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| My first project related banner... (still needs some detail work) |
I've been thinking about doing an American Civil War wargame project for some years now. This is an historic episode I've been really interested in since I saw Ken Burns' documentary in 1992. And in 2016 was the year I really began to look for a way to make an ACW project. But over the course of the years gone I couldn't bring myself to start with it because I was not perfectly happy with the variants available. For reasons that are not entirely understandable I had always imagined using large (54mm) figures for an ACW setup. I can't say why. But I fear I have been inspired, influenced or completely brainwashed by the Gettysburg gaming table seen in the Columbo episode 'Grand Deceptions' from 1989. Maybe that was the trigger, I don't know. Anyway, I always wanted to make (and own) something like that.
The table shows the third day at Gettysburg, Pickett's Charge. If I remember correctly, they say in that movie that there are 300 figures on the table, which I think is a bit exaggerated but the time needed for the lineup plays a role in the story. By the way, this is a real 'screenshot', I once took this photo from our TV screen. (You can find more and better photos from this Columbo episode on the Dougssoldiers Blog.)
Of course, big miniatures don't really make much sense in this context, because the battles of the American Civil War were often very large and therefore can be better represented with many small figures rather than a few large ones. Like most historical battles. However, one must always keep in mind that practically every wargame is just an abstract representation of a much larger and more complicated event. (Skirmishes and battles in the Middle Ages are excluded, they sometimes can be displayed in an original size.) So choosing large figures for this has nothing to do with logic, it's more a question of aesthetics or feelings.
The miniatures problem
But my fixation on 54mm figures for this project proved to be a problem, because suitable figures are difficult to get. I did not find a solution.
A combination of vintage (or new) Britains 'Deetail' figures and figures from 'A Call to Arms', 'Accurate', 'BMC Toys' and so on would have been possible. But that would end in a setup that may look cobbled together. Not that I am a purist or a 'quality' fanatic, in fact whenever I see 54mm toy soldier games I love it how people put figures from different manufacturers together to raise their armies (sometimes) without giving too much about visual details or the limitations that gaming in this size may have. I think especially in this toy soldier segment we see a wonderful relaxed approach to wargaming.
But I have my problems with soft plastic minis, I don't like the bend weapons and sometimes the really strange poses and sometimes the bad casting quality. And you may have to buy a lot of the same packages to get enough minis to make groups of figures that fit together. Some boxes for example have two marching men in it. So for a single column of 10 marching soldiers you need 5 Boxes. Of course you get with these packages the same amount of minis for other groups, but you also may get 10 wounded soldiers, 10 flag bearers and too much officers. And that means you pay for a lot of stuff you may not need.
And by the way, why are so many of the (plastic) shooting miniatures pointing their rifles at something on the ground some meters before them? Am I the only one who has the impression that they are hunting rabbits...? Look at the standing shooting Confederate in the photo below.
So, beeing a 'homecaster' I naturally thought about self casting and modeling. But I had exactly one(!) old Dunken mould in my collection and found only two more on Ebay. The ACW moulds never sold well here in Germany (in fact lousy) and consequential cannot be found used very often. A while ago I found a few recasts of Marx figures (see below) that I planned to use as masters for moulds. But this path 'promised' a lot of work and extra costs.
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| Some plastic minis as masters and some test castings from one Dunken mould. I wasn't very far... |
Another idea was 1/72 miniatures. But being an old fart with fond memories of past times I had the idea that IF a make it in THAT scale THEN I would make it ONLY with the old AIRFIX miniatures I know from childhood days. Nice idea.
The problem: others are doing this too. So the minis are hard to get and you always have to fight for it online. That's not funny. And since I have never really painted minis of that size (long forgotten childhood experiments excluded) I wasn't sure if should go this way. But on the other hand I also have collected a good amount of paper houses and terrain stuff for this era & size so this idea is not completely dead.
Then everything came at once...
...and suddenly the search was over. Someone on Ebay sold a complete inventory of PRINCE AUGUST & DUNKEN ACW moulds along with some additional moulds for cavalry and artillery all in one big offer. As it is often in cases like this, nobody had the balls to buy the stuff. Good for me, I purchased it, paid around 7 Euros for each mould, and got everything I was looking for in one single box. A little bit like the Colonel in that Columbo episode...
The moulds. Meanwhile cleaned with warm water, soap and an old nail brush and marked with a tire marker. 50 pieces at all, three of them twice. Well, I'm ready to make figures now. This summer will see me casting...
... if Mrs. Columbo does not have other projects for me.