My posse gathers to play a Wild West game

My posse gathers for a game to be played tomorrow on Joe’s astounding terrain that I featured in my last posting.  Not my best painting jobs, sadly … and certainly not up to the standard of Joe’s town itself. 

This will be their first outing, so hopefully they don’t die too soon.

One of the nicest wargames terrains I’ve ever seen

No, this is not a film  set.  It is part of an amazing wargames terrain depicting a Wild West town.  This has just got to be one of the nicest terrain pieces I’ve ever seen here in New Zealand.

Joe, from Paraparaumu in New Zealand,  has hand-built this town on a 4′x4′ board.  The board comes apart into two pieces for portability, and he has even purpose-built cases for carry ing the terrain boards safely.  

What is cool is that Joe has used  film-set concepts such as the curving street to give an illusion of larger size.  There are also cut-off buildings at the edges of the board to add to the feeling of the scenery carrying on. 

The detail, as you can see from the following photos, is absolutely amazing.  Your eye is attracted to all sorts of little vignettes, like the coffin lids stacked outside the undertaker’s office.

The buildings are all permanently set into the board.  Despite this, the terrain is designed with so many entrance points that it can be used repeatedly for ‘The Rules With No Name’ gunfight games.   We also anticipate that the terrain, with a few tree-ferns dotted in for local colour, could double for the New Zealand Wars.

[photos by Greg Simmonds]

Washing hanging on the line, while nearby nooses wait for a hanging. Don’t forget to click on this and the other pictures to enlarge them to their full glory!

The brick bank sports some very nifty window bars to keep out the ne’er-do-wells. This picture also shows the effect of the curving street to make the board appear larger.

A stream flows behind the buildings, crossed by a rickety bridge, and powering the town mill.  Note the little outhouse poised to drop its contents into the water!

Note the barber’s pole and down the side of the building the stacked coffin lids (handily placed near the town gallows).  Back alleys provide lots of scope for gun-fighting adventures.

 The apothecary seems to be run by those notorious Perry twins – just what don’t they have their hands in?!

Shouldn’t that sign say: ‘Drugs, Remedies, Medical Supplies and Tin Soldiers’?

Old TV series “The New Zealand Wars”

Monday is ANZAC Day here in New Zealand.  So I thought it apt to re-watch the 1998 television series The New Zealand Wars over this weekend. 

This evening I watched the first two episodes from my newly-purchased DVD set of the series.  These two programmes dealt with the Northern (Flagstaff) War and the Wellington and Wanganui battles of the 1840s, and the Taranaki War in the 1860s.  The 1840s episodes were wonderfully inspiring stuff for gaming with the new Empress Miniatures figures.

I had quite forgotten how good this series was, no matter whether you agree or disagree with writer James Belich’s rather contentious conclusions on the wars.

Some video clips from the series are available here: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-new-zealand-wars-1998

And there’s an interesting write-up here: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-new-zealand-wars-1998/background

Minden Miniatures ‘Prussians’ à la Barry Lyndon

It has only taken my about four months, but here is my company of ‘Prussian’ grenadiers by Minden Miniatures.  They’re in 1/56 scale (near enough to 28mm).  Don’t forget to click on the photo to see it enlarged.  And bear in mind that my camera tends to lighten the colour blue, so the soldiers’ coats are actually a much darker hue.

I’ve put the word ‘Prussian’  in quote marks because I have painted them with some rather grave inaccuracies.  And I made those mistakes on purpose.  Why?  Because I am not painting a Prussian regiment as such, but rather a Prussian regiment as depicted in the movie Barry Lyndon, to be part of the army of my ‘imagi-nation’, the Barryat of Lyndonia.  So where the movie has inaccuracies, I repeat them!

OK, so the movie doesn’t have grenadiers in mitre caps.  But I really wanted some of those smart-looking guys, so I’ve conjectured how director Stanley Kubrik would have shown them, had he wanted to.  Basically, they’re the same as his Prussian musketeers, but wearing mitre caps instead of tricornes.  

The other main inaccuracies?  Well, the crossbelts should be white leather, not tan (I suspect Kubrik merely reused the crossbelts he had had made for his British infantry), and the coat turnbacks should be red, not white.  There are other smaller things too.   

Anyway, this is the first of three companies (the other two will be musketeers) that will make up my ‘Prussian’ regiment of 60+ figures, to include in the army of the Barryat of Lyndonia. 

For more detailed info on my Barryat of Lyndonia project (including more stills from the movie), check out this posting.   

Reenactment of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840)

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The forthcoming launch of the Empress Miniatures range of figures for the New Zealand Wars of the 1840s has brought to mind the part I took over 20 years ago in an unforgetable  reenactment event.  

In 1990 I was one of five New Zealand police officers selected to take part in the official reenactment of the Treaty of Waitangi on the 150th sesquicentennial anniversary of its signing.  We represented the five New South Wales Mounted Police troopers who accompanied Captain William Hobson RN from Australia in 1840.  Hobson was the new Governor of New Zealand, and he signed the Treaty on behalf of the Crown with the chiefs of many of the tribes of New Zealand. 

The reenactment  featured well-known actors and descendants of the real-life Treaty signatories.  It was played on the grounds of the Waitangi meeting house in the beautiful Bay of Islands, in front of a large audience, including Queen Elizabeth II. 

The five of us were all police history buffs, so we researched the NSW Mounted Police uniforms of the time,  and had them sewn up for us by a theatrical company.  So overall we were probably relatively realistic – from a distance, anyway.  The same could not be said for the naval officers, whose uniforms were definitely not accurate from any distance.  The Maori chiefs, however, really looked the part.

While the reenactment was mainly about the discussions and debates that went on before and during the actual signing of the Treaty, the highpoint for me was being rowed ashore in a cutter with the official party at the start of the event.  The crew were all in period costume.  On each side we were accompanied by several huge ‘waka’, or Maori canoes.  It was spine tingling listening to the paddlers chanting across the water.   It was one of those moments in reenacting when you feel as though you have really stepped back in time.  The memory will live with me forever.

To see much bigger images of the pictures from the slideshow at the top of the page, click on the thumbnails below. 

Carved sternposts of beached ‘waka’ (canoes) on the beach at Paihia.

Governor Hobson’s party at sea on the way to the beach at Waitangi (me on the far left).

The naval cutter is readied to row Hobson’s party to the beach at Waitangi.

Governor Hobson and his fellow naval officers (in inaccurate uniforms!) and troopers of the NSW Mounted Police.

An actor playing a Maori chief at Waitangi.

A Maori chief makes a speech.

Civilians take a break during the reenactment of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Well-known actor and announcer Peter Sledmere played Governor Hobson in an (inaccurate) navy uniform.

Launching ‘waka’ (canoes) off the beach at Paihia.

‘Waka’ (canoes) drawn ashore on the beach at Paihia, opposite the marae (village).

The party of NSW mounted troopers at the Old Stone Store in Kerikeri.

Sailors of the Royal New Zealand Navy in period costume row the cutter carrying the Governor’s party ashore.

Me in front of the police station at Russell (formerly known as Kororareka).

Tall ships gather in the Bay of Islands for the sesquicentennial of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Me as a trooper of the New South Wales Mounted Police (c1840).

A Maori ‘waka’ (canoe) at sea.

A large Maori ‘waka taua’ (war canoe).

Pics of Empress Miniatures’ New Zealand Wars range

Pre-release photos of the entire first release of Empress Miniatures’ new ‘New Zealand Wars’ range are up now on their site.

http://www.empressminiatures.com/userimages/procart8.htm

I LOVE the chieftains, especially Hone Heke in his distinctive peaked cap (far right).

And even if you’re not into the New Zealand Wars per se, the naval rocket brigade and the armed civilians would suit many other periods.