Painting for fun: General Gordon’s Last Stand

Side view of Gordon’s Last Stand vignette by the Perry Brothers. The photo was taken without flash and more accurately recreates the lighting for Joy’s painting.

When I was 18, and a sophomore in college, I bought Omdurman by Philip Ziegler. I was taken by the British struggles to mount the expedition that avenged the fall of the Sudan to the Mahdist forces in 1885, and particularly the difficulty in fighting the Mahdists in 1883-1885. As I said in an earlier post, I knew something about the conflict from the movie Khartoum with Charlton Heston and Sir Lawrence Olivier. Before I’d read Ziegler’s book I’d read the chapter on General Charles Gordon in Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians. I’d come to admire the man and his ability to work with native troops, respect their ways and accomplish great things with very little.

Gordon and the Sudan inspired one of my earliest wargaming projects. Some of the first 25mm figures I purchased were Hinchcliffe highlanders for the 1898 campaign. I actually paid someone to paint them as Gordon and Seaforth Highlanders, as they appeared at Omdurman. I bought 15mm Peter Lang miniatures for the period. In the 1980’s I put together a sizable British and Mahdist army for the period. 25mm Ral Partha figures, 25mm Minifigs, and even those Hinchliffe Highlanders made it on to the table. We played with Lynn Bodin’s Imperialism rules. I wonder where those figures are now?

When Alan and Michael Perry split off from Games Workshop and Foundry to begin their own ranges of historical miniatures, I became immediately interested in their Agincourt to Orleans and American Revolution ranges. Though they also included a very nice range of miniatures for the Sudan, I swore them off. Pretty figures, but not one of my core periods, and therefore, I chose to stay away. But one day in perusing the lists under Sudan Extras at the Warstore, I ran across a couple of interesting items. There was a heliograph team, and something called General Gordon’s Last Stand.

General Gordon’s Last Stand by George W. Joy.

I recognized the Last Stand. It was a vignette based on a painting I knew well. The painting is General Gordon’s Last Stand by George William Joy from 1893. The painting depicts Gordon standing on the top step of his residence, pistol in hand, quieting the mob of Mahdist soldiers come to dispatch him and appears in Ziegler’s book. This scene figures crucially in the last scenes of Khartoum. The dervishes have overpowered the half-starved garrison and are searching for the Governor General. They come into his residence courtyard, a bloodthirsty mob, shouting for his head. Gordon takes his place before them, and for a moment he holds them in his quiet gaze, they are stilled, and their weapons fall to their sides. But one man breaks the spell and hurls his spear into Gordon’s chest. He falls, is beheaded, and is lost to the mythmakers.

I’ve owned the vignette for several years. It’s a special order item and must come from England. It took considerably more than four weeks to get it. I decided to assemble and paint it during the Christmas break.

The vignette comes in several pieces. The stairs of the residence comes in resin. There are the two railings in metal. There are four figures in metal, including Gordon and the three dervishes. You can see, in comparison to the Joy painting, the impossibility of duplicating Joy’s work while making it doable and affordable. So the vignette is basically cropped from Joy’s depiction. The painting shows many more of the Mahdist soldiers in the foreground as well as Gordon’s men in the background.

The first challenge I had was trying to figure out how to work with the pieces. I decided to mount the whole business on a circular Litko base 75mm in diameter. This ended up being a bit too large, but workable. Before fixing the stair piece to the base, I coated the disk with Liquitex modeling paste. It’s an acrylic material I believed would bond quickly to the resin staircase. I was right. The staircase itself required some trimming, easily done with a sharp X-acto knife.

While giving some time for this to dry (acrylic materials dry quite quickly,) I had some decisions to make about further assembly and priming. The top of the staircase, a metal piece required gluing. Despite some handy guides in the piece, it didn’t fit properly and required some trimming and puttying to get a seamless bond. I also decided to trim and glue the General Gordon figure into his position on the staircase before priming. There are pegs for his location that fit pretty accurately. Done and done. The remaining figures were posed a bit of a quandary for me. The three Mahdists had to fit together into extremely tight spaces on the stairs. It was going to take some doing. I assembled them and hand-primed them using Liquitex Gesso.

One of the problems I knew I was going to have was reproducing the feeling of Joy’s work. The painting is very dark. Gordon is dark and backlit by light. The Dervishes pop into the painting because of their white jibbahs, and I knew I would not have the light on dark feeling working for me. So, I did the best I could.

I started painting the staircase with Ceramcoat Ivory, which gives it a slightly yellow color, and dry brushed it with antique white. Not sure it makes a big difference, but there is lightening in places. After that I began painting Gordon. He appears almost black with a red fez and red shirt in the painting. I painted trousers and jacket with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. The fez was painted Vallejo Flat Red, and the shirt I painted Vallejo Vermillion. I highlighted the jacket and trousers with a mix of the DPB and light gray. This worked better than the Vallejo Prussian Blue or mixing the DPB with white. The tonal differences are there, but not as stark. I used Reaper Tanned Flesh for his skin tones, and Ceramcoat Antique Brown for his hair, sideburns and moustache. I think I did manage to get his eyeballs in there with some blue-gray.

While I was waiting in between bouts of painting Gordon I primed the three Dervish figures. I also painted the long railing and glued to its place on the wall. The railings I painted Ceramcoat Territorial Beige, which is a nice medium brown color.

The three Mahdist warriors are tricky. The figures themselves are fairly easy. They wear white jibbahs (a loose garment made from coarse cotton cloth, covered with patches,) and two wear turbans. The positioning of the soldiers on the staircase is critical. All three of the figures have pegs to help position them in holes cast into the staircase, but the position of the holes are not correct. The figures have no bases, so holding them properly to paint them can be tricky. So these are the complications in working with them. Having said that, they are quite nice and relatively easy to paint.

I chose the standing spearman to paint first. In the painting, his back is to the illustrator and he is closest to the wall. His position is critical and he should be glued first on to the staircase. He is the only black warrior. As I stated earlier, I primed all the figures with Liquitex Gesso, which is a white chalk-like material. Then I went over the jibbah with Ceramcoat White, two coats. Next, I painted the flesh using Ceramcoat Burnt Umber, which is a wonderfully rich dark brown and highlighted with Spice Brown. I used black for the hair, which is probably a little shorter than it should be and dry brushed it with Ceramcoat Charcoal. Though historically the jibbah patches could be quite bright and multi-colored, those in the painting are limited to red and black. I used vermillion for the red patches for its brightness. It’s important to get this figure first. The two semi-prone figures on the staircase won’t fit the narrow area properly if this figure takes more than the allotted space.

The remaining dervishes are Arab and I used Vallejo Medium Skin Tone for their flesh. No beards and their faces are sort of hidden from view. The swordsman is closest to Gordon and the elbow peg fits into the notch in the staircase. Nothing else special to mention. With all three dervish figures, I used a light gray paint to show creases and the outlines of the cotton belting. I probably could have used a lighter color, but I wanted it to be clearly visible from a distance. The vignette will be in a display case, and I would like to be seen without being handled. The final figure, the prone spearman was a little trickier. The contours of the steps are built into his body, and there is a peg on his elbow. No way does that peg fit into the staircase notch provided. In fact the painting shows this figure at the foot of the staircase, so I ended up cutting the peg off his arm. After doing this the figure fit fine.

A second view of Gordon’s Last Stand. The positioning of the Mahdist warriors on the stairway can be tricky.

I’ll close with this. I’m an out-of-the-box kind of miniaturist. I tend not to plan ahead and don’t like to go to a lot of extra trouble. I think the vignette as I’ve approached it works fine. The Joy painting shows many Mahdist soldiers in the foreground and it certainly would look great with a few of the Perry Nile Swordsmen and Spearmen to fill the space. Not what I need to do at this time, but an interesting idea.

General Gordon’s Last Stand was a different kind of painting experience for me. It was a pleasure to work on and I enjoyed it very much. Recommended.

2013, the Year in Review

Jan1

London War Room Cuera mounted Spanish militia. Used on the frontier mainly to fight Comanches and Apaches, they are a large mounted element in my Louisiana project

It’s been a different year for me. I tend to be fairly reclusive and hide in my house up on the hill. Well, that didn’t change, but even so it’s been an interesting year.

My most important measure of the year is always what did I get done vs. what did I buy. Normally I’m a pretty careful purchaser of lead. In years past I accumulated big piles of lead against future projects. Bladensburg is an example of this. I bought four boxes of Victrix figures three years ago, and only just finished almost all of them. I have more painted Hundred Years War figures than any of other era with about 700 figures painted. But I have at least that many unpainted. So, as with many of my friends and miniature wargaming colleagues, I’m a figure whore. I’ve been better over the years.

I have painting goals of 400-600 figures per year. These get harder to reach every year. I tend to spend a little less time painting each year. In years past I’d guess I painted an hour and half a night 320 nights per year. A bit longer on the weekends. I would guess I’m down to about 250 days of painting per year. Why? My work schedule-newspaper deadline nights makes it tougher. I have more fatigue–I don’t sleep particularly well many nights so I’m just too tired to paint. Some nights I’ll just plop myself down in a chair and read. But there are times when I really, really enjoy what I’m painting and I’ll paint until I’m just too tired to go on. 7:00-9:00 p.m. is my painting prime time, but I often am all in by about 8:30. I’ll have the Mariners on, unless I’m really frustrated with them, or the season is over, or be watching something on Netflix and just paint away.

I didn’t keep up with my painting log this year. Tried, but just fell off the wagon. My guess, however is that I didn’t meet my goals. I believe I finished the year with about 350 painted figures. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is the fewer hours devoted to painting. Another is that I only paint 28mm figures now. No more 15’s, so no more cheapies. I count a figure as a figure. No bonuses for mounted figures, no bonus for extra size or extra effort. A tank, a 1/285 airplane, a cannon model, a terrain piece are all equal to a figure. So I fell short of my goal.

I’m going to keep my painting goal for 2014 right at 400. I’d like to think my painting can be equal to about one figure per day. I fully expect my work will be mostly 28mm figures, but I may reinvigorate my DBA projects and try to at least paint a few of the six or seven armies I have. Most of all my time will be spent working on my Louisiana Project. I probably have about 200 or so figures left to paint. I find them pretty fun to do, and they paint up fairly quickly, even the mounted figures. However, I don’t have a deadline with them. They don’t have to be done until they’re done. It will allow me to drag something else out to work on, whether those are my Irish Civil War figures, some AWI units, my 1/600 ACW ships, or something else. My Enfilade obligations are largely painted, though I still have a bit more fiddling to do for Bladensburg.

Cuera were multi-armed with lance, shield, carbine and pistols. So burdened, they were often unable to keep up with their more lightly armed enemies.

Two items I definitely want to work on aren’t particularly wargame related. A couple years ago I bought the Perry “Death of Gordon” vignette from their Sudan range. I love the movie Khartoum and admired the G.W. Joy painting the vignette is based on. It is something a little bit different to work on, and I’m preparing it on my work table now. The other item I really want to paint is a 54mm Imrie-Risley figure of Abraham Lincoln I’ve had for quite some time. I actually a lot of the “big boys” stowed away for quite some time, and some day I hope to paint them in my dotage. I’m an admirer of Lincoln. He is my favorite president, both for his principles and his ability to work within a greater understanding of what was needed to get things done. Because Lincoln dressed very simply, usually in black, the challenge will be to bring life to the figure.

Something I didn’t do a great job of is managing my buying this year. I was pretty good until August. I earned some extra money for my work at J-Camp, and I promptly started spending like a drunken sailor. Figures for the Louisiana project, the Perry Volunteers of Ireland, some War of 1812 Americans, command figures for the British for Bladensburg, and more I can’t even remember. My goal is to at least break even with figure purchases-no more figures purchased than painted. I don’t know if I did that this year. I purchased some figures for Bladensburg, but many were for sheer spec, and I don’t like to do that. My purchases should be for “just in time” production purposes and I feel like I failed.

These figures are armed with carbine or escopeta. These figures are a bit crude, but highly paintable. I really enjoyed working on them.

I have a couple of New Years resolutions. The first is to set some painting goals. I would really like to finish all of my Louisiana figures. There’s not really a deadline on this. I’d like to run a game at Enfilade, but honestly I probably already have enough figures to do it now. Realistically I’d like to have everything done by Drumbeat in September. I have nearly all the figures to do this. I think I need a few more of the mounted Cuera militia, and a few more foot officers. I think this also leaves me some time to pick away at some other painting along the way. I have an AWI unit or two I’d like to paint. Maybe some of my Irish Civil War figures. Ships. Planes. My dance card is wide open.

My second resolution regards game play. I don’t do nearly enough. Mostly it’s my choice, so I am putting my choices out on right now. I want to play at the Game Matrix DBA nights twice per month. My hope is I can morph that into a bit more than DBA, focusing on DBX gaming. I’d love to, for example, play Sluys again. In addition I’d like to commit to playing on the NHMGS game days the third Saturday of the month. These are absolute musts for a couple of reasons. First, I need to get off my damned hill and get with my gamer friends. Don’t know why I’ve been so reclusive. I also have way too much time and energy invested in my projects to not be playing with my figures. I know I can do better. It’s as though I’ve just become a bit of a hermit.

In any case, 2014 is shaping up to be a good year, and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m resigning from my NHMGS duties.

Dec21

I announced on the various yahoogroups we use for messaging that I will be resigning my NHMGS duties at Enfilade. This includes the role of president, my position on the Board of Directors, and the director ship of Enfilade. I knew the Enfilade position was up, and I have successors lined up, I’m giving up the other positions as well.

I tried this before a couple years ago, fairly unsuccessfully, but this time it will happen and I will be done. No hard feelings, I’m not unhappy, but it’s one of those things I just need to give up and use the time for more important things.

I’ll give you a for instance. I feel obligated to attend every event, if possible and I feel tremendous guilt for not attending events like Tactical Solutions across the state. Not only that but I feel obligated to host at least one event at every gathering. I’d love to just show up and play in somebody else’s games. Give Black Powder a try, or Galactic Knights, but honestly I feel compelled to host games because I feel they are needed (and sometimes they are.)

Don’t get me wrong, my time as president has been very worthwhile. I’ve met guys I’d never had known without my office. I’ve hung out with our guests at Enfilade. I’ve made friends I might not have met otherwise. Much of the time it’s a pretty enjoyable role. But it does take time at times, and I feel like I just don’t want to give it up or deal with some of the extra hassle the job occasionally requires. It’s time an energy I could put into my projects, playing games or getting some exercise.

In any case, I feel less responsible for the future of NHMGS when I tried to make my escape three years ago. I am convinced someone of quality will take over because it’s needed and I am done.

Counting down to the end of the year: A look ahead

Dec19

With the Bladensburg project behind me, I’ve been working on the Spanish-American Project. To make it easy, lets just call it the Louisiana War. I’ve managed to acquire quite a few figures for this project, and I see myself putting most of 2014 working on them. I’m not quite sure how many figures I have, but I think when it’s all over it will be something like this:

Spanish Forces

6 X 10 Spanish regular infantry units

2 X 12 Spanish grenadier units

3 X 10 Spanish dismounted militia units

1 X 10 Spanish colonial dragoon units

3 X 10 Spanish mounted militia units

1 X 10 Mexican Hussar unit

2 X 10 mounted Comanche warriors (Spanish allies)

2 X 10 dismounted Comanche warriors (Spanish allies)

12 X 10 Chickasaw warriors

4 sections Spanish light artillery

2 sections Spanish heavy artillery

This is a lot of stuff, and quite a bit of it is painted, but very little, like none, of the Spanish horse is ready. The units provide the maximum flexibility for scenario making. Some would not be combined. For example, the Chickasaw would not be combined with the militia or the Comanches. In any case, there is plenty here to develop some scenarios. Spanish uniforms remain nominally the same for the entire period, except for the Mexican Hussars. It’s unclear this unit was ever raised to replace the frontier militia or Cuera soldiers. It was suggested, but it isn’t clear the proposal was ever adopted before Mexico gained her independence.

Americans

12 X 12 Regular Infantry

8 X 10 dismounted militia (included rifle armed)

2 X 10 U.S. Dragoons

3 X 10 mounted militia rifles

4 sections light artillery.

Americans are pretty much same-same regardless of when or where they fight. There are some serious changes that occur throughout this period 1797-1810. After the Treaty of Greenville that ends the Indian campaign in the Northwest Territories, the army economizes. The light infantry and light battalions go away. The uniforms stay roughly the same for the regular infantry throughout the period, keeping red facings only, and the colorful designations of the sub-legions going away. The army organizes the infantry into three regiments, downsized to two during the Jefferson administration (1801). The light dragoons likewise retain their colors until Secretary of War Alexander Hamilton designs them a new uniform in 1797. Their uniforms, issued in 1798, are green. Green. GREEN. With black facings and yellow lace. Go figure. They retain these uniforms until Jefferson disbands the dragoons altogether in 1801. Rifle units are re-introduced to the army in the latter part of this period, but their uniforms are odd, so I’ll likely avoid them.

I’ve included some photos of some of my newly painted units. These are the green-coated American dragoons I mentioned. the lighting for these photos was poor, so I apologize for their darkness. The are the Wayne’s Legion dragoons by Old Glory. They do quite nicely. I used German Luftwaffe Camo Green as the base color. It’s a lighter green than the picture shows. The flag is all hokum. Nobody knows what a U.S. dragoon flag looks for this period. The earliest recorded U.S. cavalry flag following the Revolution is for a militia dragoon flag in 1819, and seems unlike most other cavalry flags. Thankfully you can’t see it in the dark. I went with a mid blue flag with scroll work similar to War of 1812 infantry battalions in red. It’s possible I’m just wasting my time doing a flag at all, but one of the figures does carry a pole for a flag. I actually really like the way these turned out.

These two units represent the grenadier company and a fusilier company from the Luisiana Regiment. This was a trained, disciplined militia unit raised in the New World. They are RSM figures cast under license by the Dayton Painting Consortium. They are simple, straightforward units, as most Spanish units are. They tend to be white, usually with colored facings, waistcoats and trousers. The Spanish militia in North America were chronically understrength. My regiment will consist of four companies including a grenadier company that is a bit larger than the fusiliers. The Lusianans are now complete. The next regiment will be a mix of two companies from the Irish Hibernian Regiment in their red regimentals and two companies from another militia unit.

I’ve primed my first mounted militia unit. I plan to complete it during the Christmas break. I’ll post photos when I’m finished.

Figure Review: Fife and Drum AWI British Guards

Dec8

This Christmas my wife and I are trying something a little bit different with our gift-buying, including allowing each of us to buy a gift for ourselves that will be wrapped and put under the tree. I opted for figures. So I put together an order for some British Guards from Fife and Drum Miniatures.

There is something magical about Fife and Drum. I don’t know a ton about them, except they were conceived from the prominent war gaming mind of Jim Purkey of Lake Forest, Il. You may know him as Altefritz on TMP. He’s always offered considerable knowledge of 18th century military matters including the 7 Years War and the American Revolution. I became aware of the Fife and Drum range when he launched a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to fund his range of Hessians for AWI.

Line companies, including one fairly mangled bayonet. But, I think I can fix it.

Guards light infantry company, including an NCO figure.

I have units from many different manufacturers in my AWI collection, but I chose Fife and Drum for a couple of reasons. First, I know Jim chose to depict his figures in the non-traditional cut down uniforms adopted for the 1777 campaigns for Philadelphia and Saratoga. These and the slouch hats replacing the tricornes work well for the South, 1779-81. Second, I admired his work assembling this range, seemingly from scratch, and I wanted to support his effort.

I need the Guards for Guilford Courthouse and Weitzel’s Mill. Two battalions of 24 figures each was their game strength. I ordered the first battalion. Unlike any other range, Fife and Drum offers flank companies specifically for the Guards. Because these companies were active at places like Weitzel’s Mill, it’s nice to have unique figures with their peaked caps and horsehair crests. Though the Guards are offered in several positions, I chose the firing line. These come with figures priming their muskets, and figures firing. The command figures are a bit problematic with the officer shouldering a musket and the drummer in the Guards range. I had to add the standard bearers from the line infantry.

I really like the detail on these figures. It’s quite good, but not over-done. The simplicity of the uniforms should make them easy to paint. The faces will be hidden by the large hats. Posing is pretty simple, without a variety of head and arm positions. These figures will look very uniform on multiple figure bases, which is quite a nice departure from the Victrix Napoleonics I’ve been working on.

Comparison between Fife and Drum figures and Perry miniatures from the same period. You can see they are about the same height but the Perry figures are beefier.

A comparison of Fife and Drum figures and Front Rank grenadiers. Yep, the Front Rank guys are big. Bill Stewart always called them corn-fed.

If the Fife and Drum range has a flaw, it is in their size. I have figures from Perry, Old Glory, and Front Rank in my collection, and they aren’t going to match well with any of them. It won’t deter me from using them, or ordering a second Guards battalion, but it’s important to acknowledge the difference. The Fife and Drum figures are 28mm tall, but their physiques are pretty slight. Compared to the Perry 23rd Regt. figures in the first comparison photo, they seem fairly small. The second picture compares the F and D guardsmen with the Front Rank grenadiers. We’ve always considered them robust, compared to the other ranges.

I’ll close with a shout out for the customer service I received. I e-mailed Jim on Black Friday about my order. He responded within an hour or so. I sent him my payment that evening, and he had my figures out to me on Saturday. They arrived by US Mail on Wednesday. I live in Washington State, so a pretty painless experience. Shipping was only $4.

Very nice figures and superb service. If you can live with the size differential between manufacturers or if you are entering this period, I would easily recommend this range of miniatures. Cost per figure is $2, about the same as Perry.

The Story of Loafing Friday

Nov30

Americans have it all wrong. The day after Thanksgiving now has this commercial connotation of Black Friday. Piffle. I wouldn’t go near a commercial venture today unless they were giving away free packs of Perry AWI figures, and maybe not even then. Since that isn’t happening today, or any other day (sigh), I’m staying home. Like most Americans, I am off until Monday. Saturday and Sunday I have plenty to accomplish on my calendar, but today I’m determined to do almost nothing that isn’t restful, relaxing and fun.

This means painting. I’m gonna work on the last company of the Louisiana Regiment, and take some pics as I go.

It’s also going to be a movie day. I picked four movies to watch between now (about 10 AM) and the time I go to bed (about 10 PM.) My goal is to have an awesome day, doing little that isn’t fun, and a little lazy, and try to finish my 11 figure unit of Spaniards.

My first movie was 1964’s Zulu. I love this movie; it’s absolutely one of my favorites. Based on the 1879 defense of Rorke’s Drift by about 100 British soldiers against 4,000 Zulu warriors, the movie is 2 hrs. 16 min. of intense action. The performances by Stanley Baker, Michael Caine, Nigel Greene, and others give the movie considerable life. It’s almost the perfect movie about battle because it’s scope is limited to such a small space with a handful of defenders. We get to know the characters well. The movie is aided by a strong score by John Barry, and stirring narration by Richard Burton.

The movie has flaws. The first is the treatment of the Zulus. Though the movie does begin with a look glimpse inside Zulu culture and a tone of respect, the native defenders of Zululand rapidly become little more than faceless, menacing, bullet catchers. I know, very 21st century PC perspective. The other flaw is that the movie is not filmed on location. That is a bit of a problem because the actual mission station sat on a rock ledge that gave a tremendous height advantage to the defenders, and terrifically complicated the attackers’ challenge. To be sure, the British were under intense pressure, but the Zulus lost as many as a 1,000 soldiers, while Chard’s command suffered 15 dead and 10 seriously wounded.

Even so, Zulu is a fine movie, one of my top five of all time. I chose it first because it fit into my time slot well. The movie would be finished just as the Apple Cup came on.

Unfortunately we can’t control what we can’t control. About half an hour into the movie, as Jack Hawkins is being locked up for interfering with defense preparations, I got a phone call from an old friend. It was great to catch up and make plans. Unfortunately it also took 22 minutes and messed up my carefully constructed schedule. It also distracted me and led astray enough so that by the time I was done dorking around on the computer, I had enough time to finish the first half of Zulu before the big game came on. The attacks had begun, but the hospital was still intact.

At 12:30 my figures had progressed to this:

Things are coming along. I’ve finished all the shoes and completed the buff belts and haversack (you can’t see) and a brown strap that runs along the belting. In the background you also notice I’ve popped the grenadiers off their Popsicle sticks and glued them to their individual bases.

12:30, time for the Apple Cup. I cop to being a Husky fan. I loved the Don James era, and respected Jim Lambright. I attended school there-not as an undergrad, but I did some post baccalaureate work there and my MA is from UWT. It’s been tough to love them since Neuheisel became coach. But I like Sarkisian and a lot of the Husky players. They’ve had a tough year and their losses were against good teams. I figured that if they could run the football and keep Cougars quarterback Connor Halliday off the field, they’d win. If not, things would at best be interesting, and at worst quite ugly. WSU is improving, offensively and defensively. These ain’t Paul Wulf’s Cougars.

I started the game painting in my den. But by the middle of the second quarter, and things going decidedly awry, I moved my stressed out self to the living room, plopped myself in my recliner and watched the rest of the game there. During commercials, I took care of the last of the Thanksgiving clean up. I ordered 24 AWI British guards from Fife and Drum Miniatures, and I made an order for Litko bases.

By half time I was pretty discouraged. WSU was handling the UW running game, and Keith Price turned the ball over twice. There were times when Halliday looked very sharp, and the Cougs had a halftime lead. In frustration, during the break I moved stuff from the garage out to our new storage shed.

After the halftime break the world seemed to right itself a bit. Bishop Sankey started to get some telling run yardage, and Keith Price connected on some key throws. But it wasn’t until Halliday tossed his second interception late in the fourth quarter that I felt confident enough to head back into the den to wrap up Zulu-Hook’s ferocious defense, burn the hospital, slaughter the Zulus in front of the redoubt, Bromhead is ashamed-and plan for the next movie.

By the time the movie was over, the Spaniards moved along a good deal.

I’ve finished all the belting, the cartridge boxes, bayonet scabbards and sword cases.

Time to take a break for dinner. Thanksgiving leftovers, of course, one of the best parts of Thanksgiving. Quick too.

Time for episode two of Loafing Friday Movie Madness, and I’ve chosen Khartoum as my next flick.

I have a special fondness for Khartoum. My parents took me to see this in the theater in 1966, and I’ve always loved it. It’s the story of General Charles “Chinese” Gordon sent to evacuate Egyptians from that Sudanese city in the face of a massive Islamic uprising. Led by the charismatic Mahdi, the tribesmen promise death to those who oppose them. Gordon was sent, without the promise of aid, to get all foreign nationals out of Khartoum, and the movie is the story of his ultimate failure to do so and his death.

They don’t make movies like Khartoum anymore. Shot in a variety of locations, with plenty of action, from the slaughter of William Hicks’ column in the beginning of the movie, the attack on the Camel Corps desert column at Abu Klea, to the final assault on Khartoum itself, the movie is an example of 60’s epics at their finest.

Yet the real strength of the movie, and what sets it apart from most of Khartoum‘s ilk, is the performances. With Charlton Heston as Gordon and Lawrence Olivier as the Mahdi, there is a natural struggle between two outsized egos. Add Ralph Richardson’s role as the perpetually flummoxed Prime Minister William Gladstone, and there is more than just scenery and shoot ’em up to draw you into this film. Add to that Frank Cordell’s magnificent, if occasionally bombastic score, and the 2 hr. 11 minute movie flies by.

As I explained, things don’t always go according to plan. My friend Tim called to check in on my recent run of bad luck. As usual, we discussed a wide range of topics, including the Apple Cup, WSU (he’s an alum), Christmas, and books we’d like to read. Our phone conversations are never brief. But this was really important because I got a superb idea for what to get him for the holiday. Unfortunately, it also meant dashing out of the house to Target to take advantage of a Black Friday special.

Alas I broke my own Loafing Friday rules. Thankfully I found what I needed right away, and was able to get in and out in about 20 minutes.

I dashed back home, watched the Nile fall, Khartoum assaulted and Gordon killed by about 9:30. Unfortunately that was about all I had energy for.

I didn’t get done with my unit, but I did finish a lot. Tomorrow I’ll try to wrap up the shading, faces and other goodies I need to complete, as well as starting all the basing for the two Spanish units and the French knights. After that I’ll begin working on the first of two American dragoon units. I also didn’t finish my movie list. I hoped to watch Breaker Morant and Gallipoli too. So it goes. Sometimes we just have to live with our choices.

Despite some plan changes that kept Loafing Friday from meeting the full lazy experience I envisioned, it was a pleasure. I enjoyed the football game, saw some movies I love and made pretty good progress on the movies I wanted to see. Beats Black Friday any day. This post was entirely done on my iPad and I apologize for the small pictures and any other goofiness that may have occurred as a result.

Back on track

Nov28

It’s been an eventful few weeks since my last post. I was pretty sick for the better part of a week. Then we moved on to deadline for the paper at school. While we were on deadline I had wrap up my residual doctor issues relating to my kidney problems. At the same time our much loved 12 year old Australian Shepherd, Lucy became quite ill and we had to have her euthanized. More going on than I needed.

Somewhere in there I managed to squeeze in our first trip to the Heritage Flight Center. It is located in Everett at Paine Field. It’s a working collection of flyable warbirds, and some drivable AFV’s chiefly from WWII. We hosted eight games and brought about thirty members to the museum. The feedback I received from members was universally positive, and it is my hope we can do it again sometime in the near future.

Dealing with my other issues, I spent a good couple of weeks mostly unable to work on my projects. I was also in one of my rare moments when I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. I have plenty of miniatures to paint, and lots of projects to work on. I was caught betwixt and between the Hundred Years War and my Spanish-American project, and not making progress on either. I finished a batch of French knights, but it didn’t excite me, so I glommed on to some Spanish infantry and decided to press on.

I’m nearly finished with the final two companies of the Louisiana Regiment. It’s an elegant looking unit in white with blue facings. I, use the Brother Against Brother rules, a single figure game. The Louisiana Regiment has three companies of ten figures each, plus a grenadier company with twelve figures. It was a militia unit, but one of quality, raised in America.

I’ll have a second battalion composed of four companies, but from two separate regiments. They will include a couple companies from the Hibernian Regiment, stationed in America for a time. Their attractive uniform-scarlet, with green facings-will enliven the two remaining companies which will be a pretty boring white.

In addition to the Spanish foot, I’ve assembled a sizable number of mounted Spanish and allies. I picked up a couple companies of mounted cuera militia that would have seen service on the frontier against the Apaches and the Comanches. With their lances, carbines and shields, they will be a formidable, if overloaded lot.

I also snagged enough figures for a company of the Luisiana Regiment of dragoons. They’re in bright blue coats, and should add some color to the army.

Finally, as the last gasp from my summer buying binge, I added a mounted Comanche war band to the Spanish army. The figures, from Conquest miniatures are quite promising. There are 21 figures in the unit, and I think they will add considerable flexibility to scenario ideas for this project.

Needless to say, I also have a few Americans to paint, but I want to remain focused and try to make big progress on this project. I’m shooting for completion by the end of summer 2014. I’ll have some terrain bits to wrap up for Bladensburg, but should be able to stay on track.

On the DL

Nov13

I hoped that Veterans Day might be a great day to get some work done. As we breezed into the weekend I made some work around the house plans to prepare the living room for a new couch. Mission accomplished and the couch looks great.

Then it was off to Terra Crux Games. Located in downtown Tacoma, some friends agreed to meet and play some multi-player board games, and give the place a try. It was okay, I give it three stars out of five. Then down to the Orange Door for Thai food at about 9:00. Though the food was good, the service was comically bad.

While eating, however, I began to feel not so good. I needed to urinate a lot, and it kind of hurt to go. No it’s not what you are thinking. Shame on you. Went home and went to bed feeling lousy. Woke up Sunday morning feeling not much better, and maybe a little feverish. By 11:00 I thought it best to head off to an emergency clinic. After a wait that took me through the second half of the Seahawks dismantling of the Atlanta Falcons, I was eventually diagnosed with a kidney infection.

No doubt about, it’s unpleasant. Fever, headache, and more symptoms I won’t mention. More importantly it’s the fifth kidney incident I’ve had in my adult life, and the third in the last seven years. Time to take this seriously. In any case, the time I would have had for painting Spanish grenadiers and basing French knights, I’ve been laid up and unable to do much more than watch television. Even reading kind of hurts. Harry Harrison too; the good stuff.

Bummed.

Museum of Flight Day

Nov4

November 2nd was our annual day at the Museum of Flight. I have explained many times that this is my favorite venue. It is a different gaming experience than our other events. I love the museum with its surrounding planes and the inquiring museum guests. It somehow makes the hobby seem less isolated from the public, and there is less pressure than managing 300 gamers and 130 games at Enfilade.

Hugh Sing, right, watches Scott Murphy’s X Wing Fighter game.

MiG 15’s engulf American B-29’s in Paul Grandstaff’s Check Your Six Korea game.

Three weeks ago I got the word there was a glitch at the Museum. Our normal space in the Great Gallery was only available with strings. We’d have to end our day early, and because so many members had already committed, I didn’t want to do that. We moved our gathering across the street to the Space Center, so we had a new a new adventure at MoF.

It was actually fairly normal. The weather was gawdawful–pouring rain and high winds. That tends to be the case forMoF Saturday. Attendees either read the directions and parked at the Space Center, or gradually drifted over from the main parking lot. We had games for each table in each period, All were well attended and, as I made my way around the room, it seemed everyone was having a good time.

Joe Waddington led wire to wire in the annual Air Racing event. He flies the Texaco Travelair 14

Scrum in turn one. One of many furballs that kept the pack from catching Joe.

Texaco Wins!

The morning session included our annual air racing game. This year it was won by Joe Waddington who ran a magnificent race. Joe, usually a victim of his annual lap two crash, led from the get go in the Travelair Texaco 14, and finished a full half lap ahead of the competition. Not even close. Paul Grandstaff ran a great looking Check Your Six Korea game featuring MiG-15’s attacking a B-29 raid. Scott Murphy ran an X-Wing Fighter game, and Lloyd Bowler and Dave Mebust ran Wings of War. The afternoon featured more great games. Andy Hooper ran an Axis and Allies game based on the air raids on Truk Lagoon. Scott Williams ran a Galactic Knights game.

Dave Schueler and I reprised our air attack against the Tirpitz. This time the Germans had a bit more luck as the British failed their navigation rolls, forcing the forcing the attacking Fleet Air Arm planes to come much farther and face much more flak than at Enfilade. The intercepting fighters were much more effective at engaging the British defending fighters, and even managed to inflict damage on the bombers. Though the British did score a couple of hits on the Tirpitz, there was only one critical bomb hit and the Germans were awarded the day. However, it was determined the Tirpitz was too damaged to be moved and would succumb to the Lancaster raids to follow. Paul

Hannah ran DBA all day. Some great looking games all around.

Failing their navigation role, the FAA planes plan their course across the board to hit the Tirpitz

The British attack encountered flak and fighters along the way. The Germans lost two fighters, and the Brits lost a fighter and a bomber before they reached their target.

The Tirpitz suffered two hits, one critical. The Germans won a minor victory.

That said, I wouldn’t choose the Space Center again. The floors are concrete and uncomfortable. It’s darker; players had a hard time seeing the hex grid on my air-racing mat. We didn’t have quite the walk through traffic and interaction with the museum visitors. We have a tentative scheduled day with the Museum for Nov. 1st 2014, hopefully in the Great Gallery. I’ll look forward to returning to our comfort zone under the SR-71.

A Break From the War of 1812

Nov1

I did it. All the figures for Bladensburg are done. I’m freeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

What does it mean? Project done. Really, that’s very cool. I live for projects and when I finish one it’s very exciting because I can move on to something else. The real challenge is to stay focused on something long enough to finish it. Since May, all I’ve painted is 28mm War of 1812. I’ve completed three American units and four British units, totaling about 225 figures. It’s time to move on. I hoped to have these done by the end of October, and look it’s Halloween.

The 85th Regiment is 48 figures, twelve stands. If I was to extend out the 24 half bases, it would be 36 inches wide. These are Old Glory figures, traditional, metal 28’s

I’m probably not going to be quite so disciplined moving forward. I have some Hundred Years War figures I’m working on, as well as some 28mm Spanish for my War with Spain project. I have a dozen French knights primed and about half finished. They’ll contribute to the vanguard division at Poitiers. I also have the remaining 25 or so figures remaining to paint for the Louisiana Regiment for the Spaniards, and I hope to be done with them in November.

This small unit of converged light infantry is composed of Victrix figures. They were much easier to work with on the smaller bases. They actually look kinda nice.

My goal is to continue working on both these projects until Christmas break. Sounds like a long time but November 1st is Friday. Not such a long time. Then I’ll have to go back to Bladensburg as I ready some terrain pieces and begin play testing.

November is going to be an important gaming month for me. This weekend, November 2nd is our annual visit to the Museum of Flight. We won’t be under the SR-71 this year due to a scheduling glitch. We’re going to be in the Space Center, near the Space Shuttle simulator. Should be fun. I’ll be running air racing in the morning and then bombing the Tirpitz in the afternoon with Dave Schueler.

Two weeks later we’re at the Flying Heritage Center in Everett. We reached an agreement with that air museum to host at least one event in their unique space. I’ll post pictures from both events as we work through them.

A Gamer's Tales

Chronicling this miniature wargaming life