Category Archives: Table Top Talk

Happy Birthday-Joseph Morschauser III

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Happy Birthday! Joseph Morschauser III
1924 – 1993
I know, it is Christmas…
But we are war gamers and many of us play games inspired by Joe, so we just gotta remember Joe Morschauser on the anniversary of his birth.

Joe was born on December 25th 1924 in New York City.
In Joe’s own words:

“…, I was born. I have no way of knowing this for sure since I was too young to remember, but they tell me it happened on December 25, 1924 in a hospital in New York City…”

Joe is perhaps best known for his book “How to Play War Games in Miniature” published in 1962. I still have my copy, purchased in the early 1970s (72 or 73). It is still my go-to book when I need to reenergize my war gaming…

Today will likely be filled with family and loved ones, but I for one will take a few minutes to remember Joe. Part of that remembrance will be a small, gridded war game (we usually play at least one small battle game on Christmas) played in the spirit of Joe Morschauser.

Merry Christmas and may you all have a healthy and happy New Year.

A Blast From the Past

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Way back in the old days. Long before I thought of casting miniatures for a side business. I purchased some molds for 15mm American Civil War miniatures. I’m sure I have the time wrong, but I’m going with late 1970s (early 80s at the latest for sure). I’m pretty sure these molds were advertised in The Courier and the sculptor’s name was Joel Haas…

Anyhow, way back when I remember casting I don’t know how many hundreds of figures for my ACW game. We didn’t play ACW very long, but the casting of the figures was a fun time. I don’t have any of my original castings; I gave those away sometime in the 90s.

Fast forward to yesterday… I was looking for something else and came upon the molds ticked away in a box of misc. projects. So, since I had hot metal I thought I’d cast a few figures just to see what I had found. Well, the figures are very basic and they still cast nicely (I think a lead alloy would be better, but I gotta use what I have on hand).

Here are a couple of pictures. The first is the set of molds with a casting inside. The second is a primed figure, in an attempt to show what they look like. As soon as I get this fellow painted I’ll be sure to post another picture.


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