Burkish Naval Infantry unit - Part 1

Today is rather exciting, I start my first FLW regiment. I am using two boxes of Armies in Plastic's Egyptians in Winter Dress (1882) to create my imaginary Burkish Naval Infantry. Having worked out my painting regime for these sorts of figures it should now be a pretty straight forward production line type of job. Well, except for two special figures I want to include in my unit that is.

One figure that isn't 'out the box' is the flag bearer, this character will have to be created by converting one of the other toy soldiers from the set. Additionally, there weren't quite enough standing riflemen to make up the unit I wanted - I have a preference for an all standing firing-line.

Luckily there are three figures in a particular pose that I am not keen on, the fending-off pose with rifle butt forward. I reckoned that these might be converted using the firing poses from the kneeling riflemen to create a couple of additional shooting infantry for my ranks. I would simply take the bottom half of the standing figure and mate it to the top half of the kneeling figure!

Proof of concept, the two halves of my chopped up soldiers stuck
together with some BluTac. But I like the pose!

Pretty simple as I say, but a good introduction to converting these soft plastic toy soldiers.

To be honest I was surprised how easy it was to cut through these figures, my sharp hobby knife slid through the plastic like the proverbial knife through butter! But joining the two haves together again did pose a bit of a problem, I mean what kind of glue is best and will the join hold?

I decided to use a internal brace, a piece of plastic inserted into a hole drilled in either half.

The resultant pose is quite dynamic, rather as if the soldier has just fired. Hiding the seam will be left to my old friend Milliput, the painting will do the rest!

In part 2 of this project I will be doing a little more complex conversion as I make the regiment's flag bearer.

Triples War Game Show 2013

Here's a slideshow of the snapshots I took at yesterday's visit to the Tripples War Game Show in Sheffield...



These reflect the stands that caught my interest, there was a lot lot more to see!

A big thank you goes to Mr Tim Gow and the other gents from the 10 Shot Rapid and Funny Little Wars stands. I thoroughly enjoyed myself but was absolutely pooped by mid-afternoon.

My first war games show AND my very first go at a war game when I had a quick round of 10 Rounds Rapid Fire...

A tense moment and the final turn in the game...The Hun was about to overrun my front line but when most needed I managed to roll some saving dice which halted their advance. Here I laid down some much needed machine-gun cover!

It's a funny little world...Turkish Delight!

I think there is a tendency to think of H.G. Wells' Funny Little Wars as a peculiarly British hobby, a sort of slightly eccentric war gaming for eccentric English gentlemen. I myself, only a recent newcomer to the hobby, supposed that the penetration of this garden and table-top war game was restricted to these sceptered isles.

Altar's Turkish modelling store - bazaare! ;)

But today I was interested to read a small mention of Funny Little Wars on a Turkish modelling blog. MiniAFV is run by a couple of Turkish modellers who specialise in Braille Scale military kits, but while reviewing a book written about the venerable T-26 tank they mentioned in passing that the Turkish publisher - Altar - had produced: "The first ever translation of H. G. Wells’ 1913 masterpiece Little Wars received a similar enthusiastic welcome from Turkish readers."

I find this particularly interesting as my very first project in this genre is based on Turkish infantry!

MiniAFV Blog: T-26 B tank model kit and history book (by Altar Model)

Burkish Naval Infantry - final uniform scheme

My poor long suffering Armies in Plastic Turkish infantryman has gone through several colour schemes while I tinker with the idea of a Burkish uniform. My latest modifications are the change from the contrasting colour of green to a vivid tangerine...

Additionally, I painted the base and gave my soldier a more middle-eastern complexion with a coat of Vallejo's Light Brown.

Obviously, after it's multiple repaints its getting a bit tatty now but I think I am happy with this scheme and so can get onto painting my very first FLW unit. But there is still one thing I haven't decided upon, just how to get that vintage glossy toy soldier look...

Which gloss?