Shiny Objects-My Dance with 1898 Miniaturas.

You’re miniature wargamers.  You know what I’m talking about.  A manufacturer comes out with something new–maybe it’s a period that’s always interested you, maybe it’s an interesting set of rules to go with interesting miniatures, maybe they’re simply the nicest miniatures you’ve ever seen from a period that holds a magnetic attraction on your passions.

I can say, honestly, that I’ve always been attracted by periods and passions and not to figures.  The Hundred Years War, American War of Independence, and a host of other periods have attracted my gaming dollars and the time it takes to paint up a project because I have a deep interest in the period.  Aside-most mainstream interest; War of Independence.  Least mainstream project: Tie between the Lewis and Clark Expedition and The Burr Conspiracy.

About three years ago, at age 61, I was looking around at a last new project.  Let’s just define our terms here, since that often breeds confusion.  By last project, I mean a last new, never begun before new project.  It would mean buying and painting both sides, and all the time that demanded. I was particularly interested in a colonial project.  Osprey had just released Daniel Mersey’s The Men Who Would Be Kings, and I loved Lion Rampant.  Lacking any armies from that period, I was intrigued.

A couple of photos of Old Glory’s volunteers.  State and U.S. Volunteers fought in the Philippine War.  The chief difference between the regulars and the volunteers is that the latter was armed with the 1873 pattern Sprinfield (trapdoor) rifle that fired a black powder cartridge.  Regulars carried the Krag with its distinctive side mount magazine and smokeless cartridges.

My first choice was Egypt and the Sudan.  I was in from Tel-el-Kebir all the way to Omdurman.  The Perrys had a nice range of figures, and I could fill in from other manufacturers, so I was kind of hot to go.  With a conflict lasting from 1882-1898, there would be plenty to keep me busy.

At about this time 1898 Miniaturas appeared on The Miniatures Page.  The photos showed the figures to be truly beautiful, and the announcement that the Spanish company would focus on the Spanish American War AND the Philippine American conflict got my attention.  I decided to follow the range and save my shekels for a future purchase.

At first I was interested in doing both conflicts, but in April of 2018 Lorri and I agreed I would retire after the 2019 school year. That would mean less hobby money along with my reduced income, and I focused instead on the Philippine War. Why?  Well, it seemed more colonial and provoked a real debate in the United States whether our country would join the ranks of other imperialist nations. It had the added benefit of including more state volunteers than U.S. regulars because most of the latter were packed off to Cuba. Those volunteers included an infantry battalion and a battery from Washington state.  I’m such a homer.

I invested some of my summer camp earnings toward the a down payment on the period, and by August of 2018, I had plenty of figures to work for the U.S. invaders and the Philippine defenders.  There were still some holes the 1898 Miniaturas range, but they were still adding some figures.  Last year, they supplemented their excellent collection of infantry with some very nice mounted leaders and an American Gatling gun.

Unfortunately, the death knell of all figure ranges happens when a manufacturer moves on to another range.  The 1898 folks have done exactly that by creating a range of Spanish miniatures for the early 17th century and Thirty Years War period. They’re nice, but not a range I have any intention of doing, and exactly nothing has happened with their colonial range in over a year.

The Tiger mountain gun.  The gun is quite serviceable, and comes with a mule and two crew.  The crew members aren’t great, but the mule is awesome. The rules call for four crew so I added a couple of leftover volunteer officers from Old Glory.

What does that mean?  Well, there are definitely some bits that are missing.  No American volunteers, sailors or marines.  No mounted cavalry for the Americans.  There are still some weapons that would be nice to have-Colt machine guns, light artillery more maneuverable in the jungles and mountains of the Philippines.  Philippine soldiers in American service-the Philippine Scouts and Philippine Constabulary would be valuable units in many scenarios.

This is the Colt machine gun by Tiger in being schlepped formation.  I had an extra Tiger officer to add to the three man crew. I liked these guys.  Big and a little goofy, but not bad at all.

The ready for battle version of the Colt.  Another Tiger miniature.

To be clear, all the miniatures are available.  Old Glory makes all the extra American infantry and cavalry.  Tiger Miniatures has some of the extra weapons bits.  All the figures are very serviceable, but don’t quite match the quality of the Spanish company’s figures.

It’s got to be really hard to sustain a business in this hobby.  Gamers move from game system to game system, and are attracted by new interests and miniature ranges all the time.  A regular customer becomes a former customer easily and predictably. Balancing a company’s offerings with additional and alternatives to attract the maximum number of buyers only makes sense.  But I won’t hide my disappointment that 1898 Miniaturas has not finished what it began.  Yes, the major pieces are there, but there is still plenty to complete the range.

Just in case you’re interested here is what is available for the Spanish American War and Philippine War from 1898 Miniaturas, Old Glory and Tiger Miniatures

Americans

• Regular Infantry-1898, Old Glory, Tiger
• American Buffalo Soldiers, Infantry-1898, Old Glory
• Dismounted Cavalry-1898, Old Glory, Tiger
• Dismounted Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers-1898, Old Glory, Tiger
• Dismounted Rough Riders–1898, Tiger
• Volunteer infantry–
• Mounted Cavalry–Old Glory, Tiger
• 3.2″ gun and crew–1898, Tiger
• Artillerists–Old Glory
• Gatling guns and crew–1898, Old Glory, Tiger
• Colt machine gun and crew–Old Glory, Tiger
• Dynamite gun and crew–Old Glory, Tiger
• Mountain gun and crew–Tiger
• Marines–Old Glory, Tiger
• Marine Artillery (one pounder)-Tiger
• Marines w/Colt machine gun-Tiger
• Sailors–Old Glory
• Philippine Constabulary-Tiger
• Philippine Scouts–Tiger
• Mounted personalities–1898, Old Glory

Spanish

• Spanish Infantry–1898 (many variations), Old Glory (two variations), Tiger (two variations
• Spanish Civil Guard-Tiger
• Spanish sailors–Old Glory
• Spanish Marines–Tiger
• Spanish Cavalry–Tiger, Old Glory*
• Spanish mounted infantry-Tiger
• Spanish mounted personalities–1898
• Spanish artillery–Old Glory, Tiger
• Spanish mountain gun–1898, Tiger
• Spanish Gatling Gun–Tiger
• Cuban Rebel Infantry–Old Glory, Tiger

*Both Old Glory and Tiger use cavalry interchangeably for Spanish and Cuban rebels.

Philippine Troops

• Philippine Republic/Native Tagalogs–1898, Tiger
• Philippine militia w/mixed hand weapons-1898
• Moros–Old Glory
• Personalities–1898

November’s Gone

November is already over, and I can’t believe it.  It was a fun month from a gaming standpoint.  I played in a great Black Powder game over at Jim Sagen’s house, attended the Museum of Flight where Dave Schueler and I ran our convoy game twice–and had a blast, and on Friday I ran the second Buffalo Hunt game with some rule changes and had some more suggested to me.  So, more gaming than my pre-retirement self played.

Some photos from our Museum of Flight game convoy game.  British players chose from a variety of bombers to attack an Italian convoy shepherded by two large Cant 1007Z bombers as well as choices of MC 42 or MC 200 fighters.  In the first game the Brits pretty much had their way, but the second game was much closer, with British losses.  However they did torpedo the tanker in the convoy which exploded.

It was also a pretty productive month on the painting table, though I felt like I tried a whole lot of different stuff and wasted a fair amount of time being fairly aimless. Here is what I accomplished:

Aircraft:

These are Raiden’s splendid Beaufort bombers.  One of my favorite airplane miniatures. Unforunately they don’t make the Aussie version with powered dorsal turret.

• four P-40N’s in RAAF colors.  Scotia planes, I wrote about these.
• six Beaufort torpedo bombers in RAAF colors. Miniatures by Raiden.  More planes for Rabaul.  These are in Foliage Green with markings by Flight Deck decals.  Fun to paint and pretty darn easy
• Six Beaufighter attack planes in RAAF colors.  Miniatures by Scotia.  Foliage Green, decals by I-94. Again headed for Rabaul.  The first of my attempts at weathering.

Scotia’s very nice Beaufighter.  They are just nasty.  Aussies replaced wing-mounted 8 X .303’s with 4 X .50 machine guns.  Teamed up with the 4 X 20mm cannon in the nose equals some real firepower.

Philippines:

• 18 figures of bolomen for my Philippine project.  These were pretty easy to paint, and I enjoy painting them.  No rayadillo, mostly white, how tough can it be?

• 12 figures of irregular riflemen.  I limited myself to three figures with rayadillo, which will probably be my standard going forward.

Ships:

• One Dragon model of the HMS Zulu, a Tribal class destroyer.  Had an easier time building this than the Orwell, but struggled with the final colors.  Planned to do her as the HMS Eskimo, but just couldn’t get the gray on white paint scheme to work.  Note to self, use white primer next time.

Anti-aircraft

 

I acquired many, many little boxes of anti-aircraft guns, missiles, transport and radars from George Kettler and the Phil Bardsley estate.  What to do with them?  I’m not sure, but I definitely can’t do anything with them if they aren’t painted.  I’m not sure what these are, but I painted four of ’em and stuck ’em on leftover Litko bases.  It’s a start, but plan to see more of them. Some are clearly WWII  German, others are Soviet and intended for Vietnam.  In either case, pretty easy stuff to paint.

December will be a lot more focused.  I’ll have to have plans made for Enfilade as game registration will open in early January.  More about those plans in my next post, but they involve lots of painting.

On My Painting Table

28mm British Legion-These are Old Glory British Legion.  Not the best figures, but perfectly serviceable. They are a big chunk of the painting I need to do for my AWI Rebels and Patriots game I’ll be working on with David Sullivan.  I like these figures.  Different poses in the saddle, decent detail, and the price is right. Not so large I shouldn’t be able to jam two on a 50mm circular base. I need 18 of them for our scenario.  I actually have 30, but twelve of them will get a fresh re-paint job from a game I ran a decade ago.

1/300 A-4F Skyhawks-George passed on a pile of these to me a while back, and I truly appreciate it.  There were 18 humpy backed Skyhawks and I’ve decided to divide them equally between USMC and USN versions.  These are the later versions of the little attack plane that remained in service all the way through Desert Storm, and certainly fought off the North Vietnamese 1972 offensive. I’ll find something useful for them to do. The miniatures are from Scotia and NavWar/Heroics and Ros.  Decent miniatures. I’ve tried to equip them with ample drop tanks and bomb loads.  They’ll appear in light gull grey and white.

What I’m Listening To

I’ve really enjoyed having the two stereo systems so I can listen to music wherever I am.  Lots of great albums on the turntables, including The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Isley Brothers, The Grateful Dead and The Eagles. But I’ve really had a great time listening to a Roy Orbison anthology-The Monument Singles Collection 1960-1964.  This two LP set issued by Music On Vinyl has mono mixes of all the great Orbison songs from the early 60’s-“Pretty Woman,” “Crying,” “Blue Bayou,” and my favorite “In Dreams” are all there in heart-rending glory with Roy’s absolutely inimitable voice.

Generally not a big fan of anthologies and Orbison has a zillion of them.  But he is also one of those artists who profited from the sale of ’45’s and not so much from LP sales.  This is definitely the best of the lot.

 

 

 

Insurrectos with Bolos

The Great Puget Sound Snowpocalypse of 2019 played havoc with the school schedule, but it did contribute to progress on Smyth’s painting table.  I wrapped up the light infantry and militia for the Concord project.  I also began work on the grenadiers for the same battle.

My three painted Philippine units. I have plenty more to do, and probably a fair number more to buy. All Miniaturas 1898, all fun to paint, if a bit of a challenge

But I took some time out to work on a different unit for my Philippine-American War project.  I decided to do one of the Tagalog tribal units.  These unit were pretty ubiquitous, particularly on the islands other than Luzon where firearms could be a bit less plentiful.  In The Men Who Would Be Kings, these are 18-figure units.  No rayadillo to worry about.  Most of the figures would be wearing white.

Miniaturas 1898 has some very nice figures for Tagalog insurrectos, as opposed to the troops in the Republican army.  They have figures armed with just bolos, the long machete-like knives the tribal troops became infamous for.  There is also a pack of fighters armed with mixed melee and missile troops, including bamboo spears, bows and arrows and even a crossbow. I added these troops together with six rifle armed figures to give me the kind of mixed shooter and melee troops I was looking for. I gave them one of the “special” Antonio Bonifacio figures as a leader and standard bearer.

Hard to see the rayadillo in the photos, much easier to see with your eye.  It’s hard to paint, but very satisfying when finished.

The unit was pretty easy to paint.  Most have a first coat of Vallejo Grey-White.  Then I highlight with white and go back and paint the creases with a mix of Grey-White and Vallejo Light Grey.  It provides a decent contrast with the light base color without the starkness of just Light Grey alone.  I also used Vallejo Tan Earth, lightened for highlight, as well as Vallejo Flat Red.  The latter I highlighted with Scarlet, and then lightened for a second highlight.

All this highlighting and drybrushing is kind of new to me, so I’m learning a lot with this project.  But it’s fun and hasn’t turned out badly. I’ve also changed my rifle-painting for this project.  Instead of using metal, I’ve gone to Vallejo Neutral Gray for the barrels and gun furniture, It’s still a darkish color without the sheen of a metal color.  The Philippine troops would have used Remington Rifles with a few of the modern Mausers thrown in.  The Americans would have used Krag-Jorgensen rifles and carbines, with volunteer troops and the Philippine Scouts using old trapdoor Springfields.

I did make a purchase this month.  I picked up a pack of Old Glory U.S. Cavalry from their Spanish American War range.  There isn’t a rush to do them.  I’m sure I’ll stick to the Philippine figures until what I have is done or nearly so. I also picked up their bag of U.S. volunteers.

Originally the Volunteers were drawn from the states, and they served generally quite effectively in the campaign outside of Manila.  They are replaced by regulars and U.S. Volunteers as the battle shifts north and south away from capital.  The difference is the weapons the state volunteers begin the campaign with 1873 “trapdoor” Springfield.  They use it fairly effectively, but it is not a repeating rifle, just a breech-loader, and it fires black powder cartridges. There is a battalion of Washington State Volunteers on Luzon, together with a battery of artillery, and homer that I am, you can imagine what I’ll be painting.

Looking at the Old Glory range, they have a couple more desirable packs.  I’m sure that at some point I will also order a bag each of sailors and Marines.  These troops played a valuable role in the amphibious operations that were necessary in all parts of the archipelago.

***

With all the snow, we had to postpone our big Concord walk-through all the way to March 23rd.  I’ll have all the troops I need to paint completed by then.  I’m anxious to finish the 36 grenadiers I have left so I can paint–anything I bloody well please.  Got lots I’d like to mess around with.