Tuesday 14 January 2020

Imaginations in 42mm (16)

I decided to add a few units to my 42mm imaginations armies for the Warcon conference, 4 weeks from now. My main forces are composed of Irregular Miniatures (Balkan range), but over the years I have amassed toy soldiers through 2nd hand sales, so those are a good source for putting together some additional units. The generals I painted up for both armies also came from this pool of figures.

I keep these figures in several drawers. You can see there is quite some variation in style, but 2 ranges seem to stuck out: SchildKröt and Schneider. Both were sold as homecast kits, so the quality of the actual soldiers is variable.



 


Since I seem to have quite a lot of Schildkröt figures, these seem like a good candidate to make some additional units from:


But also the Schneider figures can be formed in a nice unit:


Of course, I still will have to (re)paint them. Two cavalry units are already on my painting desk. We'll see whether I find the time to complete them all.

9 comments:

  1. You have some really nice old figures there Phil.
    Who is the Fantasy creature in the top right corner of Photo 1?

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    1. That's a Bones Reaper Cthulhu ... https://www.reapermini.com/search/cthulhu/latest/77194

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  2. Replies
    1. No definite rules yet, I'm still writing them up. But I will use an activation mechanic (the timetrack) such as described in this blogpost: http://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/2019/03/imaginations-in-42mm-13.html
      I like experimenting with new game mechanisms, but the mechanisms used should also fit in with the intended look-and-feel of the miniatures.

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  3. Lovely figures! Are those fully round, or demi-rounds?

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. Most are demi-round. I also have a large collection of flats, but these are usually smaller. The problem with many of these old toy soldiers is that there was apparantly no standard size. Even a company such as Schneider produced moulds for home-casting in 3 slightly different scales. OTOH, that could also be the charm for a game based on toy soldiers.

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  4. Splendid looking figures. Always pleasing to see old figures repainted and back on the tabletop.

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    1. When repainting old toy soldiers, I always try to keep the original painting scheme as much as possible, and I am merely 'touching them up', apply a new coat of varnish etc. I feel you have to 'respect' the toy soldier, esp if it's a very old figure. If it has been in a green uniform for a long time, it should keep that green uniform etc.
      I do make exception for bad paintjobs or recent paintjobs.

      But with some of these figures that were home-cast, it's sometimes difficult to tell how old these figures are. It's also a bit philosophical: does a recently cast toy soldier usins an old mould count as a new figure, or as an old one?

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    2. My feelings exactly with regard to repainting toy soldiers.

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