replicant officer these are conversions from Accurate and Armies in Plastic with head swaps and greenstuff additions. Finally the French begin to arrive in force, Guard and Line Infantry in the background along with a couple of guns, Dragoons in the middle instance and Hussars in the foreground. Behind the Dragoons is the Emperor himself with his escort, backed by a half squadron of Mamelukes and a pair of giant pink hands which could cause problems later. Figs here are mostly Italeri and Armies in Plastic with A Call to Arms and Airfix as well as some Irregular metal models, as per usual most have been converted to some degree or other.

Enough for now, comments, questions and feedback welcome. I'll publish more pics if there seems to be a demand, in the meantime enjoy what remains of Christmas and look forward to a Happy 2010!

Cheers

Eric

"Small Wars" have always held a fascination for me, and at risk of denigrating the sacrifice of those who fell in such conflicts, their appeal seems to be something around understanding and involvement. By that I mean, I can more readily comprehend the causes and course of such wars and feel some empathy with those involved.That's why I am drawn to the War of 1812, with apologies to those the other side of the pond,(compared to the wider Napoleonic conflict this is a small war), The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, and, as seen in the picture - The Jacobite Rising of 1745.

I have been interested in this era for as long as I can remember, seeing the film on Culloden made by Peter Watkins for the BBC as a schoolboy in 1964 probably kick started that enthusiasm. Since then I have collected two sets of 25/28 mm armies, one from Minifigs, and the second by Front Rank. A real bonus has been the increase in the amount of reference material available, especially on the Jacobite forces, through authors such as Stuart Reid. When I began painting my Minifig troops back in the late 60's much of the resultant colour scheme was based on (un)educated guesswork, remember the BBC in 1964 was still broadcasting in black and white.

A couple of years back I started to produce figures for the Rising in 1:32 plastic, reasoning that the Timpo "Napoleonic" Scots were a cinch to turn into Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highlanders- as usual I grossly underestimated the amount of time involved, but at the same time enjoyed the challenge. So again the madness took over and I sought bout suitable figures from beyond the confimes of Timpo, so the pictures contain men that started out as Marx Vikings, Accurate War of Independence Militia, Imex ACW, A Call to Arms English Civil War, Armies in Plastic Ansar, Barzo French and Indian War and others......................

The imminent release of the Regulars in the new F&IW range from Armies in Plastic will, i fervently hope (fingers massively crossed here) provide the basis for some "British" Regulars and Irish Piquets - The "Wild Geese". That being the case and if God is kind, the '45 will be my ext projest in the New Year, failing the it's back to the Polish Winged Hussars for me..........

I plan to use Imex AWI artillery for most of the gunners and still have the challenge of making suitable figs for mounted dragoons, but this is a small war so I won't need too many will I????

Anyway more news later,

Cheers

Eric