"Has anyone tried these?" Topic

I have been tapped to put a demo game together for a local mini-con, a 54mm revolutionary war piece. Unfortunately, all I have in that scale is a few Britains boxed sets that are too few in number for what I need, and I really don't want to use them anyway, for obvious reasons.

So I spotted those bagged plastic sets they sell at hobby lobby and thought 'hey, those might work'. The detail seemed to be lacking a little, but at 7.99 for the big bags and 4.99 for the small the price is right for the numbers I'm going to need. I figured some creative painting and conversion work might cover up their most obvious flaws.

So I thought I'd ask if anyone else has tried them, or knew where I could find something similar on the cheap. I think I'll be trying H.G. Wells Little Wars rules for the game. Anybody?

I think Little Wars would be fun with those minis. Is the con you're referring to Recruits? I'm thinking of going, I live nearby.

I used those figures years ago. They aren't the best you can find, but they will do for what you want to do with them. I only painted up a single stand of them then converted to the Accurate figures.

These may be cheaper per figure.

tinyurl.com/yvkq5j

Give the All The Kings Men rules a try. They are made for the 54mm toy soldiers.

Hey, Andy! There are actually a few sources of 54mm AWI out there, in plastic and metal and affordable for wargaming. The bagged plastics that you describe are from BMC/Americana. They're *okay* as toys, but as you've discussed, they're rather crude. Painting helps some, but there are better available. Accurate/IMEX offers infantry and artillery. A Call to Arms offers infantry and lights. Armies in Plastic offers infantry, artillery and something resembling cavalry, but the headgear (tricornes) is all wrong.

Alte Fritz is kind to mention my own rules, available here. Just click on the righthand scroll on each page.

allthekingsmentoysoldiers.com

If you're interested, I also offer metal AWI figures in 54mm intended for wargaming (and inexpensively).

Thanks,

Ken Cliffe

Philliphall, I think those are the same ones actually, thanks for the link!

Mathias, I think so, but I'm not sure. This really isn't my gig, but a friend of mine who knows I have a thing for toy gaming (Which is deemed somewhat odd in the states) asked if I would do one and I agreed. If it is, I don't even know if he wants to do the fall show or the one they have in the spring. I'll ask him tomorrow and let you know.

Thanks Ken! I'll certainly give your rules a look, and I love your figs. I'm thinking about getting some for my birthday present to myself actually. But for this I'm going bottom dollar, both because i'll need to get started fairly quickly if he wants this for the fall show, and because there will probably be hordes of novices and gretchen handling these……

Ducky: I've seen those figures at Hobby Lobby and have resisted the temptation to buy the ACW sets. I'm really interested in using the buildings and wagons with 54mm cowboys. I would love to do some demos at conventions to show parents how easy it is to game with their younger kids.

My one suggestion is to base them with metal washers or something heavy so they won't topple over during the game.

Good grief! The fall show is less than a month from now! And he hasn't even checked into reserving a table for it! *&%$#^%@ Con virgins!

Snarfs. Well, I'll try it and see how it goes. If nothing else it'll be ready in plenty of time for the one in the spring! I'll put up some pictures regardless.

mmitchell, there are some wild west sets here with a pretty nice covered wagon in them. If you want one let me know and we'll work something out.

Duck--

I'm thinking of doing the exact same thing here in Ohio. I think the target audience will be kids from maybe 10-16 years old. I'm buying the Alamo figs from Hobby Lobby. Each kid will have 10-20 figs (unapinted and straight out of the bag), simple rules (no more than one side of a sheet of notebook paper, dice and a tape measure with the gaming group logo. Here's the cool thing--each kid will leave with a force of figures for both sides, the rules, dice and a tape measure. Everything they need to start playing small games! They can pick up more figs later at Hobby Lobby or the dollar store. If I can get some kids playing historical games with their own figs for less than twenty bucks, that is well worth my time and money.

If you want to paint them, here's what I do with plastic army men, to get them into combat, pronto:

1) Use the plastic's color, whenever possible, only apply craft paint to the non-plastic colored portions of the figures. Apply simple block painting, assembly line style, painting multiples of each pose, as quickly, and efficiently, as is possible.

2) After the simple block painting is applied, in the necessary colors, I put on a pair of disposable gloves, and paint on the Dip using disposable, school painting brushes (very inexpensive, usually 10 brushes for a dollar), using Royal Walnut color (the Tudor is only available through hardware stores, locally, and I still haven't found it, since the Royal Walnut is serviceable, and more readily available, anyway).

3) I then place the figures, on 3-4 layers of wax paper, on cookie sheets, and place this into my oven, set at its lowest temperature (170-F), for 20 minutes, with the door propped open to allow the fumes to escape, and the exhaust fan on high to vent them out of the kitchen.

4) When I take them out, they are fully cured, and ready for mounting, and a dull-coat. Mounting them on metal washers is a good idea, if you can get them cheap enough, in a large enough size. As an alternate, look into 2"-square ceramic tile pieces (if you can buy them in bulk). These will take paint, flocking, etc., if you want to go that far. To save time, just paint them green, and clear-coat with matte, as the final step, to dull the Dip coating. You will likely be able to turn them out, fully painted, mounted, and ready for combat, in a few hours. Cheers!

Alright, here we go. I bought nine bags of these guys for about fifty bucks. I got helped out by the fact that for some reason both types of bag were marked 4.99. Don't know if someone made a mistake or they decided to sell out of them, but I'm not going to complain!

I decided to go with the Empire of Liberty rules (sorry Ken) because they're super simple and free. I'll have to double all the measurements. So after sorting out all the miscasts, extra leaders, and wounded I've got enough for two British and two American battalions. This consists of ten bases of four figures each plus a commander on his own base. I've also got enough cannon for each battalion to have two guns.

Now the plan is to assembly paint all these somehow, then have four to eight people play in the battle. Afterwards we'll give each player half of a battalion (which can be two to ten stands in the game, though I will have to do four extra leaders), one gun, a copy of the rules, and a handful of D6.

I still have my doubts as to wether we'll be able to pull this off in time for the show, particularly as I have four HOTT armies and a citadel dwarf army I was planning to paint up for the silent auction. If not we'll bring it to the spring show. Again, I'll post some photos of our effort as soon as I've got something more than a giant pile of multi-colored plastic to show.

Check eBay for the BMC Yorktown set--I've seen them for as little as $5, which is a great deal: besides 4 colors of figures (British, Americans, French, Hessians), you get guns and 4 very nice gun emplacements, useful for many periods.

For Cold Wars I'm thinking about putting on the double-size scenario for the 2nd day at Gettysburg, using Battle Cry rules, BMC Civil War figures (for durability), and 4" hexes. My son and I will give the figures a very rudimentary paint job, then dip them as Sgt Slag advised above. I like 79thPA's idea of giving each kid a starter set. I did it years ago with so-so results, but maybe it's time to try again!

You know what? I started to paint these things, and I think it made them look worse! I'm serious. I'm not the best painter, but I like to think I do a decent job. Painting these just seems to bring out exactly how bad they are!!

I think we're going to make the deadline after all, because I'm just going to paint the Brits red and the Colonials blue. I'll put on a real toy game when I've got more time to prepare (The 12hr shifts at work aren't helping). I think that we can still hold a game the kids will enjoy, and they will still walk away with everything they need to play amongst themselves.

Keep us posted. I'd be very interested to learn how things went.

Will do. Got the game registered just now. For a peek at the show see:

link