Helion_Paper_Soldiers_HEL0744Wargame_The_Roman_Invasion_AD_43_By.pdf

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ROMAN
INVASION
AD43–84
PETER DENNIS
with easy rules by
Andy Callan
WARGAME
THE
Helion & Company Limited
26 Willow Road, Solihull, West Midlands B91 1UE, England
Telephone 0121 705 3393 • Fax 0121 711 4075 • Email: info@helion.co.uk • Website: www.helion.co.uk
Twitter: @helionbooks • Visit our blog http://blog.helion.co.uk/
Published by Helion & Company 2017
Designed and typeset by Farr out Publications, Wokingham, Berkshire
Cover designed by Paul Hewitt, Battlefield Design (www.battlefield-design.co.uk)
Printed in the UK by Henry Ling Limited, Dorchester, Dorset
Text © Peter Dennis and Andy Callan 2016
Pictures © Peter Dennis 2016
The figure artwork pages in this book are copyright free for your personal hobby use. They may not be
reproduced for sale or included in other publications without the consent of the copyright holder.
ISBN
978-1-913336-75-2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the express written consent of Helion & Company Limited, other than for personal hobby use.
For details of other military history titles published by Helion & Company Limited contact
the above address, or visit our website: http://www.helion.co.uk.
We always welcome receiving book proposals from prospective authors.
NOTE THAT THE FIGURES AND MODELS IN THIS BOOK SHOULD BE MADE FROM YOUR PHOTOCOPIES OF THE ARTWORK PAGES.
PLEASE DO NOT MAKE UP MODELS FROM THE PAGES THEMSELVES!
MAKING PAPER ARMIES
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
We call this series ‘sourcebooks’ because
in them you can source all the artwork you
will need to make armies of any size by
making your own prints from the pages.
In the 18th and 19th century the
publishers, like the famous Imagerie
d’Epinal in France, sold paper soldiers by
the sheet. Today, excellent colour copies
can be made cheaply on commercial
copiers, although just how cheaply can
vary depending on your location. You can
make copies on your computer at home,
but I prefer to use a commercial copier, the
print quality is better and the difference in
price is worth it.
When you begin making copies of the
soldiers in the book, take the staples out
and cut the pages into single sheets for
convenience. Store them in an A4 folder.
PAPER
The thickness of paper is expressed in
weight terms. The standard copier paper is
80 gram, which is fine for making soldiers,
but if you get serious about it, buy some
good quality 100 gram paper. The surface
of the paper makes a real difference to
print quality and a bit of extra substance
in the ranks is welcome. Don’t be tempted
to go much thicker for the soldier stands.
Heavier paper is harder to cut out and
the model has a more pronounced edge
which works against the illusion that we
are trying to create.
Commercial copiers will allow you to
use your own paper and may discount
the prints if you ask them nicely. I use 120
gram paper for trees and 160 gram for
buildings.
You will need to find stiffer card for
stand bases. If you can’t find anything
suitable lying around, a sheet of mounting
board from a craft shop isn’t too expensive
and will base a large army. It’s easy to cut
with scissors, and the colour is irrelevant
so buy the cheapest!
GLUE
Paperboys, which is what we call these
soldiers, work because of glue. When you
stick two sheets of thin paper together
with a solvent glue like UHU or a white
PVA glue the result is a surprisingly stiff
and stable laminate. It is easy to cut out
when fully dry but keeps its shape well.
I prefer UHU for the main task of gluing
the stands of figures, but PVA, which can
be painted on, has no smell and dries
very stiff. Its inherent wetness does mean
the figures, particularly larger ones like
cavalry, dry with a curve in them, but once
straightened the curve doesn’t return. PVA
is particularly useful for the final stage of
construction which is a brush lick over the
back of finished weapons like spears and
swords. The glue dries invisibly and makes
vulnerable model parts like the Legionary
pila, their thin javelins, really strong. It only
takes a moment and I now regard this as
an essential process. I really notice the
difference in older stands made before I
discovered ‘the lick’.
I use impact adhesive, the ‘general
purpose’ type you can buy in every
supermarket, for gluing the bases and for
fixing on the front ranks. It has lots of ‘grab’
and makes the whole job much easier.
SCORING AND CUTTING
Scoring is gently cutting partway through
a sheet of paper with a craft knife to give a
crisp fold. It is an essential part of all paper
modelling. I use an older blade, which
makes the pressure less critical. I run the
blade along the score lines on the figure
sheets by eye. It is easier to see the blade/
line contact point that way and it is much
quicker. I use a ruler for scoring buildings
or the centre line of trees.
It is probably the cutting out which
looks most daunting, but it is pretty
straightforward if you have the right
scissors and technique.
There are many types of scissors
which are suitable. I use various pairs,
pointed, like the ones on the back cover
and no bigger than around 6 cm from the
nut. One of my favourites cost about a
pound from a supermarket kitchenware
department. You may well have suitable
ones around the house.
The secret is to keep the cutting hand
still and rested, and to move the piece
being cut around. So long as you can
see the line you are cutting, and this is
almost always the case, it is easy. Don’t
try to rush, ever. Your speed will naturally
increase as your muscles get used to the
fine movements required. I timed myself
recently and I cut out a three rank stand
in about four minutes without making any
effort to hurry.
Cutting out with a craft knife is much
slower, and harder work. If you are left
handed you might be tempted to do this,
but get a pair of appropriate left handed
scissors from a dedicated lefty website.
If you snip off a spear or sword,
and
you can find it,
just use impact glue to stick
it to the back of the figure. The resulting
weapon will be a few mm shorter, but in
the horde nobody will ever notice. Paper
is very forgiving.
All the front ranks are separate. This is
so that it is easy to cut up between their
legs. As soon as I began to experiment
with this I saw that the improvement in the
appearance of the stands was so obvious
that it was well worth the little extra time
it takes. There is base colour between
their legs on the sheet, so the process
is optional. A ‘locator strip’ is folded up
where the front rank will stand.
A word on edges: there is a school,
notably in Eastern Europe, of soldier
makers who leave a fine white line around
the figures. This probably evolved to
strengthen the figure and I suppose it can
look pretty smart, but it isn’t necessary
and in fact a perfect white line around the
figures is hard to achieve. Paperboys were
designed to be a moving illustration, so
I’m not a fan of the halo.
A WORD ON WOAD
The Britons were famously tattooed and
painted with the blue vegetable pigment
called woad. I have not given the figures
any decoration, as such markings tend to
camouflage the 3D effect I’m trying to get,
and in any case I’m not sure how well you
would see them at this scale. Don’t let this
stop you from applying your own scrolls
and stripes to the men if you wish. This
is best done to individuals after they are
copied and still lie in sheet form.
2
MAKING A STAND
There is a short film of me doing all this
on Youtube. ‘Peter Dennis Paper soldiers’
should find it. You can link into it from the
Helion website too.
Score carefully along the horizontal
fold lines on your copy of the page.
Accurate scoring should ensure a good
match between front and back when they
are finished. Cut out the individual stand
strips. I make Paperboys two sheets at a
sitting normally, so I do these processes
six strips at a time.
Fold along the score lines so that the
ranks and the locator strip stand up and
the ground sits flat. Make sure the sides
of the strip line up. Check the line-up of
command strip standards etc. by cutting
a spear tip on both sides and matching
them before gluing. Glue generously the
inside of each rank and the locator strip
and close it. Keep a tissue handy for the
glue that might leak out of the sandwich.
When the glue is thoroughly dry, fold
the stand so that a rank is presented
conveniently for cutting. Remember to
keep your scissor hand still and move the
stand around. Always cut from the front,
and take your time! Trim the locator strip
into an uneven arc. The cavalry locator
should suggest a dust cloud. Cut out
between the legs of the front ranks.
Glue your base card and centre it
under the stand base. Trim the edges
and glue the spare ‘grass’ underneath
front and rear. Glue the front rank’s feet to
the front of the locator strip with impact
adhesive. The final, very important step
is to take a moment to brush some PVA
glue onto the back of all projecting arms
and weapons. This dries invisibly and will
strengthen them a lot.
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