Afghan/NWF rocky hill goes VERTICAL

A while ago I was suddenly hit with what I thought was a very good idea -- to try to use the same kind of WOOD-CHIPS I used to build a nice little rocky hill (LINK to prior blog post) in a different way -- specifically, to turn them on their ends and use them VERTICALLY, instead of stacking them horizontally. I thought this might give a more dramatic, "spire"-like effect. But I was very busy with work and family, and also other hobby-related stuff, so I didn't get around to putting the idea into practice for a while.

Then I came across this pair of images on the web, and they gave me the final push to get the "vertical" wood-chip hill done.

The first comes from Lord Roberts' autobiography "41 Years in India," and is a very striking sketch of the battlefield of Kandahar, as seen from the hills above the village of Gundigan. The most prominent terrain feature is Baba Wali Kotal - the high pass through the mountains outside Kandahar...

...the second is a perhaps even more striking 1880 photograph of a portion of Baba Wali Kotal itself:

Both images struck me as lending themselves to being created in miniature - at least in an impressionistic, "high concept" amateur terrain-maker way - with "vertical" wood-chips.

I worked on this project just before my family and I moved house. My wife was not very happy that I was spending time on a hobby project while there was so much else to do, but I knew if I didn't finish before we moved, it would take months, maybe longer, before I'd manage to get back to it. I finished just in the nick of time -- and I also spent endless hours, unto days, packing, moving, driving back-and-forth, etc., etc., in service of my family. We moved on the day of New Years Eve - December 31st - and started 2012 in our new digs, which are currently under renovation, but will be very nice when we're done.

The move went pretty well, and I'm happy to say I think this new hill turned out quite nicely. When the time arrives, I plan to build at least one more, for use together as the tall hills or low mountains on both sides of various Afghan/NWF passes.

Here's some details to go with all the WIP pics below:

1) I picked up the baseboard piece for a very inexpensive price at my local lumber yard. I thought it was some kind of MDF/Masonite but it was incredibly strong/stiff - more so than even double-tempered Masonite in my experience - which was a good thing, once I managed to cut the shape I wanted out of it! Still not really 100% certain what it is though.

2) - Used rubber cement to glue the styrofoam down to the baseboard (did a test on a small piece first, and it worked very well).

- Used my handy-dandy - especially for this project - HOT GLUE GUN to glue the wood-chips to the styrofoam, and also to piece together the "jigsaw puzzle"-like interior structure of the 2 upper contours, also made from styrofoam.

- Used 3 long "cocktail sticks", in addition to the hot glue, to help fix the third - top - contour into place, impaling it firmly into the piece below.

3) Used my usual Elmer's Wood Filler to spackle the cut foam, simultaneously strengthening it while adding some nice texture.

4) Brushed on full-strength white glue where I wanted the pebbly texture to match my terrain board ground-cover, then strategically placed a few larger, more prominent pebbles, before pouring on Home Depot "Soil Erosion" ballast (a far less expensive alternative to model railroad gravel/ballast, which comes in handy for large terrain projects).

5) After the ground-cover dried, I collected all the excess ballast, then used an EYE-DROPPER to apply a coat of Woodland Scenics SCENIC CEMENT, to add another layer of fixative.

6) I skipped using black spray-primer, in favor of an inexpensive can of flat interior black latex house-paint, in order to avoid doing damage to any mistakenly unspackled spots of carved styrofoam. Better safe than sorry, despite the longer paint application time -- which I'm happy to say my youngest daughter - Sarah - helped me with a great deal. THANK YOU, SARAH!

7) I think that's about it, except for the colors:

- base coat of BLACK

- heavy coat of BROWN

- strong dry-brush of a 50/50 mix of CARAMEL and BLACK

- lighter dry-brush of MUDSTONE (dark shade of khaki from Delta Ceramcoat)

- very light highlight coat of SANDSTONE (pale shade of khaki from Delta)

- a few spots of medium grey, highlighted with light grey, on a speck of rock here or there.

A very nice Maiwand Day at the Muzeo

Things went very nicely at the MUZEO. I don't think it was a record-setting day in terms museum attendance, but the visitors showed lots of interest in the game, and asked lots of questions, and I think everyone there had a fun time. The Brits beat a hasty retreat back across Mundabad Ravine, and proceeded to fortify positions in the twin villages of Mundabad and Khig, even dismounting their cavalry to add to the firing line.

When the Afghans reached them, things went fifty-fifty, with the ghazis, irregular tribal cav and regular cav winning half the melees and the 66th and Bombay Grenadiers winning the other half, while the ill-fated Jacob's Rifles got an unfortunate "6" on their "Stand-&-Fight" die roll -- the only result which would have, and did, cause them to turn tail and rout off the table. At that point the museum was about to close and we needed to beat a hasty retreat in order to pack up and load out before they locked the doors on us.

I call the result at the time we ended a narrow Afghan victory. The Afghans still hadn't brought their powerful artillery train to bear on the villages, and their vast numbers of regular infantry had yet to make their presence known, so despite taking massive casualties, they had a good chance to overwhelm the British positions, despite their defensive strength.

At the start of the game, Hector Maclaine -- the firebrand RHA officer who ran his guns up to engage the passing Afghan army, somewhat contravening his orders at the time -- did exactly what he'd done in real life, sticking around a bit too long to fire at the advancing enemy, resulting in his gun being overrun and lost. In the game the figure representing Maclaine escaped the melee alive as a "fall back," which is much better than the real Maclaine did, being captured, held prisoner for about a month, and then having his throat cut just before British troops reached him in the Afghan camp at the end of the battle of Kandahar.

I'd like to thank my friend Matthew Rigdon for showing his Texas spirit by helping me out at the last minute, putting together a DVD of Second Afghan War imagery, plus the scene of the attack on the British residency at Kabul from "The Far Pavilions," which played in the background of the museum gallery behind our game table -- he even threw in some battle footage from "Zulu," and the final charge from the 1968 "Charge of the Light Brigade," all of which perfectly fit the Victorian British paintings and artifacts on display.

I'd also like to thank Harmon Ward and his fellow St. Crispin's Irregulars gamers of Anaheim, several of whom showed up to help out and to play -- and a special thanks to RJ and Rod Galati, who treated us to lunch and dinner.

And a very big thank you to several members of the legendary Bengal Club who made the trek down to help as well, and even brought some very nice hand-outs they had prepared for the occasion.

Last but not least I need to thank my entire family -- my mom & dad, my wife and our daughters, all of whom showed up to lend their support. But most of all, my son, who accompanied me back and forth from LA to Anaheim on Saturday & Sunday, loading, unloading, carrying a ton of stuff, lugging and setting up tables, and generally helping me out a great, great deal.

Here's a LINK to the video we showed in the b.g. of the game at the museum. As mentioned above, it includes period maps and photos, some nice pics of the Maiwand game from Colonial Barracks, and the scenes of the Siege of the Kabul Residency, from 1980s TV miniseries "The Far Pavillions," as well as a couple of other Victorian military movie scenes. It runs just under 40 minutes altogether…

VIDEO LINK

With my family and I about to move, Maiwand Day will be taking a brief leave of absence. I hope to be back some with some blog activity in early 2012, showing off another Afghan/NWF rocky hill, which may even be big enough to use to refight the battles of Charasiab or Kandahar. In the meantime I wish everyone reading this a very Merry Christmas -- or, for members of my tribe, Happy Hanukah -- and a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

MAIWAND DAY @THE MUZEO of Anaheim

On Sunday December 18th, 2011, in conjunction with the ST. CRISPIN'S IRREGULARS gaming club, I will be bringing MAIWAND DAY down to the Kabel Gallery at the MUZEO museum in Anaheim, California.

MUZEO LINK

LINK TO ST. CRISPIN'S IRREGULARS MEET-UP PAGE

This is being done in connection with an exhibit of Victorian British artwork, titled "The Queen's Gallery."

LINK TO ST. CRISPIN'S IRREGULARS QUEEN'S GALLERY PICS

The doors open at 10:00am and close at 5:00pm and I expect to be there there all day. I'm going to try to set up the terrain boards and troops the night before, but that may not be possible, so if you are planning to attend, expect me to be setting up the table for at least an hour, until 11:00, at which point the game will kick off.

There is room for 8 Afghan and 3 British players, so any colonial-minded wargamers within reach of Southern California are heartily invited to attend. I know a few members of the St. Crispin's club will be volunteering their time to help me out -- for which I thank them in advance -- and hopefully they'll be able to play as well.

The main idea behind displaying and playing the game at the museum is to reach non-wargamers, giving them a surprise opportunity to enjoy the hobby, and possibly end up with a few new recruits to miniature wargaming. Since my game is so big, I doubt there will be 11 casual museum-goers who all want to participate at the same time -- and certainly not for the entire 6 hours -- so I'm confident I'll be able to give any gamers who show up to play, the opportunity to do so, probably for as long as they like.

Needless to say, there is an ENTIRE MUSEUM connected to the space where we'll be playing the game, so there will be a lot of other very cool things to see and do while visiting the Muzeo!

I look forward to meeting AT LEAST ONE PERSON AT THE EVENT who learned about it here on my blog. If you are that person, please let me know on the day!

COLONIAL BARRACKS

First, to any and all followers of this blog, I want to apologize for taking so long to put up a post re: my somewhat epic trek there-and-back-again to New Orleans. Colonial Barracks -- the world's first-ever all-TSATF convention -- was a tremendous success, IMHO and also according to all the various other reports posted on TMP and individual wargamer's blogs. I'm very happy I was able to participate, and I'm proud of being awarded a "BC" by the Brom family hosts (it stands for "British Colonial" &/or "Brom and Carr -- as in Larry BROM and George CARR, sr., originators of the rules).

The Maiwand game played at the con was one of the best ever! It pitted 8 Afghan players against 3 British players, played for about 6-hours (approx. 10:00am to 6:00pm -- with a 1-hour lunch break and 1/2-hour convention group photo break), and resulted in a narrow Afghan victory. The British were able to withdraw all 6 of their guns from harm's way, as well as their baggage train and hospital, and ended the day ensconcing themselves in the villages of Khig and Mundabad. But they took serious casualties, relinquished possession of the field, and did not "defeat" Ayub Khan's army -- though they did inflict severe casualties on his Tribal irregular and Ghazi fanatic forces, virtually wiping them all out, leaving only the vast array of Afghan regular infantry, cavalry, and artillery intact.

I will post more details about the game, along with tons of high-quality photos, as soon as humanly possible!

I returned home from New Orleans just in time to sell my family's lovely home, so we can move to another lovely home we are now in the process of buying. Needless to say, at the moment there is not much time available for the hobby. The downside of this move is that we are not moving to a "dream-house" complete with game-room or game-shed (we looked at a couple of hose but for one reason or another they just didn't work out). The upside is I believe the garage is roughly equal in size to our current one, so hopefully I'll have about the same amount of space to devote to the hobby as I do now, though of course you can never be certain about such things.

For any followers or occasional visitors to this blog who reside in Southern California, or within easy reach thereof, please pay special attention to the next post, where I'll be discussing a forthcoming visit by MAIWAND DAY to the MUZEO museum of Anaheim, in Orange County, on Sunday, December 18th, 2011...

COUNTDOWN to Colonial Barracks begins...

Man am I beat -- between ref'ing soccer games all day Saturday, teaching an all-day class at the Boy Scout merit badge midway Sunday, and non-stop work the week before, I am literally about to keel over, BUT... somehow I have managed to eek out the time needed over the past couple weeks to get most of what needed doing done in order to be ready to pack "Maiwand Day" up in my wife's nice big Mercedes some time tomorrow, go to sleep tomorrow night, wake up early Tuesday to join her in taking our older daughter to a school interview, then drive back home (in my own more humble car), get out of my car, hand my wife the key to my car, kiss everyone (or at least the ones who are home at that moment) goodbye, climb into my wife's car (which will pre-packed to the gills with terrain boards, miniatures, playing aids, and maybe a toothbrush if I remember it), hit the gas and head to the 10-East, so I can start the 1900-mile trek to New Orleans.

Earlier tonight my wife and I took all three kids to visit a house in our neighborhood which became famous a few years ago for the incredible HALLOWEEN display put on by the owner and his family. The owner is an incredibly creative guy who puts on a dazzling show "spooktacular" show that's fun for all ages and is always filled with everyone from the littlest tykes to teenagers to old geezers and geeze-ettes (I don't count my wife and I in this category quite yet, but we are will be approaching it soon enough!). Here's a LINK for anyone interested:

SPOOK-TACULAR BONEY ISLAND!

Thing is, several years ago Boney Island went under, so to speak. It disappeared. I wasn't sure why, but I figured the home owner/creative maniac responsible had probably had enough and simply wanted a break from hosting hundreds unto thousands of enthusiastic Halloween visitors. But it turns out that wasn't the case. It turns out he had a neighbor who didn't take kindly to living near to one of the world's leading home-made Halloween haunts. This fellow made his feelings known to Mr. Boney Island, who chose to put the kibosh on it. But this year, the unhappy neighbor MOVED AWAY, so the ghostly curtain went back up and BONEY ISLAND has made a ghoulishly fan-tasm-tastic return from the grave, and I for one am very happy about that -- and my kids and wife make a minimum of five, and I know I saw at least a hundred others who would agree over there tonight during a mere 1/2-hour visit.

The reason I bring this up is that I think, in a way, Maiwand Day and "Boney Island" have a lot in common. They both involve men somewhat madly obsessed. In his case with turning his home into a larger than life haunted house, in my case with refighting the 1880 battle of Maiwand over my homemade terrain. We are both lucky enough to be able to bring our mad obsessions to life -- though in my case, only at a small miniature scale. Still, I know I am lucky, even more so to be able to take a "time-out" from my normal routines of work and family life, in order to make the trip from Los Angeles "LA" to Louisiana "LA". For that, more than anyone else I must thank my wife for being extremely generous and forgiving of this particular mad obsession of mine. Of course I have thanked her already, but I want to do so publicly as well: THANK YOU, DEAR!!!

131 years ago, Maiwand set Roberts' Kabul-to-Kandahar march into motion. Obviously my one-man highway sojourn is nowhere near as desperate or dangerous. Nonetheless, for me personally it will be quite an epic trek. So... to anyone and everyone who reads this blog, if you are a praying type, please say a prayer for my safe travel, and if you are not a praying type, please keep a good thought or cross your fingers, or just wish me luck in getting all my stuff get safely from Point A to Point B over the coming days -- and also that I don't leave anything I need for the game behind in my garage. I'll try to make daily posts regarding my progress, but I know it will be a challenge with my limited travel time and solo travel circumstances, so I'm not promising anything until I get to the convention site!

66th converts back from Igor the painter...

Received my Pontoonier Third Burma War British Infantry w/helmet conversions to make them better resemble the 66th Regiment (Berkshire) at Maiwand. As usual, Igor did a wonderful job, as you can see for yourself:

(click on photos to enlarge them to full size)

These guys will be playing the part of the 66th Regiment's component of Major John Ready's BAGGAGE GUARD on Maiwand Saturday at the upcoming COLONIAL BARRACKS TSATF convention in New Orleans. They will be joined by elements of Jacob's Rifles and the Bombay Grenadiers, as well as a small cavalry component.