A Blast From the Past

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Way back in the old days. Long before I thought of casting miniatures for a side business. I purchased some molds for 15mm American Civil War miniatures. I’m sure I have the time wrong, but I’m going with late 1970s (early 80s at the latest for sure). I’m pretty sure these molds were advertised in The Courier and the sculptor’s name was Joel Haas…

Anyhow, way back when I remember casting I don’t know how many hundreds of figures for my ACW game. We didn’t play ACW very long, but the casting of the figures was a fun time. I don’t have any of my original castings; I gave those away sometime in the 90s.

Fast forward to yesterday… I was looking for something else and came upon the molds ticked away in a box of misc. projects. So, since I had hot metal I thought I’d cast a few figures just to see what I had found. Well, the figures are very basic and they still cast nicely (I think a lead alloy would be better, but I gotta use what I have on hand).

Here are a couple of pictures. The first is the set of molds with a casting inside. The second is a primed figure, in an attempt to show what they look like. As soon as I get this fellow painted I’ll be sure to post another picture.


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More WWII – 20mm and 25mm

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With our last post concerning the 25mm WWII figures, interest in the 20mm figures has increased a wee bit. Some wanting to know how the two scales compare size-wise…

I’ve been meaning to write a bit about this same topic, and here is my first post on the topic. Not a lot of text, but the pictures should do most of the talking anyhow.

First lets show the difference in figure size:

25mm Scruby US Army and 20mm Eriksson German

25mm Scruby US Army and 20mm Eriksson German

Now lets see how the 20mm fit in with Roco Minitanks:

20mm German with Roco Minitank – Panzer IV

While on the subject of Roco Minitanks, lets take a quick look at the 25mm with a Roco Minitank. I know an American with a German tank; couldn’t get to my box of American armor…

25mm American with Roco Minitank – Panzer IV

I don’t mind using the Roco Minitanks with my 25mm infantry, the size difference is too bad. Not sure I like the 20mm with 1/72 armor – I’ll have to dig out my 1/72 tanks and get a few pictures…

And now back to some 25mm next to some 20mm…

25mm American with 20mm German HMG team

25mm American with 20mm prone German rifleman

25mm American with 20mm German anti-tank gun


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25mm WWII

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Was fiddling with some 25mm WWII figures over the weekend…

Decided to re-mold the Scruby 25mm figures for use in my small WWII project. I’ll need to supplement with some plastic figures, but that should be ok-fine.

For pictures and a bit more info check the HistoriFigs website.

25mm World War Two

Some 40mm Goodness

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Just thought I’d point you to the latest post over on the HistoriFigs website; working on some 40mm restorations…

And since the theme of these restorations is the Boxer Rebellion, I thought it might help f I had a war game project in mind while working on these. I’m thinking Bob Cordery’s The Portable Wargame; that would make for a nice, simple game with a small footprint.

Now to define a game/armies that can be put together with these figures (see post on Historifigs for figure list). Feel free to comment or write with your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.


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Some 54mm Confederate Infantry

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I started a 54mm ACW project some number of years ago and never got very far. Partly because I’m a really slow painter and partly because I couldn’t really decide what I wanted to do.

Fast-forward to a couple weeks ago when I uncovered several boxes with partly finished projects. One of these boxes contained several unfinished Confederate Infantry figures as well as an artillery crew.. I’m still not fast and not really all that good, but the figures are coming out ‘ok’.

54mm Confederate InfantryNot shown is the artillery crew I finished last night as well as two more infantry figures to fill in the holes at the far end of the line.

I’ve even figured out how I will use the figures when I’m done…
I’ve decided to go the small game route; rules will be The Portable Wargame. Game will be played on a 4′ x 4′ square gridded surface (6″ squares an 8 x 8 grid). Games will be as small as 8 units per side with 12 to 15 units per side as a maximum size. My Infantry units will be 4 figures each. Artillery 3 crew figures + 1 gun. Cavalry will be two figures. The armies will be matched and likely a bit larger than maximum size to allow things to be mixed up a bit. While the confederates have a good start, I have yet to start on the Union troops. I always have a hard time with Union troops, but I was sure to cast some, so I could get a start.

Overall my figures will be mostly Scruby Miniatures. I have some Imrie / Risley Artillery crew that will be mixed in. I plan to use plastic horses for cavalry rather than Scruby horses (at 1/4 pound each the Scruby horses are just plain heavy and expensive). I know I have some other 54mm figures tucked away and as I find those, I’ll mix in any that mix in well. My plans call for each side to consist of:

  • 2 x Artillery with crew
  • 2 x Cavalry
  • 8 x Infantry
  • 1 x General

Plus anything else that strikes my fancy (Zouaves and perhaps Lancers).

If anyone is interested in painting some Union troops, perhaps we can work out a deal? Trade or pay or a mix?