Alejo Dorca – Page 10 – My Toy Soldiers & Me

Nathan Brittles Last patrol (in 6mm)

After all those 54mm pics of the French Foreign Legion I thought it would be refreshing… perish the thought!… it is really difficult to take pics of 6mm!… the human eye is much better than the camera (at least mine).

Here you have a sorry try to picture what is in fact a very interesting wargame (role playing a bit) for SOLO wargamers as me. If you look closely all the characters are there (some inside the wagon I fear). So, SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON it is after all…

The poor quality of the pics is only my fault… but Baccus 6mm are the best to date to my knowledge to do it in this scale. Have always been a big fan of John Ford’s Cavalry films… (Not exclusively those called “The Trilogy” by smart asses…)

Enjoy! (if you can see them)

The Future of Wargaming 6MM

If I was younger I will go for a 3D Printer Machine (or whatever its name) because seeing the actual results of a clever use (see pics) the days of alloys, moulds and an era seem prone to vanish quite fast in the near future (not that I care too much about that) I will remain contented with my collections until I die and they are sold out for a pittance or go to the bin (I do not really care).

But see what magnificent start those 3D machines are into… 6mm By The Way…

God’s Own Scale

No blasphemy intended, 6mm is the scale to go IMHO to fight on the tabletop large scale Battles or Campaigns, the quality of the castings has improved a lot over the decades and even some truly amazing painters of minis achieve stunning feats of art with them!… but of course this is not the main point… gone are the secure flanks (aka border of the table), the lines of communication suddenly are there… you can even represent the tail of an Army… really a lot of things to ponder on. On the downside you lose detail (lovers of the last button would not be interested) and even your quite really good average painted minis lose detail on the distance (at naked eye view). As you know I am hooked on this scale and my passion is the ACW. See elsewhere on this web page under ACW.

Probably one of the best books so far readed by me is the single volume by Bruce Catton The American Civil War. A truly tour de force.

Napoleonic 6mm Opolchenie (Russians) by Glenn Pearce

In fact it was the Baccus concept of basing 24 minis (or 28 with skirmishers) in a single base measuring 60x30mm and calling the unit a brigade who appealed to me. A genius move. (I evolved from there but that is another story).

Wargames with 6MM miniature figures.

I spent nearly 30 years of my wargaming life in 25/28mm scale… I do not regret it at all… it was fun (and that was what was available and trendy I guess).

To go 6mm was wise because I wanted to do BIG battles and that was the only scale to manage it “at home” (meaning my old office).

So here using year 2021 as a container you will get my 6mm pics and experiences. Not so easy to do pics in 6mm.

Enjoy!

Playmobil version: Sergeant Preston of the NWMP. Edited 2025

It was a favorite TV serial of the fifties… ok… you were not born (maybe)… but it was great!

“I arrest you in the name of the Crown”And… “This case is closed” become much used among small children of the period… incidentally one of my first disguises was a “Mounty” one… LOL… have never looked back…

Enjoy!

Yukon. King swiftest and strongest lead dog on the trail in pursuit of law breakers in the wild days of the YUKON!

On the left a “purist” version; on the right a “custom” version using paints

PLAYMOBIL: ACW skirmish games build up (II)

Slowly getting there. The 7th Cavalry built for the Little Big Horn 1876 campaign doubles nicely as the ACW Michigan Brigade just changing hats for kepis. Custer is a different figure and uniform.

Curiously I like to confront a real unit with a fictional one, the Confederates are the Texas Light Cavalry of Dusty Fog literary fame (but I guess some real units can be done just getting a new commander because there are very good real one’s!).

Added the horses from the pool (pool of horses and equipment ALWAYS!), and got the appropiate sabers, pistols, carabines and what not.

Hope you enjoy.

The Michigan Brigade. The Union Cavalry can be increased at whim because I have a lot of them.

The REBS outfit (waiting for some grey kepis to arrive).

Grey kepis and hats have arrived! Have to paint the visors black though…

PLAYMOBIL: ACW skirmish games build up (I)

After a long interval I decided to play some skirmishing with small units, got plenty of yankees but no Rebs remaining in my collection, so a bit from here and there (grey kepis still in transit), and here we are, nearly ready to play!

Dusty Fog rides again!… but also the Michigan Brigade & G.A.Custer… I also am going to modify the guidon of the Rebs to enhance a bit.

They are perfect for small scale wargames.

Enjoy

Two versions of G.A. Custer (if I have to choose I prefer been a Custerophile)

PLAYMOBIL: Playing with Playmobils was and is a rewarding experience (II)

We checked all the figures, added a few lost items (very few), did some changes of headgear (mainly ADC’s), took a lot of pics, and enjoyed the time.

Their collections are in great shape as you can see in the pics. Armies usually have 4 line Infantry Units (regulars), 1 Light Company, 1 Grenadier Company; two units of Cavalry: Light Dragoons and Cuirassiers; Artillery (a couple of pieces); Sappers, and even a Doctor and assistants. Actually the Armies also have a mounted spy (masked) and a Religion Priest. Plenty of Generals and ADC’s too of course. Mainly the figures are straightaway from Playmobil figures and pieces (you are really spoilt for choice in the “tricorne period”) and apart from some resin headgear variations for the sake of shaking a bit the “uniformity” it is fairly easy to build your Armies. Old School Wargaming is probably the best approach IMHO

BTW the Red Army (British) is in the hands of the younger of my grandsons, but I do not mess with it because he is too young to take it too seriously and has to parade them a few years more I guess.

I reread the rules “Three Inch Glory” wargaming (XVIII Century) available for download free in google, recently they added a skirmish rules for 10/12 figures I must read too!

As usual an image is worth a thousand words, so here they are.

Enjoy

The back of the headgear of the Grenadiers.

A basic unit, a company of regulars of the “white Army” (Spanish or Austrian is just a matter of clipping the right colours in the hands of the standard-bearers)

Sorry for the “angle” but it was the only way to get a pic of the table.

The Grenadiers of the Blue Army (French or Prussian if need be)

The basic Unit a regular Company of Infantry.

In the front facing left the Cavalry of the Blue Army (looking right you can see the backs of the White Army Cavalry Units).

The Blue Army Light Dragoons (resin helmets by Javier Jimenez – MALONE-)

The Blue Army Cuirassiers.

The Blue Army Colours (French in this case)

A French King with dog. (In fact is based on a Prussian King figure!)

The White Army Colours (Spanish this time)

PLAYMOBIL: Playing with Playmobils was and is a rewarding experience (I)

This is a summing up, there are more Posts in this present web page about Playmobil Toys… probably never intended to become Toy Soldiers (in the true sense) at all mind, but the GEOBRA brand did enjoy producing Pirate Ships and Romans (probably very reality hard core violent subjects in the real world)… so it is more a matter of deluding themselves I guess.

The Sport of Kings it was called, and small profesional Armies took rendez-vous (more or less) shooted a bit to each other and claimed victory (sometimes both sides) see Barry Lyndon film.

Football and TV had not yet been invented so you had to do something completely different if you follow my thoughts.

Seriously, the potential as entertaining friendly wargaming is there, I recognized, collected, customized, and give as a gift to my grandchildren (I am more into lead Toy Soldiers myself). But still have kept some in my own collection!

Yesterday, we took a look at their collections, well preserved (to my surprise!) and reorganized the whole lot. It was my intention (completely wrong) to buy from them instead from ebay the imaginary “scraps” of the lot because I feared once interest outgrown it is always the bin nowadays… LOL… WHAT A SURPRISE!… Now I will probably buy some items (the less interesting that anyway they will inherit no matter what!) to give them pocket money… but will preserve their collections (the best parts)… and stop messing about with them. Sometimes with the best of intentions you are proved completely wrong!

If I have time (and interest) I will probably write a fastplay set of rules for them. (I only know about the “3,5 inch rules” that are not bad at all… but I love them more concise and not so complicated.

Have some pics (I will add more today I think!) as a summing up.

Colonel Le Sage et the three Geste brothers

Texas Light Cavalry Company C (Dusty Fog’s own)

Yesterday pic, nice Spanish Grenadiers with custom headgear. More pics today.

How time flies!… I remember showing themselves how to parade them… they have grown up a lot! the elders are 17 and 15 this year… and I thought (maybe wrongly) that their interest would have faded and toys forgotten… LOL. I did not mess up with the small boy in the middle and his even younger sister because they still play with them from time to time I have been told.

I heavily customized some characters in their collections, and it was FUN!

Those are my personal pets (I still have some in my collection… YES… I have a small collection myself too!)

The Band of the Guards took me a lot of time to complete… hard to find Tubas I remember.

Trooping the Colour is one of my pet subjects in any scale…

Have changed the eapulettes of the Officer’s… they look better now.

Even the HRH Queen (Elizabeth II) and Prince Philip (and other officers have been also modified thanks to the counsel of Mr. Angus Mac Legol)

French Foreign Legion (I sold some of them)… the rest are for keeps.

Playmobil NWMP (II) edited 2025.

My first post of 2023… well… I guess it would be a continuation of a theme… a la Oliver Curwood (if you know who he is)… as a child I was fascinated by the North West Mounted Police… and recently got the sledge I was waiting for… so here it is… on the trail up North!

Enjoy!