Father's Day Weekend

Today was taken up by a visit to Ormstown Fair (the centennial edition), which was fun, involving pony rides, demolition derbies (or cars fighting, as the lil'un called it), and 100 pipers.

The reason I mention it here, is that the fair takes place next to the battlefield for the Battle of Chateauguay. Thereby leading to the continuation of my unintended treks around the battlefields of the War of 1812.  Indeed, the two battles themselves were fought in close succession (in the reverso order of my visits though!). Not really a surprise that the two were linked, and so close geographically, as the intended outcome of the St Lawrence Campaign by the Americans was to capture Montreal. This was indeed the closest battle to Montreal that was fought during the war, so indeed it is more surprising that we had not been there before.

The battlefield itself is just a large flat field now, but there is a visitor centre (we didn't go in). I did however, purchase for myself a little father's day pressie, in the form of a booklet by the Chateauguay Historical Society, which seems to cover the whole campaign in some detail. It is titled 'A Young Person's Introduction to the Chateauguay Valley" but that seems to be mainly because it was originally produced as an educationally booklet for schools. In my opinion, the secondary title is enough. it is a 32 page bookelt, with no space wasted, including a rather full intro to the whole St Lawrence campaign, including the background, geography, and all the major players. The maps and artwork seems to be rather out of focus, and hasn't been well reproduced, but since there is a web site reference for all the art, there should be no trouble finding the originals. I look forward to delving in in more detail.

There were two other points to note, that I think are relevant. First off, the pipes and drums of the Canadian Black Watch were amongst the 100 pipers who played today, and they were supposedly at the battle, as the 5th Battalion of the Select Embodied Militia (50 of whom were at the battle). Secondly, to drive to the fair, we passed through the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk reserve (the first time we had done so since coming to Canada. This in itself would make an interesting post, but we'll leave the politics of the First Nations aside for now), again, there were 150 Mohawks and others present on the field at Chatueauguay.

I really should get round to doing some proper 1812 gaming. It really should be easier to find people to play with for such a local historical period. Who says the New World doesn't have any history?

P.S.
In addition to the wikipedia site above, there's a rather neat little breakdown of the battle here.

Dystopian Legions, Kingdom of Britannia, Black Watch Sergeant and Specialist.

Thankfully, the sergeant and specialist for the Black Watch come in the same box, unlike the specialist for the normal line section, which comes in a box with another line Infantryman (alright I suppose, as it's a pose not available in the Section box), or the Sergeant who comes with the Lieutenant box set, which is a little more useless, as you'll want to field more Sergeants than Lieutenants, especially for KoB, where normal Line Infantry Sergeants are the same price as infantrymen.

But I digress, this is a good match of minis, as a Black Watch section can contain one Sergeant and one specialist.

On to the minis, they are of the usual Spartan style, in that the box shows the computer renders of the minis, so you know pretty much what you're getting. The minis thenselves have the usua low amount of flash and some mould lines,  but nothing major. Each mini is in two parts. The Sergeant coming with a separate sword scabbard, and the barrel of the Specialist's gun, and the attached arm is separate from the main body of the mini

I was a little disappointed with the standard of the sculpts in other ways. The basket of the Sergeant's sword on my mini, was miscast. Nothing that you would notice from afar, or when painted, so I don't think I'll be asking for a better casting, but a little annoying none-the-less.

The second thing that bugs me is that the arm and gun barrel don't quite fit with the rest of the mini. I've bent and pushed the parts, but haven't yet figured the best way to connect them. They are not a complicated fit, but they just don't seem to want to go. I had the same issue with the Black Watch Infantryman in the running pose, in that one of the sets of arms fitted well, but the second one I had did not. In the end this was not a great problem, as I converted one of them to a knife-man, but it seems to be an issue Spartan are having. Maybe these arms are being a little twisted coming off the sprues in a way that makes them a less than perfect fit.

Overall, a great little addition to the Black Watch section, two characterful sculpts, with minimal flash or mould lines,  but with other casting issues.

Black Watch Conversions

I love that all the sculpts in a box of Spartan minis are different. I love a little less that I require 2 boxes to run a full unit. I trid to lessen this by doing a couple of conversions to the minis. The first was to make the piper mini. The second came as a follow on from this, as I had the 2 arms of the piper that I was now not using. This, mixed with one of the guns being a mis-cast, meant I did a little light chopping to the gun-less mini to give him new arms.

I am not a huge fan of the knife weilding look of one of the sculpts, but I figured this was a simple way to have a completed unit before waiting for a new gun part to be sent.  The only thing missing then from this figure, was a gun. The other knife weilding maniac has his slung across his back.  Again, luckily, there is another figure in the set who comes with a separate gun, with only a hand to be removed to make it a feasible conversion piece. Step in trust Insta-Mold, and new green-stuff gun, here we come. What's more, this mold will be useful for converting other non-Spartan minis into KoB troops, or even just as scenery for bases.

Stick it on the back of the converted mini, and hey-presto, he's ready to join the ranks.

Black Watch Infantry Piper Conversion

So, in my last post, I mentioned I was planning to convert one of my Infantrymen to a piper. With the help of the Victoria Miniatures Piper conversion kit. At first, I thought to use the running man as the base for the conversion, as his gun was a mis-cast anyway, but on closer inspection, he was not the prime candidate. The knife man seemed to have an overall better pose, with the reloading guy being next (at least his head is down, which might make it easier for him to reach the mouthpiece, but more on that later).

The only real thing I had to do for this was cut his left arm off, as his right arm already comes separately, so as far as conversions go, it's pretty simple. I blocked in the spaces between the body and the new arms with greenstuff, smoothed it out, and there you go.

The arms from Victoria Minis are not a perfect match however. They are for GW style 28mm heroic scale, and Spartan, although 32mm figs, they are pretty slim built and fine of feature. This means if you look closely, they piper has huge hands compared to his section mates.

The other issue with the arms was the cuffs. So I GSed in some new cuffs in an attempt to match with the rest of the section. They look pretty rough, but a coat of paint should help hide a multitude of sins in that department.

Lastly, the pipes come separate from the head in the conversion kit, therefore the mouthpiece doesn't reach the mouth. This means he's taking a pause from playing I guess, but it did mean I didn't have to re-sculpt the mouth to make him play. I have since looked up pictures of bagpipes, and it seems the actual mouthpiece is really long in real life, so maybe I'll redo this to get him mid-tune.

 

So on with the rest of the section. I foresee at least one other conversion with the minis I have, probably using the arms I cut off this gent to replace the mis-cast gun I received, along with a few bits and bobs on the rest of them, just to make the unit a little more unique.

Dystopian Legions: Kingdom of Britannia Black Watch Infantry

My FLGS finally got in the Black Watch Infantry. I of course picked up one box, but I am sorely tempted to pick up another. If I am going to field these guys, I doubt I'll be putting down a minimum unit, and even once I get the Sergeant and Specialist, there will still be space for another 3 riflemen and a Musician (which I plan to convert from the basic troopers using Victoria Mini's Piper set, thereby leaving but one solitary figure unused (if I field the specialist that is).

Enough of the drooling, and on to the review:

Along with the deployment card and the bases, there are 5 minis in this box. All in different poses, inkeeping with the way Spartan do things, no two figures the same in a box. Unlike the previous Spartan Infantry box, these are multi part figures. 1 is a one piece mini, but the rest are either 2 or 3 parts. The minis are skinny, which is in keeping with Spartan's aesthetic, but for some reason is more noticeable on these figures.

The separate arms is a great thing in my opinion. There is one that is pretty much just the gun with a hand attached. Which is perfect to use with a little insta-mold to make plenty copies of the KoB rifle. I foresee a great number of conversions of other minis to bulk up my KoB force once I have that mold set up.

 

There's quite a bit of flash on these minis, but nothing that won't be cleaned off with the usual techniques. There doesn't seem to be any flash in places that a good craft knife can't deal with. The mould lines are minimal. There is however, a miscasting issue with one of the guns. the barrel end of the gun is completely misshapen. Just a round blob. This will be a test of Spartan Games customer service.

The Miscast

The only other mild issue I have with this box in general is that it contains 5 minis, compared to the other KoB Infantry Section, which has 6. This is a relatively minor gripe, as these are multi part minis. Additionally, when a section has a maximum of 10 men, it makes a little more sense to sell the miniatures in boxes of 5, rather than 10, that way you get an even number of boxes to make a full section (as I said above), rather than having to buy a second box, then have too many.

I'm really looking forward to fielding these guys, but with the miscast, and my own modelling plans to deal with first, they may be a while more before making it onto the table. Overall, I like the minis, and I like the fact they are multi-part, as that allows for easier customisation of the unit.