Derek's Wee Toys has moved

I've moved  this blog off to its own domain at http://dereksweetoys.com/

Basing Samurai for Skirmish and for Impetus

I recently came across  "Song of Blades and Heroes" by Ganesha Games and having played a couple of games I have been inspired to dig out and all sorts of old figures that have not seen the light in years.  Song of Blades is a fantastic system for skirmishing and you only need about eight to twelve  figures a side for a good game.
 
Among the figures that I've unearthed are these Dixon Samurai.   They have  been sitting in a box for somewhere near twenty years while I  tried to find a decent set of samurai skirmish rules to use with them.    The Song of Ninja and Katana variation found on the songofblades Yahoo Group fills the bill and I  have played one game so far.  Fantastic fun. 

The foot figures are based on two pence  pieces while the mounted figures are based on 25mm x 50mm ovals of 2mm mdf I had custom-made for me by Martin of  Warbases.co.uk .  Warbases don't advertise the fact on their web site, but they'll custom cut just about any base you want.   

I also want to use these Samurai to play the excellent Impetus, from Dadi & Piombo so I got Martin of Warbases to make me some custom sabots.

The sabots are 12cm x 6cm and the holes for the figures are 26.5mm - that's 0.5mm bigger than the two pence pieces I'm using for the  bases.   This leaves enough room for me to paint the edge of the bases.  Here is one of the sabots once I've finished it.

I have had similar sabots made for the cavalry, again the holes in the sabot are 0.5mm bigger than the bases.

The custom sabots cost me £1.20 a go with 60p for postage and packing.  That's the same price as Warbases charge for the various stock movement trays they make.  A bargain as far as I'm concerned.

I seem to be on an Italian kick at the moment, both  Song of Blades and Heroes and Impetus come  from Italian publishers.

 Credits:  Most of these figures were painted by Jack Glanville of Pioneer Professional Painting, though some were (badly) painted by myself many years ago and then extensively touched up by Jack.  I did all the bases myself.

More Burma

I've been playing quite a few games of Battlegroup Panzergrenadier based in Burma, 1944.

These pictures can also be seen in a Picassa album here.

Star Wars fighter battles.

Models from Studio Bergstrom and Star Wars Starship Battles miniatures from Wizards of the Coast, a mat from Hotz Artworks and my own modification of the Bag the Jedi rules featured in the 2008 Summer Special from Toofatlardies.


Bergstrom's "Spilt Wing Fighter". As I see things the pins that make up the laser cannons are too long as supplied so I pull them out of the model, cut them down a bit and then glue them back in.


I'm using Y-Wing Fighters from Star Wars Starship Battles range - available reasonably cheaply on Ebay.


To my mind the Bergstrom Y-Wing equivalents, wedge bombers (top right) are just too small compared to the X-Wings. And the Y-Wings are the only Star Wars Starship Battles models that aren't hopelessley warped.

Tie Fighters

Tie Bombers

Tie Interceptors

Burma, 1944

No postings here for almost a year, but that doesn't mean I've not been doing any wargaming.

One of the projects I've had in the pipeline for a while is a Japanese infantry battalion to fight in Burma. They've been finished for a few months now and last Thursday they got their first outing on this fantastic table put together by Kevan Gunn, who also provided the British. Pictures by Colin Jack.

Edit: Models are all 15mm - mostly from Peter Pig, though there are some QRF guns somewhere on the table.