Some new acquisitions to the collection

On my work we have a 'Secret Santa' arrangement each December, where we secretly draw a name from a box and secretly gives this person a gift for Christmas. Last Christmas one of my colleagues and 'not so Secret Santa' told me that he didn't pick my name from the box this year, but he wanted to give me something anyway. He just had to find it first. So last weekend while we were working together he handed me a reasonable full plastic bag, which contained several smaller bags:

I took a brief look at them and could tell that there were many plastic soldiers in 54mm-ish scale, mostly WW2 knock-offs from Matchbox. When I got home I finally got a chance to take a closer look at them.

In the first bag I checked there were 100 German soldiers. It was a mix of Airfix infantry, Matchbox infantry and Matchbox German Africa Corps. It was a clear majority of Matchbox soldiers. What I really like with these knock-off sets is the number of officers. Where the original set have only one, this German lot have 12 + 5 "Rommels" (Useful for any high ranking officers though):

The second bag contained 66 British 8th Army figures in a mix of Airfix and Matchbox knock-offs, and again mainly Matchbox poses. 8 officers:

It seems inevitable that all lots of plastic soldiers also contains a detachment of American WW2 Infantry or 'Army Men'. This lot contained 70 of them, and they were all Matchbox. Looks like I got some 'Snowball-fighter' replacements.

There were also some 31 Japanese soldiers in one bag. Some few of them are Airfix copies, but the rest of them I'm really not sure. Perhaps Atlantic??

All of them togheter:

Being knock-offs they're usually not 'true 54mm scale', as they are often smaller. These are some 50mm+ and lines up pretty well to those Army Men I've already painted and used for wargaming.

All the different plastic soldiers in this collection are made to the same size:

They have some flash and mold lines, but that can easily be trimmed away. Those of them who have small wobbly bases I plan to equip with larger 3D-printed bases.

Adding these soldiers to the collection of the cheap plastic soldiers I've acquired earlier I now have a big stockpile of figures for future figure and painting conversions and wargames.

Mark Man of Tin Blog recently published a couple of very interesting postes regarding using pound store plastic soldiers to make wargaming inexpensive and achievable. There are some really interesting point of views in the comment section of those blogger posts as well. Please pay them a visit.

I belong to those who like to wargame on a budget using whatever available. I don't care if my miniatures are not made to a specific brand or rules, as I'm happy converting them to those wargames and scenarios I want to play (usually free rules found online. Check my rules menu in the menu to the right). So these new acquisitions makes it possible for further conversions and new scenarios.

Norway 1940 is mentioned....
- I don't want to rule it out.

In these bags there were also some accessories for my Army Men. They can get useful:

There were also some few other figures in the lot. Airfix Cowboy and Indians knock-offs, and an Airfix British paratrooper which is copied to the unrecognisable:

And some few 1:76 Airfix originals; RAF Ground personell, Washingtons army, German Gebirgsjägers, 8th Army and some very few French Napoleonic artillery crew. There were also some 1:72 scale American WW2 infantry which were knock-offs of the Airfix 1:32 scale originals:

And there were even 3 small (smaller than 28mm) metal miniatures. Looks like they are from 'The  Lord of the rings':

So thank you so very much for the gift not-so-secret-Santa Jørgen. These will provides hours of fun, converting them, painting them and deploy them in future wargames.

Please follow my blog for future updates.

DAS Pronto soldiers - A DIY soldiers moulding from air-drying clay

When John Yorio at 54mm or Fight was sculpting his own miniatures by using air-drying clay, it made me start thinking if air-drying clay also would be suitable for small plastic figure conversions?
When searching the internet for tips or tricks for using air-drying clay for plastic miniatures conversions, I didn't actually find much, so perhaps that's not a proven method??

- What I did find however was the product name of such air-drying clay I remembered using as a kid; DAS Pronto. It's an Italian product from 1963. This made me remember a birthday gift I got from my beloved sister when I was a kid; It was a DAS Pronto moulding kit for moulding your own Cowboy & Indians with the air-drying clay. Perhaps not a coincidence that such a set came from Italy at the time several 'Spaghetti Westerns' were made there? I remember DAS had other similar sets with football players, animals, custom cars and buildings too. 

You added clay to the pres fit mould, and after releasing it from the mould again, the miniature could be posed as desired and you could push-fit different weapons, hats, and different equipment in them while the clay was still soft. After the clay had hardened it could be painted and varnished. The only limitation to how many you could make was the available accessories. I'm not sure where I have my moulds anymore, but I've borrowed some images from different forums and adds at ebay to give you an idea. These are similar to the Cowboys & Indians I had:

What I've discovered recently, and didn't know at the time, was that there were similar sets from DAS to mould soldiers from the American Civil War as well. One mould for soldiers with kepis and one mould for soldiers or officers with hats, and you could off-course combine them and using them for making a blue and a grey army:

There was even a 'maxi' combination-set of the 2 sets above, with cardboard fortress and a 'battle mat' to be colored:

Another interesting thing I've recently discovered with these DIY 'DAS soldiers', is that they even made 'modern' Army Men. I can't remember seeing any of those in Norway:

While working on this blogger post I've also found out that the made Sci-fi Space warriors:

And D&D 'miniatures':

Here are some of the other DIY figure sets from Das Pronto with skiiers, American football players, soccer players and ice hockey players:

Of all these different sets, I've only seen the Cowboy & Indian set in Norway.

This is not a sudden change of focus for me in the wargaming hobby, as I have no plans for start making DAS figures again. I just thought I would share the information if someone finds it interesting. It would be interesting though if anyone has pictures to share of the 'finished product' of soldiers from DAS. -And especially if anyone used them for wargaming.

On the other hand, if DAS can be used for moulding figures, would the same air-drying clay be suitable for making smaller conversions on plastic figures? Anyone having experience with this??

It seems like DAS also was marketing and aiming towards the military modelling market too:

Thank you for the gift Sonja❤️ 

Snowball Fight Rules

 Snowball Fight Rules according to my scenario and interpreted by ChatGPT 

This is one of the (war-) game I had no idea I was going to play this year. When I ended up playing it so early on this year after all, it was because Alan at Duchy of Tradgardland played this game at New Year and urged others to try it out over the 'New Year'. I thought at least I could take a look at the rules as they're free, but actually nothing more as I didn't have any snowball-fighters for such a game. Alan suggested that I could make some by using ChatGPT to generate some images for some useful paper-miniatures. Another alternative for me could simply be to 3D-print some off course, as I'm already 3D-printing some few new miniatures for some other coming wargaming projects. First of all I went over to Mark at the Man of Tin-blog to have a look at the actual rules for this game. They seems very fast to learn and easy to play and I didn't need more than about 4 miniatures each side, so I decided to see this as another challenge and 'give them a go'.

Preparing the game

I've played with the idea to do a 'non-lethal' wargame with Army Men ever since I discussed 'non lethal wargaming' in the comment-section with Mark. And if I was to try it I considered to arrange this as a classic 'snowball fight'. So firstly I needed to get some snowball-fighters, as I didn't have any.  I see that Mark at Man of Tinblog have used hand-grenade throwers in his 'Snowball Fights'. I think the hand-grenade thrower from my Matchbox knock-offs army men are one of the most useless poses for wargaming purposes as he has no rifle or sidearm (I think North Koreans were the only ones going to battle only armed with hand grenades), and think this pose will be very suitable for a snowball-throwing soldier. When looking through my stocks of available Army Men I didn't find many 'grenade-throwers' left as I've used most of them for creating Fog of war Ghost units or medics.

This photo is not mine, but it shows that's others too consider this pose as usable for a 'army men medic'

I found a free STL-file that could be 3D-printed on Thingiverse of a low resolution/crude 'Grenade Snowball-thrower' of a similar type:

Courtesy of Thingiverse and the creator. This figure is made to 54mm in the file.

To 3D-print and paint 8 54mm scale figures would be time-consuming, so I considered to re-scale the miniatures and print them to a smaller scale. Another thing that would take a lot of time was to make a suitable winter scenery and a suitable 'battleground' for a snowball-fight, It would be nice to play this game outside in the snow too, but the snow are disappearing rapidly now so playing it outside was not an option anymore. I made some suitable winter-spruces earlier this winter (actually designed for wargaming), but these were already glued down on my 'Christmas Layout'. Earlier this winter Michael at Wargaming with 54mm Toy Soldiers blog asked in the comment section in one of my blog-posts if I had sought for a method for combining my wargaming hobby with my model railway hobby, and suggested that the mentioned threes were multi-scaled and perhaps a starter (?).  -Well, What a splendid idea!! I could arrange a snowball fight with the 'Snowball Fight rules on my 'Christmas Layout' in 1:87 scale (H0e - narrow gauge).

I 3D-printed the originally 54mm scale grenade/snowball-thrower to 1:87 (H0) scale (19mm tall) to see if it was possible to reduce the file so much, and if so, see if was possible to print it on my filament-printer and get a decent result as well.

The slightly 'smaller than 54mm' Matchbox knock-off as a comparison next to my 1:87 scale one

His details are a little 'blurry' as the STL-file he's printed from is so too. It's clearly what pose this is and what he's doing. -Besides in this small scale it won't be too notable anyway as soon as it's painted. 

I think the result was good enough, so I decided to 3D-print 8 such army men in H0-scale. To get some slight variation to them I printed 4 regular ones, and 4 mirror-imaged. I guess those are the 'links shooters'. 

I added some new bases to them as well. Snow on the bases and snowballs are made with thick 'snow paint' from the craft shop which are on sale now

I also printed a couple of M29 Weasels which could serve as a 'HQ' for each side according to the rules.

The Christmas, Pizza Layout which I intended to use as a battleground for this wargame, is actually arranged like an Advent Wreath with 4 candles. They would look out of place now, so I made up and 3D-printed some trees that could replace the candles. It also makes the model railway look more like a layout.

Since everything was scaled down, I replaced the 'lollystick' measurer in the rules with a match. -Which I had several leftovers after emptying a matchbox to join the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge', so the ranges would match (no pun intended) the size of battlefield/scenery and scale.

The scenario

This 'Snowball-fight' take places in 1960 during the Norwegian winter exercise "Blefjell-60". A reconnaissance patrol from "Team Red" are about to enter the small junction of "Svingen" from east with their M29 Weasel, at  the very same time as a reconnaissance patrol from "Team Blue" arrives "Svingen" from west (also in a Weasel):

There are no "battle referees" present to "judge" the highly unofficial battle in this small clash, so both patrols sees an opportunity; After a week of exercising their boxes of MREs are out of 'exotic meals' so both patrols decides to raid the "enemy's" Weasel and steal their rations of MREs to see if they have more exciting rations left. Since guns with "blanks" won't do in this battle, perhaps snowballs will.

Snowball-fighters hit twice must return to their vehicles where they have their medical kit to patch up for 2 turns. The optional rule for frozen fingers are not an issue, as these soldiers are equipped for Arctic warfare.

Forces:

• Team Blue (are usually just "unmarked"):

The 4 team members of Team Blue, their M29 Weasel "HQ", the cardboard box with MREs and the big snowballs are only activation tokens

• Team Red:

The 4 members of Team Red, their M29 Weasel "HQ", the cardboard box with MREs and 4 giant snowballs as activation tokens

Mission:

• Both teams will try to get by another and get to the 'enemy's' M29 Weasel and steal their box of MREs and bring it back to their own.
• Team Red will let 2 members advance along 2 flanks each.
• Team Blue will let one member defend their M29 Weasel, and let 3 members advance along 2 flanks; 2 in front of the station and 1 behind.

The Game

Time:    2 hours and 15 minutes

Turns:   33 (!)

Result:  We might call this a Draw

The mini-dice I used for 'hit stats' wasn't very 'mini' anymore compared to my H0 miniatures (the track gauge is 9mm). The Blue got the initiative first, and started to advance towards 'Reds':

The Read team couldn't see any from the Blue team yet, and started their advance along 2 flanks:

When reaching the station building at "Svingen" the Blue team could see that the 'Reds' were approaching, and took cover behind the corners and some nearby vegetation:

The Blues tried to surprise the advancing Reds with an ambush. The range was a little too long to give the really moment of surprise as the Blue team missed:

The Reds returned 'fire', and soon there was a heavy snowball fight going on:

And it looks like the Reds were a little bit better "throwers" than Blue:

Throwing more accurate and longer gave the Reds the initiative in the snowball fight:

Which let the Reds keep pushing the Blues back:

Hit! The Blue team-member must return to his Weasel to get the first aid kit:

The Reds team keeps pushing the Blues back...

...But Blue team does not easily gives up their base and cardbox of MREs:

And a fierce snowball fight take place just outside the 'Blue base':

Having a team-member to defend their base was clever. He managed to avoid letting members from the Red team enter their base:

And soon both the Red team members are driven on retreat:

The Blue team decides to use the Red retreat to regain the initiative in the battle and make an assault on the 'Red base':

The Blues meets a single Red in the woods...

...but the Red is chanceless and soon he's retreating as well:

Now the battle had developed to "a Race" to reach the Red base first:

And it looks like members from the Blue team is about to win this "Race":

The single Red soldier at the Red base has just patched up, and are taken by surprise by 2 Blue team-members, and their snowball assault is massive:

This enables one of the Blue team-members to make a run for it and enter the 'Red base' and grab that cardboard box of MREs:

By this time I had to fight his way out of the base too:

But he succeeds and keep on running with the box:

Can this become a 'Home Run' for the Blues? The Reds hurries up to patch up and go into battle again:

And they shoots the Blue team-member with the box in the back and he drops it:

Now the Reds are in the initiative again:

And they tries to use the Blues failed assault to race back to the Blue base:

But the Blue Team are putting up a defense line...

...and are ready to fight for their box of cardboard:

A heavy snowball fight evolves...

...and soon it's an inferno of hailing snowballs:

The Blue team manage to stop the Red offensive...

...and make the Read team retreat a second time:

This snowball fight just seems to wage back and forth, so while driven the 'Reds' off and holding their ground, The Blue team decides to embark their vehicle and leave:

Pros

• The rules are free.
• The rules are very fast to learn and easy to play.
• It's a non-lethal wargame.

Cons

• This cons is not really a cons on the rules them selves. I just didn't find any information about the turn sequence in link to the rules initially provided by Alan. I found it when I searched in older blogger-posts by Mark on Man of Tin blog, and through the development of these rules though: Turn sequence is to roll for initiative, side A moves, side B moves, side A throws snowballs and then side B throws.

Conclusion

While I've been working on this project with making miniatures, terrain, painting them, and struggling to get ChatGPT to make the images I'm asking for, Mark at Tinblog have also been working on a soldier themed snowball fight. It's been very interesting and motivating to follow his work with his WW1 snowball fight with classic toy soldiers. Any similarities are not intentional from my side (as I've been working on this project for about a month now).

To have them readily available and make it easier to play, I copied the rules from Mark's blog, pasted them into a 'Word document' and printed them. Here is a link to the rules I printed.

This 'challenge' led me into combining 2 of my hobbies; model railways and wargaming. It also led me into wargaming in H0 scale (1:87), and I think this must be a seldom combination, if ever done before (?). So small miniatures in small fragile fixed terrain was an fiddly experience. I won't exclude the idea that I'll do it again, and will add another label for this.

Thanks to Mark for the idea of 'non lethal' wargaming and the rules, and to Alan for suggesting to play them this year. It kinda felt more relaxing to do a 'non lethal' wargame for a change. So I'll second Alan on this: "Go on give them a go".