Wooden Warriors

A Simple Change

2011-12-21T21:39:00.002-07:00

One of the things I have been pondering is a better looking musket, while still having it pretty simple to make. Previously, I took a flat toothpick and simply cut the rounded end off, then painted the pointed end as the bayonet. Very simple and it give a good effect, but very 2D.

I started looking at the round toothpicks used by others for their figures' spears and decided to give it a try to represent the bayonet. So, I clipped off the rounded end and the pointed end to make the musket, then glued the pointed end of a round toothpick to the smaller end of the flat toothpick. It now gives a nice effect of a musket with the bayonet properly offset to the side, with little extra effort.

All that remains is to see if it stays glued to the figure...

By the way, this is the finished Napoleonic Prussian Landwehr infantryman. I am sending him off to my painter in Edmonton, Bob Barnetson, as a sample for the rest of the figures to be painted (a total of 12 men in defending pose and two skirmishers in firing pose). This will be the first time someone else will have painted figures of my own creation, so I am looking forward to feedback from Bob on whether he finds this (freehand) style harder or easier, wood harder or easier than metal or plastic, etc. That and if he likes painting the figures, it will allow me to focus on making the figures while he paints them. So I may one day get to my "dream game" of hundreds of 42mm wooden toy soldiers on the table in a small Napoleonics battle.

Painting with Oils

2011-11-30T19:11:00.001-07:00

Before I start a quick hello to a new reader Joppy, who is soon to retire in January 2012. I hope you'll be making some wooden warriors of your own during retirement, and willing to discuss them here. Welcome.

Today's entry is a guest blog entry of a sort. It was actually a post on the Wargaming on a Budget forum on Yahoo and reader and internet buddy Jim Walton thought it was so good that he thought it should be preserved. So here are the collection of posts from Otto, a.k.a. nemopholist.

To put in context, Matt Kirkhart started by showing new pictures of his 28mm Romans he is building for a new project. Eric asked some questions about paints, painting, and other hobby tricks, to which Matt responded. At some point I added a few remarks about the paint I use (and don't use), plus a particular problem I had "solved" of late of getting a nice, strong yellow on top of a dark blue. At that point Otto spoke up:

Dear Dale,

Use tube oils like I do. They are much better to work with, much better coverage, more durable, and for what you get-- very cheap. True, some of the more oddball shades can cost $15 a tube, but you'll have it forever. I don't think I've gone through one tube (except black and withe) in the 30 years and thousands of minis I've painted.

Takes a week or two to dry though.

However, I have 7years War troops I painted 35 years ago and they are as vibrant and bright as they were when new, and much less chipped or worn.

Otto

Now, I actually have a little experience with oils, and it wasn't good, mostly because I cannot tolerate the smells of the various oils and chemicals that go along with it. It also did not help that at the time I lived in Florida (USA), which is a high humidity environment, which is not very conducive to fast drying times with oils!

When Jim asked Otto about acrylics, his response was:

Don't like Acrylics.

They dont have a tenth of the durability of oils, and they react with the lead and oils of the paint and your hands to get shabby and drab.

Oils will also form a moderately good barrier against oxidation, which acrylics will not.

Jim then asked the questions:

Do you have a measured way of thinning them before use and what do you use, turpentine? I say "measured" meaning that you can pretty much depend on a particular amount working for most colors, or do you do it "by eye"? Can you store them once you've mixed them?

To which the reply came:

Dear Jim

Yes to all. Now having said that let me talk out of the other side of my mouth.

Grumbacher oils (though you can use any company, they are pretty much the same) can be thinned with a variety of media- paint thinner, mineral spirits (not always the same thing) or linseed oil. Each chemical does certain things to the paint and can achieve a certain effect. Linseed oil for example radically exponentiates the drying time but it provides the hardest and most durable product I've ever seen. It sets almost, (in my experience) to a hard glass-like finish. Turpentine will be easier to work with and allow faster drying and it will also "matte down" the surface. Mineral spirits and paint thinner the same, but be careful, some paint thinners are really paint cleaner and pretty much wreck the paint.

I have pre-mixed and pre-measured oil paints and they store quite well provided you have small plastic vials to do so. Make sure they are air-tight. You can store them mixed with any of the media above though you may have to stir them up after long use as the thinning agents tend to pool at the top.

What I mostly do is take several thickness of ordinary newspaper, especially from the advertisement sections where they have a lot of paper without ink on it. and use that. I squirt out a teensy bit of paint (you will be surprised how much a little goes a long way) and then thin it on the paper pad with the thinner (whatever you wish). The paper absorbs some of the oil and "mattes it down." Alternatively you can use old bottle caps from soda, iced tea, milk, fruit juice bottles, or jars which make excellent paint trays. Toss some newsprint in there and you have an impermeable base to keep the thinner off your wife's dining room table or the like. (Better yet, do it on an old scrap piece of wood in the cellar.)

I use a general color wheel to get the shade, tint, and tone I want and then mix as I go along. If I am running out, I simply squirt a little more on the paper and mix more till I get the same homogenous tone. The key is a good eye in estimating how much paint you will need to cover a batch of figures. When I first started out, being used to bottled paints, I mixed huge batches. Now I tend to radically under-mix. When I'm finished with a painting session I leave the slip of newspaper with the last color on it as a sample in a small box for future matching.

The MOST essential part of this whole thing I have found is not the paint, not the brushes, not the thinner, but the process. What I do is get the empty boxes of computer paper from work, that is boxes from whom the computer forms were offloaded to a printer and box discarded. What I do is take the box and lid home and put the BOTTOM of the box in the upside down lid, mark the box, and then cut away the excess above the line, leaving a tray which fits inside the lid. This forms a "drying box" which I can use to place one project, close the lid and go on to another project, doing the same and letting the boxes stack up. Thus I can have a dozen units going at once and simply rotate through them doing more when I get to it. Thus with about 8 boxes I can keep continuously working on something.

Another way to store the paint papers with a worthwhile smidgen of paint on them is simple zip-lock sandwich bags with the lid of a small gift box or pill box overturned on top of the pile of paint.

It's not for everyone, but I like the fact that since I mix my own colors I can vary the intensity from a brilliant vibrant color to a washed out pale.

Otto

Well there you have it, preserved for all time. I hope you find it useful, as Jim did.

More Experiments with Foam Sheet

2011-11-14T20:57:00.001-07:00

This is the first time I have done it, and I really should have done it every time someone new joined the blog, but I would like to welcome the new readers Captain Richard's Miniature Civil War, Schrumpfkopf, and Danjou's Hand. I hope you enjoy the material.

Using Foam for Arms, Feet, and Spiky Bits

So, I told you in a previous blog entry that I was going to experiment more with craft foam sheet for those parts that need more flexibility, or that are just a bit too hard to produce in wood. In this first example, I want to reproduce the classic 'defending' pose, as shown in the figure below.

In order to make arms for this pose, the material for the arms and hands really have to be flexible, hence experimenting with foam sheet. As you can see in the figure below, using a wooden template I cut a 'bent arm' shape from purple foam, glued it to the sides, glued the hands to the musket, and have a perfect shape. (The right hand has some modelling paste on it where I had to fill in cutting out too much foam.)

One of my concerns about using foam sheet is that it will not be solid enough to withstand handling. Only time will tell, but my thoughts were to try to saturate the foam with various liquids to both give it more strength and to provide a better painting surface. Previous tests with standard white glue were not satisfactory as the water-based paint dissolved the glue to some degree. Using Gorilla Glue Super Glue was a thought, but it is expensive and the foam absorbs a lot of liquid. In this last test I used Liquitex Matte Medium and the thickness seemed to clog the pores and create a even surface. Although I would not say the foam is significantly stronger, it is more rigid.

So here is the Prussian Napoleonic Landwehr private painted up. Although the top of the hat should be larger – a flat head plug of the appropriate size would be better than a 1/3 spool – I am not going to complain with the results.

You can see how I used a lot of foam for this troglodyte archer (still needs his bow). Although the hands look misshapen and out of scale, you can easily cut it back once you fold the material, glue it in place, and see what needs to show and what can go.

Making Templates

The easiest way to get a little consistency in you foam parts is to make a template. I created my in a computer drawing program, printed it to paper, used that paper to transfer to wood, then cut the wooden part out. You want a wood (or metal) template so that when you cut around it with scissors, you cannot damage the template itself.

Here you can see my template for the bent arm. I usually cut a little excess at the flat end to make the hand, leaving more material if I need a longer hand to grip something. Once I've fashioned the wood piece I can simply press it hard into the foam sheet and cut out the indentation, as (barely) shown in the figure below right.

The troglodyte arm and hand was fashioned in the same way, using an old wooden base for the template material. I hand-drew the arm and hand (should have used the computer) and whittled the foam down to a manageable size from there.

Again, getting the basic shape is the most important thing, not getting the perfect shape. (Although that's nice too.)

For my spiky bits (troglodyte crests and spines) I found some craft scissors in the scrapbooking section of Michael's and found some that produced a nice jagged edge cut. Those make creating strips of spiky bits very easy!

The good thing about craft foam sheet is that they come in a variety of thicknesses and colors.

Typhoon Tungsten Carbide Burr

2011-11-05T10:33:00.001-07:00

In the past I have purchased several structured tooth tungsten carbide cutters from Dremel (the taper and the cylinder) to rough carve wood, but I haven't been overawed with how much faster it can remove stock than a regular coarse sanding drum. So it was with some hesitancy that I ordered a Typhoon Tungsten Carbide Burr (Coarse) from Micro-Mark.

As the package says: for aggressive material removal. Now we are talking! It looks kind of funny and as you can see in the picture, it already has wood dust in it, because I had to try it out on my toughest problem: hollowing out the interior of a 1/2 spool in order to use it as a hat.

As you can see from the pictures above and below, it made a nice little bowl that fit perfectly on my game piece figures' head. And it did it very quickly and easily. No bucking of the tool at all. The burr bit into the wood and tore through it with no problem.

Highly recommended! I've gotten the coarse ball and cone shapes, now to get the rest. I also purchased some small chisels, so maybe I will do something with that soon and can have an article on that.

I wanted to order a bending brake in order to make metal movement trays, so looks like I will be putting in another order to Micro-Mark soon, which is a really great place to get small tools for working with miniatures.

Experimenting with Foam Sheet

2011-11-02T11:45:00.003-07:00

One aspect that I am not satisfied with of the soldiers that I build is the stiffness of the arms. Part of that is the material I use (wood) and part of it is the source (a craft stick). If I used a wider craft stick, for example, I could cut a bent arm shape out and get more variation to the arm, but that makes each arm custom crafted, adding to the time to make a figure. Fine for one-off figures, but slower if trying to build a force.

It was while looking at Kenneth Van Pelt's Zulu-era soldiers on his Penny Whistle blog, that I noticed and liked the bends and poses of his pipe cleaner arms, but in the end did not like the "fuzzy" look. I started looking about for other materials to make the arms with that would give me that flexibility, yet give me more of the flat, craft stick look. Essentially, what I needed was a flexible craft stick.

I have used foam sheets for awhile now, mostly as simple outlines to define the areas of woods, hills, swamps, etc. so I am familiar with its properties, good and bad. On the positive side it is flexible and easy to cut and shape. It is about the same thickness as craft stick (a little thinner), but you can always buy thicker sheets, or even thinner sheets and glue them together.

The downside is their porous surface, making it harder to glue securely and to paint. It would probably be necessary to seal the foam before painting. But that might be possible with a thick primer.

I decided to experiment with a figure and try for a Napoleonic "high port arms" pose (which is more like the modern "present arms").

To start, I cut out the same basic shape and size that I used with craft sticks. I then glued the arms down using Elmer's Tacky Glue and waited for it to dry. I added a little Gorilla Glue Super Glue around the contact edges to add strength and also let that dry before moving on. The important thing was not to glue the arms too far forward, which I would have to do with wood.

After the arms were on solidly I glued the flat toothpick musket directly on the figure. It looks a little funny at this stage, but it ends up about right.

After the glue for the toothpick had dried, I put Tacky Glue on the underside of the right arm and pinned it to the body until the 'hand' reached the musket. With the left arm I only needed to glue the 'hand' directly to the musket.

This was relatively easy to do, with the only tedious part being cutting out the arms to length. In the end it is probably no more work than cutting and shaping the craft sticks. With a little bit of twisting and turning, I think making a figure with more of a modern port arms pose would be fairly.

Something like a defending pose would also be possible.

Cool figure, that one!

So, look for more figures using this technique. I have already used foam sheet for the bent foot of a kneeling troglodyte (lizard man) and it looks pretty convincing.

UPDATE: I painted the figure as it shows the shapes a little better.

Instant Mold

2011-10-21T15:33:00.002-07:00

One of the things that makes my figures unique is the fact that each has to be hand-crafted. Although there is a positive side to that - you get great variance in your forces - the negative is that everything takes longer to make. Some things you would just prefer not to have to make over and over again, especially if they are tedious to make, or particularly small.

There is a new product out there for making press molds called Instant Mold. Here is a video showing you some ideas for its use, and how easy it purports to be.

I just ordered a couple of packages of Instant Mold (you can find it a little cheaper on eBay), so expect to see a future blog entry on how I will use them. Granted, the pieces I make won't be wood, but that has been true in the past. I will probably use Green Stuff to make weapons, cartridge boxes, shield bosses and decorations, and maybe even hats and helmets, which have always been my biggest irritation. I don't think I will be doing rifles or muskets, however, as I like the look that flat toothpicks provide, and they are very easy to make and paint.

Grand Plans

2011-10-20T20:06:00.001-07:00

It is interesting looking back over the blog, and the original plans I had for my wooden warriors. Back then, the game Command and Colors: Napoleonics was due in six months or so and I wanted to build Napoleonic soldiers for the game. I figured about four figures per unit and about 12 infantry, 6 cavalry, and 3 artillery per side, so about 142 figures or so, depending upon unit makeup.

After doing a unit of French infantry, I started thinking about the old Column, Line, and Square games I had played as a kid, and how impressive it looked with all those miniatures. How much more would it be with 42mm figures? Of course, a small command was about 165 figures, so that would be about 330 figures, so the requirements were growing rapidly in my imagination. The unit pictured above, is only 2/3rds of a single battalion (24 figures), so I had a long way to go.

As I started making more figures, I found that I received most pleasure out of making them, painting them, and gaming with them, in that order. Yes, believe it or not, gaming was last! I am one of those guys that takes pleasure out of "creation", and finds it relaxing, so I spent more time "experimenting" and individualizing the figures than in "grinding them out".

The problem was, my goal was to grind them out, so it became less and less enjoyable making and painting them, which caused me to set them aside. It is only recently that I realized the true problem, that my goal was unrealistic – at least in the short term (i.e. anything measured in less than years) – so by changing my goal, I found I could get back into this part of my hobby.

So, I like Ganesha Games rules, and for the most part they are skirmish level, meaning maybe a dozen figures per side. So that is doable in a relatively short period of time. And that gives me more freedom to personalize each figure and spread out into several genres. (Right now I am doing Shadowsea, which has fantasy elements mixed with early gunpowder and steam-powered, clockwork constructs. The Three Musketeers and Flashing Steel is probably up next.)

For the more "mass produced" stuff I will probably continue building 28mm armies, using the same techniques as Matt Kirkhart and John Acar (tip of the hat to these two), but for DBA.

So, hopefully you will see more soon.

Troglodyte Experiment (Part 2)

2011-10-20T07:16:00.001-07:00

Although the troglodyte is not finished, it is close. I am still trying to figure out a few things, mostly where to add details that will be seen, as opposed to adding detail for detail's sake.

For example, the scaly 'eyebrows' work, but all of the scales should have the dark green behind it to make it 'pop'. I definitely need to add some nostrils to the snout too. Maybe an alligator-style set of nostrils rather than a slit, like a lizard's. I will have to check the source miniatures.

The tortoise shell shield turned out pretty well for hand drawing and three colors.

The beady yellow eyes look funny, but the source material mentions several times that the troglodytes always look 'surprised'. The eye popping look does that, especially when the creature has no eyelids.

I think the spine and scales turned out well. Need to put dark green around the 'spurs' on the back of the legs to make that pop. Same for the scale on the knees.

Most missing is the stone head for the spear. Not sure what I want to use to make that yet. As it turns out, I have a number of seeds that just might fit the bill.

I think the mouth and teeth also turned out well. It gives a 2.5D appearance by overlapping the teeth and the upper jaw.

I might have another photo of the finished troglodyte later, but I am working on 11 more of these, using a slightly different set of parts (primarily redoing the legs), so that is probably when the next snap of this will appear.

Troglodyte Experiment

2011-10-13T22:06:00.004-07:00

Recently I have been reading the Shadowsea rules and campaign material and I thought it might be fun to make a lizardman-like creature – named a Troglodyte – from that genre.

The basic idea is to get the shape of the figure first, then worry about how to model all of the little details, either in wood, some other material, or simply with paint.

As shown in the pictures above, the figure is not completed, as it has no fingers, weapon, shield, and other little embellishments, like a lizard's crest.

The picture below shows the basic shapes that make up the figure.

Blue - the head is a split egg.
Red - the neck is a flat head plug.
Yellow - the body is a barrel bead.
Green - the segments of the arm are simple round dowels, connected with sewing pins.
Purple - the legs and hips are a micro shaker peg.
Pink - the base of the feet is a heart.

I carved the tail out of a craft stick and the toes are toothpicks. As this is an experiment, I may end up removing the heart shape and simply glue the toes and shaker peg directly to the base.

The figure below shows the size of the figure, in comparison with my 42mm figures that I normally make.

I hope to finish a few more of these – enough to make a warband for playing a Shadowsea game – as I think these figures and this scale is perfect for skirmish gaming, rather than mass gaming I originally envisioned.

Let me know what you think.

Experimenting with Shapes

2011-10-01T19:02:00.001-07:00

I started experimenting with new shapes and I thought I would talk a little bit about them.

One of the areas where I have not been too happy is with the shape of the arms of some of my figures. Using a flat craft stick, although it gives it a whimsical appearance, it creates a problem with some figures poses in that there is not a lot of surface area for adhesion and that the arms disappear when viewed from certain angles, must like flats or paper figures. In order to put some "meat on the bones", I started experimenting with what was essentially a scrap piece of wood that I threw into my bits box.

The figure to the right is from my Stock of the Trade - Clothespins blog entry and shows the two types of clothespins I was using for various projects. Specifically, the areas in pink were being used for figure bodies, while the uncolored portions were essentially being cast into the woods bits box. I had also used those pieces for the legs in my Steampunk Clockwork Soldier. In this experiment I show how to use those bits for arms on my 42mm soldiers.

Below is a sample figure using the clips from the larger clothespin (MCP-400 in the American Woodcrafter's Supply catalog) as the arms.

If you are wondering what the figure is, it is a Bokharan infantryman, circa 1866. (I bought the book 19th Century Central Asia and the Himalayan Kingdoms and thought the figure looked cool, so I decided to try and make one. I will be building other figures from this book in the future.) The figure itself is the standard Boy game piece with a Heart shape for the feet, and the clothespin clips for the arms. A standard flat toothpick acts as the rifle. The fur hat was made by cutting the top off of the Boy, gluing a larger diameter dowel on top, then gluing the piece cut off of the top of the figure to the dowel.

Overall I like the look of the new arms, even if it does increase the expense of the figure (now I have to buy clothespins in addition to all of the other pieces). At least I can use what was previously good scrap wood, however.

One last experiment was carving the legs. All I did was remove some additional material between the legs at the ankles to give more of a trouser look. Although it takes more effort I like the look.

I did a little more work on the Clockwork Steampunk Soldier, finishing off the arms and priming it black.

Although the raised left arm looks a little 'unnatural' in how it is raised to crush an opponent, I am not too worried about it as I envision it swings with a spinning motion more mechanical and less 'organic'.

Another figure using a new part – a flower pot – represents a Central Asian figure in a tall cap much like a floppy fez, but with a fur edge.

I think it will look pretty convincing once it is painted and the 'fur' is roughed out.

Finally, I am always looking at shapes and how to make new figures that can add some variety to those of the game pieces above.

In this figure three wooden pieces are used: the doll head for the head, a 'barrel' bead for the body, and a spool for the legs and shoes. The only thing I don't like so far is the lack of a neck, so I would probably through a small piece of dowel between the doll head and the barrel bead.

Well, that is all for now.

28mm Armored Seleucid Elephant Painted

2011-08-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

I've finished my 28mm armored Seleucid elephant for my friend's DBA army. However, in all this time of waiting for it, he went and bought a painted metal one since I started! I guess that is what I get for taking too long! I guess I will just have to build an army with an armored elephant! :^D

For the armor I decided to use a metal face mask, such as found on the cover of WRG's book Armies and Enemies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars. However, I did not like the big scale armor on that cover, so I went with discs of metal linked into chains hanging from a central chain. I may go back and add more linked discs over the top of the blue cloth so the sides are armored.

I definitely like the effect of the pikeman stabbing down. I am still considering adding light infantry to the base, both as an escort and as enemy. With DBA armies you tend not to see that, but with Impetus armies you sometimes do.

I've also added bands of armor around the legs and the end of the trunk, to give it a little more protection and make it a little more armored looking. In the picture below you can see the engraved expression I made for the elephant's mask, to make him look a little more fierce. The mottled look of the metal was actually a mistake – I aim for a clean, crisp look for my Wooden Warriors® – but I wanted the metal glossy so I applied some Future floor polish to it and it started to dissolve the ink (my new pen is clearly not waterproof or permanent). I actually like the look.

I am already thinking of a few improvements – case of javelins, shields on the howdah, silver tips on the tusks – but I will probably leave it like this for awhile. Time to finish more projects started.

28mm Seleucid Armored Elephant (WIP)

2011-07-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

As you might have guessed, I have not been doing a lot of woodworking of late. That's just me; I go in cycles. I decided to try and ease back into it by working on the 28mm Seleucid armored elephant that Don needs for his Seleucid DBA army, so we can game with my Armenian army. (That might inject some interest into playing DBA again, both face-to-face and solo.)

First is the mahout. This is a simple micro peg with the bottom ground off. I will attach sticks to the side of the elephant's neck to represent the mahout's legs.

Second up is the pikeman. I think I did a pretty good job in the pose with the arms. This allows him to jab his pike downwards against any sneaky light infantry trying to hamstring the elephant.

Lastly is a javelin thrower. I will probably attach a wooden rectangle to represent a case of javelins for this crewman to throw.

I am debating whether to put a light infantryman or two on the base to represent elephant escorts. I might possibly add a shield to the sides of the howdah for a little extra shape and color. I can't wait to paint this!

Been 'Away' for Awhile

2011-06-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

I've been away from this blog for awhile, and to be honest, those darn Romans burned me out. They needed a lot of work to shape the helmet and almost every figure needed a helmet. My hand was actually getting cramps holding all of the figures sanding them down. (One unanticipated downside to working with smaller figures when you have sausage-sized figures.)

I want to get back on them, as I really want to send them off to my miniatures painter in Canada and see what he can do with them. I really want to hear his feedback on how easy or hard it is to paint free-hand and whether this particular medium is enjoyable or not.

I am going to start posting some pictures on my Dale's DBA blog of my DBA armies, as I have collected a few but never really shown them. I've also started fleshing out my Flames of War German and American armies, so I thought I would take pictures of those and post them to the Dale's Wargames blog. I've started making some cheap terrain for 15mm, so they will also end up on the latter blog as they are not really pertinent to this blog.

One thing I was thinking about doing was trying my hand at making wooden vehicles (in 15mm) for Flames of War. If I get into that, they would definitely be posted here. Anything I make would never rival, say Battlefront Miniatures, in detail; I would simply want to get the basic shape right and of course, get the cost down.

So, that's what I have upcoming. Nothing immediate on the wooden warriors horizon, but then I have always been one to cycle through projects and go through phases, so you never know.

Commanche Indian in 28mm

2011-04-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

I joined a new Yahoo group about wargaming the Plains Indian wars. I have generally avoided that subject mostly because I grew up with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and in my day Scouts had almost a reverential attitude towards the American Indian ways. The wars were glossed over. But, now I live in the West (AZ) and I am surrounded by history, yet I have been refusing to game it. I figured it was time to get over my reluctance. After all, the American Indian warriors could be quite colorful.

As before I used a simple shaker peg for the figure. What needed to change, however, was the 'skirt'. I figured that for this figure I could use a combination of breechcloth and leggings, so the skirt in the front and back was still appropriate; it would represent the breechcloth. I sanded out a space on the left and right and everything looked perfect.

The feather is a simple flat toothpick very delicately sanded (along with my fingers) to get the shape. I intentionally squiggled the line in the feather so it looked more natural.

The flesh color I used was Game Workshops' Dark Flesh. As my reference picture was Chief Low Dog of the Commanches - and he was very dark - this looks better than all of the other flesh colors I have as it has that tinge of red. If I were to do more figures I would definitely mix my own pot of paint using that as the base.

Almost all of the details are done with marker pens. My experiments with the Early Armenian army, where everyone is a different color scheme and pattern, showed me that these tools need to stay a permanent part of my tool box.

The hardest part of all for this piece? The tomahawk blade. I needed it thick enough so it would take glue, but thin enough to look okay as a blade. That was very hard to cut and sand to the proper shape; many skin cells gave their lives for the creation of that piece! :^D

It is a very colorful piece, allowing me to be creative in a number of ways, so I can see getting into this period. I just have so much going on right now it will probably stay on the shelf as a one-off experiment until the mood really hits me.

Seleucid Elephant WIP

2011-04-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

As stated previously, in order to play my Early Armenian DBA army I need to make a Seleucid elephant for my opponent (as the army he purchased wasn't a legal list). I thought it would be fun, and a nice break from sanding all of those darn Roman helmets.

The basic model is three split eggs - the size I use for my 40mm cavalry - and a spool for the body. As I did with my cavalry, I decided to add a flat plug for the neck, with some added wood filler to fill the gaps. The ears are teardrop shapes from the Woodsie round shapes pack. I used these for shields in the Armenian army. Grinding off the bottom, removing the point, made it look about right. Clearly this elephant is not yet excited as the ears are not flared out, as they usually are with most commercial models.

The mahout is the standard micro shaker peg (a.k.a. heart peg) with the bottom cut off and the head sanded down. Nothing really to discuss here, but I will add tile spacer legs to it rather than painting them on.

The howdah is simply a craft stick cut into square pieces. In hindsight I should have used the square Woodsie shapes; it would have been so much easier. As it stands, now I will have to fill the gaps with wood filler.

Inside the howdah I glued in a square platform for the crewman to stand on.

On the sides of the elephant I glued craft stick cut into rectangles to act as aprons or armor (depending on how you paint it).

The howdah crewmen will be standard heart pegs. The pikeman will have both arms up, holding the pike pointing downward, while the javelin man will be throwing a javelin and the left arm down.

I'd like to paint this beast, but I am giving Don the first right of refusal with them. If I want to paint one, I guess I will have to make one - with a corresponding army - for myself. :^)

Starting an Early Imperial Roman Army - the Helmet

2011-04-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

After posting pictures of the Early Armenian army I built and painted I received quite a few comments, one of which was from my painter in Canada, Bob in Edmonton, who does all of my 15mm troops of late. When I posed to him the idea of painting a scratch-built army, he said he was game. So, now I am building an army, which for the first time will be painted by a painting service. I am excited.

Looking about in the DBA army lists - those that are an enemy to the Early Armenian army I just built - I see that the Early Imperial Roman army is listed. To be honest, I have never really fancied a Roman army after the Punic Wars, but given the iconic image of this army, I felt it was almost a must to use them.

So, what are some of the problems with making Romans? By and large it is the helmet. It is close fitting, can have a peak at the front, and has a neck guard at the back. One thing I have noticed is that there are several styles of helmet; it is not all uniform across history. The second problem is the curved shield, which almost curls protectingly around the soldier's left side. There are numerous shapes to use - rectangular, oval, oblong hexagonal, etc. - but for the legionnaires the shield is curved in this period. (For the auxilia the shield can be straight, which also helps distinguish between the two.)

Other iconic details include the segmented armor, which is detail simply painted on, and a mixture of pilum and gladius. This should be fun.

But first, I have to solve the problem of the helmet. I start with the standard micro shaker peg (a.k.a. the heart peg) and sand off the excess to make a simple rounded head. I then draw out the portions where the face and ears are exposed.

Using small bits I sand out a dent where the ear will be. Normally, I am against creating 'lines' which force where the painter must paint. The indentation where the ear is serves to mark the line where the neck guard ends. To create the neck guard I cut just above the line defining the bottom of the helmet. I then sanded a hollow out, creating a flare, then reshaped the head of the helmet. Although it does not show in the photographs below, I sanded below the flare, thinning the neck, giving further definition to the neck guard.

In the figure below you can see that I also sanded out the area for the face. Subsequently I stopped doing that, preferring to let the paint define those lines. Nonetheless, you can see the sort of effect it has if you want to expend the effort, say as with a single figure or a few for a skirmish game. In those cases I would also sand below the cheek guards to further thin the neck, giving the helmet greater definition.

I'll show more pictures later, of more variations, but suffice it to say that this design allows me to cover all of the legionnaires, auxiliaries, artillery, and cavalry. The only thing that looks different is the single element of LH, which represent Numidian cavalry, which will have a head shape similar to my LH Armenian horse archers (i.e. long hair).

The more I look at this, the more I realize that with a peak on the front, I have a pretty good pickelhaube for the 1860+ Prussians and Germans...

28mm DBA Early Armenian Army Completed

2011-04-09T08:15:00.001-07:00

My goal was to scratch-build and paint a 28mm DBA Early Armenian (II/28(b)) army in twelve days, but I did not make it. More like 24 days, especially considering that the bases arrived yesterday. But, it was not about the amount of time it took, but more to compare a hand-made wooden army to the commercial metal figures and show the proportions of the figures. Ultimately the question to answer is: can you game with both figures on the table? Or must the hand-made armies always be pitted against other hand-made armies?

For me, it is a question of style, more than of just proportion. I remember growing up playing Napoleonics and our club used 1/72 Airfix, Scruby 25mm, Hinchliffe 25mm, and Minifigs 25mm, together all on the same table. As we were playing Column, Line, and Square, which uses bounce sticks for artillery fire, the proportions of the figures actually came into play. "Triple-ration" Minifigs Austrians always took more casualties from artillery than the Airfix or Scruby French units. If you based your Scruby Mamelukes just right, the enemy could fire a horse artillery shot straight down the center of the unit and not hit a figure! (At least that is how I remember it from my childhood.) So, let's just say that I was used to gaming with figures that were not perfectly matched within a command (although no one ever mixed figures within a unit).

I don't have any pictures of the Great Comparison, but here is the Early Armenian army. You start with these:


Micro Shaker Peg	Wooden Spool	Split Egg

And you end up with these:

If you would like to read the process of building and painting these figures, see my previous blog entries: Using the Micro Shaker Peg, Making a Basic Horse and Rider, Making the Cataphract, Making the Horse Archers, Making the Warriors Part 1 and Part 2, and Making the Foot Archers.

I look forward to taking these guys into battle. If the amount of effort you put into painting (and making) troops would manifest in success on the table, these guys would rock! Unfortunately, that is rarely so...

Armenian Army - Almost There

2011-04-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I am almost done with my 28mm Early Armenian DBA army. It is only "almost" because I still have not gotten my bases from Litko. [grrrr] They are running a little late...

I finished the remaining three elements of Armenian Warriors (Auxilia in DBA).

I threw in a couple of different poses and shield shapes, but for the most part they are small round shields and armed with a short spear held overarm.

If the swordsman's head looks strange that is because I painted him with male pattern baldness. Not something you usually see in a commercial figure, but all of my wooden warrior units have at least one.

Finally, a shot of the whole army, save for the two new optional elements that will be in the DBA 3.0 list (two Bow elements).

It has been great fun building this army from scratch. Once I get it properly based, I will post the results to Fanaticus, Lead Adventures, and TMP and see how the "proper" world responds.

New DBA 3.0 (Draft) Army List for Armenia

2011-04-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

Well I was just looking at the WRG website and reading the draft army lists for Section II of the upcoming DBA 3.0 rules and noticed that the Armenian list I am building has had a change! Instead of 2x2Ps it is now 2x(Ps or Bw), so that means I can build two more elements (six more foot archers) in order to have some options!

I am not sure under what circumstances I might use the Bow elements over the Psiloi, but options are options.

Armenian Archers and More Armenian Horse Archers

2011-04-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

I still have 2 1/3 elements of Armenian Warriors in the last stages of gluing, but in the interim I have finished the two elements of Armenian Archers (i.e. psiloi in DBA) and finally gotten around to photographing the last two elements of the Armenian Horse Archers.

First the Armenian Archers:

Nothing new here, in terms of construction. The bows are tile spacers, about the only thing I will use them for anymore. The arms are pieces of wooden coffee stirrers sanded down with a Dremel. The figure on the far left, in the above picture, uses a Faber-Castell artist pen. The tip almost looks like a paint brush, so the lines are excellent compared to those where you use a nylon nib. In this case I have painted on little "X" on the white trim. The ink is waterproof, but not permanent, so you need to varnish it pretty quickly.

I have been using thinned-down Elmer's Clear School Glue as a varnish. Although it is shiny, it is not more so than Future Acrylic Floor Wax. It might actually make sense to use both - the Future to penetrate the wood and the glue to coat it - in order to maximize protection. At this point I have not tried both. These figures only have generous dollops of the clear glue.

The archers, being the poorest class of troops of them all, are less richly dressed than the other figures, but I still put some trim on in places.

The new horse archers are not different from the previous ones in any way except the paint schemes.

I decided to try a few skull caps for head coverings on this batch.

All in all I really like the color schemes. I am still debating about adding one or more quivers per figure. Although it would certainly be appropriate, it would also clutter the figure more than it already is.

Let me know if you have an opinion on this.

Armenian Warriors

2011-03-27T10:29:00.000-07:00

The Armenian army list in DBA consists of four Auxilia elements. Looking at Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome I found that these are unarmored warriors with spear, sword, and shield. Very little information is provided about them, although they do mention a unique headdress they wear, but don't really show it. I decided to forego that and make most bareheaded (but with long hair), with a few caps and maybe a helmet or two.

Here is the first element. The central figure is the leader of the bunch, with a sword (top of flat toothpick) and almond-shaped shield (from a pack of various wooden shapes). He wears a sheepskin cap on his head (a flat-headed plug) which I painted gray and used a pen to make the 'texture'.

The second figure has an oval shield (also from the pack of wooden shapes) and spear (dowel with a sanded point).

The final figure has a crescent shield (half of an oval shield from the pack of wooden shapes, sanded to get the inner curve) and a spear.

My these boys look angry!

As you can see from the side pictures, I added some trim to the basic colors by drawing a white line with the Elmer's acrylic white paint marker, then adding dots of color using the Sharpie marker pens. Simple, but effective.

The rear picture shows some more detail of the markers to add trim. I went to town on some figures (not shown).

What differs from these figures and previous ones in the Armenian army is that I gave up on the tile spacers for arms. They make great bows, but for arms they are (currently) too much trouble. I instead used wooden craft sticks the size of coffee stirrers and shaped them with a sander. I drilled a hole through the arms and clear through the heart peg body, then stuck a dowel through to secure the arms.

The army is coming along nicely. Next should be the archers (Psiloi), then hopefully the last post will be the entire army painted and mounted on proper sized Litko bases.

Armenian Horse Archers

2011-03-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

The Armenian army list has four Light Horse elements in it, which is one of the reasons I chose this list to oppose the Seleucids, and I have photos of the first two elements. Again, they are not based yet as I still have not received my order from Litko Aero for the 60mm x 40mm bases necessary for DBA.

As with the cataphracts yesterday, the core parts for the riders are a micro shaker plug/heart plug, with the tenon cut off so the figure is not so tall, and plastic tile spacers for the arms, legs, and on these figures, the bows. The horses are the new design of split wren's eggs-and-wooden spool, but with a flat head plug for the neck. I used wood filler to fill out the gaps in the neck.

These figures have a lot of metallic ink pen, permanent marker pen, and paint marker work. I painted the figures Cocoa for the flesh, then added the black hair. As you can see, I sanded and shaped the head of the heart plug so the size was not so exaggerated, making it look like they have long flowing hair. Then I painted a solid, bright color with paint.

With the paint dried, I went back with an Elmer's acrylic white paint marker and drew lines of white in various places, to act as edging and trim. Finally, I added slashes, lines, dots, and squares using various color permanent markers. I tried both the Sharpie and Bic brands and did not really notice any difference between the two other than then Sharpie black is much glossier than all of the other colors.

The bridles on the horses were mostly the Office @ Work metallic ink pens, with dots of gold, brass, and silver for the metal work. All of that was with the Office @ Work and Sharpie metallic ink markers. As with the metallic armor on the cataphracts, using these pens really made short work of this task.

Although it may sound funny, using a black pen to define the 'butt cheeks' of the horses really adds dimensionality to the figure. Simple to do, but strong effect. I went back and did it with my cataphracts.

As with the cataphracts, I really like these figures. Also I am still struggling with the plastic tile spacers (I have since determined that they probably have a mold release agent on them that makes gluing and painting problematic), the last versions of these used wooden dowels to pin the arms and legs in place. This is much more secure and stable than the dressing pins I used on the cataphracts.

I am putting the finishing touches on the other four horse archers, and starting to get into the core work of the infantry (four Auxilia elements and two Psiloi elements).

Armenian Cataphracts

2011-03-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well, my "12 elements in 12 days" experiment did not work out. Although I will probably end up finishing them in (about) 12 days, they won't be consecutive days. Gaming got in the way too many times. Considering that is what I am doing this for, maybe that is not so bad, but I did want to finish these quickly in order to show it could be done. Oh well.

The first two elements in the army are the cataphracts, one being the General. There was no way to fit four of these fat figures onto a 60mm frontage, so I had to settle for 1x3Kn(Gen) and 1x3Kn. (By the way these bases are temporary; my Litko Aero order has not arrived yet. These bases are 3" x 1 1/2", not the 60mm x 40mm required.) The base on the right - with the gold armor - is the General's base.

All of the rider's use the micro shaker peg, or heart peg, that I discussed in the last blog entry. By sanding down the head appropriately, I got a reasonable body size and head-to-body ratio. :^D The horses are standard (wren) split egg-and-spool design, but with the improvements of a flat head plug added for the neck and wood filler to fill in the gaps. I like it better than the previous design.

As you can see, I did not use anything for the tails other than paint. I started with some yarn, but it was not working out, so I need to experiment first. I can always come back to these later and add tails if I want. All of the tails are bobbed and the bits of color represent the ribbons used to tie them so that annoying infantry does not try to grab then when attempting to hamstring the horse.

Not only was this an experiment in making 28mm figures, in using this peg as the core, in changing the horse design, and to me using tile spacers for arms and legs, but this was a huge experiment in using paint markers and metallic ink pens. I painted the armor a base color in paint (either mustard yellow or light or dark gray) and then used metallic inks to paint on the dots, scales, plates, and bands. It made for a quick and easy method to represent the various sorts of armor. I rather like the effect, but I now know that some of the shine and color can rub off with handling, so you have to varnish these figures.

The horse archers are up next. Fun with tile spacers...

Stock of the Trade - Micro Shaker Peg

2011-03-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Shaker pegs are shaped wooden dowels that you usually see used for towel racks. The picture on the left, below, shows the various ones available from the American Woodcrafters Supply Company. The micro shaker peg is the one to the far right. In the picture on the right, below, is the micro shaker peg from Woodworks, Ltd., called a Heart Peg.

Note that the two pegs , from different companies, have a slightly different shape, with the American Woodcrafters' peg having a flatter head. These are the style that I found at Michael's Crafts. Unfortunately, simply ordering like named parts does not result in exactly the same parts. As I tend to buy a pack or two from Michael's in order to experiment, then purchase in bulk from Woodworks, this can sometimes throw me a curve ball as the techniques I develop for one no longer work with the other.

In this case, however, I found the Woodworks heart plug rather interesting. The peg is 1 1/8" tall, making it right for a slender 28mm figure. The head is 7/16" diameter and the tenon 1/4" diameter.

The figure to the right shows you how you can turn this into a basic figure. I usually add a small piece of craft stick to the bottom to represent feet, and to give the figure more height in the leg area.

To make a rider, simply cut off the tenon (leg area) and affix the peg straight to the horse figure. I find it easy to drill a hole in the bottom of the peg and into the horse figure, then use a small dowel to pin the two together. I'll show that in a later blog entry.

The real problem with this figure is the head. If you treat the rounded top of the figure as the top of the head, you get a figure with a head all out of proportion. That is a really big head. This is the area that has to be trimmed the most. Without any modification your figures all start looking like the Toad, from Mario Kart!

The figure to the right shows some of the ways I have modified the heart plug. The figure on the left is the original shape.

The center figure is a side view and the 'back' of the head is heavily sanded, as are the sides (which cannot be seen in this view), with the front sanded down on the top, to lessen the rounding. This produces a medieval knight's bascinet, or even a guy with a big nose (like a Mayan).

The figure on the right is what I typically do. I sand heavily on the front, to flatten out the 'face' area, and then either do the same on the sides and back, as shown in the figure, or slope the sides and back giving the shape of long hair. Also, by flattening the top of the head you can add a flat or round-headed plug for a hat or helmet.

As I am basing my 28mm DBA army on this core figure, I should be able to come up with some examples of variations soon. For now, back to painting!

What's Next

2011-03-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

Of late I have not been blogging much on any of the three blogs I run, as I am working feverishly on what I am calling "Scratch Build and Paint 12 DBA Elements in 12 Nights". Yes, that is right, I am building a 28mm ancients army to face off against a buddy's 28mm metal Seleucid army. I will have a fight between commercial metal figures and my homemade wooden warriors so I can post the pictures of what a "normal" army looks like in battle with our little beauties. It should be fun.

To try an swing things in my favor, I have selected an Armenian army, which contain 1xKn(Gen), 1xKn, 4xLH, 4xAx, and 2xPs. These are some of my favorite troops types (LH and Ax/Ps), and I tend to do well with them in my other games, so we will see how it all turns out.

No pictures yet (well, actually I do, but I am not releasing them in order to build anticipation - LOL), but the cavalry are basic spool-and-split egg construction with micro pegs for both the light horse archers and the cataphracts. The infantry will all be micro pegs, so the army will have a fair amount of consistency in look.

Also, I am making a lot of use of permanent metallic (ink) markers (not the paint markers). I have been very impressed with the Sharpie Silver Metallic marker and the @ the Office metallic markers from Wal-Mart. I really cannot recommend the two enough. Once you see the results, maybe that will be all the convincing you need.

So, that's the teaser. I am hoping to have the figures done this weekend - assuming not too many things get in the way (like gaming) - but if I finish early next week I will still be ahead of schedule.