Firing Pose

The one comment that could have been construed as slightly negative about my wooden warriors was "why are they not in firing poses when it is a skirmish game?" Well, actually there are a number of answers for that, but I interpreted the basic question as "why don't you have any figures in a firing pose?"

Why indeed! Well, the short answer is that I could never come up with a pose that felt right. I had tried several things, like: other materials (rejected because I wanted to use the same materials for all figures, and for arms that is craft sticks); two-part arms (rejected because of too much cutting and gluing and the poor fit was hard to cover up); and cover-up (rejected because it was obvious I was using paper to cover the gaps).

So, tonight I decided to tackle the problem once again. The basic problem is that the right arm is bent in a "V", thus shortening the arm, while the left arm is extended out, lengthening the arm. Further, the left hand cradles the musket stock, so it should be horizontal to the body, but the army itself should be vertical; not possible with a one-piece craft stick. Finally, the left leg should be forward while right leg stays aligned with the body. This makes the feet form an "L" shape.

To start, I have taken a flat toothpick and measured out 2", as that is the length of my muskets with bayonets affixed for a 42mm figure. I've also marked off 5/8" on a craft stick (both of the rounded ends), as this is the standard length for the figures' arms.

I want the musket butt to be close up to the head, past the cheek, so I cut a notch out so the flat toothpick would seat properly and have some contact surface for the glue. I've drawn a red rectangle to highlight the area I am referring to.

Remember that in this period, especially with muskets, the men "leveled" them rather than aimed. So I am not worried about putting the eye over the sight. You can easily do that, however, by adjusting where you paint the eyes and other facial features.

Also note that the notch is on the front side of the figure (on the right), not on the side. I have decided that the figure will fire twisting to the left. (This will become more apparent in later photographs).

With the notch made you can glue in the toothpick. Keep the musket relatively level.

A shot from above with the figure standing up. This shows you the angle with relation to the feet position.

I took the arm and slightly rounded the bottom, representing the bent elbow. The upper part was rounded more aggressively so the musket butt is visible. Is this anatomically correct? No, but it conveys a sense of a bent arm.

Here I've attached the left arm. Essentially the should is glued where it would normally, maybe slightly forward. Rather than cradling the musket I simply let the fingertips touch it. Again, not anatomically correct, but I think painted up it will look okay.

I've drawn in black lines to represent the centerline of the face vertically (the nose line) and horizontally (the eye line). This gives you a better sense of which direction the face is facing versus the body, hips, and feet.

More black lines on the body showing the hip line and the gap between the legs.

The firing pose from the side.

I could have used my old method for making feet and had the left facing forward, aligned with the line of firing. That is a trade-off everyone has to think about. Using the old method allows me to have each foot face in a separate direction, giving a more realistic (anatomically correct) pose, but at the expense of time and effort. Using the new method, with a heart shape, saves time, but looks less correct. Personally, I have no problem with the above figure.

Please let me know what you think of this method, either here in comments on on the Wargaming on a Budget forum.

MAG-Con II - First Game with Napoleonic Wooden Warriors

I decided to use the rules Song of Drums and Shakos (SDS), which are simple to teach, but give the player tactical choices to make, so it not simply a die-rolling contest. (It is, however, more susceptible to luck than the average game.)

The Scenario


The British have sent a small patrol forward, consisting of six British line infantry and one King's German Legion Light Dragoon, to patrol down the road looking to clear away any French skirmishers as the battalion is marching down the road. The French figures are hidden and initially kept off of the board. However, they are marked on a map to show where they are hiding. The figure below shows the terrain, deployment, and where the French are hiding.

The small light colored patches are crops and high grass areas. In the game they act as minor concealment (+1 to the target in ranged combat), but do not block line of sight. The round wooded area as small copses of woods, which completely block line of sight, figures cannot be seen unless they are within 1" of the edge, and the target gets +2 in ranged combat). The hills completely block line of sight if the line crosses any part of the hill, no matter whether the figure sticks above the terrain or not. (I hate "laser pointer" line of sight where people have to get their eye down to the table. It inevitably leads to disagreement, even if it ends in a friendly die roll as to who is right. Better to simply take a thread from head to head and see where the line crosses.)

The British advance down the road, with the Light Dragoon taking off looking behind the hills to the left of the road. At this point, it is certain that not more than one or two figures are hiding behind hills on the left flank, although the French may be hiding in the far left corner woods, but it is more likely that they are on the right.

Corporal Jones gets left behind a bit from his squad.

I allow figures other than officers to be Leaders, a change from the straight SDS rules. This move also shows what I like about other Ganesha Games (GG) rules: the Leader frequently falls behind the men. I think the Leader should be able to activate, give the order to the group to move out, and then forgo all remaining actions in order to move with the group. In essence you are rolling to give an order, then rolling for the Group plus Leader to act. Of course, I think that should be an option so they Leader can act either way.

One Frenchman reveals his position as he climbs the hill and takes a pot shot at the Light Dragoon from behind a bush, to no effect. The rest of the squad moves left around the hill, still out of sight. (I have revealed them here for convenience.)

The action continues with the French Legere moving to the left into the field, while Corporal Jones marches his boys into the woods, where there is better cover. Meanwhile, on the French right flank ... Chasseur LeBon shoots at the Trooper Liebenow (of the Kings German Legion Light Dragoons, hence the funny name), and his horse bucks and rears. This would not be the last time that the ornery beast could not be controlled in battle...

With the French in position, Lieutenant Louis Lebau orders his Chasseurs to fire on the British infantryman still exposed ... and he goes down!

One of the reasons that I don't do a turn-by-turn and blow-by-blow description of the action is that the British had this unfortunate tendency to fail to activate, so the picture would not change ... until the French did something. Chris (Corporal Jones) was not getting good dice while Dean (Lieutenant Lebau) was doing alright.

Trooper Liebenow finally got his mount under control and put the spurs to it, almost appearing on the flank of the French. Chasseur LeBon, left behind in the dust was heard to mutter "Wow! Chevau-légers déplacer rapidement!" (Roughly: "Wow! Light Dragoon move fast!")

Note that although you can see the Light Dragoon in the picture, line of sight does not extend across the hill, so the trooper is hidden from view. But, they can hear him coming!

The British finally come alive, now that Corporal Jones has his lads in hand, and a devastating volley erupts from the woods with a Chasseur going down. Meanwhile, the trooper canters over the woods, ready to charge into the rear of the French and put an end to this ambush.

But, the British were over-eager and another devastating volley from the French Legere killed another British private and knocked another to the ground. Lieutenant Lebau, seeing the trooper approaching, rushes forward and shoots his pistol four feet from the horse's nose. Again, the horse bucks, distracting the trooper from battle.

Knocking a figure down can represent a number of different events, not just literally knocking them off of their feet down to the ground. They could be dazed, off balance, or trying to control an unruly mount. However, no matter how the result is interpreted the game effect is the same. It takes one action to recover, and if your opponent simply beats you (rolls higher) in combat, you are out of the fight.

With Chasseur LeBon huffing and puffing as he brings up the rear, things look bad for the trooper. He takes a shot and ... misses! The trooper controls his mount once again while Corporal Jones screams at Private Smythe to get up off of his arse and for everyone to reload.

Another volley by the Chasseurs is also ineffective - that woods is proving tough to overcome - but the Light Dragoon trooper is finally dispatched. Chasseur LeBon attacks from the rear and the trooper's horse kicks the sneaky Frenchman to the ground, but the Lieutenant's sword finds its mark.

Roaring to LeBon "descendre ton cul", Lieutenant Lebau flinches as the British volley roars again. With a scream, another Chasseur goes down.

Chasseur LeBon gets up and he and Lieutenant Lebau rush to the field just as another fierce roars sounds. The British, ever the experts at musketry, have started methodically going through the drill: open the cartridge, fill and close the pan, load the barrel with powder and ball, ram the charge home, return to the firing position, cock the hammer, level, and fire. The French can take no more and Lieutenant Lebau can be seen here slapping the bottom of Chasseur LeBon with his sword berating him for taking so long, while failing to kill the Light Dragoon. Surely his shirking his duty was the cause for their failure!

Summary


This game played very well with the two players - both whom had never played SDS - quickly grasping the rules and getting into the action. That, of course, is the best sort of rules for gaming conventions where everyone wants to get stuck in right away.

I think the figures themselves were also a success. They certainly elicited a lot of comment and discussion before, during, and after the game. The only problem I see is that as a figure gets taller is becomes less balanced. This is really only a problem with hills, which continue to be my nemesis, when it comes to terrain.

Preparing for MAG-Con II

MAG-Con II is a convention in North Houston, TX and it is occurring 4-5 Dec, 2010. "MAG" stands for "Mad About Gaming", which normally does not describe me, but considering it is just over 1,000 miles away (each way) from my home, some would say I am mad to go that far for two days of gaming.

My original plan was to drive, which would have been about 18 hours each way, so fours days of driving. But, in the end, I did not have enough time to prep the car (change oil, check filters and tires, etc.) so I decided to fly at the last minute.

Having been a road warrior once upon a time I had enough miles to fly free (first class!) and to have a free hotel stay. Unfortunately, I have never been good with the rental car programs, so I had to pay for that, but I found a deal for 2/3rds off with Expedia.

So, why is this in Wooden Warriors? Well, I decided to try to put on a demonstration game of Song of Drums and Shako using my Wooden Warriors and see how it went over. The problem: although I have 29 French painted and ready to go, I had two British and one Russian as opposition. So, it is time to buckle down and finish some more British.

As it so happens I have five British Line infantry with basic assembly and paint done, and the uniform printed out (the tutorial was an earlier blog entry). I just needed to do for the five what I did for the one shown in that tutorial.

I got a little ambitious and tried to do too much. Not only was I trying to finish these five, but I felt like I was woefully lacking in terrain for 42mm figures, so I wanted to build some fences and walls, and mount some trees and shrubs to bases. I was also trying an experiment using yarn for a bush (that will be a separate, future blog entry). I was just too much. I finished the bush, and 10 shrubs, but the eight fences ended up built but not painted, so they stayed home. That also burned precious time, so my British Line ended up on the plane with me without the muskets being glued, and faceless. (I would end up gluing the muskets and drawing the faces in drafting pen in the hotel the morning of the game.)

All in all, a respectable figure, I think. I am happy with the printing process and the level of detail. I could paint that level of detail on a 42mm figure, but never five of them in two days.

Off to the convention with wooden warriors in hand, ready to make their debut.

Tutorial - Napoleonic British Line Infantry

I was accused of teasing :) you all with my last entry, because I did not include a picture of the final product. That wasn't teasing; I wasn't finished. But, here he is in all his glory, with a tutorial on how he as made, to boot.

Printing out a 42mm British Line Infantryman


Okay, maybe not "printing one out", but if you have been following my ramblings of late you know I have been experimenting with printing out the uniform of a Napoleonic British Line infantryman and gluing it to my wooden warrior pawns, saying me the task of painting all that detail.

To start is the painting. This is just to fill the gaps that the paper does not cover. The shoulder area, because it is curved horizontally and vertically, will not be completely covered in paper, so paint it the same shade of red you are using in your print-out. Paint the shoes black, along with a small band in case the print-out does not cover all the way down the pawn's body.

At this point I should also have painted the face, so I don't risk slopping paint onto the print-out later.

Print out the uniform and carefully cut around the outside. I use small scissors designed for scrapbooking, such as Honey Bee. I also make cuts between the collar and the chest lace, almost to the center line. Further, I make cuts along the top of the strap that runs left-right over the cross belts, up to the chest lace. These cuts allow you to mold the paper around the neck and in the upper chest region.

The next time I try a build I am going to paint one of the uniforms with matte varnish before I start gluing it, to see if it helps repel rubber cement stains and ink smearing.

The next step is to tack down the uniform to the pawn. I use a small glue application and paint a stripe of rubber cement to the pawn, then line up the uniform and press and hold until dry.

Next, carefully apply a thin amount of rubber cement to the collar and carefully wrap it around the neck. Using a rounded toothpick helps, but you don't want to pack it in the crack, but rather have it stand up. It takes practice, I suppose. (Left Figure)

Glue down the upper chest area, making sure the cross belt straps are folded under the pack straps. Make sure the area is glued firm before moving on. If you are doing a series of them in assembly, usually the time it takes to get through them all is enough for you to keep right on moving. (Right Figure)

Now glue the pack straps onto the shoulder area, along with the rear cross belts. Glue the sides firmly to the pawn and hold it until the glue sets (a few seconds, with the heat of your fingers). (Left Figure)

Finally, glue the back of the figure. Look at the figure and make a few snips with the scissors to try and remove any wrinkles in the shoulder area. (Right Figure)

As you can see, we have the basic uniform and the gaps showing in the previous experiments are covered up by painting the red and black in the first step. Don't worry about the straps not matching up yet.

Now it is time to work on the Belgic shako. See my previous tutorials about making shakos but note that I don't use a spool for this figure as it does not have the prominent leather band that the French shako has. In this case I used a simple dowel the same diameter as the head. Add a peak, just as you would with a French shako.

The frontispiece is what makes the Belgic shako so interesting. It is reminiscent of the plates on Seven Years War Prussian fusilier mitre caps. Simply cut out and glue this piece to the front of the shako, carefully aligning it. (Left Figure)

Because this piece can be so easily damaged, I applied white glue to the back of the cut-out to stiffen it up. Later, I will apply a matte varnish to the front, which also helps stiffen the piece. (Right Figure)

While the glue is drying I started work on the backpack. I started with a thick piece of balsa wood and sanded a curve into one side. (Left Figure)

Paint the pack black (unless historically it had a different color, which was true for some units in the Peninsular, from the pictures I have seen) and then coat the pack with Future (Klear) floor wax to harden the wood. Glue the curved side to the figure. (Ah! So that's why you sanded a curve...) (Center Figure)

With the backpack on, cut a small length of dowel and paint it grey for the bedroll/great coat (I am never sure which it is). I have also used a small piece of craft stick and made a cartridge box, painted it black, and glued it to the figure's hip. (Right Figure) This figure has lost his canteen, which would be on the left hip and would have a thin brown strap over the right shoulder (that I forgot to add to the drawing...).

Wow, this little guy is starting to shape up. Next up are the arms. The drawing has two cuffs with lace. In this version I only made the cuffs long enough to glue to the fronts and sides. (Left Figure)

But, when an arm extends forward of the figure you will see that the underside of the cuff is not colored, so I had to paint it. I only painted the left arm's cuff and the right arm doesn't have the underside exposed. (Right Figure)

Glue the right arm onto the pawn, centering it into the ring made by the pack straps. (Left Figure). Do the same with the left arm. (Right Figure)

Now it is time to glue on the shoulder straps. I printed them a little long, so I snipped the excess after I had glued the strap to the arm, then painted over the edge of the arm with white to represent the tuft on the shoulder.

This next shows the other shoulder strap glued on, plus I start to add some detail to the back pack and bed roll by adding white straps and brass buckles. If I knew what the emblem on the back pack for the 69th was, I would have drawn that, printed it up, and glued it on. As it is, I can always add that later if I find out what it is. (Comments on sources welcome.)

So, there you have it for the basics. I added things that I have gone over in previous tutorials, such as shako plumes and making muskets. I decided to use a simplified face design. (Hell, they all look like South Park's Cartman.) Here is the final figure in all its glory.

For the level of detail this figure requires, it was built and "painted" in a very short period of time. From an experimenter's point of view, it is a success.

Wood-Paper Experiment: British Line Infantry

I have been working, bit-by-bit, on refining my experiment with printing on paper and then gluing the results to the wooden pawns. I have to admit that I like the look of painted figures better, but I experiment for the fun of it and in the hopes that I will surprise myself.

I think these results surprised me a bit.

My first experiment did not go as well as I hoped. More painting than expected and more fiddly than I wanted (or for the result I achieved). My second experiment was more in line with what I was thinking. In fact, that is the model I have been building from. Compare the images in the second experiment with that below and you can see how much work I've added.

As you can see, I've added the cross-belts and pack straps. I've also emphasized some details, like the creases in the trousers, and made some changes to deal with curves, such as curving the collar upward. The figures below show simply gluing the cut-out to to the pawn, with no color beneath (it would be red on the shoulders). Here is the figure from the front.

The chest lace shows up nicely, as do the buttons. The collar is even discernable; more so than if I painted it. Here is the side shot.

Here you can see the cross-belts start to come together. I thought of printing the shoulder strap on, but it really should overlap the arm, so it will have to be a separate printed and glued piece. Here is the rear shot.

The seam is not perfect, but as I will put backpacks, bed rolls, cartridge boxes, and possibly canteens on here, the seam will be covered. (Note I used rubber cement to tack the paper down and a got a little on the paper, making it look dirty. I did not notice before I took the picture.)

When I put on the Belgic shako, I'll simply add a round dowel to the top of the head and glue the following on as the frontispiece.

It won't have the word "Test" on it though! :)

All in all I have to say it looked nicer than I expected. And given the level of detail, even the fiddly cutting part is far faster than painting it all by hand.

So, would I do all of the figures this way? No, I don't think so, as I like the colors from painting. The printing still looks washed out. But, this is a way to get an army up and done quickly, so that you have the leisure to paint up the troops, but it won't stop you from gaming. (Which, for me, gaming with the troops is the single greatest way to ensure that I don't lose steam on a painting project.) So, I will probably use this for a battalion or three of troops to get me started.