Little Wars Soldiers

Earsling's excellent Napoleonics series makes a fine set of soldiers for H.G. Wells' Little Wars: quick and easy to print, and detailed enough to be evocative without being so detailed as to cause consternation when a spring-powered cannon shell takes off a rifle tip or a cavalryman's leg.

This is a very light remix: I separated the paired infantrymen into singles, and narrowed the bases of the cavalry so they fall down slightly more readily under cannon fire. Having done that, I scaled them by 150% (infantry) or 140% (cavalry), to make them approximately 40mm scale.

Multiple remix sources aren't working at the time of writing, so sources include:

• French and Allied Infantry: thing:2786275
• French and Allied Cavalry: thing:2793731
• British Infantry: thing:2793748
• British Cavalry: thing:2800269
• Russian Infantry: thing:2807151
• Prussian Infantry: thing:2818801
• Austrian Infantry: thing:2830043

The files here for 'aupr' cavalry can be used for the Russians as well. The models are the British heavy dragoons, for simplicity.

Earsling has newer versions of a number of these models with improved posing and basing, but I'd already standardized on this revision. Enterprising Little Wars players may find that those make for an even prettier game.

For the other part of a Little Wars set, see my toy cannons:

• 12lb Whitworth rifle: thing:4758998
• 4.7" naval gun: thing:4665728

For Little Wars rules, you can read H.G. Wells' originals at Project Gutenberg, or my condensed/revised/expanded version here: https://manywords.press/other-stuff/little-wars/Little%20Wars.pdf

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Creality

Printer: 

Ender 3

Rafts:

No

Supports: 

Yes

Resolution:

0.16mm layers, 0.3mm nozzle

Infill: 

35%

Filament: eSun PLA Pro 
 

Notes:

35% infill optimizes for printing time. Near-solid soldiers may make for improved gameplay.

I used Cura line supports at 15-20% density, and 1-2 layers of zigzag support roof.

Contents

Five nations are represented: Britain, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia.

Each has four infantry models (except Britain, which has five): an officer, a drummer, a color-bearer, and an ordinary soldier. (Britain has two varieties of soldier.) With my wargame figures profile, I print a batch of 15 (one of each special figure and 12 men) in about 32 hours.

Each also has four cavalry models (Britain's lack the br_ prefix, because I settled on my organization/naming scheme after printing the Brits): one officer, one bugler, and two flavors of ordinary cavalryman. Printing a batch of six (one officer and five men) takes about 40 hours.

Notes

I'm planning to release some updated soldiers, with slightly wider bases and recesses sized for a US nickel (it may also fit Euro 10c coins or UK 20p pieces). Adding weight to the bases makes the soldiers much more resistant to falling on less than a direct hit, or at longer ranges, which brings the experience closer into line with H.G. Wells' original vision.