Graham Cummings - a Giant among classic wargamers

 I'm genuinely overwhelmed by the news I read on Facebook tonight that Graham has died. I did not know him well but well enough to consider him a good friend. Others who knew him better will no doubt give their own eulogies but I can only tell like it felt for me.

Graham cracks a light hearted quip with Dillon as they battle outside the Jacobite camp on the Isle of Vestisle - Oakridge, Gloucestershire, Summer 2019

I joined John Ray's new Forum "A Military Gentleman" in 2014. I began to join in posting stuff - particularly from my blog where I was reporting games and making models and we were preparing for Waterloo at 1:3 scale here in the Cotswolds - 300 miles from Middlesbrough/Redcar where Graham lived. Whenever I posted, one wargamer was constantly supportive and offering praise and advice, and that was Graham. I found out he was the founder of Crann Tara Miniatures and specialising in the 1745 Rebellion and the War of the Austrian Succession period...the figures were lovely and I began to buy more for my own Imagi-nations collection.  Members of AMG got a discount and personal service and advice from Graham.  In those days I used to scratch build models to sell  and I specialised in Windmills, which was a gap in the market back then. Graham showed interest and I made some for him to chose  such as this one , and he had two!

Time went on and there were many more supportive comments from Graham. I began to realise he was well known over many years to this group of "classic" or "old school", mainly 18th Century wargamers, which I had stumbled into. Graham organised a gathering and two wargames of the AMG group at Partizan in 2015, but I wasn't able to attend (though "my" windmill did!).  Not long after that he asked me to do some artwork for him to use for his Crann Tara company.  This was to be an iconic line of Highlanders charging the viewer. We collaborated frequently over what was required and he got me into watching "Outlander" for inspiration of authentic Highland Jacobite costume. (Jane and I got hooked - now into Series 7!). I paid one of the young lads doing gardening work for us at the time to model for me as he had the rugged looks I needed for warrior clansmen.  I discussed the rough ideas for the drawing with Graham at our first meeting in June 2016 - at the AMG gathering at Kenilworth in the English Midlands.  Graham is in the first photo of this part of my report on Kenilworth 2016

I need to digress a bit here to point out what a stalwart of our hobby Graham was - he organised this first "convention" of 18th Century wargamers which was a great success and is still an annual event for many. Besides Graham I met a lot of well-known names on the "classic" scene and many of them you'll have seen on my blog over the years, some coming to Oakridge to suffer my wargaming hospitality!  This was a life changing event for me - so much of what is good about wargaming for me over the last 8 years was because of Graham's entrepreneurial skill and sharing spirit within our hobby, bringing us together.

He approved my ideas and I did the drawing he wanted which then became the banner for the website of Crann Tara Miniatures. I also designed the broadsword logo.  I thought it would make a good oil painting and he agreed. That set me on a road to do more research under Graham's advice and figuring out how to make those varied early tartans look like 3D in oil paint. Some of you might be familiar with this painting if you saw the banner behind Graham's stand at wargames shows or got it as header in update emails from CT Miniatures a few years ago.

I was very pleased with the result and it was the kind of collaboration with a knowledgeable client that I love to do.

Graham also organised Kenilworth 2017, and in that year "AMG" switched over to become the "Wild Geese Wargamers" for reasons I need not go into here. I got to meet Jim Purky for the first time then who of course, gave us Fife and Drum Miniatures and acquired the Minden range which, working with Graham's Crann Tara, ensured we 18th Century nuts were well served with top quality figures. Highlights were playing alongside Jim in Colin Ashton's Leuthen 1757, and participating in Graham's own version of Falkirk 1745, using his "Teddy Bear Fur" terrain and CT armies of Jacobites and British.

You can see Graham umpiring Falkirk in the first couple of photos here

The next landmark event was in 2018 when I was able to take a  holiday in North Yorkshire and Jane and I went to see Graham at his home in Redcar. We had a nice long chat about his wargaming experiences, running a model soldier company, participating in blogs and forums, etc and getting to see some of Graham's latest master figures in pre-production mode. He gave me a copy of Neil Cogswell's "Zweibrucken in Command" about the Austrians and the Reichsarmee's exploits in 1758; I learned that  Graham had been instrumental in helping this series of super books to be published in the 1990s (now in new editions by Helion).  We also found at that meeting a kindred interest in trying to produce cost effective armies of Seven Years War Austrians and Prussians in 1:76 scale - true 20mm. Though it was discussed for a couple of years by email, and Graham produced sample castings for me to comment on, this did not get off the ground before Graham sold Crann Tara to Caliver Books. By then he had got very interested in designing figures by computer modelling and producing masters as 3D prints - ground breaking even those few short years ago, but now a mainstream activity.

Graham added to his fame in my eyes around this time by participating in some historic refights with Charles S Grant, and for whom he was making figures which featured in, among others, "Refighting History - Volume 7 The Seven Years, War Western Theatre". 

The real highlight of our relationship came in the Summer of 2019 when I managed to entice Graham down to the South of England for a weekend participating in our alternative history mini-campaign "Raid on Vestisle". He took the Jacobites (of course) and saw off some very tough Hanoverian opposition. He brought a touch of class to our proceedings (I'm sure Ken and Guy will agree) and we all enjoyed a good natured evening over a meal at the local pub and bottles of red while we pursued the campaign admin between two big day-long games. Here are the reports with Graham much in action on the French/Jacobite side, and playing a blinder on Day Two as well!

Battle of Bellune Hill

Battle of Abrantes

Graham operates the French left flank in the fictitious Battle of Abrantes, 1756

There was so much more to the man than I can ever know, all I can do is record my interactions here and pay tribute to someone who brought me so much pleasure and support, and I'm so sorry I knew him for so short a time.

Attempt on Machtigburg - an Imagi-Nation Mini Campaign, Part One

Attempt on Machtigburg, Part One - Introduction and Background

Reading the background to other wargamer's Imagi-Nation countries can be tedious, but reading about their activities can be stimulating - just look at the success of the Charles Grant family publications. I hope this series of blogs will fall into the latter category so I'll spare you too much "political" detail.

Project history
I started my Imagi-Nation armies back in about 2008 inspired by Henry Hyde's then new magazine "Battlegames" as a transition from my 28mm French and Indian War, so the nucleii were British and French armies of the 1750s.  I had just had a lovely holiday in the French Alps where one of my nieces lives and realised that the real province of Savoy (Savoie) offered me the potential I needed as it had French names and location on the French border with Switzerland and Italy.

Thus I could take the Games Workshop (basically late Medieval) fictitious campaign map for Warhammer games, which was based on Germany, and freely translate it. Forget Switzerland and my Savoy bordered Reikland. I created the "Duc de Deuxcheavaux"  (don't ask) as the ruler of Savoy who was thrusting and expansionist and looked to Louis XV to support his pretentions on Reikland's territory. The year was 1760 and France had lost a lot of colonial territory so was looking for revenge and replacement lands. Savoy could have French style imaginary units backed by real French historical units, though not strictly 1760.

Reikland, for its part, was the South-West "Elektorate" of "The Empire" and Count Gregorius (um, yes me when I choose to be) von Grunburg ruled the county bordering Savoy. Would you believe Gregorious favoured British style red uniforms? He could also call on any Germanic units that took my fancy, never mind that Prussia and Austria were at war most of the time! They were all nominally subserviant to "The Empress" in Vienna in my mind.

I first blogged about this back in 2011 with the Battle of Futonville  report

and the units and games have been featured a lot since, although I had a long break from early 2013 to mid 2016 forced by two house moves and the 2015 bicentennial of Waterloo. This coincided with the opportunity to try out Keith Flint's "Honours of War" (HoW) rules and along the way I had had tremendous stimulation from membership of John Ray's "A Military Gentleman of the 18th Century" Forum.

2016 was time to revive my campaign, which is always done by my trying to link most games by vague reference to the"map " which is now just in my head, and with characters and units that come and go as I pragmatically use them to suit the circumstances of the game. No one to please but me and the friends who I can persuade to partake :-).

Savoy's latest invasion of Reikland - Background
AMG led me to meet Ken Marshall who was happy to help me test HoW using the three test games in the rule book. By game 2 we dragged AMG member Guy Barlow along too and for game 3 brought in my old mate Kevin East. Each one was getting a bit larger and our confidence building.
All these have been fully blogged and with a rough background brief. Please see the links below if you need a reminder.
Battle of St Ulrich

Clash at Kutzdorf

Surprise at Spittelwitz

Spring of 2017 got me custom building a 10 x 6 foot terrain for Kevin's big weekend Napoleonic test game Battle for Hoeke Valley

and I desperately wanted to expand the scope of our 18th Century games so launched into my first original HoW scenarios using this terrain, adapted, as my excuse.

Attempt on Machtigburg - the concept
Inspired by Charles S. Grant's various handy books on mini campaigns, (see for example Caliver Books website Search for Grant books at Caliver) I came up with the germ of three ideas for games, getting bigger each time, to be played over the Summer and Autumn.

• A petite guerre style battle involving mostly vanguards composed of quite a lot of light troops; Savoy/French trying to secure, and Reikland/Imperial trying to block, a passage through a river valley on the way to Machtigburg
• Based on the tabletop territory gained by the vanguards, two armies of all arms, with the French force having to protect a siege train required for the siege of Machtigburg and Imperial force trying to destroy or capture them.
• A third battle based on the the outcome which would involve the biggest forces we could game with in a day and on the 12 x 6 foot battlefield left over from West Country Quatre Bras part One

This evolved into me and Ken playing "Vanguards in the Wahlental" the day before we both attended the splendid AMG 17 weekend at Kenilworth in mid-June. Here is an idea of what it looked like, Ken contributed  a fair amount of the figures.

A month later we used a lot of Ken's Prussian style Imagi-Nation figures and he continued as the Reikland/Imperial commander and we invited Kevin along while I enjoyed umpiring "Siege Train in the Wahlental". A couple of pics of that one.

For the third and final battle, in early October, I was a very lucky chap as both Ken and Guy provided most of the troops. These were a good part of Ken's completed Imagi-nation forces - an interesting mix of British/Hanoverian/Prussian and white coated "Austrians", and an unknown part of the total of Guy's historical 1740-50s style French, British and Hanoverian Western theatre armies. All these were Minden, Crann Tara or Fife and Drum figures. They were supplemented in places by my eclectic mix of historical and Imagi-nation regiments owing no allegiance to one style of manufacturer. We mustered about 1500 figures for the day. Probably about another 500 or more stayed on my shelves for another time.  Better yet we were joined by Gloucestershire "locals" Roy Boss of Cirencester, and HoW author Keith Flint of Northleach.   Again I was GM and umpire/tea maker, which is my favoured role.
And now some taster pics from the "Battle of Edelstein"

That should give you some idea of the scope of what I expect to be describing over the next few weeks. (Though not all at once as I feel some Hussarette paintings beckoning to be shown!)  I'll include the full briefs as Downloads in the Imagi-Nation sidebar  as I go along.
 I will leave you with the map of the Wahl Valley I devised to use the adapted Napoleonic terrain for the first two games. Please click to expand.

Map of the Wahlental - if the names intrigue bear in mind this terrain was devised in the last week of May in the UK :-)

A Bevvy of Hussarettes

Count Gruzinsky peered out of the window of his Prague lodgings into the warm June night. Wherever had his daughter got to?....and then by the flickering lamplight that gave a friendly glow to the yard of the inn, he saw her.

Walking proud and erect in her uniform of Honorary Colonel of the Gruskinsky Hussars, drawn sabre in hand, she came elegantly towards the inn. But what are those two points casting shadows with every stride?  Oh no, she has been in one of her sabre contests again and she always casts aside her dolman when she fights..........

Countess Natasha Gruzinskaya was accompanying her father on a Russian diplomatic mission to the court of Empress Maria Theresa. It was June 1756 and the Count was to discuss mutual cooperation with Austria in the face of growing belligerence from the upstart Frederick II of Prussia. This stop at Prague was a convenient rest on the way to Vienna, however, diplomacy is boring and a girl must find her amusement somewhere......
Those Austrian officers of the Dessewffy Hussar Regiment at the tavern opposite had provided her with a slight diversion, but she had floored all three of them without suffering a scratch herself.........And next..... some more fun with her ADC, Anton, who was waiting at the inn's backdoor.

But first she had to pass a group of drunken Dessewffy troopers who were billeted in the courtyard.....
"Wie gehts Fraulein?" said  a voice from the dark. "Ich mochte rollen im Heu mit dich, mag dich auch?"

Countess Natasha Gruzinskaya and the Dessewffy Hussar, 1756
Acrylic on board 12" x 8"

What impertinence she thought and turned her head to give an icy stare. The sabre flashed quickly...and the man would not roll in the hay with anyone ever again.......

Now for a bath and something stiff with Anton.

With grateful thanks to Robbie Rodiss who came up with his interpretation of the Dessewffy Hussars for me when I asked about his favourite Austrian uniform, and then he also said how he liked the Russian Gruzinsky Hussar uniform. Of course I had already done that in Hussarette form, see
Natasha and Count Gregorius, and so I felt compelled to put the two together for this little prequel, showing another example of Natasha's liking for undressed combat. Also thanks again to Russian model Yara for the inspiration through her steely portrayal of a very tough lady hussar.

But the story of my latest batch of Hussarette paintings didn't really start there at all........

I had offered to put on a display of my military paintings and drawings at AMG 17 (see the bottom of my previous post for pictures) and so was in the mood for trying to find suitable subjects. Then all of a sudden there seemed to be a purge of members of the A Military Gentleman Forum and a certain amount of disquiet expressed at various locations on-line. This took an amusing turn when the talented flagmaker, Captain William (Bill ) Walker of Florida USA, designed a beautiful Rococo style cartouche bearing the name "Gentlemen in Exile" in black and gold. Immediately the idea flashed to me that a Hussarette in black and gold uniform would look splendid with Bill's design as a sabretache monogram. Permission was obtained to use it and I was about to start when Colin Ashton cheekily hijacked my plan with the suggestion that the historic Prussian Hussar Regiment Nr 5, Von Reusch, wore black and would also look great as a Hussarette. Colin is already a client of my female military genre so was to be taken seriously, and to cut a long story short, he helped develop the ideas for this lovely painting of a lady whom we have called Rosamunde von Reusch.

Rosamunde von Reusch, HR5, 1757. Acrylic on canvas 16' x 16"

The winking death's head skull was Colin's idea!

Ummmmm.....and the unbuttoned breeches was mine ;-).
Well that Prussian leather reinforcement piece would  have looked
too much like a miss-matched area of flesh otherwise!

This one was also based on Yara at a photo session where she was just wearing hat, waistcoat and boots.....and carbine. So I have developed the waistcoat into a dolman, the fur colpack became a mirliton, complete with cords, plume and trailing wing and we've imagined her just relaxing with unbuttoned breeches. I've not gone for a likeness but for this pose Yara had discarded the warlike facade and I got a flash of the eyes and cheeky smile which I have tried to retain. Colin seemed pleased to take delivery of Rosamunde at AMG 17 and display her on his blog here

And now back to Captain Bill's inspiration.  I needed a pose and face that said "I can be lethal, don't mess with me" because this was to be another of my empowered females. After all she was representing the Exiles from the aforementioned Forum and at that time many seemed like they were metaphorically sharpening their sabres.

Searching my archives I found the lovely young Ukrainian, Ella, wearing her "pelisse" opened, tight leggings, and booted foot up on a sofa and with the slung sabre just being drawn threateningly - perfect. Except she was far too sweet for this role - take a look here if you don't remember her. So I managed to find the required super-cool but slightly pouting expression on line, and this is how Lola ended up.

I hope you will agree that she looks hot, but too hot to handle 

Lady Lola of the Legion des Refuses (Gentlemen in Exile), Acrylic on canvas, 12" x 9.5" 

The LR inside the Captain Bill-designed cartouche stands for Legion des Refuses

Out of respect for the sweet Ella I should say that I got the
 bare breast from elsewhere

I explained to Bill that Lola is not a Gentleman (despite the nod to Ray Davies' eponymous hit song of the 1960s) and so preferred the term "Legion des Refuses" as the parallel for this artist was uncannily like Edouard Manet's founding of the Salon des Refuses for the Impressionist rejects of the 1874 exhibition of the Academie Francaise. Bill was happy with that and so was I because I am  a great fan of Legions in my Imagi-Nations wargaming (a report of a game with lots of them will follow shortly). But I'm not sure which came first, my Legion idea or Bill's creation of Lady Lola's Legion in miniature. The man works so fast he had three units take the field before my painting was finished, and each had a unique flag!  Do take a look at some of them on Bill's Duchy of Beerstein blog, such as this one

So Captain Bill bought the painting of Lola and also took a liking to the "cherry bottomed Hussarette" as he termed Natasha. Both ladies are now safely in his man cave in Florida.

I hope this little story will show that the Hussarette project is alive and well, that I love being steered towards an artistic creation, especially one involving females in uniform, and that would-be clients can participate in the enjoyable enterprise.  Just email me with your ideas or requirements, prices are very affordable.

A NOTE ABOUT COPYRIGHT

I hope you enjoy the pictures. If you do feel the urge to post any of them elsewhere please respect my copyright and give me credit by name and a link to this blog. Thank you, Chris G.

For those unfamiliar with my other work there are plenty more Hussarettes and examples of military and historic paintings, elegant or exotic ladies, and landscapes, on my web pages.

Military:

http://cheltenham-art.com/chrisgregg2.htm

Others:

http://www.cheltenham-art.com/chrisgregg.htm

Falkirk Refight at AMG 17

Better late than never hopefully, here is my second post on the A Military Gentleman weekend in mid -June. This one is a bit more serious than my previous report !

I had never before played a Jacobite Rebellion game but lots of memories from my past, and more recently, conspired to ensure I was not going to miss my chance now.

My Dad was a great history enthusiast and on many holidays to the Scottish Highlands in the 1960s and early 70s we had read each other excerpts from the guide books about Bonnie Price Charlie and the "romanticism" of the  '45 rebellion. We know better now of course but to a young wargamer it seemed like a good idea to see what my pocket money funds could achieve using the, then new, Miniature Figurines "25mm" models. The answer was not much as I recall - probably one battalion sized unit of British and a few Highlanders and then I think the defence budget got hijacked by Napoleonics for the Cheltenham club's 1812 campaign project.......but I never somehow lost that feeling that highlanders offered something different...as long as someone else painted the tartans!!

Then Graham Cummings came into my life via the AMG Forum, and his wonderful Crann Tara Range - "The Finest 28mm Miniatures for the '45":
Crann Tara Miniatures website
Crann Tara.blogspot.co.uk/
and by 2016 I was painting those tartans myself, not on miniatures thankfully but in a large painting where the most prominent figures were about 25 centimetres high.  Graham commissioned drawings for marketing his range and the oil painting "A Highland Charge 1745". Here it is for those not already familiar.

So now I found Graham was treating us to a refight of the Battle of Falkirk, and using Honours of War (HoW) rules, his wonderfully painted Crann Tara British figures, and most of the clansmen lent by Guy Barlow fresh from his "soldier room" in Windsor. All played out on Graham's superbly sculpted and painted teddy bear fur mat.  I found myself alongside Stuart Insch as British commanders pitted once again against Gary Phillips and Jim Purky, today joined by Des Darkin whom I had not met before but who proved an admirably able and gentlemanly opponent. So the scene was set for 18th century wargaming nirvana for the little lad grown up now to be the oldest present!

Graham briefs the Jacobites - Gary, Jim and Des

Stuart holds the British left flank and my forces are in Falkirk town and
approaching up the foreground road

This game was played three times over the weekend and has been written about a lot on blogs and in Forums so I will let myself off a detailed narrative. Our game was the third one, starting fresh on Sunday morning and going on till just after lunch.  A look at the opposing forces might be helpful:

We British only had one Dithering General - in the reserve column

Poor Jim got a Dithering Charlie and one other Ditherer

I must apologise for some of the photos as the light in the room called for greater patience than I have; some of them are pretty good, most average, and I have included few that are poor merely to round out the views of the game.

A demoralised force under Cope was holding Falkirk and with Hamilton's Dragoons and light guns a short way off and nearer the approaching clans. The latter leapt out of the morning mist to take them by surprise. Stuart managed to salvage most but not all of this force and barely held off the attacking Highlanders under Gary until his reinforcing columns (Hawley's force) arrived in the left hand corner.

I had a lesser problem to try to defend Falkirk with two battalions and a battery in the face of Jim as the Bonnie Prince coming at me as fast as his tartan-socked legs would carry him.  I was hopeful that Wade's column would come up in time from my right to relieve them, but Des had other ideas and pressed forward with clansmen and the red coated Irish Piquets to bar my way.

So Jim pressed Falkirk, losing a lot of men, and eventually ejected Cope but his jocks ran out of steam and by the end of the game I was reformed and back in town. Des saw off two out of three of Wade's infantry battalions, but my Dragoons were able to dismount and occupy the ruined barn just long enough for the infantry to reform and regain the initiative. By that time, he too had run out of clansmen.

On Stuart's flank the second half of the game saw Hawley's brigades come on the table but had singularly bad luck with the initiative dice, and Gary was able to scare us with highland charges while the march columns were trying to form lines. At the same time the Jacobite cavalry was approaching but failed to get initiative to charge! Nevertheless Stuart managed to hang on and Gary's clans lost enthusiasm while a combination of Stuart's and my artillery saw off the cavalry.

Looking across the field, despite their territorial gains, the Jacobites had run out of units still in worthwhile battle order anywhere and Graham called it a British victory.  I felt as if we'd earned it!

Now some more pics and I'll comment further down.

Wade's British battalions

The Highland hordes...er...clansmen

Stuart's light guns try to make a getaway

Bonnie Prince Charlie encourages his men against Falkirk town

The Scots never reached this gun as Graham had kindly deemed that it was in hard
cover as part of the Falkirk town defences. It caused Jim considerable trouble all game

From within Falkirk a view of the charging Highlanders.
The waving fur grasses are particularly effective

Jim makes such progress against Falkirk he needs to come round to my
side to move them

Wade's three battalions now deployed in line, but it is an illusion of solidity.
I think Graham said that these troops were fresh from defeat at Prestopans
 and most were dubbed "inferior" now from the horrible experience

Jim's charges against Falkirk

Gary's highlanders nearly catching Stuart's surprised vanguard

Something amuses Gary, Graham and Jim while they leave Des
 to get on with the serious business of moving up Jacobite cavalry!

Some of Stuart's Dragoons are forced to pull back in the face of broadswords
 and Lochaber axes........

.......while a light gun is caught by the other clan battalion

Better news for us was that a significant part of the Jacobite force failed to move
during the early phases of the game

Jim's Bonnie Prince has ejected my two battalions from Falkirk but I think his
clansmen have found a barrel of Macallen's in the pub!

Graham's Royal Marines well deserving of a close up as they reform on the baseline

Des's wild charges forced back Wade's two weakest battalions. The better one,
Barrell's 4th Foot at top right, has been repulsed by the Irish Piquets.
My dragoons occupy the ruined barn.

Closing stages of the game now. Yet another attempt to gain Falkirk in the foreground, but all the Jacobite units have red casualty markers. Jacobite cavalry are making a show but not with the right initiative dice! At far left Hawley's reinforcing troops have been held up by spirited localised attacks from Gary.......

....and sure enough, he comes back for some more!

Poor picture but I wanted to show that the Irish Piquets seemed to be the most successful Jacobite unit, as well as looking one of the prettiest! Des never gave up pressing, and my dismounted Dragoons barely hold on to their light cover.

Comment

This was an extremely clever and well thought out scenario and seemed balanced as by no means all the British soldiery was adequate, "standard " in Honours of War speak. The Jacobites had several units of Lowlanders who were less warlike ("inferior") but most had the "Highland Charge" option. On the receiving end, as I was, this meant that Highlanders could fire once only during the game just before closing and then charge in with full melee effectiveness. The British were also allowed to fire at close range so it sort of balanced except psychologically.  As a regular HoW player I expect to get the firing advantage when stationary in defence so it is unnerving to receive casualties from your charging enemy. If your troops are inferior or have already suffered hits it can make them give way in the face of the charge. This added to the excitement and it felt genuinely hard work to stave off the relentless attacks. I always think that's a sign of a successful game  (whoever wins) if you feel a bit drained, and slightly relieved when it's over!!!  Well done Graham.

There are many more photos and historical background on Graham's own blog here

The two weekend games, mostly thanks to Gary's expert guiding hand and friendly opposition, taught me a lot about the discipline of conducting HoW withdrawals and recovery to the letter of the rules. it is well worth the effort as you get a good feeling of the importance of withdrawing as far away as you can with the optional two move retreat - that's always supposing your scenario and forces allow you the luxury! Later reformed units can be a useful resource to winning the game. Yes, it's obvious, but like most rules when you have a long enough game to practice it they make more sense. I've made my own batch of red markers for that stationary reforming turn, thanks Gary.

There was a lot more to the AMG weekend and I really wish I could have taken part in Martin Gane's splendid "Sands of the Sudan" (complete with pith helmet!) and Paul Robinson's War of the Spanish Succession mega game, but there were other distractions, such as talking to folks about my display of military paintings and drawings.......and when smiley Dave Hall says "Come and have a drink with us in the sunshine" it is hard to say no!

Sands of the Sudan - fantastic homage to Peter Gilder's original

Franquenee from the battle of Ramillies

(My poor photos don't do it justice, sorry)

A proper account and photos on Paul's own blog here

And thanks to Colin Ashton for these photos of my art display and sales table. I hope to write a bit about the paintings in a separate post. Thanks to all those who purchased and the two of you who have so far commissioned more work.

Finally I will end the memory of a lovely weekend with another gift (I'm a lucky man). This one is an original Spencer Smith from Will Harley who is known for his wonderfully painted and nostalgically evocative SS armies

This "30mm" chap fits in beautifully with my 28mm armies and he will proudly be leading a brigade of five battalions in a game I am umpiring tomorrow.

Just for completeness I realise I have a lovely video of the weekend made by Tony Dillon which has not had much viewing in public as far as I know. So I hope you enjoy the atmosphere (and seeing me looking worried over my dice rolling!)  Tony's AMG 17 video