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.

HAWKs Launch Second 2015 Armies For Kids Project.

This past Saturday, members of the HAWKs (Harford Area Weekly Kreigspielers) got together to work on painting a second Armies for Kids project for next year's Historicon.  The club had already decided to do a 40mm American Civil War project for Historicon 2015 based on generous donations from Maynard Creel, Ed Mohrmann, and Phil Kearnan.  And, since the ACW project was so far along, the club decided to start another quick and easy project based on a large box of assorted WWII plastic 1/72 infantry that had also been donated by Ed Mohrmann.

     Hawks members Buck Surdu and Duncan Adams had spray primed the over 1500 plastic WWII figures with either khaki for Allies, or grey for Germans, and mounted them on sticks in preparation for Saturday's painting bee.   And for a few hours that morning we sat around and gave basic paint jobs to about 750, mainly American, Allied infantry.   After a late midday lunch break, with sore backs and cramped hands, the painters broke out the Red Dragon Inn game and played that to unwind.

The plan now is to get together another time after the holidays to paint the German half of the project.  There were some support weapons included in the lot of figures, but what we'd really like is if someone could donated some 1/72 tanks, so each kid could get a tank with each army.  So, if anyone has some old tanks they no longer want, please let  us know.

Even Edward the cat wanted to help.

But , alas, was defeated by his lack of opposable thumbs.

HAWKs GM For Army SLPD Event

    This past Thursday, a group of Gamemasters from the HAWKs (Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers) took part in an Army Senior Leader Professional Development session by running six historical wargames.
    The set up for this event, organized by Sam Fuson,  was to run battles from six different eras in history using the same battlefield and the same order of battle (adjusted for historical differences in army compositions) and to see how differing technologies impacted the decision making of the commanders, strategies used,  and the outcomes of the battles.  Some of the goals of the event were team building, leadership training, decision making, and reinforcing the principles of battle.

This the battlefield and troops deployment that was used for all six battles.

     I ran a battle set during the War of the Roses in the Medieval Period, Dave Wood ran a Napoleonic version, Eric Schlegel and Ed Duffy ran a battle set in American Civil War, Duncan Adams did a WWI setting, Same Fuson and Geoff Graff co-hosted the WWII table, and Kurt Schlegel GM'd the table with a version of the battle set in the Arab- Israeli War of '73. Buck Surdu acted as lead Gamemaster for the event, and rotated from table to table to observe the games so he could conduct a group discussion afterwards.  All the tabletop battlefields and armies were based on the terrain and armies of the actual battle of Quatre Bras from the Napoleonic period.

Lancastrian commanders debate their next move, in my game set during the War -of the Roses

Yorkist forces sweep up over a small rise on the Lancastrian left, and capture their first, and only, objective flag of the game.

     The participants: more than 60 Army officers, NCOs and senior civilian staff, where divided up and each assigned to a table, with a senior officer and civilian taking the command of  each side in the battle, and others acting as their sub-commanders.   Four identical objective locations were marked on each of the tables with small flags,  The objectives started in control of the defenders, and it was the attackers' job to try and capture them. A fifth victory objective of eliminating more stands of enemy troops than you lost was also set.

Dave Wood, (in blue shirt), explains a rule to one of the participants at the Napoleonic table

     The rules used for the games were all from the "Look, Sarge, No Charts" series of rules sets, including: "Bear Yourselves Valiantly"(Ancients & Medieval version), Fate of Battle (Napoleonic Version), A Union So Tested (ACW version) and "Look, Sarge, No Charts;WW (WWII version).  The WWI game used a modified combination of the ACW and WWII sets, and the Arab-Israeli War both used modified versions of the WWII set.  The figures used were either 10mm or 6mm and were from the collections of the gamemasters.

Eric Schlegel, (in hat), and Ed Duffy, (in dark sweater), help players conduct an attack during the ACW game.

     For many of the participants this was their first exposure to historical miniatures wargaming, yet most were able to quickly pick up the concepts and rules, and after a few turns were fully engrossed in the games and the command of their units.  There was lots of friendly trash-talk among the participants, as well as table-wide cheers and groans as fortunes rose and fell.

Duncan Adams, ( holding tape measure), measures the range for an artillery barrage during the WWI engagement.

     Everyone had a good time, including us, the gamemasters.  This is an event that I have taken part in now for 5 years, and seventh such events, and it is always a blast.  Thanks to Sam's efforts it is always well run, and the participants are always enthusiastic.

Same Fusion, (standing at the end of the table), advises a player in the WWII game.

      At 1430 hours, Buck called the time for the games to end.  The participants gathered in the center of the room and Buck led an after-action discussion.  Commanders were questioned about their mission goals and how well their objectives were met; obstacles that arose and insights that were gained.  The similarities and differences of command in the different eras were also looked at.

Kurt Schlegel, (in yellow shirt), helps players conduct fire during the Arab-Israeli War game. 

    The HAWKs are already looking forward to our next chance to take part in another of these events.

Buck Surdu, (in blue shirt),conducts his after-action discussion after the games' conclusion.

For another report on this event, see Buck Surdu's Blog.