"Hair curler armies revisited" Topic

Hi guys . I spent a while this week cleaning and dusting my now ancient and somewhat battle-worn armies of hair curler forces. Some friends showed quite a bit of interest in what I was doing so i decided to add a page to my blog describing what exactly they are , how I made them and what the finished items look like. I have completed the main page and in the next few days add detailed looks at some of the troops. You can find the article here.
link
here is a taster

That is ingenious.

They look very nice – at a (not very great) distance I doubt I'd even notice they weren't metal 6mm castings.

Really really clever and well executed!

I remember an article in Wargames Illustrated on this subject many years ago. Very clever and they look great!

I remember the article and never could find any suitably shaped hair curlers here in the US at the time, must have been a British design thing.

I too remember reading about them years ago.
Good to see them still fighting.

Looking good. Put me in mind of Larry Brom's doormat
armies of the mid 70's – early 80's.

@Hal Thinglum that article by Andy Callan is what inspired most people . I actually got my inspiration from a simple letter a young schoolboy Andy Callan sent to Doug Featherstone for " wargamers newsletter" I wonder how many gamers remember that magazine? I believe it was edited in the States by jack Scruby

@miniMo The problem was by the early 80's technology in hair curling had moved on and the rollers were replaced by wierd and wonderful designs for curling hair. They were barely available in the UK in 1982 when I built these and my wife still remembers hunting pharmacists for various makes of curlers while shop assistants looked on amazed as she measured the lengths of the pins. Thanks to her efforts i accumulated two large bagfulls of rollers which kept me supplied for years after I moved to Spain in 1984. hahah I bet you guys never imagined this conversation when you took a look here

@curlerman: Andy Callan revealed the hair roller armies at a Wargames Developments COW in the early 80s.

I remeber the Wargamers Newsletter, eddited by Doug's more famous brother, Don. I still have them from March 1974 – to Dec 79 when it finished.

Jack Scruby edited the Wargamers Digest, I think, which predated WGN.

@trebian I actually took part in those games at Cow oh dear where did doug come from? Guess I'm getting old heheh

@trebian My memory is not what it once was but didn't featherstone and scruby joint publish one of those two magazines? My own collection is somewhat earlier the letter from Andy callan dates from his schooldays and precedes his Cow presentation by several years I think. I still think he is one of the hobbies top innovators.

Talking of the newsletter it was an article by Don Houghton called "I'm worried about the inniskillens" I think in 1972 that truly inspired me as a wargamer. I have a copy of it somewhere on my blog.

Any further details on the Larry Brom doormat armies? Haircurlers come up every year or so, but that's a new one for me.

My god! I remember that game at COW…..how many years ago???

@cazador It was the second CoW. 1981? long time can't remember exactly

I'd love to make some more hair-roller troops, but I have been unable to find the right kind of hair-roller for a long time now.

@kaptain kobold I searched the web for a long while but couldn't find a source. technology in hair curling it seems has moved on. That's the main reason I started using the 6mm laser cut MDF figures from commission figurines

No Reserve, the doormat armies were Larry Brom's idea
to allow HUGE battles, especially Napoleonics, to be
played in a reasonably sized area.

Basically, a regular rubber doormat, the sort with rubber
pips sticking up all over it, was cut into formations
as follows: 2 pips x 4 pips was an infantry regiment.
A 2x2 pip array was a battery while a 2x3 array was a
cavalry regiment.

Spray paint with a coat of a nation's national color
(Fr – blue, Russian – green, etc.) and paint some units
pip tops with a different color or color combination
to designate elites (lights, Guard, etc.)

Hey, presto ! You're done. Monopoly houses did great
for towns, pipecleaners for fencing, etc. The rules
were very simple but definitely gave the flavor of
the period.

Larry created doormat armies (and rules) for Napoleonics,
the ACW and the FPW.

Standing off at a few feet, a table with doormat armies
could give one the feeling that he was standing on a
hill watching the forces about to clash.