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| All these came from 1 larger hair curler. |
Long, long ago
Andy Callan wrote and article for Miniature Wargames newsletter detailing how to create cheap armies out of plastic hair curlers. A few years back I decided to take a crack at this method. I scoured all the local bigbox stores looking for plastic hair curlers. These were pretty hard to find it turns out. But I eventually found a set of 3 large curlers at a K-Mart for a few dollars.
These pictures detail my results with English and French Napoleonic armies. Up close they look awful, just plastic with lines of paint. From a few feet away they don't look half bad on the table. You eye just blends the colors together and picks out the flags for the most part.
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| The thin red line...of womens hair dressing items. |
I downloaded flags from warflag.com and used a very narrow gauge brass rod as a flag staff. The brass rod was a random find at a DIY store. I haven't seen any since so maybe it was divine intervention.
Painting was simple. Base color, small dot of color for trousers, flesh for faces, black for hats, green on the base of the curler. Done.
The cavalry was a serious pain to make. The article details how to do this correctly, but I definitely glued my fingers together more than once. Though, maybe I could get good results with white glue and not use super glue next time.
All of this took me an evening to complete. Not bad bang for my buck and a lot of fieldable units in a short amount of time.
Here is the link to this article in the files section of 6mm Miniatures Yahoo group. You may need to join before you can download it.
Hair Curler Armies Article
*UPDATE*
The above link is dead now. I can't seem to find a copy of the article anywhere so instead here is a link to an even better resource on the
SUBJECT
It was suggested to me that instead of gluing my fingers together while making cavalry, I should instead use a heated needle to apply the riders.
ReplyDeleteHey, great job. You encouraged me to start with making my own army from hair rollers. Could you post photo of the front of one stand (it would help me painting it)
ReplyDeleteSay, the link is dead to the instructions. Is there another source?
ReplyDeleteIn the Yahoo Group 6mm_Miniatures there is an excellent PDF file under "Files" and in the folder "6mm hair roller How to & Rules." I would download and keep a copy lest the group disappear or the file get deleted.
ReplyDelete