Some years ago my Wargaming activities involved the 17th century. Both the Thirty years War and the English Civil War occupied the time of myself and my mates. The European theatre we gamed with 25mm figures, however the English War was the main event.
Having sold my 25mm figures ( fiscal paucity was a constant back then), I bought a load of 6mm figures. The Matchlock rules came from using them.
A mate of mine came up with a campaign with three of us as Royalists and three as the Roundheads. The large battles were fought with the 6mm figures and the skirmishes with the 25mm stuff. Well, I was Charles 1st and even though we just played it as a campaign, well, you know what happened to me!
Anyway, I digress. Roll on 34 years and once again, I feel drawn back to this conflict. This time though, I didn’t want to collect and paint the figures! I had purchased Peter Dennis’s book on the English Civil War, and it had been on my bookshelf for a while. When published, Peters books drew a bit of negative press, not for the content which is excellent.
No, it was the thought of printing and cutting out all the paper figures, that didn’t appeal to a number of people including myself. Each figure or group of figures has a front and back like the stickers in the Command and Color’s games. That’s when I had this idea. Why not make the blocks out of foam board stuck on cardboard!
I got some pages printed up. ( Peter has given his permission for personal use in the book.) I cut them out and stuck them on blocks. Well it works. So, here’s how
1) The first item is to get your pages printed. I went to a Printers and asked for three copies of all the pages of the figures. I had this done in A5 to reduce the size a bit, on 100gsm paper
2) Material items required ;
PVA glue
A Pritt stick ( or any paper glue ).
A packet of cocktail sticks.
A packet of self adhesive labels.
2 or 3 sheets of A4 Foamboard.5mm thick.
A length of rubber tubing 4mm x 1mm.
Some picture framing stiff cardboard.
Some pots of acrylic paint ( optional) ;
Blue, Red, Green and Silver.
A sheet of graph paper.
A packet of dressmaker pins.
Note; Most of the above can be obtained from local stores or from Amazon.
TOOLS REQUIRED;
A good crafting knife ( young people should ask a parent ).
A good pair of scissors ( young people should ask a parent ).
A pair of wire cutters. ( otherwise known as “ small side cutters” ) these are for cutting the cocktail sticks and clipping the corners of the bases.
A cutting mat. ( If you can get one of these it saves a lot of measuring).
A pair of tweezers.
3) THE INFANTRY AND DISMOUNTED DRAGOONS.
I cut these blocks first from the Foamboard, 25mm high ( 1 and 1/8th inches ) by 30mm wide ( 1 and 5/16th inches). 36 are required for two armies.
Next, I cut the bases from the picture-framing cardboard. These are 15mm deep (6/8ths )x 40 mm wide ( 1 and 11/16th inches ).
For the DRAGOONS, the bases are 20mm deep (7/8ths of an inch ) and 40 long ( 1 and 11/16ths inches ).
You will notice that I have clipped the corners of the bases. This stops the cardboard from “ fraying “ and makes the cardboard more durable.
Once the blocks and bases were cut, I started on the illustrations. I cut these out less the green bases. This is where you need to keep an eye on the pairs ( back and front.)
Once these were cut, I then used the Pritt stick on the blocks gluing the illustrations. Be aware that once the illustration is laid on It Is On!
Once all the Infantry were glued to the blocks, I glued the blocks to the bases using the PVA glue. You can be a bit generous with the glue because it shrinks and drys clear. It takes a while to dry. Put these to one side.
THE DRESSMAKER PINS;
If your cutting is a bit wonky like mine then this is where the pins come in. If the block won’t stand up straight when using the PVA, put a pin in in the base and push it gently against the block until it’s vertical and leave to set.
THE PIKEMEN;
The Pikemen are stuck to the same size blocks. When they are dry, stick them to the bases as for the Muskets. Once they have dried for the second time, cut 4 cocktail sticks to 40 mm. (1 and 11/16ths )
Glue on the cocktail stick’s by putting some PVA glue on the hand and on the base. Once done leave them to set. The next part was to paint the tips in silver. On the body of the pike,I painted a blob of blue or red paint then a blob of Flesh colour to show a hand.
The same procedure is followed for the cavalry and Dragoons. The foam blocks are 30mm ( 1 and 1/4 inches ) x 30mm ( 1 and 1/4 inches ). The bases are 15mm deep ( 6/8ths of an inch ) x 40mm wide ( 1 and 11/16th inches ). Again, making sure you have the back and front pairings, use the Pritt stick to glue the illustrations to the blocks. Any overlaps go to the bottom. I trim these up before gluing the blocks to the picture framing cardboard with the PVA glue.
