So the Xmas and holiday season is well and truely over and as its nice and warm we Kiwis tend to go on holiday then. In my case that was several weeks at a lovely small beach side town called Whangamata on the Coromandel Peninsula where 2 weeks of sun, no clouds, no wind and days around 30 degrees celsius were enjoyed. I did take my Xmas present from my beloved along with me, a Warlord Games Roman Army box  plus an extra legionnaire and auxilia unit and managed to assemble all but the Praetorian figures.

These figures will be painted gradually over 2019 to counter the expected losses in campaigns to come.

The expansion of my Napoleonic armies has continued.

• Austrian CL unit
• Russian horse battery
• Wurttemburg horse battery
• 2nd Russian Hussar regt
• French horse battery
• French foot battery
• Austrian Grenadiers
• Vistula Legion

Pictures below plus pictures of the brigades they have now joined.

My Austrian light cavalry now number 2 regiments of Chevaulegers and 2 of Hussars.

Picture of new unit and then the 4 together below.

The Russian horse battery and 2nd half of the 8 squadron Hussar regiment join my light cavalry brigade.

Picture of new units and then the brigade below.

Below are a Wurttemberg horse battery to accompany a light cavalry brigade.

A few years ago we did a refight of Waterloo. I decided to paint the Dutch heavy cavalry brigade for the battle(mainly because I love the Front Rank Belgian Carabiners uniform). However not liking the Dutch uniform, I painted Wurttemberg Chevau-legers. I rally like the 3 regiments together. Am treating the Belgians as Hesse Darmstadt Dragoons when playing as French allies!

The French horse battery joins Jacquinot’s brigade of Montbrun’s light cavalry division attached to Davouts 3rd Corps at the battle of Wagram along with the 7th Hussars and 1st and 2nd Chasseurs-a-Cheval. The foot battery is an addition to my infantry division, Friants.

Picture of new unit and the brigade above. All figures Front Rank.

The French foot artillery bring me to 3 foot batteries. I have another base for next battery completed and figures/gun for next gun/crew on way from UK. These are on 75mm wide bases which was my initial size based on a bttn having a line frontage of 200mm and my reading saying batteries tended to be 2/3 frontage. Rest group started on 50mm bases, so I made the Austrians/Russians 60mm to fit in and they have now moved to 75mm bases! I ain’t changing them as quite like my bases.

Below are 2 bttns of Austrian Grenadiers(2 more to go…1 below painted by me, 1 from Sri lanka. Shite paint job so have been heavily touched up. 2 more shite units to be touched up plus some surgery…lost quite a few broken metal muskets in transit.. grumble grumble)

And lastly my small Polish force. 2 units of Uhlans(that normally play as Russian Uhlans until get real Russians) and 2 bttns Vistula legion.  These are Warlord Games figures which friend Keith decided he would like to paint. Need 2 more to finish brigade. Somehow lost the metal command figures…then ordered some nice Front Rank ones with a small order did last month…..but did not click on the save selection button so did not get ordered…next order! Idiot.

The new units were painted by moi, plus Keith and of course Goldie. And Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka… who vary between great and crap.

Currently on paint table have packed away all Napoleonic’s and have a 10th century Byzantine army under construction.

Why build a large fixed battlefield?

Battle of Wagram 1809 refought at Call to Arms convention, August 5-6 2017.

In 2017 Terry’s Garage gamers continued our tradition of mounting a great big battle involving a dozen or more players and thousands of troops. This year we chose Wagram and fielded 122 battalions of infantry, 46 regiments of cavalry and 44 batteries of artillery.

The troops contributed by the players are, to a man, superbly painted and based. They are a great pleasure to see and game with. They do, however, put the terrain to shame. Even with some considerable advances in the quality of the cloth and the terrain we used, it still looked like what it was: a table with a cloth on it, with roads, trees and streams sitting incongruously on top.

And so, in 2017 it was decided to take our sport to a higher level of beauty, enjoyment and pride. The only way to do this was to build fixed terrain. This is a direction that many people are taking in this hobby. People are building high quality fixed terrain in either large single 6’ x 4’ boards or smaller 1’ or 2’ square panels that can be rearranged to create a variety of different terrains.

Paul standing with his boards before set up.

Compared to this, however, what I took on was a giant leap forward. I decided to produce fifteen 6’ x 4’ boards, coming together to create a 23’ x 23’ (7m x 7m) ‘U’ shaped battlefield.

What are the draw-backs?

The draw-backs are not inconsiderable.  First is time: it took an hour a day for 6 months to build.  Second is money: please, don’t ask, as my wife is never to know. Third is storage: as the master builder (with no garage), I took over the largest room in our house, the living room, and turned it into a work room, with the boards stacked in purpose-built racks on the wall. Finally there is inflexibility: the boards only assemble as the battle-field of Wagram, and can’t readily be turned into anything else.

So why did I do it – what are the long term advantages?

Here are my reasons: the battlefield looks beautiful and is an absolute pleasure to play on.  I was fortunate to have the time and the money – nothing better than a fool with money. I also wanted to generate admiration and inspiration: when we played an exhibition game, people stopped and admired the terrain, and were frankly impressed by the scale and detail of what we had achieved.  This response from others generates a strong sense of pride and comradery in the tight group of players we have brought together.  Finally there is the question of vision.  I am committed to this hobby for the long term.  This year we built Wagram, next year we will build something else. Eventually we will have a collection of battlefields, a gaming lodge to house them, and will be able to pull a custom built battlefield off the rack and play it.  I am also looking long term for quality and versatility – although the 15 boards come together to create Wagram, for our regular bi-weekly games we can use 3 – 5 boards to play smaller non-specific battles choosing from a range of plain, stream or village combinations.

What we set out to achieve is a great leap forward in the quality of our gaming. We have done this and will now reap the benefits in quality and pleasure for years to come.

In the last episode I said I was looking for a miniature to represent Tommy Bryant, a toadying friend then cheated foe of the eventually to be Sir Harry. You will recall Tommy was noted for his sleight of hand and got his own back, and a punch to the nose, by palming incriminating playing cards into Flashy’s coat pocket.
I have since found a Reaper Miniatures figure called The Huxter in a local gaming store.

The Huxter

He’s probably a bit too tall and well-built for the description in the Flashman papers, and certainly not in the Hussar Garb I said I was looking for, but he is clearly playing cards so I purchased him. In my mind he, like our hero, has got himself to the New World to turn his skills into money (he was always skint, which was how Harry enticed him to assist with rigging the duel). It’s a dangerous occupation hence the need to carry very visibly one of Samuel Colt’s fine cap n’ ball revolvers.
To make him look a bit more the English gent, I gave him fashionable cavalry (or Sideburns now we are in the country and time of General Ambrose Burnside) whiskers and a top hat. Both use milliput. The base of the hat is a spare plastic hat from the Confederate infantry.
I keep thinking he looks like singer Nick Cave.
I initially painted him in evening dress, black coat, waistcoat and trousers, but he looked too much like an undertaker so I re-painted him in day-wear.
If I find a weedy looking British Hussar figure (so not a Front Rank giant then) on foot, I might paint another version.

Totally Honourable
Am about to start playing new samurai skirmish game, Test of Honour, by Warlord Games.
While I was waiting for my starter box to arrive I purchased some figures from Hasslefree Miniatures, Modern Martial Artists range. These are more whimsy, table-top colour than playing pieces.
On the left is Hanako, a tooled up Geisha, and on the right is sumo Tetsuhara.

I’m very please how both have painted up.

Lastly – Rooster joins the band.

When I painted up my Napoleonic French military band, I always had it in my head that I should include a rooster marching along with the Drum Major, but It’s taken a long time to find a suitable miniature.
This bird is out of the new Warlord Games Chickens and Geese set.

Job done.
Russell

Part of the hobby is of course working on things and starting new periods so we can add to the mountain of lead and plastic.

So here’s a brief update from me.

A couple of years ago I signed up for a Kickstarter from THMiniatures Terrain who I gather for Kickstarters are pretty damn good at delivering on time and on promise. The white resin pieces arrived pretty much on time and have languished since in the garage. As moving to preparing my Ancient and Dark Age Armies for future combat decided to paint up the ruins with columns etc that suited somewhere around Rome/Greece/Byzantium regions.

First up I cleaned up any rough bits then soaked the pieces in soapy warm water for roughly ten minutes then rinsed them off and left to dry. I then brush on vallejo 70.921, English Uniform and when dry a liberal coat of GW Agrax Earthhade is applied. When that has dried I lighty brush/drybrush on a thin later of Vallejo 70.819 Iraqui Sand. Then on the walls and columns I then applied a light covering of Vallejo 837 Sand Light.

Once dry then they were flocked with mix of Warlord Games Summer Grass and Spring Alpine Grass. A variety of  tufts were then added. Lastly a very light drybrush of Iraqui Sand was applied to the grass to dull down the greeness a bit. The picture shows some of the pieces completed, with some Romans wandering through them.

One of the Ancient Armies I am collecting is that of Pyrrhus of Epirus. With my EIR army basically complete and now rebased from WAB to Hail Caesar rule set I can give this army some long missing love. Fellow Garage Gamer Alan has been brow beaten into collecting a period army and he has chosen Carthaginians. When he purchased the rule set from Warlord Games they came with a free box so he took the Celts as an option. However, after painting then up and then receiving his Victrix reinforcement Samnites and Carthaginian troops, he chose to sell the Celts on Trade Me(local ebay) and reinvest in Victrix Celts. Being a good mate I helped push price up, and got left buying them so I have another unit of Galatians to add to my army. A good win as got at a steal.

The next unexpected project to crash into me is SAGA. This is a skirmish game set in the  Dark Ages and there is a tournament next month(that’s May). Goldie talked me into playing, wasn’t hard, Russ is playing also but apart from that I only had the rules which had never read. I do have a Gripping Beast Byzantine army to make and also the basics of a Moorish army so decided would order in bits would need for a SAGA army for both.

You basically need a Warlord…some units of 4 mounted figures, 8 foot warrior figures and 12 man peasants. So I ordered from Caliver Books some Gripping Beast plastic Arab cavalry, a Warlord and some dice. They have arrived and are below beside some painted Artizan Moors I have so these will move to single bases. Only had quick glance at the plastics but look quite nice. From Gripping Beast I ordered a straight Byzantine Warband as don’t want to break up troops destined for the Hail Caesar army. I do have an unpainted Crusader unit of spears/bows so will use those with the mounted figures from the Warband set.

Have had 1 SAGA game other night with Goldie. He had some variation on Crusaders versus my Byzantines and being both newbies we fumbled our way through the game and it got quite exciting. Can see how it is going to be a good game over a few beers or a whiskey! The fun part is your turn where u roll some dice with symbols on them that when rolled are how you select what mix of your special abilities you can activate. Each differing army has differing abilities so I think I am going to enjoy this skirmish game. Will do reports as we play some games.

That’s all for now.

Terry

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 17^th Lancers Officer set from their Crimean War range, which I arrived at the end of March.

On a recent weekend (1^st, 2^nd 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 11^th 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 17^th 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)

Episode 3

I’ve had the paint brushes out in between reading more from the Flashman Papers.

As I said I was planning in the first post, I have changed Harry to having jet black hair, raised eye brow and cavalry whiskers as per the book. I think I has him looking more like the cover illustrations by Gino d’Achille.

Over the first day of the Easter break I have also had a productive day and finished a Confederate Officer on a fine dapple grey horse. This Southern Beau has been sitting around half finished for months, but with a game of Glory Hallelujah due tomorrow, it was time to get him finished. The miniature is from Perry Miniatures.

I have also taken the chance to place another one of my rabbits. Just one more to use.

In the same photo is Eloise Covington from Bombshell Miniatures showing the fine bow on the back of her costume. Eloise just looked like another miniature that would be part of a Flashman story.

The damsel on the right of the Flashman party and her small bulldog are from Eureka Miniatures. She from the Female victims in the Corpse and Musket 28mm range. I have bought her to be Marshal Massena’s companion, Henriette Leberton, for our refight of Wagram later in the year. Her pooch is from Eureka’s animal range.

Lastly I have added some flock to charging Harry.

Correction. I episode 1 I mistakenly said Dr Thomas Arnold was the author of Tom brown’s School Days. He was of course the Head Master of Rugby School from the story. Thomas Hughes was the author.

I’m on the lookout for another Flashman acquaintance – Tommy Bryant.

Bryant turns up as a fellow officer during Harry’s short service with the the 11^th Light Dragoons (Cardigan’s soon to be 11^th Hussars) in the first of the Flashman Papers (Flashman). He uses Bryant’s slight-of-hand skills to unload Flashy’s opponent’s pistol in a duel (best shot in the regiment, whose French mistress Harry had been caught in bed with). He promised Tom £10,000 to do the deed then reneges on paying him on the basis that he neither has the shekels and knows Bryant can hardly call him out on this without incriminating himself.

Tommy Bryant gets his own back in a later book (Flash for Freedom) making it look like Harry he’s a card cheat by slipping cards into his pocket while our hero is playing vingt et un (21) for pennies with Benjamin Disraeli and others. This nips Harry’s looming political carrier in the bud and sees him nearly kill Bryant when he punches him in the nose causing him to fall down a flight of stairs. Bryant survives, sparing Flashman the noose but forces him to be whisked out of the country on a slave ship.

So I think I am looking for a sneak in a Hussar’s uniform for my near name sake.

Episode 1

In recent years I have started to apply some of my wargaming painting time to what I call whimsy projects. Decoration for the wargaming table.

The Flashman project started life as another one of these with the Flash Harry figure from Wargames Illustrated – Giants in Miniature range. Someone to turn up as a bit of colour during Glory Hallelujah – American Civil War – Black Powder games.

Many of you will remember that Flashman is the bully who gets expelled for drunkenness in Tom Brown’s School Days, the book by Doctor Thomas Arnold.

George McDonald Fraser picks him up in the 1960’s, gives him a first (and second) name and sets Harry Paget Flashman off, immediately following his expulsion from Rugby school, as the anti-hero is a dozen novels collectively called the Flashman Papers. Flashman, is a self-confessed bully, coward, toady and rake who appears in many of the pivotal historic moments of Victorian history, escaping from one scrape to the next while picking up ill-deserved laurels and fame as a celebrated hero.

McDonald Fraser references Flashman being present in the American Civil War, on both sides of the argument, but takes special delight in never writing an American Civil War novel – a boring little side show to the great events of the age (or some such) – much to the frustration of his American audience.

As such he gives Flashman some considerable scope to be woven into ACW Black Powder games, as an observer or the British Army, without the constraint of a fully told story.

The poser Flashman vignette below, really took shape with the purchase of the Victorian or Edwardian Photographer set cast by Depot Battalion and purchased from Colonel Bill’s Miniatures.

The Flashman adventure involve plenty of women folk so I added two for his photograph. Flash is accompanied by the tall Caroline Thadington – made by Reaper Miniatures and Mademoiselle Bonaseiur from the Warbases’ Mousquetaires range (I added a ACW Perry plastic kepi to bring her forward a century). Both excel at counting cards in Poker and drinking fellow players under the table.

The trio have caught the eye of Ed and Vic, makers of the finest Carte-de-viste and Daguerreotypes North or South of the Potomac.

I plan to soon change Harry’s hair from the fair colour worn by Malcolm McDowell in the 1975 film Royal Flash (based on book two of the Flashman Papers), to the dark tresses of McDonald Fraser’s books that, combined with his swarthy colouring and talent for languages allows him to pass as a Pashtun in Afghanistan.

Hello Folks.

Its 2016 and a New Year for Gaming!

Apologies for lack of activity past couple of months. Was having vision issues and after a day at work last thing could face was another computer screen. Unfortunately it also meant no painting of troops so need make up for lost time in 2016!

In the past few years the Group has presented the mega gaming weekends that were Leipzig and Waterloo. For 2016 we have an ‘inbetween year’ where we will be rearming with Austrians and French(plus allies) for my favourite Napoleonic era of 1809. Mid year we will have a refight of Aspern Essling within the group with early planning at a 50% scale of units with the aim of it being a buildup to a full blown Wagram refight in 2017.

In 2015 a number of new gamers to Napoleonic period found their way to the Garage for games and hopefully in 2016 they will come back with their own forces(please….something other than British!).

Current forces under construction as far as I know are:

• Me(Terry) Russian Grenadier Commands to finish a brigade and ACW Union Generals then Austrian Landwher for 1809
• Alan has been making buildings for Aspern Essling, adding the last of his Waterloo French Division units, some Belgic units and for some reason AWI unit.
• Paul G has a Bolt Action tournie in a couple weeks and no figures painted so that and his Portugese be getting churned out
• Paul W has gone insane and is working on WW2 Pacific Japanese Fleet for Pearl Harbour
• Russ has joined this insanity and is working on the American Pacific Fleet(their fleets actually look pretty darn good!)
• Ray is building an Austrian force while son
• Michael is building a Russian force

That’s all for now.

Terry