Warriors Brave: A Toy Soldier Christmas Tale - Part 3

The last two weeks, I presented the first two parts of one of my favorite Christmas books I have in my collection. It is a vintage children's story about toy soldiers coming to life on Christmas Eve.  Though there is no publication date, it is inscribed on the title page, "Roger Hill 1926". One of my blog readers researched a little further, and found the publication date to probably be closer to 1910.  It is a small volume, measuring only 5" x 4.5".
  It is interesting to note that the artist had some knowledge of the toy soldiers he drew, as many of the poses pictured are very similar to a variety of semi-round lead soldiers that were available at the time. These were often cast by small manufacturers, or Mom & Pop dime store owners, from commercially available German molds, and sold individually or in boxed sets.
    I am ran the story in three parts, with the first part two weeks ago, the second part last week, and the third part today.
You can find the first part here: Warriors Brave: Part 1
And the second part here: Warriors Brave: Part 2
So, on with the the final installment of the "Warriors Brave".  When we left off, the Indians had launched a brazen attack on the "Blue Coats," only to be beaten back by heavy rifle fire, and retreated back towards their camp in Part 1. After regrouping, in Part 2 a pair of Braves went in search of provisions and supplies, to keep the Indians warm in their camp, when the two Braves happened upon some "Bluecoats" and their limber...
(You can click any photo to view it larger.)

      And so concludes our exciting tale of the "Warriors Brave".  I hope you enjoyed it.  Also, I'd like to say, "Merry Christmas!" to all my readers out there in blog-land! I hope you have a happy and safe holiday season.

Warriors Brave: A Toy Soldier Christmas Tale - Part 2

Last week, I presented the first part of one of my favorite Christmas books I have in my collection. It is this vintage childrens' story about toy soldiers coming to life on Christmas Eve.  Though there is no publication date, it is inscribed on the title page, "Roger Hill 1926". One of my blog readers researched a little further, and found the publication date to probably be closer to 1910.  It is a small volume, measuring only 5" x 4.5".
  It is interesting to note that the artist had some knowledge of the toy soldiers he drew, as many of the poses pictured are very similar to a variety of semi-round lead soldiers that were available at the time. These were often cast by small manufacturers, or Mom & Pop dime store owners, from commercially available German molds, and sold individually or in boxed sets.
    I am running the story in three parts, with the first part last week, and the second part today.  The third, and final, part will be next Tuesday.
You can find the first part here: Warriors Brave: Part 1
So, on with the the second part of the Warriors Brave.  When we left off, the Indians had launched a brazen attack on the "Blue Coats," only to be beaten back by heavy rifle fire, and retreated back towards their camp...
(You can click any photo to view it larger.)

Tune in next week, to see why the "Blue Coats are loading marbles into their limber...
Part 3 can be found here: Warriors Brave: Part 3

Finny's Fish Flingers: Penguin Christmas Wars Unit

While in a local Game Store a few weeks ago I spotted this game, called "Hey, That's My Fish!", set up on the demo table. I was immediately taken with the neat plastic penguin figures included with it, and thought how well sized they looked to go with 25mm figures. The game comes with 16 plastic penguins.  I bought a copy, and started pondering how to use them in my Christmas Wars collection, and came up with the idea, based on the poses, to create a unit of fish-hurling penguins.  Thus, Finny's Fish Flingers was born.

  I set about putting a unit together.  First, I modified two of them, one to hold a sword to represent the commander, and one to hold a flag staff made from a paper clip to be the standard bearer.  I glued the figures to 1" fender washers, and sprayed them with flat black spray-paint.  Using the picture on the game box cover as a guide, I painted up a unit of 10 for use in my Christmas-themed GASLIGHT games. And here's the results:

  I hope to use these in a game this New Year's Eve at the annual HAWKS holiday get-together.

Warriors Brave: A Toy Soldier Christmas Tale - Part 1

One of my favorite Christmas books I have in my collection is this vintage childrens' story about toy soldiers coming to life on Christmas Eve.  Though there is no publication date, it is inscribed on the title page, "Roger Hill 1926".  It is a small volume, measuring only 5" x 4.5".
  It is interesting to note that the artist had some knowledge of the toy soldiers he drew, as many of the poses pictured are very similar to a variety of semi-round lead soldiers that were available at the time. These were often cast by small manufacturers, or Mom & Pop dime store owners, from commercially available German molds, and sold individually or in boxed sets.
    I will run the story in three parts, with the first part today, and the next two over the following two weeks.
So, on with the tale of the Warriors Brave:
(You can click any photo to view it larger.)

Tune in next week, for the continuing adventure...
Part 2 can be found here: Warriors Brave; Part 2
Part 3 can be found here: Warriors Brave: Part 3

Quick and Easy Target X-mas Ornament Storage Tanks for 6/10/15mm Sci-Fi

Last week, when I was at Target shopping, I noticed these small plastic faceted ornaments in a tube for $1 in the bargain section they have at the front of most Target stores.  I thought they would have a number of gaming uses, the easiest and quickest of which would be as some sort of storage tanks. I think they would work for 6mm, 10mm, or 15mm.  I imagine they would also make fine smaller tanks for the larger scales.

The plastic caps pull off easily. The necks however need to be filed flat a little.

To experiment, I glued four of them to a cut down plastic card.

I then sprayed them black.

I then sprayed drybrushed them with a couple shades of tan, and applied some decals to complete the effect.

Shown with some 10mm figures.

I think these turned out well.  One thing I noticed after I completed this project, is that not all the ornament necks are the same length.  So in the future I would be more careful about matching them up to be the same height.