Thursday, June 8, 2017

Some Updates from the Administrative Offices

My new Saracens arrived yesterday, but I was on my way out the door to go to rehearsal (I play rhythm guitar in a swing orchestra), and so had little time for more than a cursory examination and sadly, no pictures.

Some quick thoughts about the Supreme Saracen figures:

  • they are BIG. I mean, I knew they were billed as 60mm so I expected some difference. I was thinking it'd be comparable to my Toy Soliders of San Diego Germans vs Airfix Germans, but it's much more noticeable. The new Saracens will have to be on their own sabots. 
  • the silver/red/blue figures are kind of garish, but the gold/red/green figures look the part to my mind.
  • The horseback archers stand just fine as foot archers, and so no conversion necessary - just some blu-tac to hold them to the sabots.
  • A small (3 or so) figures are suitable as levies for Neil Thomas's OHW army lists.
  • The war camels are pretty cool but, fresh from the package, only about half of them could stand on a flat surface without toppling. I have no need for cavalry in my OHW Saracen army, so I expect to put them to use in my VSF game.

Speaking of the VSF project:
  • Armies in Plastic Highlanders have been primed with white gesso. After I primed them, the mold lines seemed omnipresent and, while I ordinarily try to avoid cleaning such things off of figures (I do a horrible job no matter which method I try), I couldn't let them go. I did my best to trim them away and then gave a second coat of gesso. Now if only I could figure out what color their coats are supposed to be!


  • Of course, a day later, the Britain's Seaforth Highlanders over which I drool regularly, were available on ebay for an astoundingly reasonable price, including the shipping. I am fighting with all my will to not make the purchase.
  • I have decided upon the AIP Northwestern Indians from the French & Indian War line to act as yellow martians.
  • Technolog orcs - if I can acquire them priced reasonably - would make nice green martians.

WW2 and Hook's Farm

Although I started wargaming largely because of a chance read through of Wells's Little Wars, I have never tried to play out the Battle of Hook's Farm. So, given the strength of my WW2 collection, I decided to update the period and give it a try.

I made a post about this over on Little Wars Revisited. The short of it is that I will probably randomize forces by letting dice determine what "3 guns" means for WW2 forces.


My son's clone troopers man a very badly damaged PAK-40. The victim of a crushing blow from a giant's foot. These are the hazards of letting children play with your toys.

2 comments:

  1. No mounted Saracens?!!? Oh well, your army, your choice!

    I'd go for khaki for the Highlanders since it was worn in the Sudan, India/Afghanistan and South Africa.

    The grey was only for one campaign in the Sudan. Red saw slightly more action that grey but again only in Egypt and the Sudan.

    (ps I rather like the Clone troopers)

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  2. Hi Ross,

    Oops, I phrased that poorly - the Saracens already have 4 bases of horse-mounted cavalry thanks to the collection I acquired from you! Which is, for at least OHW scenarios, plenty.

    Thank you for the color suggestion - I have done sadly little research into Highlander uniforms across the time period VSF usually covers. Khaki does make a good bit of practical sense, not to mention the Seaforth Highlander figures I am keeping an eye on are khaki as well, thus providing justification for their acquisition to expand my current forces!

    I too like his Clone troopers and am quietly biding my time for the day he decides he's "too old" to play with Legos. He's five, so I probably have a bit of a wait.

    Cheers!

    -John

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