More Paper Models and Castings

In the attempt to outfit my armies to the hilt, I have continued to design and build paper models for my transport. Below are my latest.

This is the large Army Red staff car. It is based on a 1906 Rolls Royce. The driver is one of my originals with a Prince August head. I added the whiskers.

Here is an Army Red armoured car. It's based on the WWI Rolls Royce armoured car. The machine gun is a plastic (BMC?) model. The spoked wheels are made by wrapping sewing thread around a mattboard tire core. I then glued the printed exterior over the core. The thread is untreated, but still quite strong enough to support the model and then some.

This is the Army Red C-in-C. He is based on a photo of Lord Kitchener.

This is the Army Horizon Blue C-in-C. He is based on a photo of Field Marshall Joffre.

This is the Army Black C-in-C. He is not based on any historical person. He is more an operetic interpretation.

This is the surgeon, featured in previous posts. All of the above figures were casted in resin. I have since found that casting in white metal is an easier and more consistant material to work with.

Paper Models and Original Castings

In an effort to complete my armies as inexpensively as possible, I have begun to look at card models for some of my vehicles. To that end, I began my internet search for free card models. I found a number that I think I can use. The first was labeled "Antique Truck". This was a black and white line drawing which I colored using a very old software (Photo Studio from the mid-1990's). I used acetate for the windscreen and rear window.

In this color scheme, this truck is for Army Red. I have painted the driver to be part of the Engineer Corps. The driver's body is one of my original sculptures, cast in resin. The arms and head came from my Prince August Traditional Toy Soldier mold.

The next car came from a Japanese language site with hundreds of card models. The "Old Time" cars were designed to fit on a single sheet of paper, and were, therefore not to  scale.

Using my trusty CAD program, I traced over the original model, broke up the pieces to make it easier to assemble, and designed new wheels. I then saved the line drawing as a JPEG and colored it with "Paint". The car below is based on an 1908 Opel Doctor's Car.

The passengers are castings of my own original sitting body with my german dragoon head added. The arms came from my Prince August molds. I see this little two seater as my Army Black Scout Car.

Looking around, I haven't seen any figures for riding/driving in the vehicles used in the game. I've had about as much luck looking for support and command staff. I have made some original sculptures of figures for this purpose and also aquired a mold making kit for reproducing these figures.

The figures below are my first castings. Most did not come out of the mold in the condition pictured. Air bubbles had to be filled and missing parts had to be replaced.

These first three are Staff members for my Army Black. The left figure is wearing a Jeagers Shako, the center figure has a field cap, and the right figure has the grenadier's mitre. The body is my generic Staff Officer. The center figure has the original head (turned slightly from the original pose). The other two heads come from a set of 4 I did for different Army Black troop types.

This final figure is the "Grand Duchess of Gerolstein". She is based on a painting of the actress that portrayed the duchess in Offenbach's time. Unfortunately, I could not do that lovely lady's face justice with my meager talents.  However, I think she'll make a respectable "hanger on" for my Army Black.

The drivers pictured above round out the first four molds I was able to produce with this mold making kit. I am currently refining my casting techniques to produce better castings. With the next kit, I hope to produce my three army commanders; Army Red, Army Black, and Army Horizon Blue.

Heliograph Team and Caisson

In my continuing endeavor to complete my Army Red Division, I have added two more elements, heliograph teams and caissons.

 The first is a group of 4 heliograph teams (one of which is pictured below). Each team is made up of 3 members, the figures being standard Prince August castings. To these I added the tunic pockets. The pockets are made of plain paper, white glued to the figure. I then primed and painted the figure, which will keep the pockets permanently in place.

I scratch built the heliograph from styrene rods, sheet styrene, floral wire and Kneadatite. The legs are made from the rods. I used a paper hole punch to make the mirrors out of the sheet styrene, and arms for the mirrors are the floral wire. The Kneadatite holds the mirror assembly to the legs.

The caisson was cobbled together using parts from three plastic limbers. The caisson itself uses the axle tree from one limber, which was lengthened with popsicle sticks and sheet styrene. To this a second ammo box was added. The third (complete) limber is used to tow the caisson.

New for Army Red and Army Black

Recently I posted my proposed Division organization for Army Red to the FLW website. I am also working on a division for Army Black (which I hope to post its organization soon). At this point I have most of the combat units completed ( I still have some Army Black combat troops to finish) and I'm am now mainly working on the support troops.

To that end, I've built the following units: The Bavarian Gard Du Corps for Army Black and Artillery Support and Commissary for Army Red.

Here is the Bavarian Gard Du Corps. They were made from the body of the Dutkin's British Horse Guards and the head of a Dutkin's French Napoleonic Chevau-Leger. My only complaint is that the head was a little big for the body.

This is my Army Red Field Artillery command. The rules do not specify a battery command, but I needed someone to hold their flag. I scratch built the rangefinder from styrene rods for the legs, aluminum tubing for the sight and some green putty. The figures are Prince August traditional toy soldiers. The left and right figures stock, with minor modification to the arms. The sighter Was bent at the waist to look through the scope.

Finally, I have my to staffers for the echelon. Again, these are standard Prince August soldiers. The modification to these was the hat. I clipped off the "overhang" on the soft cap and filed it smooth to make the cap.

Building An Echelon

As my armies are nearing their full compliment of soldiers, I've figured it was time to start on the support units. To that end, I've started building the large support features; the Echelons and the Hospitals. Here, I will explain how I constructed Army Black's echelon.

Step 1 - I marked the locations of the frames, drilled the holes, and mounted the frames. The main frame is made from clothes hanger. The cross frames are floral wire.

Step 2 - Flock the base. I flocked the inside of the tent as well.

Step 3 - Mark the paper for the tent back. I used textured paper. I repeated the process for each side.

Step 4 - Apply glue to the flaps and wrap them around the frame. Stretch the paper as tight as possible. Do the front and back.

Step 5 - The vertical tabs for the tent sides are attached to the inside of the front and back walls. I started with the vertical tab on the front wall. I then attached the horizontal tabs from front to back and finally the back vertical tab was attached. Repeat the process for the other side.

Step 6 - Glue boxes inside the tent. I found the large boxes at the juniorgeneral.com. The smaller boxes are prototypes from the Virtual Armchair General. I placed the boxes before putting on the roof because its easier than trying to stack them through the door. I stacked them in a "U" shaped pattern around the door so I didn't have to build tons of boxes.

Step 7 - Mark and cut out the roof. The roof is then glued on. The tabs for the roof are glued to the outside of the tent so they should be made as small as possible.

This completes the tent.

The flag pole is made from a clothes hanger. I used a peice of brass tubing to hold the flagpole. this allows the flagpole to be removed for storage. The barrels came from the hobby store. The labels are from Patrick at TVAG, as are the other boxes and the flags.

Here are the finished products:
Army Black Echelon

Army Red Echelon

New Figures for The Next Skype Game

 The next Skype FLW game will have close to a division on each side. To meet this goal, I've had to do a lot of work to get troops together. Here are the results of my labors:

First is the Army Red Field Artillery.  These are Prince August castings with modified arms.

These are Prince Attila's Own Leib Grenadiers. They are from a Dutkins WW1 German Infantry mold. This figure is considerably larger that a 54mm and larger than the other WW1 Genman infantry mold I have from them.

These are my Bavarian Jagers. They were made from the Dutkin's American Civil War sharpshooter mold with a head swap from the Dutkin's WW1 German Infantry mold. I then added the crest with Kneadatite. 

Here is my Army Black artillery crew. They are made from the same castings as the Jagers above. However, for these guys I just filed the helmet spike down into a ball and gave them new hands and tools.                     

Finally, this is my Army Black mounted officer. The body is a Dutkin's American Civil War officer and the head is also from a Dutkin's mold. I added the epaulettes and whiskers with Kneadatite. The telescope is made from aluminum and plastic tube. The horse is a cheap plastic one, I believe made by Amaricana. 

All of the flags used were created by Patrick Wilson as were the buildings seen in the background. These are, or will be available through The Virtual Armchair General. The backdrops were hand painted by myself on cardboard boxes that I opened up to lay flat. To use  the backdrops, I tucked the bottom flaps under my table covering and proped them up with chairs. Each panel is about 20" tall and 5' long. This seems to be tall enough to hide most of the clutter in my game room during a Skype game while still allowing me to reach over the backdrop to move figures.

Update to the War of 1912 cmpaign

I finally got back to do a little work on the campaign game. To that end, I have created this map of the campaign area. I am thinking that there might be four campaign moves per year. so I need to detrimine the movement rates based on the regions of the map.

Army Commands

As I am gearing up for a special game I notice a major deficency in my armies, namely I have no command figures. For my game, I only need one brigade command group for each side. The Army Red command group will be riding in a car. The driver and seated general are made from Americana Civil War cavalry figures. The runner is a standard Prince August figure. I have also made foot figures if they dismount.

The Army Black staff is on foot. These are also Prince August figures, but with heads from my Dutkin's WW1 German mold.

My forces are now ready for the game.

Army Black

I figure that I'll probably be playing FLW in some sort of solo fashion, so I will need two armies. I have made good progress on my Army Red already, so I decided to start on an opponent. I selected Army Black as my second army. I chose them for two reasons, first they are a good enemy for any other army. Secondly, I wanted to try out the Dutkin molds and the WW1 German Advancing looked like a good figure.

I've completed two units so far. The first I painted as regular Prussians in the 1890's color scheme.

I know they don't have the right collar for the 1890's but hey, this is Army Black. For the next unit, I went to the cigarette cards I posted to the FLW Group to create a Bavarian style unit. I clipped the spike on the helmet then added the woolen crest.