Category: Military

Flying your Freak Flags

We often get together with friends to watch football. If we’re lucky enough that one of our teams is available on TV, we can watch at home.  Or (since they are often out of market,) we have to go to a sports bar. Some friends came over the other day, and my wife got a little football banner to put out on the front porch for the occasion.

Must be game day at our house.

I got to thinking (the activity that usually prompts these little literary anecdotes,) about battle standards and military flags. They don’t make a lot of sense now, except in parades or special ceremonies, but as recently as the late 1800s (and dating all the way back to the earliest days of organized warfare,) signs and flags were necessary to help organize forces. Imagine a football game, but with a few hundred players on each team, and no referees. Now take away the rule about “personal fouls,” and give all the players weapons. It would be pretty difficult after the first snap of the ball to get everybody to line back up for the next play without a way to signal to your players. However, with a visible rallying point that was brightly decorated with your team’s colors and symbols, you’d stand a much better chance of showing your guys where to get together and regroup.

Historical tabletop wargames usually include units carrying battle flags (think of the US Civil War Battles or Napoleonic Wars.) Although the contestants of the game can clearly see their miniature forces while standing over the table, the flags add both a sense of realism, and colorful visual interest to the field. The same holds true in fantasy and sci-fi wargames. Probably the most recognizable example are the ones by Games Workshop. So much so that the term “Warhammer” has been genericized to  mean any brand of tabletop wargames in some countries.

Photocopied from a 1990s White Dwarf magazine, just waiting to be deployed.

Since the early 1980s, Warhammer Fantasy Battle has included units with fantastical war banners, incorporating the glyphs and icons of those fantasy armies. White Dwarf magazine often had examples for players to cut out and use on their units. I have several of those magazines on my shelves. They are all widely available with a Google search for “Skaven banners” or “Dwarf battle flags,” etc. if you don’t already have original magazine versions.

Note the sample banners on the bottom right of this old Space Marine box set from the 1990s.

 

I really enjoy incorporating battle flags into my miniature units. They are a great opportunity to add a little colorful whimsy, and because I don’t actually play the wargames, I can use them in any way I choose.

I am NOT bound by your silly game rules!

GW goblin banner, painted by yours truly.

 

 

The first flag is one of GW’s ready made goblin banners, painted as if it were  a tiny acrylic coloring book. I found it online last week, and painted it the other day. It’s pretty simple, but also very iconic of the original fantasy armies.

 

Smaller goblin, made useful as a mascot / standard bearer

This second one is a goblin that I 3d printed in resin.

I accidentally made him about 20% too small for the other guys in his unit. Rather than toss him out, I kitbashed him into a standard bearer, standing tiptoe on a little pile of skulls. I think he’ll be pretty cool once he’s completed.

Freehand Space Wolf banner, painted years ago on paper. Needs a little freshening up.

This third example is a freehand Space Marine Grey Wolves banner I painted in the late 80s. The pole and attached miniature have been lost over time, but I found the flag itself among some loose, broken stuff in a box. The additional text that was glued below the wolf is missing. The paper is pretty thin and creased (in addition to the intentional battle damage I added at its inception.)  But maybe I can shore it up and make it usable. With a little creativity, it may yet again serve as a rallying point for some tiny pretend badassery.

 

-Toph

Tamiya and Tamiya Again

I recently built a Tamiya plastic WWII tank kit – the “M3 Lee,” in 1/35th scale. I really like the M3 Lee tank. It was one of WWII’s least appreciated vehicles. It sat up too high, making a really pretty silhouette to aim at, and the main gun was off to the one side, making it at least 50% less effective at shooting directly in front. That said, I like the look. It has a very “WWI – 2.0 vibe.” That’s probably not a good thing, It’s maybe not even a “thing” at all, but there it is. I’ve built at least 2 previously, and I’ll probably build a couple more before I’m done.

The original M# Lee tank in 1.35th scale

 

The model itself turned out pretty much as expected. It looks a lot like a plastic WWII tank, it is rather overdone with the weathering and mud, and it required me to replace several pieces that I either broke while removing from the sprue, or dropped and lost through poor manual dexterity. As the Mandalorian would say:

“This is the way.”

But I noticed something while building it. It was very similar to previous Tamiya tank kits I’ve built over the years, so I went and checked. It is the exact same kit that was made in 1974. The date is stamped on the inside of the hull. That’s when it was originally tooled, and hasn’t changed in 50 years. That’s both cool, and a little thought provoking. I really enjoyed building it. I enjoyed it as much now as I did as a kid in the 1970s. But I thought about advancements in plastic modeling, and the COST of current (i.e. more recently designed) models. That same M3 Lee tank, by a more recent company (Mini Art, Takom, etc.) sells for between $55 and $85, depending on which version you choose. Meanwhile, the old Tamiya tank can be found in a bargain bin at a local model show table for less than $10. I think I paid $6 for mine.

But there are very noticeable differences. Mine has the standard “rubber-band” tracks. The new ones have individual, multi-piece links. My entire kit (except for the aforementioned track assembly,) is 100% injection-molded polystyrene plastic. Many of the details on those new kits are photo-etched brass, cast resin, or machine tooled aluminum. Yes, you are definitely getting what you pay for. But, given the fact that my original kit resulted in “pretty good” results, I don’t see the value of investing in a higher quality kit, only to make the same clumsy errors, at 10 times the cost. The lesson is, “Know your limits.”

1975’s Panzer Grenadiers by Tamiya

HOWEVER… I saw a couple of recent reviews of a new release of Tamiya’s 1/35 scale German Machine Gun Troops. I have built A LOT of Tamiya WWII Germans. The Panzer Grenadiers kit alone has seen my tabletop at least 5 times. In fact, I have one waiting RIGHT NOW for me to build. I’m looking forward to it. The box art on those 1970s Tamiya miniatures is so inspirational. The poses are dynamic. The figures look great. I just LOVE those guys.

New, 2024 German Machine Gun Team

But the NEW, 2024 re-tooling on the German Machine Gun Team puts the old ones to shame. I watched a couple of YouTube comparison videos of the 1970s miniatures vs. the new ones. The details seem to just jump off the plastic. The folds in the cloth, the stitching on the accessories, the expressions on their faces… it’s like a comparison of the iPhone to a couple of soup cans and a string. The old style, 1975 tooling is still available today, on the shelves as I write this, for about $7. The new version is currently available at a local hobby store for $15. Yes, it’s twice the price. But it’s only twice the price. It’s not 10 times the price. Maybe once I build up these STILL REALLY COOL 1975 vintage guys, I’ll pay a visit to the hobby shop, and cough up an extra $15, just to try out the new ones.

I’ve always done better with miniatures than with armor. Maybe I can pull off a “really nice” instead of a “pretty good” for this go around. Time will tell.

-Toph