Freeman's Farm war game staged at the Seven Years War Association convention
several years ago. Fife and Drum figures, of course.

I have been reluctant to take down the AWI terrain from our recent skirmish game that we played several weeks ago. The table terrain looks really good and it may well be one of my best efforts ever (or at least in my top ten). I staged several pictures of Saratoga British and their Indian allies on the table. They are shown below:

British flank company troops wearing the cut down jackets and hats
worn by Burgoyne's troops in the Saratoga Campaign of 1777.

Highlander flank company men. I paired one firing and one loading figure together.

More Highlanders on the edge of a cornfield

The Crown's Loyalist troops (Boo, hiss; or huzzah, depending on your point of view)
These are mostly American militia figures painted with green coats and buff facings.
The officers come from the British Fife and Drum figures.

Burgoyne's Mohawk allies. These were the last figures that Richard Ansell sculpted for me.

Indians taking cover in a cornfield. I like how this picture turned out.

More Mohawk allies, this time wearing hunting shirts.

British line infantry in Saratoga uniforms

Daniel Morgan's riflemen at Saratoga. These figures were sculpted to specifically be
Morgan's Rifles.

American militia. Sorry about the poor lighting in this picture.

New Hampshire regiments

Daniel Morgan directs his riflemen during the opening stages of Freeman's Farm

American Militia fight it out with some Brunswick troops

Brunswick grenadiers converted from FD Hessian grenadiers

Desperate action up close on the skirmish line.

Freeman's Farm terrain

More Freeman's Farm terrain

One of the New Hampshire or Massachusetts regiments.

General Burgoyne and his staff and senior officers

Benedict Arnold, back when he was one of the good guys at Saratoga.

ccc

AWI 250th Anniversary Sale - 22% Discounts!

 

A recent AWI game set during the Saratoga Campaign of 1777.

American Loyalists in the service of the Crown

Click Pictures to Enlarge

This year, 2025, marks the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, or the American War of Independence (if you must) starting with the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" on that April morning of April 19, 1775.

Fife and Drum Miniatures will be celebrating our 250th anniversary milestone with a number of events, new products and marketing over the course of the 250th through 2033.

We are not planning on throwing tea into nearby Lake Michigan nor will we hit our customers with tariffs against The Crown. Instead, we have a better idea: a sale!

So we are kicking off the anniversary with a big sale offering a 22% discount off of all products (except already-discounted regimental and battalion packs) in both the Fife and Drum AWI and Minden SYW figure ranges. The discounts start today and run through the end of this month on April 30, 2025.

Just enter the coupon code Lexington2025 when you check out with your shopping cart in our web store and your discount will be automatically applied to your order. The coupon requires a minimum purchase amount of $50.

Click on the link to the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store and start building up your armies today!

Fife and Drum Miniatures web store

A Note To Our Customers About This Current US Tariff Nonsense

A side note on the tariff story in 2025: we do not intend to raise our prices unless the current US Administration hikes tariffs on goods imported from the United Kingdom to some unknown ridiculous level. The current rules seem to apply an across-the-board base-line tariff of 10% to all countries. We cast our miniatures in the UK at Griffin Castings. While Griffin already increased our prices at the beginning of 2025, we felt that the amount was at a level that we could absorb and not pass on to our customers.

It has always been our philosophy that Fife and Drum is a service that caters to the historical miniatures market. We are a company run by war gamers serving other war gamers.  We are a hobby business (a side hustle in current lingo) and do not seek to make a profit above and beyond what is required to keep the business running and to add new products to our product lines. 

We thank you for your business over the past dozen years and greatly appreciate your support.

cc

The Roman Forum/Basilica Model

 

An orator speaks to a gathering crowd in front of the basilica

The front entrance to the basilica. I repurposed a cameo of a woman from a piece
of discarded jewelry for use over the front door.

Click on images to enlarge

I finished another building model for my 1/32 scale Roman town this week. It is a basilica that can also be used as a forum.

In Ancient Rome, basilicas were versatile and monumental structures that served the civic, judicial, and religious needs of society. Designed as long rectangular buildings featuring a large central space (called a nave), and flanked on either side by aisles, basilicas were centers of public life.

So now my growing Roman town (at what stage does it become a city?) now has a public building for government administrators. It is conveniently placed on the central plaza in the town, across the street from the Temple of Athena.

The basilica's roof needs to be finished so I placed a carpenter on the roof to make the repairs.
Why not? I really like this picture.

The butcher's shop and the antiquarian dealer's shop are next door to the basilica.
The Temple of Athena can be seen in the background.

Now it's starting to look like a large town!

The quayside view of the basilica

A bird's-eye view of the town

A view of the older temples across the river from the town.

A Roman war galley sails into the port.

The basilica was constructed from foam core board, bass wood for the rafters, and balsa wood for other bits of trim such as the doors. I also found a cameo of a Roman woman's head that I repurposed from a piece of discarded jewelry and I placed this over the front doorway to suggest an ornamental relief sculpture inside the pediment. Plastruct brand roof tiles (in G Scale) were used for the roof.

I will probably take a pause on making more town models until after the Little Wars convention, which is coming up soon on April 24-27, 2025 in Lisle, Illinois. I could probably use a couple more farm house sheds for my games.

cc

Seven Years War Assn Convention This Weekend

 

I couldn't make it to this year's Seven Years War Association convention this year. I thought that I would therefore post several pictures of my SYW collection of Minden Miniatures instead.

Camp Life

Here are some pictures of the Prussian camp that I set up last Autumn. They show some scenes in and around the camp.

Prussian dragoon on scouting assignment, Minden figure converted from a Minden lager.

Blacksmith or farrier. The wagon is from Berliner Zinnfiguren

Picket duty outpost with Prussian dragoons

Prussian pioneers marching off to work

"Your papers please"

Some of the towns and villages in Silesia

Ian Weekley buildings from the 1980s still look good by today's standards.
I like that the cut and fit of the models are not "perfect", giving them a 
more realistic appearance.

Another view of the Ian Weekley village. I have found that using a mass of buildings
positioned in various angles make for a good look. I learned this trick from seeing
some of the dioramas in the German Army Museum in Dresden.

Here is the larger town in the area. Buildings were made by Herb Gundt.
I made the roads and the figures are Minden Miniatures, of course.

Yet another table in my Silesian villages set up on two 6 x 12 feet tables in my basement.
The church was the first building that I ever made, circa 1988. Not bad for a first effort.
Materials are plywood, a ping pong ball, and individual roof tiles cut out of cardboard.
That was a grueling task (gluing the roof tiles onto the church).

As Phil Olley would say, "every war game table should have a windmill on it."

The fourth village on the game table. I like to put my villages in the corners
of my game table so that they are out of the way where the battle occurs.
This particular village is long and narrow, much like one would see in Silesia.
The town buildings were often erected along the main road rather than grouped
together. These are mostly Herb Gundt buildings with one Ian Weekley model.

My game table philosophy is to put my villages in the corners of the game table so that they do not interfere with the war game battle. Most of the time my scenarios do not involve fighting inside towns as SYW battles tended to be fought on open ground, rather in the villages. Of course there are exceptions to this, however, I have found that buildings can ruin a good war game because they bog down the action and generally do not produce a good game.

Roads should be laid out in diagonal patterns to avoid the same old same old table top look. I don't like to see every road in straight parallels to each other. Diagonally placed roads have a more realistic look to them. I learned this little trick from my friend Keith Leidy.

Trees look good on the table top and undoubtedly some of the action in real battles were fought in wooded areas, but they interfere with the flow of a good war game. In the SYW, fighting in wooded areas tended to be done by light troops such as Croats, Frei-korps and specially recruited light infantry regiments.

c

Rome wasn't built in a day, but we've come close

 

Not quite Rome, but getting close.

Click on all pictures to enlarge the view

I finally finished the Roman temple that is shown in the picture above and I am quite pleased with the results. It even has a lift off roof, a feature that I rarely use in my buildings. The height of the model almost makes it a requirement to make the roof a "lift off" type.

My Roman town continues to grow. I have made and modeled eleven structures since the beginning of 2025 as well as nearly six feet in length of aqueduct sections.

The view of the city from the other side of the river.

The temple was a fun project, but it took me awhile to figure out how to do the roof. I finally decided to make it a removable roof for two reasons: the height of the model and the ability to place figures inside the model. All of my previous buildings had fixed roofs.

So now I am up to eleven buildings and six feet of aqueduct models that I have constructed so far in 2025.

Three of the Patrician class discuss the day's events on the temple steps.

The front view of the temple. Note the use of coins attached to the front pediment
to similute carvings. They are (from Left to Right) a US Lincoln penny, a British 2 new pence coin, 
and a US Roosevelt dime on the right. I wish that I could use a "Mercury Dime" instead
of the Roosevelt dime, but the former are hard to find in circulation.

The removable roof of the temple

The new Roman temple in situ

Two of the '"swells" are discussing the day's events in front of the entrance.
This is what the floor looked like before the paper tiles were added.

I searched the internet for a nice looking downloadable image of stone flooring and finally found one that fit the bill. The exterior temple floors represent large stone blocks. The interior tiles were sourced at Michael's Stores and are sheets of wrapping paper that the store sells. The columns are from a wedding cake tier set.

Paper floor tiles that I found on-line. The guard is made by John Jenkins Designs.
the fellow in the blue toga is a King & Country figure, and the senator with the red striped
toga is from First Legion. I don't recall the origin of the fellow with his back to the camera.
These are all 1/30 scale figures.

My next building project is to make some forum style buildings with columns that will line one edge of my Roman forum area. The table mat is made by Cigar Box Battle Mats and it looks like I will have to order another mat if I want to expand the size of the town (currently at 5ft wide by 6ft long). I also want to make a smaller version of the temple.

The Little Wars game convention is coming up on April 24 through 27th in Lisle, Illinois and so I need to get more focused on preparing for the game rather than building construction. My game will have three 6ft by 15ft tables and there is probably only enough room to place two small Roman farms in the corners. One of the back tables will have a Roman camp too. The Carthaginian side of the tables may have only one farmstead in one of the corners.

The Roman Camp

Here are some pictures of the Roman camp that will be placed on one of the back tables in my Little Wars convention game. The camp pieces are made by Toy Soldiers of San Diego ("TSSD").

cc