I have recently started listening to the Flashman Papers in audiobook format during which Sir Harry mentions riding with JEB Stuart’s Confederate Cavalry (and then serving in the Union Army as a military advisor to Ulysses S Grant and being at Gettysburg). So that got me thinking that he could take a more foreground role on the table top, so in March I purchased from Warlord Games the British 17th Lancers Officer set from their Crimean War range, which I arrived at the end of March.
On a recent weekend (1st, 2nd April) I painted him up as a mounted version of Sir Harry Flashman KCB, VC as he might have appeared when observing the American Civil War.
He is wearing a mixed uniform, donning the crimson “Cherrybum” pants of Lord Cardigan’s 11th Light Dragoon (later 11th Hussar), his first regiment, to look less like a blue-belly Yankee to any trigger-happy Confederate cessationist. They also look fine for the ladies.
He is still in the Baltic Blue Lancer’s jacket of his current regiment, the 17th Lancers, with whom he led the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava. A loud passing of wind, occasioned by an upset stomach, startled his horse causing it to bolt towards the Roosian guns, triggering the immortal charge into the Valley of Death and further honours for Flashy. That may also give pause for thought for a Union Sharpeshooter.
His Czapka hat is covered by an Indian Pattern White Canvas cover, having recently served in the sub-continent, rather than the black oil skin of the Crimea.
His saddle cloth and blanket roll with their yellow, cavalry, trim have been borrowed from the war stocks of the Army of North Virginia.
His fine mount may well have been foaled on the Blue-Grass country of Kentucky and is likely to have changed sides several times. He’s a fearsome brute but horse riding and a talent for languages are two of three self-described skills Flashy is really good at.
I also found a use for a couple of my stock of rabbits from war-bases.co.uk too. Their relative timidity and search for a bolt-hole likely match Flashman’s own.
While it’s not clear in these photos, a spluttering fused artillery shell has just bored itself to a stop, roughly below Flashy’s scabbard, and who knows when it might go off.
The next episode in the Flashman Project is to have a foot version that can join his dismounted Confederate colleagues (no doubt after his horse has been shot and his means of fleeing the field have contracted).
Studio Miniatures are about to put out this figure in their Sikh Wars British range in the next month or so.
Watch this space…
Russell (guest contributor to Terry’s Garage Gamers blog)
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