Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Monday 8 April 2019

For King & Parliament - Infrastructure Prototyping

I have made lamentably slow progress with my solo practice sessions for FK&P - one thing that has been holding me back [dodgy alibi] is the need for a practicable way to keep track of unit information in a simple but effective way, in keeping with my minimalist toy soldier style presentation, without burying the troops in counters.

This morning I have produced something which appears to fit the bill. My sincere thanks to Simon Miller and Gonsalvo for useful suggestions, and especially to Andrew Brentnall and The Jolly Broom Man for actual examples, which I have adapted (not to say stolen) to fit my basing systems.

I had a happy couple of hours fiddling around with MS Publisher, and I've set up a decent infantry template, which I can reproduce and amend quickly and easily. I ran off some trial sheets of info labels, laminated them and cut them to size. Here are the results to date.

Never happier than when fiddling about
Here are the first trial batch - these for some of my Parliamentarian foote. I'd have preferred to use matt plastic laminating pouches, but the glossy ones are better for allowing successful removal of white-board pen annotations. Note the little strip of white steel paper at the top of each label - these strips may need to be larger
Exciting picture of a flying base, showing how the little label attaches. My bases are all underlaid with magnetic sheet anyway, to allow them to live safely in their box files. The sliver of steel paper on the label allows it to attach underneath the base, without glue or anything messy
Here you go - volunteer demonstration by Richard Shuttleworth's RoF (of Blackburn Hundred) - these chaps were originally the Blackburn town Trained Band, and the yellow square on the right indicates that they are classed as "raw". Old Richard in his best crimson coat is proud of them anyway. The 17th Century font is a bit of an extravagance, since I will have to draw it to people's attention, but it is not inappropriate, since my laminating machine must date from approximately the same period
From the front, the new label is quite discreet
Thus far, this looks promising. If it works (or can be made to work) then I should be able to manage without any major investment in sabots, and the labels are cheap, easy to make and easily edited if I successfully keep the template samples handy. In today's trial, movement on the cork sheet (which might be grippier than the painted battle boards) suggests that the label tends to shift a bit in action. It won't come adrift, but it can get a bit - you know how it is - not quite straight [OCD alert]. I was hoping to be able to use the same size labels for the foote, the horse and the dismounted dragoon bases (which last are only half the depth), but I may have to change to bigger labels with bigger patches of steel paper.

I might buy some better quality laminating pouches - I'm down to a pack of Woolworth's own brand, which illustrates the house focus on economy and making things last. Better pouches will stick on the paper more firmly.

Work continues. There should be some pictures of actual test games once the record-keeping labels are working nicely.

14 comments:

  1. They look very neat,clean, and practical yet also (I can't believe I'm saying this) attractive. Makes the whole unit look like a Game Piece but while this might once have been a negative comment it now strikes as a rather honest one and very in keeping with a 'Toy Soldier Game' approach as opposed to the 'moving diorama and historical exercise in exploring alternate possibilities' approach.

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  2. Lovely stuff - looks like we've both arrived at some sort of industry standard! Nice touch with the metal paper stuff.

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  3. Very neat and proper. I have been considering doing something similar for my 6mm Napoleonics, especially using the "Blucher" rules which require similar annotation on the unit info sheet. I like the idea of the steel paper (I also use magnetic bases) but I have never heard of such a product on this side of the ocean. I shall make inquiries. Of course, I may need to invest some dosh in a laminator, but that is probably a more sensible purchase than a 3D printer. Cheers, MP

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  4. Ooh, they're neat. I might just be a convert. Can't wait to see them used 'in anger'.

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  5. Thank you all, gentlemen - I'm going to add a second strip of steel paper in the under-base area, and simply write the extra info on the steel paper (no-one can see it anyway), and I'll use wider strips as the official pattern for the future.

    Today I shall do some for the Royalist foot, and start on labels for the horse (who need more check-boxes, since they have ammunition and "Dash" tallies, so a little redesign is needed there) and for the dragoons and forlorn hope bases. I'll need a smaller size of label for artillery and leaders - I'm thinking about it.

    I got an email from Edward McD, asking for more information about the figures in the pictures. These are 20mm Les Higgins figures - they date from the late 1960s, but are still available from Old John at 20mm Nostalgic Revival - John owns the rights for the ECW and Marlburian ranges, and the ECW range has been extended by the addition of quite a few conversions.

    The pikemen in the big hats are one of John's many additions - the original range had pikemen in helmets only; the drummer and the musketeers date back to the original LH Earls Barton factory - in passing, these particular figures are ex-Harry Pearson, so they've travelled a bit. The officer in the picture is an SHQ casting. I also use Hinton Hunt and some Tumbling Dice figures - that's as big as it gets. Plastics, Art Miniaturen, S-Range etc are all too tall to fit in.

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  6. Very neat labels indeed Tony, as I would of course expect from you. I am also slightly obsessive about things being neat, tidy and straight, I blame my old printers eye! Do these negate the need for playing cards on the table or purely for book keeping purposes? I like the green and the font used.

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    1. Hi Lee - thanks very much - I've doubled the steel paper area this morning, and that makes a much more stable job, so future labels with have 18mm strips of steel paper instead of 9mm!

      No - the cards remain - I've bought numerous packs of half-sized packs, which is a big help with the little men. The labels are to cut down on the numerous counters needed for the game. The idea is you use a fine-point whiteboard pen - you can cross off the M (musket ammo) boxes as they get used up, and you can put crosses in the empty boxes to mark disorder/losses. Of course you can rally the boys too, so stand by with the kitchen towel. For some reason, I am reminded of a little felt pad I once had with a curved plastic handle, which I think I got in a pack for cleaning cassette recorder heads - that would be just the thing for rallying...

      Sorry - I realise you know nothing of cassette recorders, but your parents may have told you about them.

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    2. Tony, I see now how they work, excellent idea and saves the markers and clutter.

      Re cassette recorders, blimey, I remember 8 track and reel to reel let alone cassette recorders! I used to record the top 20 off my trusty little cassette recorder, rubbish quality, back in the days of T Rex, Sweet etc. At the tender age of 19 I was gifted a reel to reel with tapes that included Jimmy Hendrix and the Robin Trower band, I treasured them and if you're ever stuck for a listen give Trower's 'Bridge of Sighs' or 'Too Rolling Stoned' a try, now that man could make a Strat sing the blues and hes still about and playing aged 73 .... know nothing of cassette recorders indeed :) All the best mate.

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  7. I am quite content with the little piles of markers (although I am making a bigger 8" square box size cloth), but your labels look neat and effective as a less clutter alternative!

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    1. I'm quite pleased with them. The research wing is now esperimenting with compact labels for artillery, commanders, forlorn hopes, dismounted dragoons - all that. Artillery is very simple except they seem to get 6 ammo markers, and probably need some pointer to what weight they are.

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  8. Very neat and tidy Tony...

    For me the Les Higgins ECW always looked like they all spoke perfect Queens English...:-)

    All the best. Aly

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    1. I like it! - maybe not the boys from Blackburn, though?

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