Stansarmee is back! And never left... Let's catch up! Hat 1/32 American Civil War prototypes Marching set 1 and 2 painted in the summer of 2024
ACW marching set 1 and 2 prototypes
After a long hiatus, I am back! But where to start? Lets go back to 2020 shortly after my graduation, life was coming at me. I also started using Instagram and felt it was much more accessible and easy to maintain. I was uncertain if anybody besides me and a handful of loyal supporters were reading and enjoying these posts! I hope you all will return!? And if you are reading this, welcome back and I am happy to find you here! When recently someone named Parsifal complimented me about my blog via Instagram, I felt that spark again...I noticed that even after four years of NOT posting the blog gets views every day and I was surprised by the amount of total views!
In 2022 I got post covid (long COVID, meaning long-term COVID, chronic fatigue) which not only made life severely more challenging, but it also made painting much more exhausting and harder. However, I kept working on my figures and kept painting quite fanatically, only I could barely muster the energy to set up my figures and take some nice photos often leaving me with only works in progress that are now far outdated! I did put up my Austrian army again in march of
Here are some photos of what was my summer project, HaT 1/32 American Civil War prototype figures, which are by now available for sale in stores!
I thought I'll add some pictures of the end of June (2024) when my girlfriend and I were visiting my parents in a house in France, close to Verdun. Its from friends and I cherish a lot of good memories from this place. For my health condition at the time it was already quite a trip but so worth it.
It felt extra special to take a break from the Napoleonics and leave them at home, taking these ACW figures with me. I must say it also did hurt a little and felt like a small betrail haha..
But I mean!... Does it get more romantic than this? Priming figures in the garden with the sunset!
These test figures came in black, cool but it was really hard to see any detail!
And ta-da! Once Primed! They came to live! I loved how the grey primer revealed their details and gave them character.
The unit standing ready at the wall of the vegetable garden...Or well the compost heap to be specific haha.
And look who's there! ;-) The figures slowly taking shape!
To round up,
I never stopped painting, even when I felt at my worst, I am doing better now but still life isn't the same and I am struggling with my energy every day. But recently I managed to photograph some of my recent projects or some of the highlights of 2023 and 2024! I already have the pictures so I am really excited to start sharing those with you! I am also moving by the end of this month with more room for my toy soldiers, a big garden for priming and well more space in general! I hope to be posting about that too if I manage in the chaos of moving.
Lastly, if you made it this far through!... I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please leave a comment or tell me where I can check out your toy soldier projects and I will pay your blog a visit!
And if you're on Instagram, find me there @ Stansarmee and let's get in touch! :)
Hello Stan! It's awesome to see you back on your blog. It's actually pretty good timing as I've only recently discovered your blog and your work as a whole. I must say I really envy your painting venue for those ACW soldiers. That country house and garden are simply beautiful! Also I hope your health begins to really improve. I remember a couple summers ago I got a late variant of Covid, and I felt exactly as you are describing. The thing that really got me out of it (or so I like to think anyways) was spending time outside and working out surprisingly enough, although it could've easily been placebo and good timing.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I share some of your struggles with being tempted by new projects and scales in my case. I am currently working on a 1/72nd scale War of Spanish Succession project. During college I amassed a load of 1/72nd scale Strelets miniatures as they were cheaper than other scales, extremely beautifully sculpted, and most importantly they were easily stored. It's my first true toy soldier project so I've had to start from scratch, and as such I've been learning a lot but also facing my difficulties and questions. It is very exciting though, and I intend to really flesh out this project as I have all the supplies needed to do it right, and I have been heavily inspired by yours and Cole's work with 54mm Napoleonic's. I definitely will start a Napoleonic project in the future, I am just unsure of some of the specifics. I know I want to focus around the 1809 campaign and even the 1813 campaign in Germany, but that's as far as I've made it. I'm really struggling with what scale to collect. 1/72 scale has countless options in plastic, but also has some truly beautiful metal options in the form of Franznap Miniatures, and Black Watch miniatures. The only problem is that they are so small that they kind of lose that toy soldier feel to them. 28mm also has lots of options in both metal and plastic, with the Victrix sets being very appealing. The size of this scale I think is a nice middleman between the 1/72nd "diorama" scale and the larger 54mm toy soldier scale. That brings us to 54mm. I had never really considered this scale until viewing your work to be completely honest, and then shortly after I discovered Cole's work as well. You both do such a good job of presenting beautiful battle scenes and excellently painted soldiers that I immediately want to return to the scale of my childhood. A few questions I have about the scale would be:
1. Do you have a difficult time storing your soldiers due to the size?
2. How do you find your way around gaps in the miniature ranges? I've noticed that 54mm has far less options than other scales. I've also noticed that very rarely do new Napoleonic sets come out in 54mm.
3. Is finding/building terrain in this scale a problem for you?
4. And lastly, do you ever wish that you could go back and maybe start over in another scale?
I apologize for the long winded comment. I won't lie I am just very excited to finally be entering the toy soldier hobby for the first time since I was a kid, and I am trying to learn lots of new things.
Thanks so much,
Asher
Dear Asher, hi!
DeleteThank you very much for elaborate message, I was thrilled to find it in my inbox this morning!
I am really happy to hear that the timing was perfect for you! Going outdoors and into nature is proven to be really benificial for people with Covid, long covid/post covid. chronic fatigue or burn out. I also certainly felt that, living close to the beach, each visit was rewarding somehow. Besides that keeping calm, avoid stress as much as possible and paint my figures really helped. And thank you, my health has improved but I still face a lot of challenges on the day to day base and my life has changed a lot ever since. I hope your symptoms have gone completely?
The Strellers figures are amazing! I love their sculpts and the subjects they pick for their sets! I remember Napoleonic camp and other things I wished that were available in 1/32 Napoleonics (I know they soon will be with the 3D printed world moving up).
Great to hear you know Cole and my work! Are we friends or Instagram by any chance?! Cole and I have been pen palls for well nearly 10 years I think and special bond has developped, his set ups made me realise Wargaming wasn't what drew my to these little soldiers but the figures themselves is and playing around with them, collecting them and the last years I been mainly just obsessed with painting them haha. As I live in a really small studio I never had much space to set them up, even photographing was a hassle!
BUT! I am moving in exactly a week to a bigger house, with garden and options to also re organise my troops! I will actually start packing and wrapping my toy soldiers today, something I am a little nervous about.
It sounds like your first steps into the hobby are already very considered. I think the struggle with scales and subjects is always there. For Napoleonics I think thats a great call, I love the Danube Campaign for its epic clash of the two Empires plus it was Napoleons last victorious campaign. Depending on how strict you take things you can just expand that into the 1813 campaign over time! I play with this in my head too from time to time. Exactly what you discibre got me into 1/32! I love the Franz Nap figures and wish he made them in 1/32! To tell you an anecdote! When I was around 11 years old I used to play with my dads old figures all aprox 54mm, I learned about the 1/72 figures and somehow asumed that they were 54mm..So I got a bulk of them to find out how small they were..Haha..I kept on collecting and played with them like toy soldiers but indeed it wasn't the seem. That's how I came clean and received some Airfix 1/32 figures left and right, some ACTA than followed by Italeri, HaT and so on. I didn't have much of a plan at the time other than Waterloo but also got Russians later on and what not haha...I got rid of my 1/72 figures and just by painting some Austrians without too much knowledge I got really into them and thats where the journey started for me. It became more and more specific over time. So with you waging options you already make a way better start than I did, I learned on the job ;-)
Cole and I often joke about switching to the dark site which would be 28mm for us..In that scale it seems like they have everything but to be honest that scale would still feel weird when picking up 28mm guys individually, its just not the same..I really like that you hold a guy a single figure, can move them around, have the toy soldier vibes when browsing trough a box of them and the toy soldier nostalgia just can't be beaten by anything!
And part II of III haha answering your questions because the post was too long otherwise
Delete1. Haha, perfect timing this question! Well..I lived in 25m2 the last five years and my collection grew quite a bit during this stay. I have large transparant plastic 30L storage boxes under my bed that can hold like up to 100 ish painted guys perhaps? I base them on MDF bases which is in large due to the fact that this keeps them safe and stable, now that I will have to move them its a little re-asurance, cause as long as they fit in a box in which they can't move they are a lot safer. The big trade off is that they take up more space like this and once I paint figures up I keep them standing straight up like that, whilst my unpainted figures are often just pilled together in boxes. So each time I finish some figures, I get some level of stress because I need to find ways to store them which is now all over my room but will be better in the future I hope!
2. Correct..Over the years slowly those gaps are being plugged while new ones are being created by sets being no longer available. For example I wanted pre bardin french for 1809 for many years..The only set available was the Italeri set of 1798-1805 French Infantry which I didn't get till it got death stock..I hordered it for my French infantry but I needed to find away to find alternative heads with shako's. But so far I havent mustered that courage yet..Though I have options! Than around 2022 Speira (They Print their own 3D miniatures and now also of other 3D sculptors) came out with some 1809 French so I got those and not long after Exforce also came out with a set of Pre Bardin French! Both being more on the expensive side but I got a set from the Ex force French from my girlfriend ( I will upload photo's here and on IG soon) and I got a 2nd set from Cole, which I am painting up at the moment! Also when I started there were only two sets of Italeri Austrians both being mostly out of stock but I managed to get quite a lot from both and at some point even some rare Replicants ones (also no longer available) after many years of waiting HaT finally started producing their Austrians, they have some flaws but they do plug the gap! Now also coming out with Hungarians and Landwehr! Than is 3D printing offering great options, somebody printed around 400 guys from Rafal Polkowski's Austrian army range for my and I purchased both Kickstarters from Lucas from Piano Wargames both subjected with ''The Danube'' campaign''. So this kinda completely answers all my needs but only has the downside of that you need to get into 3D printing or find a way to get them printed somewhere! But before all that was an option I used to convert figures, French Hussars to Austrian Hussars and somewhere here are the HaT Brunswick avant garde turned into Austrian Jagers, British dragoons to Austrian Chevaux Legere and so on! I still think those conversions are super fun though they feel now caught up by 3D alternatives, I will still trow them into the mix.
3. No, there are many great options because its a toy soldier scale, there are some posts here on my blog of me turning some vintage toys into suitable stuff. For the rest I really love that out of cardboard or foamboard you can make anything yourself but there is also stuff for sale from BMC toy or more fancy brands. If you look around outside, branches and plants can already make great trees! I prefer making scenery myself as it reminds my of playing with my figures back in the day, only different standards!
And the last part III out of III
ReplyDelete4. Sometimes with 28mm yes...But that never lasts long, I don't think I would get as attached to 28mm as I would to my big guys! Something I sometimes regret is that 54mm takes a whole lot longer to paint up than 28mm, but I am slow so probably with 28mm I would still take long plus I think my painting abilities would be degraded haha. So the honest answer is No! It's just a passing thought often evoked by logistical matters haha.
Thank so much for you long comment! I enjoy your enthusiasm and replied back with an even longer comment, sorry for that haha!
Happy to welcome you(back) into the toy soldier hobby and really happy to have you here!
Your always welcome to ask any questions, just shoot! Happy to be of service to you :)
Thank you!
Best,
Stan
Thank you so much for your response Stan! That answered so many things for me, and you've ultimately convinced me of what I feared to be true haha. That is, that 54mm is in fact what I am going to have to commit to you. I think I've known this in the back of my mind for some time now, but I was always trying to talk myself out of it. "Think of how much easier it'd be to buy 60 miniatures in a smaller scale for the price of twelve 1/32 scale soldiers. Look at all the artillery options available. New sets are dropping by the dozen every year. You wouldn't have to 3D print!" Those sorts of thoughts. As you mention though, you just can't beat a true 1/32 scale toy soldier. I completely agree with your take about wargaming as well, its just not for me. I'd much rather paint my soldiers and model battlefields for them to set up some battle scenes and enjoy myself. Your story from childhood I also find very relatable haha. I had a similar experience when I was a kid during a trip to Gettysburg. Me and my Dad were touring the battlefield while my other siblings and mom were shopping (it was our third time going and they couldn't handle anymore history), and my dad took me to an awesome toy soldier shop in the town. While there my dad noticed that one of the boxes contained 44 men, much more than the usual 20 or so men in typical toy soldier sets. Thinking we'd just found a bargain I stocked up on a few sets and man was I disappointed when I later found out that they were about the size of my usual soldiers' arm. They were of course 1/72 scale, but I tried to make them work and I would have battles with them like I would with my usual 54mm men, but alas you just couldn't set them up and knock them down like I was used to. 28mm will almost certainly suffer from the same problem, so no matter how many cool ready made sets they have I'm gonna have to resist. Until I learn to 3D print I'll rely on the traditional sets that are available to get me started. Plus HaT has shown signs that they will continue to produce 54mm sets which is very exciting.
DeleteI've already ordered a cheap set of AIP French voltigeurs to get me started and get a feel for painting at this scale, which raises two questions:
1. Do you have any painting tips for 54mm? Any specific washes or primers you'd recommend... and then how does one go about painting eyes. The eyes intimidate I won't lie haha.
2. What are some good uniform references for painting? I'm not exactly a button counter but I do appreciate it when a toy soldier is painted faithfully.
And lastly I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. I forgot to click the "notify me" button so I had to manually check and see if you had replied. Also yes my covid symptoms did go away eventually (after about two months). I really hope you get to feeling better, and I hope that your move goes completely smoothly. Can't wait to see what you'll be able to do with your new space.
Thanks for the insight and answers to my questions. They were extremely appreciated. I definitely look forward to talking to you more, and I I apologive for any mistakes that I may have made in this post. It's the end of the day and sleep is coming after me hard.
Thanks again,
Asher