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.