Friday, March 1, 2013

Wargames Factory War of the Spanish Succession

Wargames Factory is a real inovator in that they create figure sets that are plastic, a large 28mm in size, with customizable heads and body parts and accessories. I picked up a couple boxes, infantry and cavalry for about $20 each. The infantry make 36 figures and the cavalry 12.  They also offer spare bodies in groups of 12 for sale as well as any other parts, on ebay and at their website. I ordered more and ended up with 144 marching figures, some of which are here:






They paint up well, and they really are nice and sturdy. The hard plastic bayonettes have taken some abuse and they remain OK. Wargames Factory is now releasing their artillery and mounted commanders sets. I highly recommend these for anyone wanting to try a new period without a lot of upfront cost.
They also do ancients, samurai and World War 2, and fantasy as well.

El Cid

I picked up a copy of Games Workshop's El Cid source book.
It was the usual well produced and colourful item that got me to make some Spanish figures from what I had to hand. To whit, HaT Spanish and Gaullic cavalry, some home cast Normans and some Revell ones, and Airfix and Italeri foot soldiers. The flags are really what sold me to do these:




More Thirty Years War

Here's a few more Dollar Store Thirty Years War guys and some from the Russian maker Mars.







It's somewhat unfortunate that makers often focus on famous units, even if their actual number was very small.
Wikipedia mentions that the famous French Musketeers were a small unit of some 150 men at this time.
Anyway, I have 2 units of men on foot painted up and 3 mounted. The Mars set doesn't have mounted troops, so I just did a conversion with Giant horses. I also made a Conde like figure from an Australian.
My penchant for big flags, these made out of hobby wooden squares, continues apace.
On the good news front, Mars has made a fine artillery set, three per box with crew and 6 mounted figures (2 poses), as well as others from this period to come. I hear tell that some of Cardinal Richelieu's guards are on their way.  D'artagnon, ou etes-vous?