War of 1812 and the Alamo

Strelets War of 1812 American Militia Winter 1812.

This is my only set of War of 1812 figures.

I assume I could use Napoleonic War British for the British, but of course I don't do Napoleonic Wars as such.

These are excellent figures, no flash and nice variety of poses.

Two standing riflemen.  I intend to use these for the Alamo and Texas War of Independence.

 I think the largest battle was San Jacinto.  The Texans only had about 900 troops so if I add these to my Imex Texicans and a few cowboys and miscellaneous figures it should make a pretty good Texan Army.

Alamo Figures

Imex did a great line of American history figures.

The figures on the back of the box were highly anticipated by me at the time.

The Alamo set included a full 50 figures!

 No flash, and a nice variety of poses.

Figures come off the sprue easily.

 

 The Alamo model has a cast resin front to the chapel.

 

 I hope someday, to visit the real Alamo, but so far I have not, and so I am holding off painting the building.

 

 The camera I have allows different filters, and in some of my photos the figures look more gray, like this one.  The figures are tan.  A little heroes vignette at the front doors.

 

Alamo Figures and Alamo Model

 

 Imex 1/72nd scale Alamo Defenders in the Alamo.

 

 The Alamo is expanded foam, by Hudson and Allen in 25mm.

 

 It's a great Alamo model.  It's as accurate as many of them are, and looks great set up.

While it's supposed to be 25mm and 25mm figures are often a little larger than 1/72nd these figures fit just fine.

Great figures and a great model!

The Napoleon of the West, President General Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón at the Alamo

Still going through the box of sick, lame, and lazy, lost, stolen, and strayed figures.

The riders from the HaT French Napoleonic Limbers were used for WWII Germans.

Those guys lost their heads and they were replaced by WWII German heads.

These guys also gave up their heads, they look like top hats; they went to various diplomats.

So these guys got those spare French Napoleonic figure heads.

Now they will serve The Napoleon of the West, President General Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón at the Alamo.

Pretty good for former Spanish Guerillas.

Napoleonic Artillery

I don't do Napoleonics, so why do I have these in my collection?

I use the horses, limber and accessories for other purposes.

This limber works very well for WWII German heavy artillery barrel carrier.

That still leaves me with a lot of extra stuff.  The stacked muskets will go to my ACW troops.  Not sure about the artillery and crew, perhaps General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana will use them at the Alamo.

I take the guns wheels for use on scratch built wagons.

The waving man will become a German naval officer and the other one will give up his head to become a Japanese Embassy, Shinto priest.

The Gates of the Alamo

The Gates of the Alamo, by Stephen Harrigan, go buy this book now. While you are waiting for it to be delivered to your door, ordera few thousand Imex Alam Mexican Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery, as well as a few boxes of Alamo Defenders from my friend Randy at Fidelis Models.  This is a great book.  It is almost 600 pages and I read it in two days!

It follows the lives of serveral people on both sides of the conflict.  While it is a fictional account, the facts of the events, historical background is very accurate.

The book follows real events as much as possible for a work of historical fiction.  I highly recommend it!

Alamo & Marines

These are the HaT British Marines and Sailors, manning the guns that come with the sets.

The sailor types, these will end up being transferred to the US Navy in the post - Civil War era. The man with ax and boarding pike will end up both in the Navy and the Alamo.

Here the sailors with their future crewmates.

The Marines are very spiffy, but of little value in the US Navy or Alamo collection.

Alamo Defenders

Hat Spanish Guerrillas in 1/72nd scale soft plastic. I plan on using them as Alamo Defenders. Not sure what these four will be used as, since they don't look very Texican.

These four look like they could be in Texas from about 1800 until last Tuesday.

These guys are a bit smaller than the others, so they will work great for younger members of the Alamo defenders. I think they look great just like this, look around and you can find all kinds of uses for guys like this.

Alamo Troops

Since I was ordering from Michigan Toy Soldier Company, I figured I may as well get these guys too.

I have been planning on watching a few Alamo movies back to back, so I wanted to get some more figures that would work for Alamo defenders.

These guys are the same color as the Imex Alamo Defenders.

Many folks wore top hats in the Alamo era and so I think some of these guys are just right.

A few of these will get head swaps and the top hats will end up on other troops. I like the variety here.

Alamo Model Photography

I took these photos outdoors in the early afternoon. I used a flash. Make sure that model photos don't have unnatural shadows. Strange shadows and odd lighting make models look unrealistic.




















This is a photo through the front gate of the Alamo. I situated it so that the background was the opposite wall of the Alamo model, my yard and my back wall. The back wall to my yard is fenced by a block wall that looks like the Alamo walls. A good background is important in model photos, it makes the model look much more realistic.




















When photographing models, get down low to the ground, at the same level as the model. It gives a perspective that is realistic and not something that looks like a birds eye view.





















Adding people to the photo of terrain makes the scale more recognizable. Vehicles and buildings particularly need to have figures in the photo so that the viewer can determine how large or how small the item is in the photo. Model photos are a fun part of wargaming and model building and it only takes a few simple techniques to improve them from good to excellent.