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Post by zuludon on Apr 30, 2024 0:15:11 GMT
I received my order of Backyard Battalion miniatures www.backyardbattalion.com/ They are lovely figures! I am in a quandary about the most appropriate style of terrain to use with them. As I see it, the options are: 1. Realistic WW2 wargame terrain, with bunkers and ruined buildings, 2. Dollhouse miniature garden furniture and topiary, 3. Building blocks and other nursery toy structures.
Of course, they would look best out on the backyard lawn!
I don't intend to paint the figures and plan to use some of the super simple "green army men" free rules out there. As mentioned, I would like to use the figures to introduce my four-year-old grandson to wargaming. At the moment he is enthralled by earth-moving vehicles of any sort. Maybe in a year or two. Our local games conventions also feature games designed for young people and I think this might be a good "gateway" to our noble hobby.
All suggestions welcome,
Nick Stern
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Post by tradgardmastre on Apr 30, 2024 5:08:04 GMT
Morning Nick,
I’ve just started to paint mine but l do like your unpainted option too.
I also was thinking about terrain. I thought for indoor use l would probably use twigs and stones brought in from my garden . I did wonder about flat mdf trees and hedges l use with my 54mms . Dolls house furniture is a most interesting idea and one l never thought of, I think l will investigate that too…
Once a few figures are painted ( probably taking longer than l like as life see to be busy currently in some ways) l will try some scenery options.
There of course is the great idea of using the figures outside. I am already considering the rockery as having potential…
I look forward to hearing how yours and others gaming with these figures proceeds…
Alan
P.s l think painted v unpainted figures is an interesting debate. For folk in the US they were often brought up with green army men. For me in the uk my 54mm were Britains and Timpo plus Lone Star, Crescent etc as a child mainly . As these were painted in my boyhood l gravitate to painted in 54mm and unpainted in 20mm due to Airfix. Hence me painting my back yard battalions.
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Post by Mike Lewis on Apr 30, 2024 10:08:57 GMT
I think that wooden blocks would work well with the figures representing houses and walls. You could use the H G Wells technique and make hills out of wooden layers with holes drille din them to stick on braches from the garden as trees.
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Post by zuludon on May 2, 2024 20:33:21 GMT
Growing up in the States, the only painted figures I knew about were Metal Britains, which were much too expensive to play with. I was introduced to painted plastic figures for the first time on a family vacation to Vancouver, British Columbia. One toy store had rack upon rack of figures from the UK. It being 1964, and the centennial of the ACW, I bought as many of the Britains Herald series as I could beg, borrow or steal to pay for.
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Post by manoftinblog on May 5, 2024 12:38:17 GMT
Just having the same quandary as American figures in backyard games, the Blue and Grey playset etc were traditionally played with unpainted as were green army men.  Gone for a cartoon simple style, as white and black cartoon strip didn’t work so well.  Explored more on photos in my blogpost tabletopscoutingwidegames.wordpress.com/2024/05/04/backyard-battalion-figures-painting-experiments/ The terrain could be the garden or toy blocks but it’s also all in their imagination so bunkers etc are possible too. Plenty enough WW2 bunkers and pillboxes abandoned in Europe and UK ... i think I am going realistic backyard and gardens and streets, probably America. Been watching some Stranger Things, the movie Stand by Me and The Red Hand Gang clips for terrain and kid clothes ‘uniform reference’. They could equally be playing playing Space Wars. Zappa! Peow! “You’re Dead. Am not ...” |
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Post by rossmac on May 5, 2024 15:07:03 GMT
" a family vacation to Vancouver, British Columbia. One toy store had rack upon rack of figures from the UK. It being 1964, and the centennial of the ACW, I bought as many of the Britains Herald series as I could beg, borrow or steal to pay for"
Growing up in Montreal (Canada) my Mom would only buy painted soldiers since her father's old toy soldiers were all factory painted. (He grew up in England)
She was horrified when on Christmas c1962, I opened the Marx Robin Hood and Sheriff of Nottingham castle set she had ordered from a catalog and they were NOT painted! The next year I got the Marx 1” , painted, hard plastic knights and Viking playset. My future was sealed!
Ross
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Post by zuludon on May 5, 2024 18:06:23 GMT
Ross,
I remember the Marx 1" painted figure sets! I had the ACW one. As I recall, the box proudly said: "Hand painted by artists". Nice figures, but the hard plastic was impossible to repair once broken. I wonder where the artists were based? Hong Kong?
Nick
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Post by zuludon on May 5, 2024 18:23:21 GMT
Man of Tin,
Thank you for sharing your paint experiments! This whole thing has got me seriously thinking about the psychology of imaginary play. I really like the idea of matching the cartoon child figures with realistic WW2 bunkers and shell holes, because that is what they are imagining, but then wouldn't they also be imagining themselves as grown men and women? In other words, green army men? Now I am thinking more in terms of backyard improvised terrain; for example, a picnic table on its side, a fort made out of cardboard, red wagons converted into AFVs, tree house snipers nests, garbage can barricades, the list is endless!
But now my head hurts...
Nick
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Post by manoftinblog on May 5, 2024 20:19:59 GMT
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Post by rossmac on May 5, 2024 22:54:37 GMT
Nick, even though most of my 'army men' ,(Crescent etc) were painted I used to dig trenches in the garden, sank tin foil dishes into the dirt and added water for amphibious operations, scraped trenches in the dirt and bolstered them with twigs rather than sandbsgs, etc.
Ross
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Post by zuludon on May 5, 2024 23:18:02 GMT
Sounds like you were "Sapper" Macfarlane back then  Nick |
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Post by manoftinblog on May 6, 2024 9:20:07 GMT
Reis O’Brien design from his Facebook or Instagram - @reisobrien - for a radio flyer type cardboard tank. Easy enough to mock up using / hacking some of those miniature fingertip plastic skateboards for wheels (craze known as tech decks) an old craze from Pound or dollar stores Image copyright Reis O’Brien  |
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Post by manoftinblog on May 7, 2024 6:41:35 GMT
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