Paper Armies and Wargaming

Last year I discovered a neat little site called Billy Bones Workshop. He's a darned good miniatures painter, but he's also developing and producing miniature armies and terrain in paper. I purchased his English Civil War set, and am very impressed with it.  So much so that I've submitted a game for the October Games day.

   These miniatures are roughly 20mm scale, although the actual sizes vary from unit to unit. General officers and foot and horse commanders are slightly larger, and houses, and other buildings slightly smaller. In the great scheme of things, that really doesn't matter with these, as each "set" or "counter" is a stand of miniatures, or command group.

  The sets come as a download in 3 ZIP files which are all pdf files. These can be resized if you like,  and allow you to print out as many sheets as you want. The 3-file set costs $10.00 for all, and can be ordered from an online store Wargame Vault. He also offers a free download, which includes new buildings, walls (both complete and damaged) and new versions of artillery.

  The author suggests you print these out on cardstock and then paste them together. I opted to print on parchment paper, and then glue them to black cardstock. The buildings and walls I am mounting on black foamcore for a little more heft and depth. All you need is a ruler, scissors, and a gluestick.  The armies print out in a sort of sepia tone color, and are drawn to look much like the wood engravings from the era. Billy suggests trying printing them on different colored stock. Myself, I'm doing them in the sepia tone and later will try hand-coloring some here and there with color art pencils to try and get the feel of the hand-colored artwork of the times.

   The types of unit include several different muskets, pikes, clubmen, dragoons, lobsters, cavaliers, artillery, foot and horse commanders, generals, plus lots of terrain. Roads, bridge, trees and hedges, streams, and even smoke markers for volley and artillery fire, and a sheet of colored flags for marking bases.

  All in all, I really like the look of these and am happy I got them. For $10.00 you can't go wrong.

  Once I get my camera back, I'll post some images of what I've got done so far, though there are some nice pics on Billy Bones site too.

   Respects,
  Tim Kindred