Friday, May 27, 2011

War of 1812 Final Troops

Work has taken me away from home the past few days but I did manage to get a trip to the Sentry Box in during an hour-long break in my schedule. I have been looking for the final troops I need to complete my War of 1812 armies. Cannon, wagons and militia were high on my list and the Sentry Box has been stocking more 1/72 plastics lately. Alas, nothing on my list was there!

I did, however, find a few workable items. For heavy cannon I bought there HaT French artillery. There four cannon in the box and they will do. The plastic is a bit soft and oily so they will get a wash. I expect I will need to break out the Locktite plastix glue for these but fortunately it is summer so I can do the gluing out of doors.

I was resigning myself to buying some Imex boxes to get wagons and militia and civilians. I find their boxes always come with too many figures in too few poses for my needs. But, lo, there were these mixed bags of troops which were perfect. The first one I picked up were Alamo troops.

There were three half-boxes in this bag and it included some light cannon which can be mixed with the heavier HaT cannon so each side has some variety. There were also some troops in stove pipe hats which could be used for either side. A second set of sprues (not pictured) contained even more troops.

There were also some Alamo defenders who have the odd-ball hats that are useful for militia. Combined with some rougher-garbed figures from the Imex AWI American box that I won at the club auction means I now have some very good militia fodder.

I was also looking for some wagons and settlers. And behold there was a pioneer bag as well.

This contained one sprue of settlers and cattle. This should be useful for populating some camps for these armies. I will just need to find some tents.

It also contained two wagons, which will be handy for scenario objectives. Bruce has a wonderful "ambush the wagons with Indians" scenario. I was hopeful to find some wagons suitable for conversion to a 28mm Norman War Wagon but no luck.

On the way back home, I stopped in at Compusoft in Red Deer. It has been about five years since I was in and I'm sorry I waited so long. This store is amazing, with better than half the floor space devoted to games, models, trains, paints and miniatures. This is a must-see for gamers!

Up next: With some free time, I plan to base and prime some 15mm Hebrews this weekend as well as finish building some 28mm Norman foot. These War of 1812 figures will need to wait awhile until I clear a commission and get the Normans finished. We have club this week so I'll need to think about a game for that as well.

2 comments:

Dave said...

You'll find that soft rubbery plastic takes both paint and glue very well whether or not you wash them, it is fantastic. Not only that but the molds have deeper detail as well.

The Imex kits are interesting and look like really good value.

I love that Compustore pit-stop in Red Deer. What a great shop!

Anonymous said...

Bob,

Some great finds there. We supplied Sentry Box with those, so I am glad they came back to Edmonton to live.:-)

The Imex Billy V sets with two half armies are quite popular. They contain all you need in some cases, at a low price.

Compusoft is amazing. The owner, Will, and I have been friends for about 10 years.