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| Moulds now back from Pete. This one consists of robed Arab infantry, I have done a couple of test runs and they seem OK. |
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| And this lot are the Turkish style tunic and trousers figures. Normally I wait a month or so for the mould to post cure a bit more but think I'll be churning out regiments a lot sooner than that! |
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| This finishes my 'establishment' for my nominal town/sultan's regular cavalry force. |
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| Probably should have spent more time on the standard! |
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| Meanwhile, going through the painting production line are a unit of Sarmatian Rhoxalani and a unit of nominal Lombards - lance rather than javelin armed! I'm currently looking at doing 3 Rhoxalani units and 2 Lombards - the Lombards then giving me a complete DBA army! |
The mould this lot are on have so far produced a bit under 100 figures with about another 50 or so wanted for future units. Add to that the figures I needed to get the infantry master cast. So how does this fit in with my 'costing' structure?
Moulds, metal, energy costs and (? - hobby!) time. To get a mould and figures made tends to be expensive - can't afford to have a mould made to produce 20 figures! So how do I cost it?
I'll use this as a starting point. When I was trying to get Minifigs to either start production of the S Range Ancients or let me buy the range they said they had to have guaranteed sales of about 800 per figure. That's... not my starting point!. For me, I look at a price of £1.25 per infantry figure or rider. Metal costs about 25-30p, no idea what electricity costs per figure, and then a mould costs about £100 each. So very roughly if every 'spare' penny went into buying a mould then about 100 figures makes a mould cost effective for me. Selling figures, not inclined to give my time up for free so I split it - 50p to the mould, rest to me. Actually as metal costs a bit more than 25p a figure and as I have to pay tax on 'profits' it probably knocks it down to 35-40p or less per figure for me. Shouldn't forget any discounts such rounding down the bill or giving free postage for larger orders, likewise the cut PayPal takes... Anyway, bottom line is that for a commercial Garrison mould rather than a personal Garrison mould I probably need at least 200 figures per mould for it to be worthwhile.
Some moulds will never pay back the 'investment', others way over achieve. Overall though Garrison more than pays for itself, and, happily, I'm able to have quite a few new moulds made to replace old moulds or just to make it quicker to cast figures by making the content of each mould a lot more logical than the haphazard moulds I originally bought!
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| Lance and shield armed cavalry, basically regular or paid retainer armed and equipped by a town, city or sultan. |
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| I painted these with a mail shirt rather than have them unarmoured - historical I would have had them without armour, fantasy always armoured! Also left all of these figures with plumes intact! |
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| I've used the sword and shield armed figures for the officer and standard bearer - there is also a figure like this with a bowcase for double armed light cavalry. |
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| Standard is from the 25mm Sassanid range. The mould I'm getting made has this standard as one of the spaces taken up. |
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| Have to be elite, no way this lot would ever settle for being some lowly militia outfit! |
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| I've painted some Sarmatians with bronze horse armour; thought brass would be better for these but didn't like the result. Went for scale armour using alternate metalic colours instead - works well. |
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| These figures are unusual - generally scaling figures up like this is a disaster. Thi lot, even though the paintwork isn't exactly neat or precise, still look good in my view! Really pleased with this unit. May not be an accurate depiction of Medieval Muslim cavalry, but like the look for a Fantasy unit. |
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| Meanwhile, as these were close to finished, the next lot are on the table. These would make a town guard or militia... |
Still a little bit of work to do, but figures for the Arab and 'Turkish' infantry should be going off soon to have moulds made.
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| There's a lot on these moulds! Robed figures include, spearmen, swordsmen, riflemen and archers. I wasn't sure about standards but have decided to use a Sassanid standard - the spearmen or swordsmen are easy conversions and with two points of attachment the joints should be strong. Saves having four separate figures! I'm looking on these figures to be basically wild desert tribesmen. Didn't do a robed cavalry figure but I think one of the unmodified Achaemenid Persians will do that job. |
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| The tunic/trousers mould includes some J/Bw/Sh light cavalry to give a bit of variety. Figures themselves - apart from the cavalry and javelinmen perhaps a bit more 'regular'? Spearmen backed by archers or rifles as a kind of palace guard, town militia or government troops? Unmodified Rose Zulu war figures make good Ottomans as they are - good for 20mm, though bit small for 25mm. |
I must admit I've been surprised at how this lot of figures has grown in scope - I was originally just going to do one mould for all the infantry! Figures are a bit variable, but with uses in both 'normal' wargames and Pulp scenarios I'm quite pleased with them.
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| A mix of them shooting arrows and waving swords around... |
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| I've been just casting cavalry recently - Arabs/Turks. Rhoxolani, Goths - and have quite a few in various stages of completion. All while still looking at figures to convert for the infantry moulds.The rest of this year is going to be busy! |
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| Normally I let a mould stand for a month or so to post cure before I start casting. This one I started casting and converting straight away... this lot are the initial proof of concept figures (cast and converted 1 day, painted next day... proof of concept, not masterpieces!) |
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| I realised that I could do with a J/Sh/Bw light cavalry figure so these are 'first attempts'. |
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| These are the infantry figures I had originally intended to do - did 2 robed archers because first one looked a bit short. The infantry spearman is not just a version of the cavalry figure above - that figure is a horse archer, the infantry figure is just spear/javelin and shield. |
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| Hadn't originally intended to do this one - simply basing the cavalry figure - because I didn't think it would work. I did four because I wanted to see if they would make a decent city militia or guard - on balance, think it does work. |
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| This is the mould - quite crowded and has a lot of potential... Rhoxolani, Goths, Fantasy Arabs... |
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| And I've also cast units of Rhoxolani, armoured Arabs and Goths. |
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| When sorting out my Arab conversions I got out some unpainted Jacklex Arabs to see how compatible they would be. Only seemed reasonable to paint them afterwards. |
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| It's a bit sad that Jacklex have gone. For a 20mm version of my War in England in 1897 Rose supply the British and French (ACW!) but not the Russians... happily Jacklex did Russians, happily I had already bought pretty much everything I needed... |
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| Meanwhile, there is always the possibility of doing some Chinese... |
So, although Jacklex has gone I'm not in too bad a situation regarding their figures in future...
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| So, having decided that the Rose colonial figures seemed the best bet, my first move was to start chopping figures up... |
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| Proof of concept figures. The one in the middle is simply the Garrison Mameluke stuck to a base. It makes a good officer and already has a carbine. The carbine looks crude, but that's because it's in a carbine scabbard! Figure on the far left is a standard Rose figure. I could use these unmodified as Ottoman infantry purely using paint. The kneeling figure makes a good uniformed fantasy 'regular'. |
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| Comparison of various figure... overall, although Rose figures are slightly smaller and slimmer than Garrison, they are still basically compatible.Incidentally, I've left the plumes on all the figures - easier to cut plumes off figures that don't need them than add plumes to ones that do! One thing I hate are head swaps. I can never get them right. |
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| Comparison with Jacklex - they go well together. I'm still working on the new figures - need more choices and then I will have the best ones put on a mould. Pity Jacklex are no more. |
Incidentally, these new figures are causing a problem. I had pretty much sorted out what I wanted for an infantry mould... all these 'new' figures mean that I won't be able to fit everything I want on one mould, not sure I want to have two moulds made!
Note re scale: Minifigs 'invented' 25mm scale and defined it as a 6' tall figure measured to the top of the head - a 23mm tall figure would be 5'6", all these figures are roughly 22-23mm to the top of the head, so close to 'true' 25mm.
Thing is, you get so obsessed with going down one path that you completely overlook other paths... and I'm guilty of that with these fantasy Arabs....
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| I was so obsessed with my fantasy Arabs being in the 'Ancient Wargames' genre that I never ever considered them for other areas - Pulp, for example... here one of my test figures next to a Jacklex (I think!) Arab... so now thinking about extending these figures into the world of Newhaven... |
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| But that leaves me with an issue - Pulp going to need people with guns. I'm thinking one of the Colonial ranges - body swap to produce the basic figure then grind down the pith helment, finish with a green stuff hat band. Further, got at least three possible ranges to use - SKT 28mm, Rose 20mm or Garrison Zulu Wars range . Which then leaves me with an additional problem: What am I going to leave out on the Arab infantry mould to make space for an Arab with a rifle? |
Cavalry figures for the next mould are now with Pete. Some of these figures will then be further converted as Fantasy Arab infantry.
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| Meanwhile I've started with some of the robed infantry figures anyway. The one with the upright spear spear will act as a standard bearer - spear a bit short but... Torso is from the Mameluke, spear arm and robes from my robed Achaemenid Persian conversion. So a conversion made from conversions. A shield from the '25mm' Norman range gives a bit of variation... |
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| Robed swordsmen - the one with the Khmer shield will also serve as an officer! |
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| These are some of the figures done as 'proof of concept'. The one in Turkic clothing is simply a cavalry figure on a base. To do once I get the mould back - robed archer plus Turkic swordsmen, spearmen and archers. Turkic swordsman and archers are just a matter of puttting cavalry figure on a base, Arab robed archer will have the same sort of body swap as the Robed swordsmen, and the Turkic spearmen will get a new arm from an Achaemenid Persian! |
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| Still a bit of tidying up to do on these figures but this is generally the expected composition of the mould. |
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| Rhoxolani Sarmatian cavalry - conversion of Sarmatian cataphract, simply cut down the kontos and add a Dacian officer's shield. Seriously wishing I had photographed these on a different coloured background - white is boring... |
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| Gothic cavalry. Bowcase replaced by sword and figures given slight variations on shields. For standard bearers I'll just use the standard Sarmatian standard bearer but give it a shield... |
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| Lancers plus officer. The officer doesn't carry a bow... These figures will be mounted on a different horse. |
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| Likewise generic Arab cavalry. The swordsman might be used as just another archer as he's got a quiver. The archer and swordsman figures are direct conversions of the 1972 Garrison Mameluke figure FNC1. |
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| Some of the later lance/bow/shield generic later Moslem cavalry - conversion simply consisted of giving the Sarmatian cataphract a shield. Flanked by figures on the horses I expect to use. |
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| And this is the horse I expect to use for the lancers and horse archers. |
These figures should be sent off in a couple of days. When I get the mould back the archer and swordsman will form the basis of infantry archers, swordsmen and officers, not sure yet about the spearman element of the army.
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| With the current heatwave I have to admit I've done virtually nothing over the last couple of weeks. However, I did get round to do a set of walls for the 20mm/1/76th card model of the University I built. |
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| It also gave me a chance to see how the Oxford 1/76th vehicles manage to fit in - look OK. |
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| One of the issues I have making these walls is how to do gates. I'd love to do loads of nice ironwork style gates but finally decided to keep it simple - just another strip of balsa. The photo also shows how crude the build quality of these walls are - very much wargames standard - but look OK on the table. Very much wargames buildings! |
As it's getting cooler I have done some limited casting to get figures together for my next moulds. I have now cast enough figues to be able to convert the figures for two moulds - one with Arab infantry, one with Arab, Gothic and Rhoxolani cavalry.
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| Spotted a new source of figures for my 42mm 1897 figures... and Old Glory were selling the range. So I bought it... Limited range, all Brits and no firing infantry, cavalry or guns but... |
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| The range came with 6 moulds, 25 painted figures and 6 unpainted. The unpainted figures have now been undercoated. |
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| The figures are bigger that Zinnfiguren or Irregular, but roughly the same as Shiny Toy Soldiers - which are now available again. |
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| Meanwhile, I'm looking at my 25mm armies, especially concerning the space they are taking up. So I'm going to pare down my Minifigs figures - first up will be the Minifigs Gauls. The army totals 189 infantry, 20 cavalry and 8 chariots and I'm offering it here first for a straight £200 including UK postage. If it doesn't sell, it just goes back into the army pool... Usual thing, email me if you are interested at garrisonminiatures@gmail.com Later I'll look at my Macedonians, Perians and reduce the Indian and Egyptian armies to more manageable sizes! |
