An Examination of the Plastic "Mystique" and Myths

Well, they say if you never throw anything away, it will always come in handy some day. At least that's what I tell my Wife when she wants one of the storage units cleaned out. This particular "find" I had forgotten about, but I'm thrilled that I found it and can share it with you here.

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Three years ago, when I first started thinking about getting back into the hobby and acquiring my AWI collection, I wanted to see 4 things: (1) Could I still paint anything that I would accept?, (2) Whether I accepted it or not, would the quality be acceptable among the figures I was seeing in shops and mags and on web sites?, (3) Would I be satisfied with the level of detail that I could achieve with plastics?, and (4) How seriously should I take all of the various "myths" that surrounded plastics, the so-called "secret formula's" and "special methods" and their overall durability. Therefore I decided to paint the two units shown as an extreme test. So extreme that I forgot about them! But, that actually serves my point here.

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In the first picture you see an impending firefight between a British Fusilier battalion and a skirmishing unit of the "dreaded Colonial Rifleman". You know, the ones that won the War single handed by hiding and hitting at least 4 British with every deadly round fired? Well, here's the details, I even wrote them down!

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The Continental Militia is made up of relatively newer ESCI, Accurate and IMEX figures; reasonably good plastic by our standards. Because the plastic was somewhat firmer and the figures better detailed, I spray primed them with a paint sold in automotive DIY stores for touching up vinyl tops and interiors; in other words, made for flexible vinyl surfaces. I then painted them with water-based craft paints from a local chain store (Michael's or Hobby Lobby, forget which), black-lined them with my Rapidiograph pen (really OSW here), and then topped them off after drying with my usual oil-based (Grumbacher or Windsor & Newton) washes made up of Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna thinned with turpentine. When completely dry (a couple of days at least), I coated them with a brushed on coat of Mod Podge (thinned PVA), and when that was dry I sprayed them with plain old gloss Krylon. No real "magic" except for the vinyl primer and the PVA.

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The British Fusilier battalion is, of course, made up of our old beloved "greasy" Airfix British Grenadiers, except for the officer, who is an Accurate figure with an Airfix head. These, because I was concerned about the plastic involved and the age of the figures already, were given a brush coat of Mod Podge, then a coat of brushed-on Liquitex acrylic as a primer. They were then painted with the same craft paints, black-lined in the same way, oil washed in the same way, coated with the same PVA, and sprayed with the same Krylon clear varnish. Of course, both units were washed in warm water and a grease-cutting dish soap before anything was done to get rid of any residual mold release agents.

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After they were completed, I handled these figures myself at least once a week for about two months; just got them out of the box, set them up, moved them around, changed formation, etc. I then lent them to a friend who was gaming in the AWI period and let him use them for two large games before he returned them. After that they sat around my painting room in their box for several months before I mistakenly moved them to an outside storage building located in North Central Texas. That was roughly two and one-half years ago. During that time we have had an average of two ice storms a year, one really cold spell that saw a low of 14 degrees during a 12 day period of temps below freezing, one really hot summer with a recorded high of 107 degrees during a period of 16 days with temps over 100, and just the general "bizarreness" that is North Texas weather. And please bear in mind, these were all outside temps. During the worst cold spells I doubt that the temperature ever rose above freezing in my storage unit, and during the hottest periods, it was probably 5 to 10 degrees hotter by the end of the day in the confined building. These figures would have expanded, contracted, probably had condensation on them, and been exposed to extremes that few of us would ever subject our figures to. The result?

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They are fine. The muskets are still flexible without paint flaking, there are no signs of deterioration in the plastic (and I actually bent some of the Airfix figures a little at the legs, half expecting at least one to snap), the gloss still looks good, basically they are "playable" today. In fact, and I find this interesting, I based these figures on high-quality coated artist's illustration board, a material that I have used for bases for years. And my base work is all oil-based and not inclined to shrinkage. However, either because of the weather extremes, dampness or the lack of figure weight to stabilize them, the bases have warped, as you can see in the last picture of the British. Since I am now using steel bases, and since I don't expect to subject the fine lads of M'Uedail to these same harsh conditions, I am confident that they will hold up even better. In fact, these have held up so well, and I am pleased enough with the paint jobs, that I may touch up and re-base the British with new standards as a converged or "special" Grenadier unit in the service of M'Uedails Irish Brigade or my Guards Brigade.

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So, what conclusions can we draw from this? Well I'm obviously extremely cruel to my figures for one (have to work on that if I expect the lads to be loyal). The other conclusion that I choose to draw is that there really is no "one" right way to paint and keep plastic figures. If you're comfortable using Gesso or tube acrylic or PVA or "Fusion", or some hybrid combination of two or more of these, they will probably work. I do think that the "final" seal coat is important. I'm not sure it matters whether its brushed PVA, Pledge acrylic, artist's varnish, Krylon or whatever. I will probably continue to use a coat of Mod Podge, mainly because I already have it and I know it works, and then gloss my figures with Krylon. Until I actually see one flake off or break, I'm not going to worry about it. Heck, I can't count the number of times I've had to try and repair broken bayonets and muskets, or broken off wire javelins or lances, and touch up my metal troops over the years.

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I would appreciate some critical feedback on the paint jobs, and not to stroke my ego. These were the first figures that I had painted since 1990 and I think they turned out fairly well. I honestly think I can do better now, and even better when I get back into a "rhythm", but only time will tell. I will, of course, post all updates here and on M'Uedails site.

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Sir William

Work Progresses, Part II

The proud gentlemen of the Loyal Irish Guard await their new clothes! These are, of course, the Zvezda Swedes, primed and mounted on painting stands. I used the new Krylon "Fusion" flat white to prime them, as I've heard great things about this paint on the various plastic sites. I will still coat the entire figure with Mod Podge (diluted PVA) after painting to seal everything before I varnish them. The new standard bearers have been made, and their sashes of distinction will be added with built-up tube acrylic as part of the painting process. The conversion is pretty straightforward, cut off the pike, use small needlenose pliers to slightly flatten and "curl" the hand, replace the pike with brass wire and LocTite it in place. The only problem that I ran into is that the sword scabbard, as cast, sort of "melts" into the pike. I carefully carved these two apart, but I'm not totally satisfied with the finished product. In the future I may just trim the scabbard off completely and replace it with a small staple glued in place.

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The mounted Colonel is unique, as Zvezda forgot to provide one with this set (its only shortcoming) I used a spare British AWI horse, somebody's Napoleonic Staff officer (probably Italeri), and a spare head from the Zvezda Swedes. I pinned the head, as I did with the Cuirassiers, and then coated the joint with PVA, which you can still see in the pic. The primer will completely cover this. Each of my three Guard Regiments will receive a unique personality Colonel like this one, whereas my other Regiments that use the Zvezda figures will probably use a spare Revell Austrian Dragoon as a Colonel. The Revell Austrian and Prussian Infantry sets come with mounted Colonel's, as do the Italeri AWI French Infantry and the Accurate AWI British. If I'd wanted, and I may on some unit at a later date, I could have used a mounted AWI Commander from Musket Miniatures, but I want to use as much plastic as possible.

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Now I just need to get the brushes out and get to work so these lads don't freeze in their "artic wear". More to follow...

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Sir William

See, I Actually Am Doing Some Work!

Well, enough for "playing around" on the computer, time to cut, glue and paint. May I present the first Company of The Lady Katherine's Guard, which are now officially Heavy Caribiniers de Garde instead of "just" Caribiniers. These are the excellent Zvezda Napoleonic Saxon Cuirassiers, in front cuirass only (correct for SYW), with heads "borrowed" from old Airfix British AWI Grenadiers. The plumes have been trimmed correctly from all but the officer and musician. I can't wait to get these primed and begin putting the brush to them.

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I did find out a couple of things doing this conversion: The plastic that Zvezda uses has several very good characterisics. It is firm enough to allow me to use my cordless Dremel at 10,000 rpm to drill "starter" holes for the head pins. The plastic takes the new LocTite Instant Glue very well. The plastic doesn't have "memory", meaning that you can bend an arm (as I did with the second rank and with the officer), hold it for a few seconds, and it will retain the new position. The conversion is fairly straightforward, I obviously cut some heads off, checked the angles for clean joints, drilled pilot holes with the Dremel, cut a fine dressmaker'spin to the desired length and inserted the "blunt" end in the pilot hole, seating it firmly with a small pair of pliars. I then carefully lined up the Airfix heads with the pinpoint, pressed it into place, and applied a small amount of LocTite just before the two parts made contact. I then waited for the LocTite to completely set up and then brushed a coat of PVA over the joint to reinforce it. I did notice that the old "greasy" Airfix plastic had a tendency to want to "slip" back off the pin if I didn't hold it until the glue set. If I ever do a second unit, I will probably try and find an appropriate head from Zvezda or Italeri or Emhar which can be drilled and will set better. I will probably convert the second company tonight and then prime them and get them ready for paint tomorrow.

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Here's the "math" on the Zvezda Cuirassiers: If you use 12 -figure units like I do, either as squadrons or regiments, buy three boxes. You can match the "rank and file" positions up to form three definite OSW-style units, then use the spares to form a fourth unit in assorted poses, great to lend your opponent ;-) You will have to convert the command figures for the fourth unit, but that's not so difficult as Zvezda has provided an "NCO" figure that is a compromise between the "specialty" figures and the "rank and file". I will make one a standard bearer and another an officer, and that squadron can live without a musician. My additional Cuirassier regiments/squadrons will be in tricornes taken from spare Swedish Infantry. More to follow...

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Sir William

Some Responses to Comments on Plastic Figure Availability

Jeff and Andy;

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I use other plastic cavalry with mine. The only available sets that don't require conversion are (a) The out of production Revell Austrian SYW Dragoons, which are excellent. These do still turn up from time to time, especially in Germany and Canada. I recently acquired 10 boxes, which fills out my needs and provides me with an opposing force in the future; and (b) the currently produced Strelets-R Swedish and Russian Cavalry for the GNW. Will McNally has done some great work with these figures, but I just don't care for them personally. 12 different poses to a box? Great for diorama's or skirmish gaming, but just doesn't fit my mental picture of OSW unless you buy about 9 boxes or more so you can match them up. I have been barraging Zvezda with an e-mail campaign to produce matching Cavalry sets and finally received an answer that they "do plan on doing so at some point", whatever that means.

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In metal, the only figures that I know of that mix well are (a) Musket Miniatures AWI Cavalry, however its all in Tarleton helmets or Lt. Dragoon helmets except for some mounted officers in tricorne that can be converted, (b) the old Scruby range of "true 25's" from Historifigs, which don't match the standard of sculpting on the Zvezda figures, (c) the very limited SYW range from Garrison, which is slightly larger but not bad if you only use their Cavalry, (d) Warrior Miniatures in Scotland, but their sculpting isn't up to the same standard, much like Scruby, and (e) the VERY limited ranges of Charles Stadden Tradition 25mm AWI, WSS and SYW which are extremely difficult to find anymore. They match the anatomical proportions well, but are nowhere near as detailed.

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However, all is not lost, plastic conversion is much easier now than it used to be. Pinning major joints is still recommended, but there are adhesives that work very well, especially some from LocTite. And, if you pre-coat the figure with ModPodge or diluted PVA, this will seal and reinforce your joint. The Napoleonic Saxon Cuirassiers from Zvezda have the correct one-sided cuirasses and are excellent figures, the Grenadiers a Cheval from Hat will suffice for the few Caribiniers you might need (or convert them to Horse Grenadiers with some mitered Grenadier heads), and almost anyone's Dragoons will all work with new heads in tricornes. Figure it this way: If you use my "model" of buying 12 boxes for 12 battalions (your usage may vary depending on the rules you use) and convert the pikemen to more suitable standard bearer's, you will still have 12 unused standard bearers and 12 unused pikemen, if you buy one more box of "spares", you now have a total of 72 tricorned heads to convert cavalry with.

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And, more good news, Hat and Zvezda are even now working on Austerlitz-era cavalry in longer coats with bicornes, which should look a little better, and Hat are working on early Prussian Hussars in mirlitons. They did decide to do their hussars in overalls instead of breeches and boots, but this can be remedied with a little carving and some paint conversion, or you can simply do them in campaign dress. The do have excellent slung pelisses and the greens look very good. Also, Italeri does a set of Cardigan's 11th Hussars from the Crimea with busbies, slung pelisses and tight overalls that convert very easily for elite hussars. Finally, if you choose to do English, or an English-inspired Imagi-Nation, Italeri's excellent English Lt. Dragoons from their AWI range make excellent Dragoons in helmets from 1759 onward. They are what I'm using for my two regiments of "English-style" Lt. Dragoons. So don't give up on the idea yet, look carefully at the pictures on Plastic Soldier Review and consider the possibilities. I'm also going to be doing some conversions and will detail the build and painting here, so stay tuned.

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With regard to Artillery: in metal, Musket Miniatures works very well and they do excellent gun models as well. In plastic, if you can find a set or two of the Revell Austrian Artillery, you have all the gunners you will ever need and you can get guns from a number of sources. If you can't find the Revell, or don't want to pay the asking price, look at Will's page. The Strelets-R sets are very nice. Buy a couple sets of Swedes and one of Russians and you should be set. Then use Napoleonic guns or metal ones.

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One more note: If "A Call To Arms" continue their recent trend, they should soon be duplicating their new Cromwell's Ironsides in 1/72nd, which will make excellent Cuirassiers for a WSS Bavarian force. Keep an eye out for them. Also for WSS, they do a set of Royalist Artillery that includes 4 decent light guns with the crew in civilian dress with broad flat hats. These can be mixed in as civilian crew members and transport crews along with your uniformed troops.

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Sir William

Uniforms For M'Uedail Are Now Revealed

For those that may be following the saga of my mythical Duchy of M'Uedail, I have now posted uniform plates for the entire Army on that Blog. I have also actually acquired all of the necessary figures to complete the OoB according to these plates. Actually, through a little trading and the generosity of some Bartertown members, I have acquired almost three times the number of figures that I need to finish this project! Therefore, do not be suprised if, at some point in time, you start seeing some rivals appear to challenge the Little Army of M'Uedail. Plus, I still have almost all of my original AWI figures, as almost all of the SYW ended up being new acquisitions. I'm hoping to entice my Son into painting some opponents for M'Uedail so we can start putting on the demo games, and then "feeding" the spare figures to new gamer's that we cultivate a unit or two at a time. After all, I use Foot units that are 16, 20 and 24 figures each for AWI and 40 figure Battalions for SYW, so I would hate to hand a beginner a couple hundred figures. By "feeding them" one unit at a time, I can encourage and cultivate them. Start with a small unit that can double for either AWI of Imagi-Nations gaming, when their "core" of 16 or so figures is done, add the additional figures to raise them to 40, then when those are done move them on to their next project.

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Sir William

Switching "Horses" in Mid-Stream?

I know this is always a danger to a gamer, especially when you've spent the last two months acquiring EVERY out-of-production Revell SYW set that you can find (and I did acquire several!). However, I have just purchased a new set that I have absolutely fallen in love with. These would be the new set from Russia's Zvezda of Swedish Infantry of Charles the Great for the Great Northern War. They also do some excellent Russians that can be seen on Will McNally's Blog-site. These "Swedes" did not get a favorable review on PSR's site, not because of their quality or style, but because they are not correctly modelled to depict what they are supposed to be - Swedes of the 1709 to 1720 period. (The PSR reviewer also didn't care for the more "static" poses of these or the Russians, however, I find them perfect for the OSW style of gaming.) I have to agree with PSR about the accuracy, but that's exactly why I fell in love with them.

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What Zvezda have managed to produce is a set of figures that work well for virtually any European army from 1720 to 1757, and beyond in some cases. This is the somewhat looser fitting coat without lapels, although these are easy enough to paint on if desired, large turnbacks, longer coatee's, and fuller tricorne's. They would be just as suitable, properly painted of course, for Marlborough's campaigns as they would for the French at Fontenoy or Wolfe at Quebec. The mix of poses and the quantities of each figure are also well thought out. For my own purposes, I do wish they would have given us only 6 of the marching figure and added 3 more Grenadiers. Then 6 boxes would have produced 6 nice 40 figure battalions, including a complete battalion of converged Grenadiers. As it is though, 12 boxes will produce 12 very nice battalions, including the aforementioned Converged Grenadiers.

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This is one of the rarer cases where the cost/benefit ratio really does work out quite well for the plastic gamer. 12 Boxes of figures at roughly $7 USD each equals $84 USD, equals 12 Battalions of 40 figures each, making the cost per figure 17 and 1/2 cents each, with a few spare figures for conversions thrown in. Size-wise, they work out quite well also, being slightly (1 to 2mm) shorter than Revell Austrian and Prussian Musketeers and 1 to 2mm taller than the newer Italeri or A Call To Arms AWI French and British).

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Some of you may question the pikeman? Well, it would certainly be correct to field a company of pikes in the early part of the GNW or Marlborough's campaigns (even the British used them at Namur), but for later use, these will make excellent standard bearer's. I am one of those traditionalists who like to depict both the Regimental colors and the Colonel's color with my battalions; flags are pretty. While this figure may lack some historical validity as a Swedish pikeman with his pistol in his belt and drawn saber, cut that silly cartridge box off the front of the belt and add an appropriate sash using "green stuff" epoxy, putty, or even tube acrylic paint built-up in several coats, and you have a splendidly fierce looking Ensign to defend your colors.

I have now decided to use these figures to depict my Irish and Scots Brigades in the Army of M'Uedail. My Italians and Germans will still be Revell Austrians and Prussians. Unfortunately, Zvezda hasn't made the Cavalry to accompany these excellent figures yet, but have indicated that they "plan to", whatever that means in the world of plastic production. However, Strelets does produce GNW Swedish Cavalry that Will McNally has painted to great effect. Its a little too "animated" for my personal tastes, but does look very good "en masse" when painted. Strelets also do appropriate Artillery and Infantry of their own. I don't care for the Infantry, but the Artillery sets are nice, incorporating many individual poses that will make up into very nice looking gun crews.

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If I weren't so heavily involved in my Imagi-Nations project right now, and if "proper" Cavalry were available, I would seriously consider using these as the basis for an earlier "Lace Wars" campaign. The Russian set from Zvezda suffered from the same criticism's on PSR, and for the same reason, they are also "generic" Lace Wars figures in tricornes, this time without turnbacks. By combining these two sets, still very much in production and avaialbale at reasonable prices if one shops the net, you could easily field the armies of Marlborough and the Gallant Gentlemen of France and once again ravage the Low Countries and Southern Germany. Or, as the painted example shows (stole this from the Zvezda "Workshop"page), have these fellows fighting with and against Red Indians in the wilds of Canada or the Colonies. In fact, if you combine the Swedish set with some of the "ragged" American sets available in hunting shirts and such, you could do a very nice FIW campaign. Technically, the French should be in just their coatee's, but you can't always have everything.

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And as for my now huge collection of Revell SYW and all of my IMEX, Accurate, Revell, Call To Arms, Italeri and other AWI figures? Well, M'Uedail will need opponents, won't they? (Shhh, that's what I told the lovely Saint Katherine the Patient)

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Sir William

Composition of the Army of M'Eudail

I decided that it's time to post the proposed composition of my "little" army, as well as its "official" OoB. A word or two of reference is required here. I am using, at least at the moment, a set of "home brewed" rules that started as a modification of the old Bowden and Ray "Minuteman" rules many, many years ago. Ken Ray and I started the work, then a few years later Les Powell and I worked on converting them for League of Augsberg, and I am now going back and cleaning up the original work for the mid-18th Century, incorporating some new ideas that Ken and I didn't think of back then. The figure to man ratio is 1 casting or figure to 10 men, with artillery models being 1 gun model with appropriate crew (varies based on poundage and role) to 2 real guns. I am using Infantry "companies" of 8 figures (with five companies to a typical Battalion) and Cavalry "squadrons" of 12 figures (with two squadrons to a Regiment typically). I base my Infantry figures on company-sized stands drawn up in two ranks of 4 figures each. My cavalry is in a single rank of 3 figures on the same sized base. The actual size of the base isn't hyper-critical in these rules, but I have tried to allow for a base size that will allow players whose armies are based for other systems to adapt a common frontage using sabot bases or trays. I use metal stands that are 2 1/2" wide by 2" deep (originally made for Flames of War, I believe). This allows enough frontage and depth to adequately display my figures, accomodate some of the more "athletic" poses, and accomodate figures based for Old WRG, DBx, and many other rule sets. Please note that I am ONLY addressing 20mm, 1/72nd scale, or "true" 25mm figures here. Obviously if you have some of the newer large 28mm, or traditional 30mm figures , then these base sizes will not work for you. The same applies to smaller scales. My rules do not make provision for removing single figures, although they probably could. Instead I use a system of "Attrition" markers that incorporate fatigue and casulaties, with entire company-sized stands being removed when their total value is reached. I use markers to represent the Unit's overall Attrition status, and this status does effect their ability to perform in a cohesive manner on the battlefield. More on the rules later, here is the proposed OoB for the Army of the Duchy of M'Eudail.

Sir William

Introduction to the Army of the Duchy of M'Eudail

If you have checked out my other blog on the mythical Duchy of M'Eudail, a little detail is probably in order. Since this type of detail would be out of character for such an exalted personage as the Duc de Batau, I shall post it here instead.

I have chosen to use plastic figures almost exclusively to represent the Army, although I am waiting to examine potential recruits from both Historifigs (the old Scruby 25mm range) and Musket Miniatures (25mm AWI range) to fill in any gaps that I perceive. Why plastic? Well, I began this adventure intending to recreate the AWI with some of the great new plastics out there, until these wonderfully crazy Imagi-Nation types got hold of me. I still designate some of the figures I own, and some of the new sets that I'm acquiring, to the AWI stockpile. I will either complete my AWI project, or the Imagi-Nations of Greater Europa will go a-colonizing and need potential opponents.

Working with plastics does create some challenges, as the designer's seem intent (especially the newer Eastern Bloc ones) on putting as many different poses in a set as possible. Probably excellent for the dioramist, casual painter, "New Age" wargamer or child using these as toys. What's worse is that some of the poses are so extreme as to require the actual soldier being modeled to be a potential Olympic athlete! Definitely not Old School Wargaming. Most of us tend to like our 18th century armies to be composed of nice, orderly ranks of disciplined troops all following the lead of their companions. We usually do allow some variety in cavalry at the Charge, but not so much that a "unit" resembles an English fox hunting scene! The plastic manufacturer's also seem to be enamored of the loading pose, and in some cases, the "I have no real idea what I'm doing, so I'll just kneel here awhile" pose. If your goal is to create true OSW style battalions and squadrons, this usually means acquiring more plastic than you really need to get the proper mix of figures in acceptable poses. Another problem is that of standard bearers. Plastic manufacturer's like to completely ignore the fact that many, if not most, battalions of the musket era carried two colors. What's worse, many of them love to mold the single color-bearer in a heroic pose drawn from some painting where the flag is draped around the bearer's upper body like a toga; not the easiest thing to paint and certainly not the proper way to display the colors. I have made it a practice to pick out a suitable pose of figure and create standard bearers for my units. It robs me of a figure that I might use elsewhere, and usually requires some conversion, either by paintbrush or carving or both, to make this figure represent a proper Ensign. This is another reason that I am looking at some possible metal recruits. And finally, there is always the challenge of how to properly convert and paint the "bendy" little buggers. Fortunately, there are enough gamers around the world using plastics now (possibly the only good thing to come out of the DBx movement), that there are several very good sites that offer the latest tips on this, as well as news of which manufacturer's are trying new plastics that take conventional glues and allow different painting techniques. I will be posting links to some of these sites in case, like myself and a few others, you feel compelled to try plastics.

My biggest personal challenge is that I am just starting to get back into the hobby after a long absence and multiple eye surgeries. Once upon a time, I was a "championship" level figure painter, having won most of the recognized US competitions and commanding the highest prices for my painted troops. Where I used to be able to stay up all night, happily painting away to the strains of the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Cream or Hendrix actually shading 15mm and putting recognizeable eyes, lace and tartans on them; I now feel like a half-blind old man wearing 3X or greater magnifiers wishing I could actually see the little buggers and that my hands would stop shaking! I know part of this will just be a matter of re-learning my technique and developing my style within my new limitations, but it is frustrating at times. However, "Onward into the breach!", as the Man once said. Progress reports and pictures will follow, hopefully soon.

Bill