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Minifigs do 15mm Texas Longhorn cattle that might fit the bill.  As usual with the Minifigs website the pictures don’t do the figures justice (but they have at least managed to take a photograph of the correct figure, which isn’t always the case).  The horns are cast separately and need to be attached:

They are available here: Minifigs Wild West

 

 

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Derek H wrote:

I never understood why people even considered buying Peter Laing. There was a time when they did periods that weren’t available elsewhere. But you could only ever tell what they were meant to be by reading the label on the packaging.

I bought them because I wanted to try 15mm figures and the adverts in Military Modelling cunningly didn’t include any pictures.  Boy was that a waste of pocket money.

 

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I haven’t bought any of them but there is a photo of painted examples on the home page of the Museum Miniatures website and the actual figures look a lot less chunky than the 3D rendering.

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Geof Downton wrote:

Phil Dutré wrote:

Don’t the authors have a faq or something?

Almost – at least as far as movement is concerned – page 175 and following. No need to sign up to Facesemaphore…

Yes, it turns out I should have read the rules properly because it is all made clear in the explanation to plate 4.  @Blackhat got it right.

Not the first time I have failed to understand a ruleset because I didn’t actually bother to read it.

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Phil Dutré wrote:

But you cannot have an opinion on the average value of a die roll, or on whether the French army was beaten at Waterloo. YMMV.

You want to try saying that on a certain other website.  I think you will find that the French army wasn’t beaten.  It retired in good order and Napoleon would have led them to victory if it hadn’t been for incompetents like Grouchy and Ney.  And anyway the British cheated by paying other people to fight their battles for them.  And it shouldn’t be called Waterloo – it should be called the Battle of La Belle Alliance, which Blucher suggested.  But then he was pregnant by an elephant at the time so what does he know?

And any wargamer will tell you that averages are irrelevant because the dice are always against you.

Or something like that.

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Blackhat wrote:

I would assume it means you can move 3 square if moving forwards but only 2 square is moving sidewise or backwards Mike

Hi Mike,

I just saw your reply.  I think your reading makes sense.  It solves the problem, which had been puzzling me, of how Light Infantry move if they have got an obstacle in front of them.  I was half-convinced that the first part of their move always had to be forward and so they could end up stuck on a riverbank.

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Hi John,

You are probably right – though to me  the words “any other direction” seems to imply that the second part of the move cannot be in the same direction as the first part of the move.

Oh well, it is reassuring to know that even if I had been around at the birth of wargaming I still wouldn’t have understood what the rule writers were trying to say.

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I love the look of the game.  I can really imagine a marquetry game board based on the design in the rulebook.  I’m not sure I understand the rules though.  The first line left me scratching my head:

“Light Infantry moves one, two, or three squares, at the discretion of the player, directly forward, right or left obliquely, and one or two squares in any other direction”

Does that mean they can move five squares in total but only three can be forward or obliquely (which I assume means diagonally in a forward direction?) and the other two have to be sideways or backwards?

 

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@Piyan Glupak  – I’m glad the books are going to be useful.  It sounds like I will have to get them myself.  I’ve got a bunch of Ottomans sitting in a shoe box and I really should get them out and get on with painting them.

 

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Ten Fingered Jack wrote:

What’s wrong with “Our Moccasins Trickled Blood”

The title?

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Mike wrote:

I will do it here, over the next few days..

Excellent.  I shall look forward to it.  It will fuel my daydreams about commissioning my own range of figures (which will look exactly like 2nd gen Minifigs).

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Mike wrote:

Alas the article had a word limit so I could not have covered that. Here however….

I would love to read about it here.  But you could also pitch it as a follow up article for Miniature Wargames.  That way you get a penny for your thoughts (and I might even buy the magazine – which I must confess is something I have never done).

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Mike wrote:

I have just been invited to write a short piece on wargaming and my take on it for Miniature Wargames magazine. Thing is, does anyone really care what this particular middle aged white man thinks about the hobby?

I’m very late to the party on this one so you may well have already written the article but I for one would be very interested in what you have to say.  For one thing you have done something that I have always wanted to do but almost certainly never will do: you have commissioned your own range of wargaming figures.  I would love to know how you went about this – how you found sculptors, what the design process was, how much it cost, what the pitfalls were.  It is a side of the business I know next to nothing about and I would be fascinated to read an article by someone who has first-hand experience.

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I could be wrong, but weren’t both the Italian Levy and the Calabrian Free Corps light infantry so all companies would have had green plumes?  They are included in the Osprey Wellington’s Peninsula Regiments (2) – The Light Infantry by Mike Chappell where they are both shown with green plumes and the description says: “The clothing, equipment and weapons of these two skirmishers are all from British sources and but for their blue jackets they might be mistaken for British Light Infantry. ”  It then goes on to recommend the Osprey Émigré & Foreign Troops in British Service (2): 1803-15 for more detailed information.

In Mike Chappell’s  illustrations (which you can find online if you Google the title of the book) the jacket colour is shown as being the same  for both regiments.  It’s dark blue rather than bluey-green.

 

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My pleasure Piyan.  Let me know what you think of them.  I may have to buy them myself (I have found from past experience that Santa tends to ignore my Christmas book list and brings me scarves and socks instead).

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I haven’t read this (it’s on the Christmas list I sent to Santa) but it looks pretty good: The Napoleonic Ottoman Army

By the same author there is also a Napoleonic Ottoman wargaming guide

If you buy both of these together you can get them at a discount: Napoleonic Ottoman Bundle

Caliver also sells a book of scenarios for battles involving Ottomans.  It is designed for General de Brigade but I imagine it is easily adaptable to other rule sets: Against the Ottomans

 

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willz wrote:

I can’t help thinking that a shovel under the wheels or a sharp stick to puncture the wheels would solve his problem.

That and a new tailor.

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Thanks guys,

I have checked out the Rank & File figures but they look quite different from the ones being sold on eBay.  Rank & File Crimean War

However, the Rank and File figure that Tony S linked to does look similar so maybe they remodeled the range at some point?

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Thanks OB.  I’ve been through the current Freikorps ranges and haven’t managed to find any matches for the figures.  I like them because they have got a gangly, old school charm about them.  I’m not sure I actually like them enough to buy them but I am tempted.

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Thanks bobm. If it is any help here are some cavalry and artillery figures (which I assume are by the same manufacturer but may not be!)

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Hi Jonathan,

The update is much appreciated as ever.  Congratulations on your detective work. Even if I don’t know how to pronounce планшевый I do now know what colour it is.

Just to let you know, the page works fine when I use Safari to access it, but if I use Firefox the illustrations of the sword knots and pompoms fail to show up.

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I don’t think I can bring myself to start performing full amputations at this stage – I would like to keep the original figure as intact as possible – but ultimately I may end up going down that route.  At the minute, I seem to be doing a pretty good job of making an already damaged figure well and truly broken.

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Just to update things, yesterday I had my first attempt at drilling out the hand on a 15mm pikeman and it ended in complete failure. Not only did I fail to drill through the figure’s hand but I managed to break the plume off his helmet in attempting to do so.

I’m not going to give up just yet but I am not sure I am going to have the patience – or a steady enough hand – to do a complete unit.  I think a more realistic option for me may be to drill a hole in the base of the figure to anchor the pike and then just carve a groove in the figure’s hand and glue the pike into the slot.

 

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I use Minifigs which are listed on the website as 10/12mm. So maybe I get the best of both worlds?  Or maybe they are just hedging their bets.

http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Home.aspx

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I would buy the same thing I always buy if I have got some spare money: 15mm 2nd gen Minifigs. I would probably be able to get about two hundred infantry for that. For some reason it doesn’t matter how many I buy (or how few I paint) I always seem to need more.

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The Perry figures are very nice.  You will certainly end up with a good-looking army.  The book by Bill Rawkins will only be published digitally and whilst it is due to be published this year I imagine that the current situation puts that into doubt so you may need to rely on the books you already have to get started.

I expect you have already found this, but there is a pretty good guide to Danish uniforms (including lots of pictures of painted Perry figures) here: https://www.chakoten.dk/wp-content/uploads/Danish-Infantry-of-the-Line-and-Light-Infantry-1803-1814.-The-Perry-Achievement-.pdf

Good luck with the project.

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Thanks again for all the replies.  It all sounds like good advice.  I’ve placed my order and I should get my drill (and some blutack) some time next week.  I will let you know how I get on.

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Thanks for the replies everyone.  Tonight I shall order myself pin vice and a set of drill bits.  I will hold off on the desk clamp for now and see how I get along without it.  Then, when the bleeding has stopped, I will buy one.

You have also sold me on brass rod.  Is 0.5mm reasonably sturdy or do I need to go for something a bit thicker (the next available size seems to be 0.8mm)? I don’t want to replace bendy pikes with something just a prone to bend.

Finally, does anyone know whether it is possible to buy packs of drills of one size (for example a pack of 10 x 0.8mm drills)?  All the adverts I have found are for sets of drills of different diameters and whilst I will buy a set to get me started it would be handy to be able to buy a pack of whichever drill turns out to be the right size for a 15mm Minifig fist.

 

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Thanks Tony,

This is probably a stupid question but how do you tell if you are buying good quality drill bits?  Is price the only guide to this or is there a brand you would recommend?

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Looking at the hands on my renaissance pikemen I think I will need something under 1mm but I am not sure how feasible this is.  I think it will take a very steady hand to drill successfully without snapping the bit.

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Thanks Mike,

That looks like just the job.

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Hi Ben,

I’m afraid I can’t offer much guidance because the the only Danish Napoleonic troops I have are languishing unpainted somewhere in the lead pile but I would be interested to hear about your progress.  What figures are you using and what are you using as uniform guides?

My favourite paint is the Miniature Paints line from Ral Partha Europe.  However, even this recommendation is of little help because the company relaunched the range last year with a Kickstarter, which for some reason reduced the selection of colours on offer and now the palette is so limited as to be virtually useless: http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/miniature-paints-c-54/?sort=20a&page=1

With uniform guides there is a chance that Bill Rawkins’ study, The Army of Denmark-Norway 1800-1814, may still be published later this year and if it is it will be well worth getting.  His works are a labour of love:  they provide a wealth of information and are remarkably reasonably priced.

Stephen

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Back in the day I got taken to task for calling them marines on another miniatures website.  If memory serves it was a well-known linguist and close, personal friend of Colonel Elting who put me right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it).

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Thanks Geof,

Much appreciated.  So it seems he was knighted for his service in the Peninsular War.

Best wishes

Stephen

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Those are cool ghouls.

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I think they look great jeffers.  I bought a few sample Hinchcliffe AWI figures from Hinds a couple of years ago and they really are very nice and full of character.  Some of the one piece casting cavalry figures are particularly good (especially if you like your figures in action poses).

In the end I decided to go for 15mm figures – mainly because I am such a slow painter that I find the idea of painting a whole unit of 25mm figures very daunting.

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I think that’s a wonderful little army. Those Minifigs paint up really well. Nice work.

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Thanks OB.  I’ll have to give that a go.  It really makes them look like they are made of wood.  You had me wondering whether you had replaced the pikes with cocktail sticks.

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Nice pictures.  I particularly like your pike unit.  How do you get the wood effect on your pike shafts?  It’s really effective.

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