It's Raining (little) Hobby Projects

Over the past few months I have relied on the hobby to help keep me sane.  That's probably always been an aspect of my wargaming life, but my wife and I (together shoulder-to-shoulder) have had to deal with a particularly unpleasant situation that I don't want to get into the details of, and while doing so, I have been dealing with some of my frustration by using bits of free time to work on a bunch of small projects -- five of them to be exact.

Each of them started as an upgrade or addition to my SECOND BATTLE OF ALI MASJID Alternate History "Relief Column to the Rescue!" scenario, which I first posted about last Spring.  I plan to post my typical detailed "How To" tutorials at some point for each of these, BUT I want to share the positive results of these efforts without delay, which is the point of this post.

First up is my scratch-built version of the Ali Masjid Masjid (mosque), from which the fort that still stands near the south end of the Khyber Pass (in modern day Pakistan, near the Afghan border) and the October 1878 battle that kicked off the Second Afghan War both got their names.  After a long drawn-out building and rebuilding process, I am very happy with how this model building turned out...

A few old & one more recent photo of the real Ali Masjid mosque:

My scratch-built 28mm aka 1/56th scale version of Ali Masjid mosque:

Second is a scratch-built water-wheel specifically made to fit in Afghanistan, or other arid settings -- unlike my previously made watermill, which is very cool but made to fit into more temperate North American or Western European settings.  Having built that one 8 or 9 years ago, I was also able to put some more bells & whistles into this one, slightly upgrading its quality level.  On the Ali Masjid tabletop layout it serves the Lala Cheena Mill on the Khyber River.  I was also quite happy with how it turned out...

2 pics of some South Asian & Middle-Eastern water-wheels &

2 Afghan watermills photographed during the Second Afghan War:

My scratch-built 28mm aka 1/56th scale waterwheel

alone & in place adjacent to its mill:

Third is a pair of scratch-built elephant limbers and harness for drawing 40 pounder Armstrong RBL guns, a battery of which was present at the real historical battle of Ali Masjid.  Getting the ropes linking the first and second elephants to work when using both of them (for really BIG games) and also when using just the rear elephant alone (for smaller games) was challenging, but I'm happy to say it all worked out well in the end:

Photos of real draft elephant teams drawing

Armstrong 40 pounder RBL:

My scratch-built limbers doing the same:

Fourth is basing a bunch of JTT Scenery Product (formerly JTT MicroScale) model Mountain Gum Trees for use on this or any of my other Afghan or similar arid terrain layouts.  This "project" was very modest, but still very useful, and once again I am very happy with how they turned out:

Based & terrain-ed JTT trees:

Last but not least comes "Little Project" #5: a bespoke sangar -- Afghan fighting defensive position/breastwork made of rocks, stones, etc. -- built to fit perfectly atop the low sandy hill near the front gate of Ali Masjid fort.  This is one that the British & Indian garrison will really not like:

Okay, that's all for now.  I'm really happy I found the time to make this post and I hope you enjoyed seeing all this stuff half as much as I enjoyed making it.

I hope to run my "BACK TO ALI MASJID!" scenario again for a bunch of my friends on this new-and-improved version of the tabletop in the very near future.  After that I'll be back with a Battle Report.  Until then, I wish you a belated but sincere HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!