Return of the TALL GUYS.
More on those pesky (but very pretty) 40 mms. By Andy Copestake.
First published: Wargames Illustrated # 238 (August 2007).
© Andy Copestake, 2007

More on those pesky (but very pretty) 40mms

By

Andy Copestake

No doubt about it, I received something of a surprise, not only did our Illustrious Editor publish my previous ramblings on 40mm wargaming but the response was somewhat unexpected not to say gratifying. “By Gum!” Thought I, after sundry emails and phone calls, chaps are really interested in this stuff!.
However several questions emerged which I did not consider fully in my initial article. Primarily these questions involved 2 main areas painting and that bane of my wargaming life, rules.
Its better to deal with the former first. The simplest way to get painted 40mm figures is to paint them yourself. Now I have and do use painting services but mostly prefer to paint the stuff myself- especially 40mm. There are some fine painters out there- see my French Hussars painted by David Allen in my last article but there are also some utter turkeys and different chaps will have different lists for which are good painters and which are not. However a small word of warning- there are painters out there who have a very elastic idea of delivery dates- I could name one who gave me “6 to 8 weeks” in September 2006 however, I didn’t get the figs until January (they were a good job though) and that particular chap is by no means the worst, a few years ago I had to chase a painter through small claims court and still the figures never appeared. So have a care.
All the painters who appear on the Old Glory U.K. website have proven their ability to deliver pretty much to deadline that’s why I put their contact details up.
Frankly it’s all a matter of taste, personally I’m not over keen on the “Black undercoat with extra knuckles” or the over lined faces of the “I’m 120 year old and still in the army” styles. I don’t like them in 28mm still less in 40mm where it simply looks silly and overdone. The current urge to over paint and caricature miniatures, which, in some cases, are already pretty gross caricatures in the metal, is a mystery to me. This painting style, for my money, can make the “big-headed fatties” simply look bigger and fatter. However there are plenty of painters out there – whatever style they use- who don’t caricature. But if you like it then, do it, no problem, after all, it is your stuff.
That being said I can only tell people how I paint- and not claiming to be the “Leonardo” of figure painting (but just possibly a fair stab at a Harry Payne or a Caton-Woodville {and if you don’t know who those last two are I can only say your historical wargaming education has been lamentable!}). I don’t paint to commission so have no one to satisfy but myself so feel no need to follow this “paint system “ or that “method” or some other half-baked fashion.
Jim the Painter- who works on my stand at shows- claims I’m far too “arty-farty” as a painter and he has a point. As a mass painter I’m slow, very slow indeed by some standards, my objective is to get figures I like, not simply a mass of “gaming- counters” and this is the point. It doesn’t matter how you paint or what style you use provided that you are happy with your results. I’ve been painting over 30 years (I started young!) and can still learn a thing or two but on the whole I’m happy with my painting. I can put the paint in the right places with the right colours in the right order and frankly you don’t need to do much more than that.
When it comes to the work of other painters I tend to look at painters of 54mm figures for my inspiration – remember that 40mm is often closer in style to these larger figures than it is to the “over chunky 28s” . Look at pictures of the work of Bill Horan or Mario Venturi or Max Longhurst amongst others and you may see what I mean..

Sash and Saber Normans charge a Viking raiding party.
Vikings painted – black undercoat- by Sion –marc Simpson. Normans- white undercoat- by me. Frankly  I can’t tell the difference here unless I look at the figures really closely but not all black undercoaters are this subtle.

Better yet I get a lot of my inspiration from military art. Modern artists such as Troiani for the ACW but also the afore mentioned Harry Payne or Caton-Woodville. I could mention Messonier and “Job” as well as the splendid Napoleonic pictures of “Rigo”. The list is endless really; Rick Scollins, Ronald Embleton, and so on all can give me that “spark” to get the brushes out.
Oh and don’t give me any of that “I can’t paint” or “I don’t have the time” They are just excuses for “I hate painting”, which is fine, but at least give it a go, an acceptable standard in 40mm is not that hard. If you’ve painted ‘em yourself you care more about their fate on the table than some soulless unit that you’ve just had from a painting service, honest you do!.
My preferred “method” is that of the “white undercoat and wash” but I still use some of the techniques of the black undercoat painters as I keep saying it’s a matter of what works for you. I stick to no specific brand of paint. My painting desk has (in no order of preference) Vallejo ,Games Workshop , Windsor and Newton, Inscribe, Pentel, Rowney, and Coat D’Arms on it and that’s before I get to the Gouache and Ink. All of these products have a job to do depending upon the figures being painted.
Also quite recently I’ve found that as “something a little different” I’ve tried “toy soldier style” painting- shiny bright colours, no shading, texture free basing etc. I have to say that with certain types of figures it works and looks good in its own way- see the accompanying photo to see what I mean. I don’t think it works with all sculpting styles and I’ll never do all my collection in that way but I can see the attraction. Several members of the 40mm Yahoo discussion group have collections in various types of “toy – soldier style” and they do look good.

Irregular Miniatures 42mm Seven Years War Painted “Toy Style”.
Very different to my usual painting method but attractive in their own way nevertheless.

When you get down to it you paint how you want to paint. There are some fine exponents of the black undercoat style- David Allen, Darren Taylor and the aforementioned Jim “the painter” Main to name but 3. Their stuff looks great when they paint it - but I’ll stick to my style as well as getting them to paint for me.
Another point to come out of various discussions on 40mm was flags – how do I do them or where do I buy them.
This one is easy, GMB designs do some good 40mm flags now but I either download them from www.warflag.com then alter the image to the right size and print them off. A bit of touching up is needed as with all paper flags (paint the edges man!) and make sure you print off at a high dpi.
However best flags of all are from John “the flag” Hutchinson of the “Like a Stonewall” Wargames Group. These are printed on cloth and are excellent indeed. The Best I have seen.
One thing I will say, with as much emphasis as possible, get your uniform details right, its not as if, most of the time, its that difficult but I have in my time been sent French Napoleonic Grenadiers with red coat lapels and white piping, Medieval knights with impossible “fantasy” heraldry, ECW musketeers in vivid parrot green coats and British Napoleonic Foot Artillery in Blue trousers with yellow stripes! These being only the most obvious errors, not counting the missed lace and pipings on figures too numerous to mention over the years. (Needless to say none of these chaps got the job….). These kinds of errors stick out more in 40mm. Also and only you will know if you have done this. Try to capture the “spirit” of the figure. This becomes fairly difficult with some of the fat movement free 28s there are about the place. Can you honestly say when you have finished the paint job “Yes it could have looked that way”(Jim the painter makes “arty –farty git” noises at this point!.) If you can then you will have done the deed and anyone else can go whistle!!
Right that’s that over with. Now to a possibly more vexing question for some though personally I don’t find it so… Rules – what rules do you use for 40mm games Quick answer – any that work for you. Rules are easy if you know your history. If you don’t know, or as seems to happen increasingly, choose NOT to know then you are in a little trouble.
The main problem with rule sets is that there are too damn many. So the best way to tackle this in my view is to buy the soldiers first – organise them for the type of game you want to do THEN and only then find a rule set that fits your requirements. There is an awful lot of twaddle out there and as a general rule one should remember K.I.S.S.- that’s KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! When trying to deal with the plethora of rules on the market. Doing it this way does sound a little backhanded perhaps but you will save yourself a lot of grief in the long run. After all if you decide on a battalion level game then a whole filing cabinet full of rules become pointless. Likewise, a different filing cabinet full becomes superfluous if you want a lower or higher level game.

Bad Day at Dorks Rift! Zulus and Brits set about each other with gusto- and martinis. (though it’s a little early for cocktails!)
All figures painted using white undercoat, especially the Zulus to get “shine- through” under the washes of various brown shades. Negro skin tones are not hard to do but care is needed to avoid the cartoon look.
Figures by Sash and Saber Barely visible barricades by Skytrex.

My own view, for what its worth, is that 40mm can do anything 25/28mm can do, only prettier, with nicer toys, and a whole lot more visual impact but is best at brigade or at largest divisional level as the size of the toys fits the level of the game. This means one of my “average” 40mm games will have 3-6 battalions a side with appropriate “extras”. For 40mm games I want figure based casualty removal and “regimental detail”- precisely the opposite of my requirements for 10mm or my small collection of 15mm WW2.

French Infantry and Artillery in the Peninsular.
The Flag is by John “the flag” Hutchinson . Printed on cloth for my money there are no better flags- he does ‘em for 25mm too.

Now the following sets are those I have either used and or abused for 40mm or have seriously considered using but have simply not painted enough toys yet.
Warhammer Ancient Battles- pretty obvious really and with the appropriate supplements will do for most “sub-periods”.
Pig Wars- a “Dark Age Skirmish” set that actually uses units and despite its name is a viable ancient alternative for the sort of battles discussed in my last article.
File Leader- a set for smallish ECW actions. These are fun and have an air of “period feel” about them. Personally I junk the “trays” system. Not perhaps as versatile as Warhammer ECW but somewhat more accurate. You could also use Forlorn Hope at a lower fig to man ratio. Indeed all 3 would do but File leader is the most light-hearted. I plan to use elements from all 3 sets for my ECW/TYW games.
Charge! /The War Game- I bracket these 2 fine “old school” books together as they have many similarities, both are at bottom pretty generic sets of “Horse and Musket” rules. Charles Grants “The War Game “ are 18th century rules with big units – basic infantry units are 5 officers and 48 men for the battalion-their only drawback for me is a number of “gadgets”- “canister cones” “shell burst indicators” etc that need to be made. The books campaign system, has, frankly, never been bettered in my view.
“Charge!” are if anything even more basic- although perhaps a little more tongue in cheek but with simple elegant artillery rules.
My own nascent set of 40mm rules owes a debt to both these fine books.
Several chaps I have spoken to who are collecting Napoleonic’s in 40mm seem to be using “In the Grand Manner” in one form or another. Durham’s “chosen men” use their own rules for their games.
There is a fine set of FIW/AWI/War of 1812 rules on the 40mm Yahoo group. Called “With MacDuff to the Frontier” and written by Ross Macfarlane these are fairly simple but thoughtful rules for those “not quite a battle but a damn site more then a skirmish” type of actions fairly typical of North America in the aforementioned periods.
For ACW I use my own set but I believe Ian Smith and Friends used a “Grand Manner” variant for their demo games. I’m also told, by members of the Tring Wargames Club, that they have had some success using an ACW set called “Mr Lincolns War” for their 40mm ACW games. I’ve not tried these myself so can’t comment but these lads know what they are talking about. For lower level games I know of several groups using “Brother against Brother”. I’ve tried these once or twice and they are a bit “western gunfight” for my taste but perhaps I should have another look.
For Colonials I’m looking again at The Sword and the Flame- it has to be said that I have not yet really studied my “colonial project” yet but this set looks right – if possibly a little unwieldy- there is also a French and Indian War variant of this system out there as well.
Mind you when it comes to rules- and yes I’ll bang on about this ‘till I’m blue in the face- there is no substitute for knowing your period only then can you decide for yourself which rules will do the deed and which should be in the bin. It makes me howl with either laughter or frustration when I see or hear this or that “gamer” doing an “army” for this or that rule set rather than for a given period of history.
“ Oh yes I’m doing a DBF army( list 42 army 897 ) and I want also some figures for my “Wundarules” version 16 army”
“Ah Yes Sir “ replies big Andy with a glazed look in his eyes. “And what period would Sir be interested in”
“Just told you, DBF and “Wundarules”….
“Ah Yes (gulp!) Sir” …….
Yes dear reader this sort of thing has happened to me more than once only the names have been changed to protect the innocent…….
Now on to new 40mm product as there has been a good few additions in the last few months. In no particular order and only those that have come to my particular attention.
Flashing Blade has joined the fray with some good-looking Ancient Greeks 13 figures at the time of writing. Hoplites in bronze cuirass, peltasts, mostly naked these are I believe the lads that fought at the “Hot Gates”.
Perrys have added more to their Napoleonic line with some British Light infantry and a casualty or two- well up to the usual standard. ‘ Nuff said.
Equally excellent are Drabant Miniatures of Moscow. They continue to add to their ranges. Latest are some fine Russian infantry and artillery for the Great Northern War and a couple of Austrian Grenadiers for their impressive Wars of Marlborough range.
Front Rank has some AWI, very nice looking British Infantry the beginning of a good range I hope. Incidentally AWI does rather well in 40mm, Front Rank included, I can think of 4 ranges of 40mm AWI. Irregular, Trident- who have some nice- if a bit chunky- minutemen and of course Sash and Saber whose range continues to expand. British Light Dragoons being the most recent addition and some fine woodland Indians in the French and Indian Wars range.
Other Sash and Saber stuff that should be available by the time you read this will include cavalry for the ECW, also the first of the Seven Years War Prussians and Austrians. Also finally some mounted ACW cavalry and Colonels for Austrian and Russian Napoleonic.
Some Landsknechts should also be available, 4 packs marching Pikemen and smaller packs of Command, Halberdiers and Arquebusiers. Talking of Landsknechts, in my original article I neglected to mention Doug Miller Figures (mea culpa Doug!). Doug does a pretty comprehensive range for the German Peasants War including some fine Landsknechts.
On a slightly different note I’ve found a few useful terrain items. Skytrex have some O gauge railway accessories on their stand at shows. Boxes, crates etc are obviously useful but also a couple of small trackside huts useful for A. C. W and after. Irregular have some useful items in their “General Purpose” range including fences and a nice Gabion also a pile of shot (that’s SHOT Mr Editor!!)Terrain is not the problem the doubters seem to think.
It’s all good stuff and grist to the 40mm mill. Now all I need is time to paint more soldiers and play a game or 3.
 
Useful Info.
John “the flag” Hutchinson , email him on jondhut@ntlworld.com
40mm Yahoo discussion group http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/40mmWargamingCollecting/

© Andy Copestake, 2007