It’s not very often that I don’t post on my blog. The virus panicdemic has finally laid the family low. I’ve been shielding at home, my niece has been hospitalised and the boys haven’t done more than ten straight days in school. Christmas is down to two families in Wales and I’ve just heard that my sister has to stay away from the festivities because someone tested positive where she works! What a year!

I literally haven’t been painting for a fortnight and this is very unusual. Whilst others are gearing up for holiday painting, I was just not feeling the love. For those who are paint demons, check out Mark A. Morin’s blog for some of the finest work you are likely to see in the colonies and enter his Christmas competition. Could there be a faster way to get armies completed? The doorbell rang and a new epoch has begun……

Do you remember when as a kid you always wanted what you had bought for a friend’s birthday? The plan was to finally get one of the Tercio’s most ” financially careful” members to finally field a wargames army? Others had offered to paint one for him but member X didn’t realise that wargames figures had to be bought with money. The answer was WoFun flats hot from Romania!

They come in sheets of around forty infantry or sixteen cavalry. The sumptuous box arrived in good time and I just had to see what was inside. The illustrations are by Peter Dennis and I love his work. It’s something about the detail and characterisation that Mr. Dennis uses- I’m such a fan of his illustrations and boxart. You can buy the books of paper soldiers or else download sheets from the Paper Soldier company but WoFun have hit on the idea of encasing the artwork in plexiglass…

Warning; it is sharp when snapped. One of my sheets weren’t cut out properly but nevermind.

With that one exception, the flats pop out with a little pressure. I took to shaving a little bit off the securing tabs and widening the slot in the base. I did snap a few in the process but not too many. The ranges vary as to the number and size of the tabs. The Punic wars collection is an early range and the later Imperial Romans appear more sturdy.

Within half an hour I had prepared two sheets of flats. The colour is great and with a little practice the assembly is easy; certainly when you compare to the time and effort involved in preparing and painting miniatures. I was feeling very pleased with “our” purchase. The new flats took pride of place on the shelf. En masse they would look just great and who wants to paint Gallic tartan?

And then it hit me! Figures aren’t for display, we need a game system. They were back off the shelf and I elected to base them for the Tercio standard 40mm squares. I glued the based flats to an MDF square and followed the usual Basing routine.

Gluing the underside will strengthen the bond.

I used ploy filler to hide the ” step”  and then painted the whole base with grey green.

I did think to stop there to retain the toy soldier look but then just went for it with tufts and sand. Two dimensional flats may not suit everyone but I’m a fan. They are light and cheap plus  they will be great to use with Command and Colors games and eras which no one has miniatures. I’ll post more pictures when the Gaul’s are complete. Knowing Mr X it may be some time before he gets around to basing his present but we live in hope………

Talking of Christmas, just as I was finishing up in the “study”, another little gift to myself arrived! Stay tuned for more Advent adventures of a wargames addict!