Qualiticast 20mm ACW Range

Does anybody remember these? Qualiticast produced quite a wide range of 20mm figures (and later a range of 25mm Medievals I believe). The 20mm's included Ancient Romans & Gauls, Napoleonics, ACW & Pony Wars and a rather lovely Zulu War line. In my time I owned figures from all the 20mm ranges. The Civil War figures fitted in well with my Kennington ACWs and I have used their mounted officers in a lot of my command bases.

At the top we have General Buford from the "Union Army Camp at Gettysburg" set, why-oh-why didn't I get the Confederate camp as well?! He is the only figure from that set which I painted. The remainder, including the tent, Meade etc and Zouave Guards remain untouched.

Next we have a Confederate firing line (which I varnished gloss after a weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre-Second Bull Run if I remember correctly that year). The Union infantry marching are bottom left and who can forget their ingenious casualty figure. The same figure could be layed down on all four sides to produce a different casualty pose. The two right hand figures are as produced, the two left hand casualties have been tweaked slightly. All painted about ten years ago, still in use today!

Until I moved house two years ago I had a number of the Zulu War figures (including a really great 9pdr gun and crew) and the Ancient British chariot. Sadly that box of miniatures, which also included my entire collection of B&B Miniatures Franco Prussian War figures, appear to have been lost due to a mix up when loading the lorry...I have sworn a few times over that!

Who knows, one day Qualiticast may come back!

Casualty Markers

Newline also produce casualty figures for both infantry and cavalry. Very useful as casualty markers or as general "battlefield clutter". Here we have French, British and Prussians, painted ages ago. These are mounted on metal washers and come in handy for such rule systems as "Age of Eagles"-the Napoleonic version of "Fire and Fury" ACW rules.

The Austrian mounted Grenadier officers are now complete (bases are drying as I write) and the French mounted officers have been started as has a 32 figure Prussian battalion. I hope to start posting some of these in a couple of days.

Austrian Mounted Line Infantry Officers

Moving on from the numerous artillery postings I am now turning my attention to the many Newline Designs mounted officers, in this case Austrian Line Infantry. The Grenadier officers have been started and will probably be my next post.

All of the Newline Austrian mounted officers are wearing grey overcoats, it would be nice to see some in their white tunics as well. The range is being added to still, Austrian Horse Artillery were added this month according to the website (so there is hope).

I have also started a Prussian 32 figure battalion as well as picking up some French Empress Dragoons on eBay. All I need now is some interruption free time!

Emhar Plastic Zouaves

As I mentioned last week I have been very tempted to tackle some plastic figures. The Project Liepzig and Will's Wargaming blogs are to blame!

As it happened I saw these figures in my local model shop and was intrigued at the prospect of the "Poseable, Paintable & Can Be Glued" tag on the box. (OK, they are also 19th Century French figures as well!). This might not be the final "Nostalgia Project" I mentioned-but I had to have a go!

On examining the figures they are not made of "soft polythene" like my old Airfix warriors-but they do not appear to be made of the same plastic as the vehicle kits either. I particularly like the convincing baggy trousers, much better than the trousers-tucked-into-your-socks-look of some plastic Zouaves I have seen. There are some "silly" poses-but if I can cut and glue them I imagine the results could be very interesting. I will try and fit these in somewhere in my painting schedule and let you see the results. I feel like an investigative journalist!

Prussian Foot Artillery

Here are the first three completed Prussian artillery bases-the other three guns and crew are drying off at various stages of the basing process. They have come out a little lighter in these shots than in real life.

Over the holidays I have had time to think about future 20mm projects as well as continuing with the Napoleonics. After much research I have decided not to continue with the WW2 Desert War project (I have a growing 15mm collection of Italian campaign Germans and it seems silly to duplicate), but still fancy doing something "modern". I have a shortlist of two options-I plan to have a look at the figures at SELWG in October before making my final choice. Also, heavily inspired by Rafas Project Leipzig blog and the results achieveable using plastic figures I have been re-visiting the sites of various manufacturers and think I might like to do a real "nostalgia collection" i.e. a collection in plastic that I last tried to achieve when I was a lad! These are all longer term projects...but I like to plan ahead.

Russian Mounted Line Officers

It was great to watch "Waterloo" again last night, it really was an epic! Suitably enthused I have finished these 3 Russian mounted officers and am now half way through 6 Prussian guns and crew. They should all be ready by end of play tomorrow (then I can start that French artillery I was planning to post next). Once again I have been struck at how good the Russians actually look in their green uniforms-plus they can appear with Prussians and/or Austrians at the same ttime, which makes for a colourful battlefield.

Best War Film Ever?

I have not had the time to pick up a paintbrush this week-thanks to all of those last minute jobs that needed to be done before the kids return to school (such as trying on last years school blazer to find it covers less than the Tee shirts they have been living in all summer x3!).

So I decided to treat myself to what I consider to be "The Best War Film Ever" on DVD. It arrived this morning (I had the video cassette version but no video player!) and tonight I will be sitting down with my youngest son, a big bag of Doritos and some Dr Pepper and introduce him "Waterloo".

I am sure we will then spend the rest of the weekend setting up lines of his plastic figures. To say he is a "chip off the old block" is something of an understatement!