Entry #12 to AHPC VIII: 1870s era Prussians in Demi Ronde

This week I decided to tap into my inner child and try my hand with some classic toy soldiers.

These 40mm beauties were sculpted, cast and cleaned (!) by my good friend John Bertolini. I always tease John, telling him that he's a Renaissance Man. Mr. Bertolini is a master timber-frame carpenter, enjoys the simplicity of manual labour, but also shares a  passion for food (his wife is a culinary writer), travel and history. He also has a great love of classic toy soldiers, especially those from late 19th and early 20th century Germany and Austria.  John participated in a past Challenge and you can see some of his wonderful work here.

As Greg has been entranced with all things Franco-Prussian lately so I decided to ask John if he could provide me with some suitable figures so I could riff on Greg's excellent work.

In toy soldier speak these figures are sculpted in the demi ronde style, meaning that they share elements of both classic two-dimensional figures and modern 'fully round', or three dimensional designs. I really find the style charming and always find myself smiling when I was working on them. When I was building-up the units I discovered that I needed some standard bearers and drummers. John, being his usual accommodating self, simply got out the greenstuff and balsa and made me a few on the fly - wonderful!  

A French drummer.

French standard bearer.

As to painting, I tried to go with the classic toy soldier style. So while there were areas where I couldn't resist to applying a modest highlight, I endeavoured to honour the figures and kept things fairly clean and minimalist. 

Same with the bases. No groundwork here, just a mottled effect with green paint to keep it nice, simple and toy soldier-like. The banner is from Warflag, with a bit of paint touchup.

The wonderful thing about working on these figures is how nicely they come together once they're all ranked up. I also love the sheer physical heft of them - with all this lead the bases have a substantial weight that just feels so wonderful in your hand. I don't know what it is, but the 'solidness' of the based elements really taps into my lizard brain - something that you can't find an equivalent with plastic figures.

As previously mentioned, John also provided me with a French battalion which I might take a whack at later. To be honest, what I'd really like to do is 1759 Plains of Abraham in this style as I think that it could be quite spectacular. John? Can you whip something up for me? C'mon, pretty please!

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Thanks for dropping in folks. Have a great week!

Entry #3 to the 9th Lead Painter's League - 'Goblins of 1979'

For my third entry to the Painters' League I decided to paint up a set of very old castings that I found in a dark corner of my Lead Shed.

These figures are 25mm Ral Partha Goblins and Great Goblins sculpted by the talented Tom Meier, circa 1979. Though perhaps fairly average sculpts by today's standards, one has to keep in mind that these models were produced over 35 years ago. 

I remember getting these as a youngster for our D&D campaign and being completely blown away by how dynamic and very characterful they were - there was really nothing like them on the market at the time and I think they still hold up rather well.

I was in a bit of a flap to get these done for the LPL deadline and frankly it shows. Nonetheless, I'm content with how they turned out.

I originally picked up quite a few of these in order to play Gary Gygax's 'Chainmail', a set of miniature rules which I remember to being impenetrable at the time, but that recollection may speak more to me being an inexperienced and impatient youth rather than to the rules themselves.

Thanks for joining me on my trip down memory lane - back when I had far less pocket money but much more hair!

Next up: Italian Wars!

From JohnB: 40mm 18th & 19th Century Old School Toy Soldiers (599 points)

From John:

Here is my last submission, other than the samurai, to the Painting Challenge. It is a bit of a dog's breakfast. Included are 36 1850 Russian foot and a mounted officer for my Great European War of 1850 project. 

Also from this project are a smattering of recent castings and trial paint jobs. There are some Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians and French...a total of 9 foot and 2 mounted. 

I also threw in 4 ACW figures for our host and most respectable and omnipotent judge. 

Lastly there are 34 semi-round figures from a master I sculpted for Steve Cady over at Castles of Tin (A fantastic blog...what a painter!). 

These are sort of a generic WSS in full skirted coats to provide opponents for the Holger Eriksson figures of Prince August. There not up to Eriksson standards, but they look OK painted up I guess. 

They are painted as the La Sarre Regiment (Later Royal Suedois) in French service. All these figures are in 42 mm scale and are painted in a toy soldier style with bright colors and gloss finishes. The bases are unflocked in keeping with the toy soldier esthetic. The figures are mounted on MDF bases painted green. 

Flags are homemade of paper and painted in a simplistic style. Not for everyone I know, but pleasantly, a good way to pass some time in the subartic. (It is St. Patty's day and this morning saw -26 C. The snow piles in front of my house are pushing 6 feet. AND 4 inches of snow are expected today...it is enough to make one read Dostoyevsky and drink oneself into a stupor. Welcome to Novo Sibirsk.)

This Challenge has been great fun to follow...to see the interests and talents of folks from all over the place. Many thanks to Curt for his enormous and always good-humored work. (He is such a witty devil...for a Scotsman...)

Oh, don't feel too much sympathy for John, while other Saskatchewan schmucks like myself have been buried under mountains of snow for months on end, he and his lovely wife have just returned from a vacation in the Caymans... Lucky git.

Beautiful work John! While I love all of these figures, I have to say that I'm quite partial to the La Sarre Regiment  with their smart long coats and yellow facings (and they fought the good fight on the Plains of Abraham). 

This wonderfully wide assortment of 40mm figures will give John a staggering but well-earned 599 points. This will also allow him to meet his Challenge target for this year - Bravo John!

From TimG: 54mm Tratvian Cavalry (180 points)

From Tim:

Recently emerged from the trackless Tratvian steppe is this Cossack Regiment.  These are 54mm Armies in Plastic figures painted in my usual 'toy soldier' style and topped off with two coats of floor varnish.  As the Tratvian Army will eventually include three such units, I was able to mix and match from several sets in order to have matching poses (of troopers and horses).  

This is the 2nd Regt, the 1st can be seen here.

The only light conversion work concerned the standard bearer whose sabre was replaced with a florist wire flag pole.

Very cool regiment Tim. They look like they could serve as the honour guard for Liberace!

Adjusted for basing these Tratvian horsemen will give Tim 180 points. Well done!

From JohnB: 40mm Old School Toy Soldiers - 1850s 'Great European War' (234 points)

Ok, here is a treat for you this New Years Eve. Another resident of Saskatchewan, actually a shifty import from Wisconsin, gives you a dose of Old School Toy Solder goodness. John, sculpts and casts his own soldiers (I sent one to my nephew for Christmas) which sort of puts him in a class of his own.

From John:

Here is my first entry into the Painting Challenge. 36 40mm foot and 1 mounted officer. 

These are my own 40mm sculpts and casts inspired by Holger Ericsson and Aly Morrison. They are painted in toy soldier style with simple bases and glossy finish. 

They are part of my Great European War of 1850 project. Submitted are the 3rd and 4th battalions of the Hoch und Deutschmeister Regiment (#3) and their beloved Oberst. (Has there ever been a beloved Oberst...is that even allowed in the German speaking world?) There are 36 foot and 1 mounted. 

My Russian and Austrian armies are almost complete and will be campaigning against each other this winter. 

At present I am casting Danes, Prussians, French, Bavarians and Saxons...and inspired by "Lincoln" and a reread of Shelby Foote, my first ACW infantry. I really enjoy this scale and style and period of figures...if only I could recruit some of my buddies....

While a fairly good sort for a Cheesehead, John is a bit of a whiner as we game with his stuff all the time (we even let him win once in a while).

The base points for these boys are 197, but since John does the sculpting and casting I'm going to add a point each, so 234. Not a bad debut, eh?

From TimG: 54mm Tratvian Infantry (200 points)

Tim sends along a battalion of Tratvian infantry in 54mm. For those inquiring minds 'Tratvia' was a fictitious state featured in the late 60s radio comedy series called 'The Embassy Lark'. 

From Tim:

Tratvian Militia Battalion.  Armies in Plastic 54mm figures (20 of 'em) from various sets including the Landwehr and Russian Militia boxes.

The Empire of Tratvia (as every schoolboy knows) is a huge country which straddles Europe and Asia. Among the countries it borders in the west are Forbodia, Vulgaria and Svenhasselstein. While economically somewhat backward in our period (1910-ish), the country is rich in natural resources and has vast reserves of (as yet mostly unpainted) manpower.

Very, very cool! You'll need to do a command stand featuring a rotund King Hildebrand III. 

These lads will give Tim 200 points to add to his tally.

A Christmas Gift for Max - 40mm French Fusilier, La Sarre Infantrie Regiment

My general dislike of children is legend to those who know me. The muted loathing I have of the little creatures is only exceeded by the dread certainty of what they'll become: teenagers (shudder). Not that I can claim innocence by any means. Quite the contrary; I'm sure I was a perfectly horrific child, even though my mother swears that angels tipped their halos in deference to me - I suspect otherwise. (Mothers are blessedly and  wonderfully myopic when it comes to memories of their own children.)

Anyway, there is an exception to every rule and the point is proven here in my nephew Max. Truth be told I've not spent a lot of time with Max (he and his parents live across the country from us), but in the time we've hung out he demonstrated to be a thoroughgoingly nice little chap: smart, clean, well behaved and yet suitably precocious.

A face even I can't deny.

Max is now 6 years old and I thought it high time he be introduced to the wonderful world of toy soldiers. We have to be clear now: This is not the plastic rubbish that passes for toy soldiers today, but the proper you-could-get-quite-ill-if-you-chewed-on-this toy soldiers made from nasty toxin-saturated, slag-heap lead. So with this in mind I turned to the great Old School models sculpted and cast by my friend John Bertolini.

Below is a figure from his 40mm Horse & Musket range (apologies for the slightly blurry shots - it was late). The sculpts are semi-round (or 'demi-ronde' for those anorak-wearing pedants out there) and have been purposefully designed to be generic in their uniform and kit. This way they can be easily adapted to fit pretty much any army of the period. I decided to paint this fellow as a fusilier of the La Sarre Infantrie regiment which saw hard service on Montcalm's right wing at the First Battle of Quebec (Plains of Abraham) in 1759. 

If he likes this fellow I'll follow up in the New Year with another eleven so he has a battalion. Just as insurance I'm also sending along a good stout Dwarf, as I suspect he'll have seen 'The Hobbit' by the 25th...

Max's birthday is in July so my thinking is that I'll keep sending him toy soldiers like this twice a year until he discovers cars, girls and becomes one of those vile teenagers that I shake my fist at. 

40mm Old School Great War Toy Soldiers by John B.

My good friend John came into town this week and joined us for supper and a game. In addition to his fine company John brought along some of his newly finished 40mm Great War figures which he had sculpted and cast recently. 

1914 German infantry in their distinctive pickelhaubes and red-piped tunics and trousers.

I absolutely love these guys. John describes them as 'demi-ronde' (semi-round) figures, being a nod to the German Bleisoldaten school of late 19th century toy soldiers. They are charming, whimsical, almost naive in their presentation, yet manage to capture the essence of the uniforms along with the martial spirit of the age.

I quite like their bushy moustaches and proud pigeon-shaped chests - such great character! If you want to see some more of John's fine work you can find samples of his Napoleonics here , his 18th century figures here and his Wars of Unification figures here.

John tells me he still has a few more figure variants he wants to produce for this range. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with and I'm seriously thinking of getting a schwack of these guys for future garden wargaming. Yep, I know, I need another project like a hole in the head...

'You do show a good leg, Old Boy.'

From JohnB: 30mm Old School Napoleonics Polish Battalion from the Vistula Legion (150 points)

My friend John sculpts and casts his own figures in the classic 'Toy Soldier' style. (TimB is a good friend of John as well and his sculpting shares the same spirit, I think.) These are very cool and characterful miniatures, that look fabulous ranked up in their battalions. John's collection is vast as its is varied, and it is always a treat when he brings them out for a game.

These are 30mm sculpts but John also works in 40mm and larger. John has a soft spot for the smaller Napoleonic nations/contingents as their uniforms were quite interesting (sometimes bordering on the bizarre).

From John:

'I thought I'd make a showing in the Analogue Hobbies' painting contest. Here are 18 of my homemade Napoleonics in Old School 30mm. It is the first of six battalions I am going to do of the Vistula Legion, 1st and 2nd Regiments circa 1812. I know there are some uniform inaccuracies, but my figures are sort of generic as you know. I am certain that these brave Poles will be Alexander's most implacable foes. Inform Sylvain... The second battalion is already in the works.

Vive La Pologne Libree!

Jan Sobieski Bertolini'

Brilliant stuff! These eighteen lads will give John a base of 108 points but I'm going to bring it up to 150 as they are his own sculpts. After the Vistula Legion, I believe John is wanting to do a Napoleonic Swiss brigade which will be great to see. Welcome aboard John!