"test models for the army of Peasemoldia" Topic

Although I know almost nothing at all, yet, about the period, I've been fascinated by the whole idea of SYW era Imagi-Nations in the old-school style, so I bought a few Spencer Smith figs and have started giving it a go. I'm going for a very simple, bold, toylike painting style; no shading or highlights, no flock, lots of bright colours and gloss varnish. The idea is to get together two forces as described in Charge!'s Action at Blasthof Bridge. I'm also hoping to have enough to play Osprey's Honours of War when it comes out in November. Better get painting!

I salute you, sir! Fantastic job. I have been tempted to start a Spencer Smith Imaginations project myself, in all of its full gloss glory.

Thanks! I can thoroughly recommend giving it a go, 79thPA. It's so quick and easy to get a satisfying look, and the minis are cheap as anything (though I'm sure shipping to the US makes them substantially less so). The whole ethos is very liberating- including with the terrain etc. No need to spend hours and hours making everything look realistic- just cut some bits of felt out and away you go.

Peasemoldia! How "Round The Horne" of you:

Other characters included J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock (Williams), the world's dirtiest dirty old man (who wanted, above all else, to get his hands on Judith Chalmers). He was also the self-styled king (later dictator) of Peasemoldia (from episode 10 of the first series), a small slum area in north London just off the Balls Pond Road, together with his wife Buttercup (Marsden), whose catch phrase was "Hello cheeky-face!" in a rough voice.

:-)

--
Martin Stephenson
The Waving Flag | Twitter | eBay

Hemm! Now you have me thinking, I cherish my 2. Volume (English)slightly battered 'Lace Wars' F&L Funken books among others in this period and think I must do at least one Imag-Nation force in my lifetime, like the idea of doing it toy soldier style too.
Cheers and thanks for the charming naivety to your army's look, a nice idea

Have a look at my Spencer Smiths, ACW but still 'old school'.

link

I may also have some goodies for you.

Thaanks all!

Vexillia: You've rumbled my lack of originality! Well spotted!

Jim: Lovely, inspiring stuff! Sounds intriguing…

Was listening to Round The Horne on R4extra only this morning and it covered the bit where Gruntfuttock went to Westminster to get Peasemouldia its own nuclear detterent, but the bloke on the horse said no!

@Joe

Contact me via my blog and we can continue our conversation.

Jim

@Jim

I clicked a link on your blog Jim which took me to your Google+ page where I left a message in 'hangouts', whatever that may be! Google assures me you'll see the message later, but if not let me know!

@Joe

Check your email.

Jim

Dear Joe

Very very nice indeed.

I have a lot of them, but back then they were S.A.E's Are these plastic or metal?

@Jim- received and replied- many thanks indeed!

@OSchmidt- these are brand new metal ones, fresh from the moulds! I understand the going rate for the old plastic ones is rathe rmore than the 55 pence per figure Peter at Spencer Smith charges!

I understand that the original Spencer Smith plastic figures can be a bit fragile especially around the lower limbs (just like myself).

I know of a few guys who have them and still use them albeit a bit carefully.

I also have an old chum who thought he still had loads of them still in their original plastic bags somewhere. I wonder if he ever found them?

I really only know about Spencer Smiths at all from Henry Hyde talking about them on View From the Veranda- he mentions that they used to be 80 pence for a big bag in the 70s, but that in some cases where models have survived, the plastic has sometimes started to perish.

Some older comments here:

TMP link

Mentioned in despatches here:

link

Dear Joe

Yes I see that, I simply mean't I had a lot of Old SAE's. I know they're your new ones. I am going to be retro-filling out the collection of SAE's I have with these new ones one of these days soon.

They are excellent figures.

I have a huge collection of Stadden and Surens (Willie) figures which are 30 to 32mm and somewhat larger. Yet I find that when in a unit you cannot see the size differential at all, even when the units are side by side. Years ago I came into possession of a large collection of S.A.E's from a good friend who passed on. The old gent had lost heart years before when he was a teacher at a high school and he had a wargame club for his students. One day the locker that he had them in was broken into and many stolen and vandalized. He lost heart, as I said, and gave me his fragments (that were considerable in numbers) left and I have held them ever since. I recently started getting them together and "putting them in a more military manner" and will be looking for the Spencer Smith to fill them out.

I really like the look of them, reminds me of my old lead soldier collection. What type of varnish did you use?..I´ve tried getting that finish but it´s never worked as well as the one you´ve achieved.

@Jim. Great blog. The metal "key ring" cannons
link
I´ve got a couple of those as well..and they can be made to fire..I used a couple of match heads for gunpowder.

@Jim- excellent- thanks for the links Jim! Lovely stuff.

@Otto sounds like a very interesting project. I have some of the new Spencer Smith Normans, which I love and have a very lovely toylike charm- those are supplied with Stadden horses, and they're a very nice chunky size- even to the point that ranking them up on 25x50mm bases can be a challenge. I'm afraid I must confess ignorance- what are SAEs? Stamped Adressed Envelope doesn't seem to fit!

@Paul- thanks! The varnish is Humbrol GlossCote. No idea if it's the best. It's certainly not the cheapest! Just what the model shop had in stock.

@Joe

You will find the SAE answer in here:

toysoldier.freeuk.com

@Paul et al

I use Ronseal Yacht Varnish. It is the toughest gloss varnish on the market i.e. designed for extreme outside use. It is a 'spirit' varnish so needs at least 12 hours to dry and white spirit to clean your brushes.

@Jim- ah! Many thanks!

also @Paul et al- I can recommend these brushes for varnishing (just the small ones- ignore the big ones, unless you have young kids)

link

they're very cheap, but being plastic, they don't seem to shed at all, and they work out at 20p each delivered, meaning that you can afford to bin them after use. Not hugely environmentally friendly I know, but a great deal easier than cleaning with spirits.

Also, I've started a blog for my Peasemoldians if you like that sort of thing
peasemoldia.blogspot.co.uk

Dear John

S.A.E. is the acronym for Swedish African Engineers which made from the 1950's to 1970's a line of 30mm full round miniatures, produced in South Africa. They were the Holger Erickson Originals, which were first made in Sweden. That's where the acronym comes from.

They were fairly crude and primitive with only general detail, about on a par with what you show in the pcitures, but in that time period they were, besides those from Jack Scruby, Command Post, and Surens and Staddens just about it for war game figures.

They were mass produced and painted and sold in boxes of from six (cavalry) to sixteen infantry with officers, musicians, standard bearers etc., and were fully painted. The sculpting was not great, primitive by today's standards and the painting was pretty much worse than that, but you could take them right from store to table and though many of us went on to other things, they have a charm and allure that remain to this day.

Otto

Thanks for the tips Jim and Joe
I like the flag designs Joe. Maybe you could use both..one for mounted troops, the other for infantry.

What a wonderful project, Joe! I shall be following your progress closely, as I have something similar in mind for my stash of Minden Miniatures, as and when…

Like the party-coloured flag pattern very much. In best 18th C. practice, you could perhaps use a black and white one as the colonel's colour for all units, and have regimental colours where the white is replaced by the regimental facing colour?

Also, for that baroque look, how about rendering the red circle as a wreath (just google "laurel wreath free"), and/or the P in flowing script as a monogram?

link

@Otto Thanks!Fascinating stuff. After Googling some SAE stuff. it looks very appealing. I have certainly heard of Holger Erickson, if only through the Spencer Smith website.

@Paul Thanks! Good idea. I haven't decided how much to vary colours between regiments, but this ay be a solution.

@Musketier
Excellent ideas! I like the black and white for the colonel, and other colours for each regiment very much! I was wondering how much detail and historical flavour to give the flag. I'm trying, where possible, to err on the side of simplicity, as well as a kind of Trumptonshire-esque toylike look to everything.

I must confess that the organisation of 18th century armies, and the business of who's carrying what flag when, who stands where, etc. is a closed book to me. I have just started to read a little on the topic, but I'm still at the stage where the more I read, the less clear things become! I suppose one appeal of Imagi-Nations is that you can rewrite these rules to your own needs, but I would like to get more of a handle on what common practice was. It seems that the really good texts on the topic are either hugely long, hugely expensive, or in most cases, both. As a self-employed person with young children, 90% of my reading is done via audiobook, and there are notably few works on 18th Century military organisation in the Audible catalogue!

Joe, in your Imagi-Nation you can set the standards as you think appropriate but you can make some of them 'authentic'.

Generally speaking a Colonels colour was very often white or white dominated. A Regimental colour was often the regiments facing colour. There may or may not be a similarity in their layout.

It's a wargaming convention that a colour party is front and centre when in line and at the column head when marching. Arrange your figures accordingly.

The right of a line is considered an 'elite' or 'senior' position regardless of the tactical situation.

A regimental Colonel will often ignore the 'rules' according to his taste and his pocket.

Whatever you do enjoy yourself, it is YOUR Imagi-Nation.

Excellent advice Jim! Just what I needed, thanks.

In my Imagi-Nation Armies there are whole tomes of regulation on colors (what the Infantry carries) and Standards (what the cavalry carries.

In Saxe Burlap und Schhleswig Beerstein to take one example, all Infantry Regiments have two colors. Onc is the Princess's color which is white with a very ornate portrait of the princess inside a wreath or roundel with monograms in the corners etc. This color is the same for every regiment in the army. This signifies that it is a permanent regiment. Each infantry regiment also has a colonels color which is in the regimental facing color, but again has a center roundel similar to the Princess color which also has a "portrait" of the Princess in it, but here the princess is always in differetnt costume, and the portrait iself may be different reflecting when the regiment was raised and the appearance of the Princess at that point. The roundel is also spangled with tokens and arms reflective of the region that the regiment comes from.

Oh by the way the coat color is pink.

For example, Infantry Regiment 1, Schleswig Beerstein is white, (white facings) and the Roundel is the same as that on the Princess' color.

Infantry Regiment 2 is the Regiment Von Riseundshine and is red. This color is drawn from the Old "Calvinist International" of the previous century and has a hammer and cicle on the roundel, with a wreath of red roses, and a bible in the upper right hand corner. The princess is in a red down, but instead of the tricorne and the three charictaristic red berets or hair pins there is the fur ustanka set at a rakish angle. The motto of the Regiment is "Give me the Man who wants to make his Marx in the world."

Regiment #3 has orange Facings. and a roundel with on one side, shows a full figure of the Princess in armor holding a sword and the Teddy Bear of the Order of the Teddy Bear (the equivalent of the Iron Cross or Order of Maria Theresa in Saxe Burlap und Schleswig Beerstein. The other side has the same, but in the roundel the Princess is seen fromt he back, nude. The motto is "The Princes leads, we follow."

Regiment #6 has dark blue facings. The Princess in the roundel is posing as a mermaid. This is the Floatzam und Jetzam Regiment, the Princessly Marines Regiment. The regimental motto is "They may get mygoat but they'll never get my tail." The Roundel here is a golden scallop shell.

Regiment #7 is the Trunz and Taxis Regiment, from the same rebgions of Germany. It has yellow facings and the princess appears in the roundel with yellow roses intertwined in her long braid of blonde hair. The regimental Motto is "The Yellow Rose of Taxis is the only girl for me."

Regiment #8 The Hesse-Hyjynx Regiment. facings are black and the Princess appears with a chessboard behind her, and she in costume as a chess queen. The arms are from an early episode in the Princessipate where the nobles of the kingdom were all conspiring to see who would marry her and become the ruler. The regimental motto is "I'll chose who does the mating around here."

Regiment #9 is the Hesse Herbox Regiment. This is raised by subscription from the guild of Dairy Farmers in the state. It's facings are light blue with cows, milk cans, cookies, and so forth around on the roundel. The Princess' portrait here is of a milk- maid with umm,. very large endowments. she's holding a glass of milk and the motto is "God Milk?"

Those regiments NOT on the regular establishment, which are the light infantry regiments, the various bands of SCUM (skirmishing light infantry and others have only a single standard, the colonels color and are not allowed the Roundel. These become even more riotous in design and mottos. One of them is the Jung MacDonald Regiment, wich is a field of beer bottles, recalling the marching song "Ninety Nine Bottles of beer on the wall.." The Alt MacDonald's Regiment has six roundels one with a cow, a duck, a dog, and so forth all reminiscent of his marching song. The Militia regiments are on the same scheme, such as the Don Hohundluau Regiment, the House and Garden Regiment, and so forth.

The Cavalry Stadards are almost all in the "vexillium" style, short pole with a hanging banner on a cross pole. These would be the Von Knyppentuck Cuirassiers, the Rottingham Horse, the Schitzundgrinns horse, the Reiters of Roitan, Lord Blackenbloo's horse, Lorde Doneforeit's horse, Lord Beaverhunt's horse, Lord Flatbroke's horse and so forth.

Ah tis a wonderful world you have embarked upon.

One of the regiments I am just finishing has pale grey facings and the princess roundel has a rebel flag behind it and she's in a kepi. This is the Royal Anachronism regiment.

The Motto is "Oh wah Mistuh Butlah! All this talk of Wah is so Depressing!"

Welcome to the Dark Side, Joe! If you can't find what you need in audio, feel free to PM me with queries:
armchairgeneral (at) hotmail (dot) com

@Joe

You will see by now that Otto has a great sense of humour (much applauded) and is a bit of a character.

He's a 'good' guy too.

@Otto something tells me you've given this some thought! An inspiring level of detail, and a good read!

@Musketier- many thanks- I may well do just that.