Waterloo Project: Making the buildings for the whole battle

Here is the follow up to my previous post on making the Waterloo terrain colouring the big-battle terrain.

Completed up to the buildings stage

This was hard for me as an artist and very visually stimulated wargamer, but any scaled up wargame has to make a lot of compromises over size versus history versus playability. We did a lot of homework on the sizes and shapes of the built up areas and the ground scale for the game. We concluded that I could just about get away with buildings sized to go with 15mm figures provided I took into account the immediate surroundings of woods, orchards, gardens etc in the the total footprint. That also meant that representing the exact configuration of the farms and chateau buildings would be impossible so I had to settle for something with the right character and look that also did the job. I had no pre-conceived ideas about what to use. We pooled resources but the collection of 15mm buildings we had contained very few that were suitable.

The lightbulb moment came when I remembered I had two sets of each of the series of 15mm Waterloo card buildings produced by Pireme Publishing and marketed by Miniature Wargames magazine quite a few years ago. They produced one for Hougoumont, one for La Haye Sainte (LHS) and one for La Belle Alliance (LBA). These are 1:1 scale at 15mm so you got a lot of buildings for your money and the LBA set was padded out with an indeterminate Waterloo style farm too. So, going back to the premise stated above, I did not get obsessed about following the instructions to produce lovely, but hopelessly oversized replicas, and instead treated it as a creative activity just cutting and sticking the nicely printed components as I needed in order to match the required size and character.

Pireme's Hougoumont pack unopened, but the little diagram shows how extensive it is

My version of Hougoumont from the South East. Yes I know I've got an extra gate
and no North side courtyard but the aim was to accommodate 8 bases of
figures according to Paul's rules.

My version of LHS from the West. Gate and farmhouse are in the correct relationship
 but all the other buildings were too big so represented here by a high wall

The LBA model was also too large so I cut it down to retain the shape but
smaller footprint on the tabletop

Above and below - two views of Plancenoit village

The church is a Hovels 25mm resin model beautifully painted by Kevin East

As you can see from these photos, apart from the church and the small stone cottage in front of it, all the buildings have come from the Pireme kits. What isn't obvious is that across the battlefield all the buildings are glued down to avoid inevitable shifting during the games and some of the roofs come off but others don't. Everything I made had to bear in mind sensible deployment of units in standard base sizes of 60mm x 40mm. That included all courtyards and roads passing between buildings, but I also made some roofs to come off if the building was big enough to put a base inside. As you will see from the game photos it mostly worked out OK. The card the houses are printed on is not very strong but easy to cut. So, especially where roofs came off, I had to reinforce the walls with balsa cut to shape.

Due to the base size necessity and overall footprint Papelotte and La Haie
farms have been combined by using a 15mm resin model, presumably based on LHS
but is made in handy sized components for different configurations. Sorry I've
 forgotten the maker as I bought it at a show many years ago.
 It's beautifully textured so dry brush painting is a dream. Beyond is a
combined Frischermont and Smohain village from Pireme card.

Mont St Jean Farm is made from spares from LHS and shows something I
 did throughout which was to touch up the printed walls and roofs with
thin acrylic paint to make weathering and staining as they are too pristine for
my liking.

Just for fun here is a photo of what MSJ Farm looked like in 2014 when Kevin and I did our battlefield tour.

So you can see mine is nothing like it and I just fall back on the concept of deviation for pragmatic purposes rather than ignorance!

The same kind of resin buildings were used for Merbe Braine and Mon Plaisir
but with different paint jobs

Hougoumont with hedges and orchard now in place

Just a few words about the hedges as they were pretty simple.  They were of two types. Many, particularly around Papelotte, were converted from ones I had made from rubberised horsehair for 20mm scale World War Two games. I split them in half making them slimmer but still fairly tall as we were putting 28mm figures behind them. The rest were made by cutting strips from some green sponge packing I happened to have kept (Yes - hoard it - they always come in handy for something!!!).  All of it was painted a darkish green acrylic base coat and then when dry highlighted with lighter greens. Finally all the upper surfaces were coated with PVA and sprinkled liberally with light green scatter to give the effect of light catching leaves. On various stretches of hedge I altered the profile with the addition of extra foam or bits of tree (see later) so it wasn't too uniform. In fact the hedges leading down the hill to Papelotte should really have been lines of trees and fairly dense foliage but we compromised on practicality by using hedges with a few trees and then declared the enclosed land within as rough ground (see my map in part one of this "how-to")

I was going to go on to talk about the trees but I think this has got long enough now so I'll leave you with a parting shot of more hedges but with troops too. Trees next time.

Start of the battle showing the hedges behind Papelotte

The Prince of Orange gives a Nassau brigade the benefit of his superior wisdom!

Waterloo Project: Setting up the third test game

Now I'm more or less established in my new wargames room it was high time we got on with another test game for the rules to be used for our 1:3 scale efforts in the areas of La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont. As you will have seen before we are just aiming to produce a generic battlefield which will test the type of units and capabilities we will need in the real games to take place this July and September.

First let's look at the table
The plan for my room is that the space is for flexible use, including figure painting, tabletop model making and 2D oil painting. So the tables are all foldable and give me various configurations. The test game set up is completely removable but, subject to Paul finding the space suitable for his "whole battle" refight, the boards will form the core of  all four weekend Waterloo games. So I was keen to have a test of the space and size as well as the rules.

Here is an idea of the table layout with boards, this is 12 feet x 6 feet

Then with an add-on to make use of the way the room widens out. This is another 5 feet by 2 feet. But we still have to ensure we can get round to maintain the functionality.

You can see I have started to place some high ground. This is spare wooden boards covered with shaped cardboard and taped and then smoothed with magazines and newspapers.

Once I was happy with that I covered the whole lot with layers of plain paper left over from our recent unpacking. This helps the smoothness which at this scale is pretty important as the terrain is mostly "what you see is what you get" and not really representational like most non-skirmish level wargames. 

Finally it is covered with fabric. I've used a garden product by Gardman "Grow it" Heavy Duty Thick Fleece in rolls of 10 metres x 1m. One roll was plenty to do the table once but it is not "thick" for my purpose so I had to get three rolls and lay them on top of one another to give a richness of colour that was sufficient. It's only about £6 a roll so doesn't break the bank and, unlike a bespoke terrain mat at greater expense, I think this will prove more versatile into the future.  I hasten to add that the real games will have a much more custom designed and modelled terrain, but I've not decided yet precisely what as they will all be very different.

Who are we?
Now ranging between Bristol, the Cotswolds and Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, we have 6 wargamers who are putting resources into this project. Four of us, me, Mike, Richard and Paul, have been gaming together for decades, mostly in Cheltenham, then Kevin came back into our lives after 35 years, full of Waterloo fervour. He was the catalyst for the project and in the search for cheap figures we found James of Fergscalemodelsuk in Aylesbury, who not only proved a useful source for plastic figures, but practically blagged his way into participating too (see James' blog here napoleonicwargamesblog). Mike and Paul have yet to try out the rules so I've organised two days of gaming to fit their schedules.  I'll be umpiring Mike and Kevin who will kick it off next week and then a couple of weeks later the others will join Kev while Mike is away. These two days, with the first leading into the second, will simulate what we want to do over a weekend for the real games but with more figures and players.

But what about the game?.....
  Above is a general view of the terrain I've chosen and the starting positions of the first day's troops (just for Colin the photos are before the arrival of the Wargamer Aide de Camp statistic trays! :-)). It's about 1100 figures and it's worth remembering that the ground scale is 1 inch represents 3 metres, so musket range is 36 inches and effective rifle range goes up to 72 inches. Consequently I make some allowance in the starting strengths to allow for casualty infliction and morale effects as units approach.  What you see on the right is a French brigade of 3 infantry battalions with a small company of line engineers/sapeurs, and two squadrons of cuirassiers. A squadron of line lancers is just off the table. Further back there is a battery of horse artillery 30 inches off table, and a battery of heavy foot artillery about 90 inches off table. We actually have the models set up on shelves representing high ground! (Though they were not in position when these photos were taken)

The Allied front line is represented by three companies of 95th Rifles in the orchard and farm,and the 2nd Light Battalion King's German Legion skirmishing along the valley and with a supporting wing on the ridge above. The centre is supported by the Hanoverian Luneburg Battalion with a quarter of its strength rifle armed and skirmishing. In the rear of 2LB KGL are two squadrons of KGL Hussars. The left flank is guarded by a battery of Royal Horse Artillery and the right by a battery of Royal Foot Artillery. Now some more detailed views with captions

Above and below:
 Luneburg battalion faces a formidable force of cuirassiers while in
column of companies, but both sides have enough distance and options not
 to just confront each other like this.

Two squadrons of KGL Hussars shelter from the worst of the artillery fire behind a low ridge.
The wing of 2LB KGL may choose to lie down to shelter, but they are easily within rifle
 range  of the approaching French infantry so might do better to stand up and fire.
The RHA battery on a rise in the background has already caused casualties among the French.

View of Kevin's beautiful resin farm buidings from the RFA battery position.
We have used about half of his entire Hougoumont model for this test game;
 the whole lot takes up about 4 feet of table just for the main buildings.

Well the stage is set. My intention is to bring you many more photos after our first day's play. Later, when the second day arrives, these forces will get reinforcements of about 60% more each.

(PS. In case anyone is wondering that is a large canvas print of  "Natalie" on the back wall. The original was much smaller and as far as I know her owner is still allowed to have her on display even though he seems well hooked now!) (See right hand side bar for info on Hussarettes) 

Story of a stone bastion

It's certainly funny how some things in life turn out, and I wonder how many successful business ventures have been founded on pure chance encounters. I'd like to tell you about this one, though not sure how "successful" it will be!
It all started back in September 2010 when the Duchess of Grandchamp and I were on a short break visiting Bruges in Belgium. It's a very attractive city especially for anyone looking for inspiration to build late medieval style European town house models. However, not much of the original ring of impressive city wall remains - only about 4 or 5 of the big gated entrances, which are well worth a close look if you visit.

One of the city gates in the South West of Bruges ,
photographed on zoom from the distant central clock tower. 

But that is not the subject of this blog as our break was long enough to take a canal boat trip to the village of Damme about 5 miles to the North East of Bruges. This is a lovely example of a Belgian village with well preserved buildings, though not large. Outside the village limits, with some difficulty, I was able to identify two brick or stone constructions that must have formed part of larger defensive works.

The Duchess, in non-regal baseball cap, helpfully adds a sense of scale to this
 ammunition casemate which was only identifiable by a little plaque next to the door.

An ammunition store that must have been originally part of the wall.
We couldn't actually get to it.

In fact a small nature reserve had been made utilising well overgrown trenches and defences from the 17th Century - great for wildlife but not for history enthusiasts. It was closed the day we visited so I could not explore further except, tantalisingly, one could see this edifice about 100 yards away.

 I'm convinced it is an overgrown heavy gun bastion.

Back home, a month later I had been making a large batch of picture frames and found myself surrounded by various lengths and thicknesses of waste offcuts of wooden moulding, mostly with 45 degree angles. I began to play with them and slowly a number of redoubts began to form in my mind and on my workbench. The largest pieces soon brought memories of Damme and it occurred to me that one doesn't often see terrain models of stone bastions large enough to take a siege gun or heavy fortress cannon. The stepped nature of the moulding needed a thick disguise and I began to think about defences that may only have been used a few times in anger in maybe a century or two. With an under strength garrison and no nearby warfare such places might get overgrown so by the time your enemy approaches the sandy earth will have blown in and weeds and grass taken root. Much of it might need cursory removal to get the gun in action. Anyway this is what resulted from my labours:

The rear view shows the entrances to two ammunition casemates within the wall and there is a big ramp to get the gun up and down for maintenance. This has enough room for plenty of crew, cannonballs, gunpowder barrels or vignettes of the gun captain's pet dog to please any modeller. Not sure what make or calibre the gun model is as I got it second hand in a big batch of 25/28mm artillery but it's too large for a field piece so this situation seems just right to me. I also thought this bastion might represent a shore battery position with sand dunes beginning to encroach over the stone work - pirates, anyone?

I took it to the Bring and Buy at "Warfare" in Reading in 2010 and sold it fairly quickly. I thought that was the end of the story ...but I was in for a surprise.

At  "Warfare " in November 2011 I was casually perusing the trade stands, mind in neutral, when I saw a glass case containing a "show special" resin model. I did a double take, took a long hard look and then recognised it as "my" stone bastion. I introduced myself to Richard Randall, the stall holder, and explained I am a professional , if part time, terrain maker and gave him the background on the model as explained above. We had an interesting discussion about copyright and that he had bought the master model off Ebay, no longer bearing my "CG Designs" makers label. This all took me by surprise as I hadn't thought that any of my designs would be "ripped off" like that, so maybe this can be a wake up to other model makers who care about such things to ensure a permanent copyright mark if you can.

The conversation soon turned to how the two of us could do business, but before I tell you more about that have a look at the resin model rather than the original:

Above is the fresh resin casting with the same 28mm siege cannon I used in the original photos. When I received it from Richard there was about 5 minutes cleaning up to do, rinse it in soapy water and I was ready for the next stage. But before that below is a view of a different gun. This is one of those horrible little metal toys you get in gift shops at historic sites in the UK. I think it is about 40mm scale, but who knows, I don't collect 40mm I'm afraid. However, I think it suggests that 40/42mm figures would fit in here and look good, so pay attention you Prince August, Sash and Sabre or Deutsche Homage fans.   

I got out some spray cans and gave it 4 different colours. Dark brown as an undercoat, then grey for the stonework and a mid brown for the earth, finishing up with a very light cream highlight spray.

If you were a Warhammer 40,000 gamer you could probably use it just like that! But I then moved onto dry-brush work and acrylic paint to get somewhere near the effect of my original.

I wanted to see what effect the texturing would have just with dry-brushing and I think it looks pretty good. Bear in mind the original model was not made with the intention of becoming a master for a resin casting, and there is no flock on this one. I think it would be improved by some judicious additions of static grass or tufts and maybe even a little sand, but that's a matter of taste for the individual.  So you can judge the quality of the casting (not my figures!) here is a close up:

If you want to see a few more photos have a look here Resin Stone Bastion

What about the uses for this resin bastion? Well, a stand alone bastion is what I originally saw at Damme, but Richard quite rightly saw it as part of a sturdy fortification and has commissioned me to make some walls and joining corners. These should be available commercially by very early March along with a smaller field gun redoubt and further down the line we'll move on to 15mm, first with a windmill similar in style to my 28mm ones.

This stone bastion is available now from Richard Randall (see contact details below) priced at £25 plus postage. I think it could do service in any period from Renaissance to World War Two and, depending on taste, for figures from 20mm to 40mm. It measures 13 inches by 9 inches overall and, for the record, I managed to get in a full 48 figure battalion of large (appropriately Redoubt  Enterprises) 28mm figures, if you wanted to garrison it with infantry.

Where can you get one (or more)?

Richard runs a business with his father called Elite Wargames and Models. I believe so far they have tried to concentrate on resin terrain models that are not often covered by others, for example they do a line of outbuildings,  garden sheds and back gardens that fit in well with WW2, Home Guard type games or a A Very British Civil War. I'm not sure if these are  for 28mm or 15mm, as Elite W & M are also keen on the smaller scale. That's because they have recently bought the moulds and figure stock of what used to be  Jacobite Miniatures and are working on sorting them out for marketing. I'm told the website will be up and running shortly but meanwhile if you are interested in any of these things or wish to know more about the 25/28mm bastion and forthcoming items please get in touch with Richard by one of the following means :

Email :  rich randall <elitewargamesmodels@gmail.com>

Phone: 07876506395

Snail mail: 44 Austin Road, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4EL