Photographing Toy Soldiers

I have finally got fed up with trying to photograph toy soldiers in North European winter sunlight with flash guns, light through the windows, etc etc.

So I girded my loins and bought a couple of photographic lights on eBay. They cost me the princely sum of £35 intotal including delivery. Why the hell didn't I do this before?

'Cause I'm stoopoid, duh.

A Question of Scale II: How Big Is A Sherman Anyway?

Wargame miniatures of 28mm size are 1:56 scale, right? Well, um sort of.

I searched the 'net and found this photo of GIs from the 60th Infantry using a Sherman as cover in Belgium. The photograph was taken on the 9th September 1944 according to the caption and the tank still has the Normandy hedge cutter fitted.

The infantry are standing upright and right by the tank so there is no perspective issue. The lead GI is just shorter than the top of the highest point on the tank hull.

The above photo shows a couple of Warlord Bolt Action plastic British Infantry against a Corgi 1:50 diecast Sherman. In terms of height, the figures are about right - when they are on their stands. Off the stands they would be a couple of mm too short.

In terms of bulk, the 28mm miniatures are too big for the 1:50 tank. Compare the soldier's waists with the Sherman's running wheels in both pics.

The bulk issue really comes out when you place a figure inside a scale vehicle: see two examples below.

Here's a couple of Perry 28mm plastic figures with a 1:50 diecast Jaguar car. In theory they should be dwarfed by the car, except they're not.

Two Warlord Bolt Action 28mm plastic figures with a 1:48 plastic Kubelwagen.

Scale and size in wargaming is not so straightforward as one might think.

Next post I will line up some 28mm models from different manufacturers against each other.

A Question Of Scale

1:48 or 28 mm, that is the question.

But of course one is a scale and the other is a size. 28 mm is usually described as 1:56 scale but.....

For reasons that are too trivial to discuss most of my late war models are 1:48 plastic or 1:50 diecast whereas my friend Shaun uses 28 ml.

On the right we have a 1:48 plastic Tamiya STUG III from my collection and a Bolt Action resin STUG from my friend Shaun's collection.

They are not the same size but the difference is small.

On the right a Marder built on a Pz 38(t) chassis and on the left a Pz 38(T) from the same manufacturers as above.

The figures in the 1:48 Marder are 28 mm Bolt Action.

But have a butchers at these three, all 28 mm Bolt Action models and all on the same T34 chassis.

On the left a resin T34/76, then a resin SU 122M, and finally a plastic T34/85.

They are not the same size.

Moral of the story? Don't get hung up on scale. There is almost as much variation between ranges from the same company as between the two scale extremes for 28 mm wargaming. It is a good idea to use the same range for the same vehicle but otherwise it's not much of an issue.

Selective Laser Sintering Patents

SLS patents used in 3D printing are due to expire next year.

Now this may cause a rapid decline in the cost of 3D printers or it might not.

"Time will tell. It usually does."
The 5th Doctor

Cheap Domestic 3D Scanner

This is the Rubicon 3D scanner which is available for about £200 on Kickstarter here.

"Webcam is not included. We suggest using Logitech C920 because of its good quality, but any other webcam would work, too. With current setup you can scan objects up to 160mm in diameter and about 250mm in height, but since the camera is movable, even bigger objects might fit in."

I would be astonished if this yields acceptable quality for most objects but.....

My first laserprinter cost £2,000. My current one cost £50 and is more effective.

Forge World - Poor Quality Control

These pictures were posted on twitter by someone I follow - I won't mention his name. They are cockpit components for a Forge World Marauder Bomber and this is what Forge World sent him.

This model is £190. By any standards it is a premium product and yet Forge World were of the opinion that components so warpt as to be unusable were acceptable to be sent to a customer. And this is not a one-off. I have experienced similar issues with Forge World.

Now this customer was an experienced modeller so was able to fix them using boiling water but why the hell should he? Warping like this happens because the resin is removed from the mold before it is properly hardened. They do this to increase productivity and hence raise profit margins on fixed capital equipment and labour costs.

Games Workshop should in my opinion show a little more espect for their customers. We are not a captive cash cow to be milked.

Or are we?

Kubelwagen: 1/48 or 28 mm?

The Kubelwagen is 1:48 Tamiya (I think or maybe Froc). The infantry are Warlord Bolt Action 28 mm, nominally 1:56.

So the infantry are too small for the car?

Um, I don't think so.

Scale and size are two different ways of measuring things.

Gunboat Diplomacy: HMS Unlikely

I scratchbuilt a gunboat to support the British Army in the Sudan.

When you make a vehicle for a game where 16 soldiers equals a battalion you are obliged to place fast and loose with scale. The boat only has one gun, representing a battery and hence one gun crew. Also the vertical and horizontal scales of the models are different. A 1/72 figure is about 22mm high, although it varies enormously from manufacturer to manufacturer. However the battalion in line occupies a mere 160 by 40mm.

To make this work you have to squash the gunboat's scales, especially the horizontal. The cartoony-effect sounds strange but it works rather well on a wargames table.

The model is made of foam board, plasticard and metal tubes. Figures are HaT (gun & crew), Escii (British infantry) and Waterloo 1815 (Turko-Egyptians).

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to relieve Khartoum.

Hang on Gordon, I'm coming.

Strippers

I picked up a bottle of paint stripper from B&Q and was astonished to find it was in a plastic bottle, not a tin.

So I tried it on three second hand Dark Eldar models caked with paint that I picked up on eBay for a song. I put the models in an old mug, poured the stripper on and left to soak for 48 hours. I gave the models a scrub in water and washing up liquid and voila!

The fluid stripped the paint fine, no problem at all. OK, anything else would have been something of a surprise but  the key thing is what it didn't do. Have a look at the bases. They were on the models the entire time. The fluid stripped the paint but hasn't touched the plastic!!!

I think I have found a way of stripping plastic models.

Frontline and the Unsung Heroes of Wargaming

The unsung heroes of wargaming are the small manufacturers operating out of modest premises and surviving by the skill of their hands and a great deal of hard work. Without them we would have access to very limited ranges indeed.

One such is Frontline Wargaming who are a family company based locally to me in the Medway Towns. They kindly allowed me to have a snoop around on a cold snowy January afternoon, when my Ford Focus was leaking like a trawl net.

The first thing one notices when entering the nerve centre of Frontline to meet Tim, the local warlord, is that this is the domain of a wargamer, one of us, a genuine nutter. The gaming table with the assortment of replica weapons on the wall above proves that.

And here is Tim, himself. Frontline had its inception in Leicester in the 1980s when he was retailing wargame gear and models. He organised a WWII game and made scenery for it including resin trench lines. Pretty soon other club members got him to make terrain for them and he had a business.

Frontline is perhaps still known for its resin models especially an extensive and very good range of WWII vehicles in 20mm (1/76). I have bought a number of these over the years and can recommend them. A number have already featured on this blog in earlier posts, notably, his early war and Dad's Army British range which is perfect for VBCW games. he even has some armoured lorries and 1930s Vickers medium tanks.

I had a peek in the resin production room, which reminds me of the surfboard factories in my home town of Newquay. I have played around with resin myself and it is very witchcrafty. It all ain't as easy as the hobby books would have you believe.

Frontline 20mm resin models in my collection

 Some early war 1940 British tanks.

 An early war and colonial warfare Rolls Royce armoured car.

 Beaverette improvised armoured cars to replace the losses in France, used later to guard airfields.

I might add that I paid full price for all these models and intend to buy more.

In recent years Frontline have branched out into 15mm metal  production and have built up a massive range of WWI figures including all the minor powers. These are marketed under the IT brand.

Metal moulds are radial, with the molten metal poured in at the top.

A mould split open to show the solid figures. Now you know why 15mm is sold in small batches.

Some idea of the range is given by the racks of moulds.

 

 
And this is why the mould are round. Molten metal has a high viscosity and you need a centrifuge to force it down the channels into the figure bays. Apparently, everything depends on the rate of pour, coupled to the spin speed and the metal consistency and the background temperature and and and...

Some of the finished product.

I am a wonderfully cack-handed person and it always fascinates me to watch craftsmen in action.

Many thanks to Tim for taking time out in his busy schedule to show me around.

Cadcam Design: Scales

I blogged a little while back on cadcam impacts on wargame miniature production. Here is an example from Plastic Soldier. Here are a Russian AT gun and a field gun in two scales, 28 mil and 1/72 (roughly 20 mil). The models are identicalexcept for size; look at the guy with the outstretched hand.. I believe they also do the same miniatures in 15 mil.

Once you have the design sorted any scale can be produced.

3D Printing

The Telegraph ran one of their 'all this modern stuff is rubbish' articles by one of their 'angry old white men in ties' about 3D printers that specifically mentions wargaming. You wouldn't think 3D printing was a political issue but apparently in the strange world of the Telegraph, it is:

"handful of Lefty academics thrilled by the idea of abolishing property"

At this point he presumably stopped to swallow some tranquilisers. Not sure what Lefty academics have to do with 3D printers, other than conceiving them but still....

I came across this model offered on eBay UK which apparently comes from the Shapeways printing service.

At the moment, the technology is not quite there: see above. Either the model is grainy or expensive and the cheapest printers are about £2K. Now my first laserprinter cost £2.5K of 1980s money. My latest one cost two hundred quid and is better: wireless for one thing.

3D printers are in their infancy.

The article burbles about piracy and offers the opinion that 3D printer piracy will never be a threat to toy soldier companies because it will always be cheaper to manufacture using traditional methods. Now that may be true but it completely misses the point.

It's not the cost of mass production of models using traditional methods versus 3D printers that is the issue BUT the cost to the private individual of buying a model retail versus knocking it out on their home printer. And that may be a very different kettle of aquatic vertebrates.

When a private individual can run some photos through basic cheap CAD/CAM software and 3D print out his own models to whatever scale is desired then model-makers like GW are in the doggy do and no 'stop the world I want to get off' articles from the foaming at the mouth brigade will stop it.

Decorating a tank

A bit o' cosmetic can improve appearance no end, as any starlet will tell you. I have added a couple of packs to my Stuart from the Tamiya 1/48 accessory pack.

Real tanks were absolutely festooned with junk: very little room in the boot. Combat pictures seem to show them cleaner, presumably because of the fire risk.

Fings Wot I Like: Loctite All Plastic Glue

Loctite sell an all plastic glue kit. The glue is superglue but the interesting part is this stick called Activator. It is misnamed as it is not a superglue activator like, say, Kicker.

What it does is coat polyethylene, or similar, surfaces in a substance to which superglue bonds. It makes assembling 'soft plastic' toy soldiers easy. The stuff dries in 30 seconds.

Highly recommended.

Brilliant

A young visitor to the Tank Museum created this model out of Lego.

What a star!

Ekranoplan, Weathering Models

Came across these amazing pictures of the large Soviet Ekranoplan, GEV, test model here. The website is in Russian but it's a blog by Igor113.

The close ups showing weathering are fascinating. Well worth a look for modellers.

GEVs are a technology like hovercraft, that should be useful but somehow never quite seem to come up with the goods in practice.

Pants!

You get used to it never raining if you live in the London region so I get into the habit of leaving my miniatures out overnight for the varnish to dry...

Citadel Textured Paint

There are a whole new range of Citadel paints, for the benefit of those who have just landed from the International Space Station. One of the new ranges is textured paint. I tried the dark brown for adding mud to AFVs - see above.

In comparison to Tamiya paste sticks:

Plus
Much easier to apply as you can paint it into difficult to get at places, such as behind the bogies of this tank.
Dries hard and sticks well.

Minus
I was surprised how much it shrinks when it dries. I really caked it on the front of this Sherman.

Fings Wot I Find Useful

I am allergic to superglue vapour so I tried using high-viscosity superglue, which has reduced vapor. The problem is that it takes for ever to set so I bought some Zip Kicker accelerator.

You put the glue on one side of the join and the Kicker on the other and just press them together for an instant bond. This normally weakens the joint but I find that any weakness is offset by the high viscosity of the superglue. In any case, once you get a join, you can reinforce it if necessary.

The combination is great for glueing 'point' joins as it builds a collar a bit like epoxy resin.

Recommended!