AMG Game Pix

The AMG members at Partizan 2015

Here are a few of the pictures that I took at the Partizan game last week. The images will expand or enlarge if you click on the picture. I will add more pictures to this thread so that you can see all of the photographs that I took in an "expandable mode" (the originals are not expandable since they were loaded into the blog on my iPad). More later.

Frederick the Great vignette after Karl Rochling painting, by John Ray

The "Immortals - IR5 Alte Braunschweig Regiment" (at the edge of the stream) drove off four French battalions during the battle.

I am looking particularly happy today. And who wouldn't be at such a game.

John Ray's Prussian Dragoons - first squadron

John Ray's Prussian Dragoons - second squadron

My First Partizan Pictures

The cast and crew of the "A Military Gentleman" group at Partizan.

Well, today was simply one of the most enjoyable days that I have had at a wargaming show. I attended my first convention or show in the UK at the Partizan show at Kelham Hall on Sunday May 31, 2015.

Twenty of us from the A Military Gentleman ("AMG") forum convened to host a version of the twin battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras, only with soldiers from the Seven Years War. The French versus Prussians and British battle was ostensibly fought between the Grand Duchy of Lorraine (France) and the VFS (British and Prussian forces). The game was fought as two separate battles on two separate tables. The terrain was made by Graham Cummings from Teddy Bear fur ( disclaimer: no real bears were harmed in the making of the ground cloth. Several other members brought some buildings to complete the tableau.

The rules used were The Wargame Rules by Charles S. Grant and let me emphasize that these are not Old School Rules, but revised, well tested and modern rules that were relatively easy to pick up and understand within a couple of turns. John D. was at my table, Ligny, and he was well versed in the rules and helped us as needed. Graham refereed the Quatre Bras game with equal skill.

Most of the members brought their own troops to the game so I did not have to haul any metal across the pond. I was fortunate to be able to command a brigade of Prussian infantry from John Ray's collection and faced off against a variety of Mindens, RSM, Front Rank and I'm sure a few brands that I did not have the chance to see. 

One of the highlights for me was the opportunity to meet all of the other players, of whom I only knew through the Internet, and to match a face and voice with the name, while getting a chance to talk with my fellow gamers. You couldn't find a better group of gentlemen than those in this group.

Another highlight was seeing John Ray's collection first hand and up close, especially the vignettes for which he is well known. To my right, and capably holding down the flank was Dave Hall and his beautifully painted Minden Prussian hussars and Dragoons.

Well, enough background, let's get on to the game pictures. I took so many snap shots that I will post the pix over several different blog entries, including one devoted to the other games that were at the show.

A Military Gentleman

Ottoman cavalry  charge into a Thin Green Line somewhere on the Steppes of Russia. Photo copyright by John Ray and printed with his permission.

For those of you who have already purchased a copy of John Ray's book, "A Military Gentleman", you might be interested to know that a related on- line forum has been created for all owners of the book. The forum has been open since approximately March 2014 and there has been a lot of lively conversation about general Wargame topics, painting and basing tips, pictures of various forum members' collections of miniatures and lots and lots of pictures of John Ray's collection of miniatures that were not included in the book. In addition, some of the forum members are participating in a new campaign, circa the mid 1770s in Europe, and the campaign has already generated a number of tabletop battles and even more gorgeous photographs of the John Ray collection.

For more information, click on the following link to the website for "A Military Gentleman" and get a preview of some of the content that is available only to forum members. 

http://www.amilitarygentlemanofthe18thcentury.co.uk/home/4582489354

There you will find a nice slide show that provides a further preview of the forum experience.

If you do not already own a copy of the book, then fear not, as a limited number of copies are still available. However, once the book is sold out, then that is it as a reprinting of the book is not likely, given its expense.

I leave you with the words of John Ray, himself, as he describes what the forum is all about. Information on how to join the group is provided at the end of the second paragraph:

*****************************************************

"Given that AMG was not cheap to produce, nor was it cheap to purchase, and I would not wish to devalue the book for those who have invested financially by ‘splashing’ loads of free photographs across the internet. So I have decided to create a forum to answer some, if not all of the above. In addition there will be areas for general hobby discussion for members who are interested in the Horse and Musket period. This will be a forum for model soldier collectors, not just members who wargame. Foremost I am a collector of model soldiers who on occasions display figures on a table; enjoying the company of friends of like persuasion.

The lounge area is available to those that have purchased the book. Here questions can be put and we’ll endeavour to answer them. In addition, more photographs will be included and free downloads of the campaign mentioned above will be made available. These downloads follow the same lines of the layout shown in AMG, including more original unseen artwork. More important than the AMG section of the forum will be areas for general hobby chat with like minded model soldier collectors. This will be an online forum with a difference, where first names will be the norm, no pseudonyms allowed, and a convivial supportive atmosphere will be paramount. If you have purchased the book and would like to join us, please just email me at johnrayAMG@yahoo.co.uk stating the email address you will be using and include your book number and I will respond with your password. "

My New Favorite Web Site for 18th Century Wargaming

Russian infantry figures from the collection of John Ray (copywrite by John Ray and published here with his kind permission)

In September 2013, John Ray released his book, titled "A Military Gentleman in the 18th Century", the story of a soldier of fortune named Nicholas Walsh. Walsh was an American Loyalist who fought for the Czarina of Russia,  Frederick the Great of Prussia and George III of Britain. His fascinating story finds him fighting the Ottoman Turks on the steppes of Russia, the Wurttemburgers and French in Europe in the little know Fulda War, and enlisting in the Prussian army to fight against the Austrians during the War of Bavarian Succession. And that is just for starters: the intrepid Walsh returns to his native America to fight for the Loyalist cause and runs into Americans and Spanish antagonists in the New World.

Major Walsh's story is supplemented by a lavish full-colour portfolio of photographs of the fabulous collection of John Ray. John creates and sculpts his own figures in a style that is reminiscent of the old RSM (Pax Britannia) range of figures designed by the late Steve Hezzlewood. As a matter of fact, John learned his sculpting trade under the tutelage of Hezzlewood, whose graceful and realistically proportioned figures look as up to date now as they did back in the 1980s when they were first introduced.

John Ray decided to publish the story of Major Walsh and use it as a vehicle to tell the story via his own collection of figures representing the armies of Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Wurttemburg, Hesse Kassel and France; Prussia, Spain and both sides of the American Revolution. More recently, John opened a new web site devoted to his book, see the link below:

A Military Gentleman of the 18th Century web site

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book, then click on the link below:

Book Purchase Link

Now I freely admit that I am an unabashed fan of John Ray's work and when I first heard that I could purchase a book full of pictures of his military creations, I did not hesitate to jump at the chance. The print run is limited to 500 copies and after that, you will not be able to purchase one new ever again. This is a book that you will want to keep and refer to often if you are keen on 18th Century military history. I would imagine that I pick up my copy several times each week to browse through the pages and read parts of the story or ogle the eye candy of miniatures.

But there is even more coming: John is currently conducting an 18th Century campaign with a number of players in the UK and he promises to post campaign reports, battle summaries and best of all, PICTURES! All of these new items will be posted on the new website and updated as the campaign progresses. John indicates that he will eventually offer a truncated version of the book as a PDF, which is an interesting idea. And finally, for those of you who purchase a copy of the book, you will become eligible to participate in a growing on-line forum devoted to wargaming and topics related to the book.  It has been a lively group so far, full of hobby names that most of you will recognize but you will have to join the forum to find out who they are. The forum promises to be a polite and civilized place to just hang out and talk about wargaming, without all of the strife, rancor and rudeness that is the trademark of That Other Place.

As the title of this thread suggests, the AMG forum is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to visit on a daily basis. So why not click on the above link, check it out, and see what is going on. I give both the book and the new forum my highest recommendation and I don't think that either will disappoint you. I hope to see some of my readers there soon.

Saxon Leib Garde circa 1756

Saxon Leib Garde using Minden Miniatures Prussians. Click to enlarge.

With a long three day weekend due to the MLK Day holiday in the USA, I had a lot of extra time to paint figures and specifically, knock out nearly a battalion of Saxon Leib Garde - 24 of the eventual 36 figures. I used the Minden Miniatures SYW Prussians with Swedish (large cuffs) cuffs to serve as my Saxons. The inspiration for the regiment was my continued reading of John Ray's fine book, A Military Gentleman, in which the Saxon Leibgrenadier regiment plays a prominent role in the fictional Battle of Fulda. Besides that, what's not to like about a regiment wearing colorful red coats and yellow small clothes, all set off by white gaitors?

Now I know that many of my readers are well versed in the uniforms of the combatants during the Seven Years War, and I know that someone will mention that the Saxon Leibgrenadiers wore grenadier mitres rather than felt tricorn hats. One of my readers has a ready answer for that: the Saxons are wearing their service uniform and they have stored their mitres away for the coming campaign.

A close-up view of the grenadier company of the Garde.

The other part of the equation is the fact that this regiment will also serve as the first regiment in my fictional Army of Hesse Seewald, where they will serve as the Hertzog's personal guards. In fact, I will probably paint two 30-figure battalions: one wearing tricorns and the other wearing the mitres, in a manner similar to that of the Prussian Leib Garde IR15/II & III. That creates a little bit of conundrum with respect to placing flags on the regiment. Which flags should I use?

The Saxon flags are just on the edge of the limits of my own painting ability, so I am not sure whether or not I can paint them free hand. The other option is to find some commercially made preprinted Saxon flags. The only source that I am aware of is Vaubanner Graphics. These are OK, but they are not the quality of GMB Designs flags (and GMB does not make SYW era Saxon flags).

The other option is to use GMB Hessian flags for the AWI era and just flag each regiment with one of the GMB flags. It doesn't really matter which real flag goes with which fictional Hesse Seewald regiment. I could use any old Hessian flag and simply state that it is the flag of the Hesse Seewald Leib Garde and be done with the problem. I will probably employ the second option. I have nearly every AWI Hessian flag that GMB makes, so there is no shortage of standards to use.

UPDATE: I found this web site for Maverick Models -- the company makes Saxon flags.

Maverick Models Saxon Flags

Back to the matter at hand: there are 18 musketeers and 6 grenadiers in the unit, as pictured. I have another dozen musketeers to paint, which will bring the batallion up to 30 musketeers. Then the 6 grenadiers will provide a start for a second battalion all wearing mitres.

The line regiments of the Hesse Seewald army wear green coats with a Prussian cut to them. In otherwords, I will be using Minden Prussians with Swedish cuffs for my line regiments. I have 30 musketeers set aside to form the first regiment IR1 von Glasenap in the Hesse Seewald army. I don't know when I will get around to painting the regiment, but it will be placed in the painting queue, now that I have an urge to paint an imaginations army for myself.

John Ray Book Announcement

18th Century Russian infantry and artillery designed by John Ray.
Photo courtesy of John Rayand copy right by John Ray and family.

I have to say that the news I am reporting "made my day" when I first heard of it. I opened up the Emperor versus Elector blog this afternoon and scrolled down through the list of some of my favorite blogs, when I spied "Classic Wargaming" by Phil Olley. There are a few blogs that I put in my "stop everything and read now" category, and Phil's is one of those. Imagine then my delight when I read Phil's announcement about the pending publication of a book by John Ray. I have been anticipating the publication of John's book, illustrated by pictures of his own unique figures, for some time now so it goes without saying that I am very excited by this news:

Classic Wargaming

A Military Gentleman

If you click on the second link above, to John Ray's new blog site, called "A Military Gentleman", you will have a better idea of what I am talking about. The site is named after the pending book of the same name.

John has been working on this book for about seven years, and every so often he would give us a glimpse of the scope and quality of the project by publishing a few pictures on various internet forums or in some of the wargame publications. I have been looking forward to the publication of the book with a great of anticipation over the years, knowing that it would be illustrated with many pictures of the wargame collection that John has sculpted entirely by himself.

According to the link, the book will have about 300 pages and a gallery of over 100 pages, chock full of the wonderful creations of John Ray. It will have a limited print run of 500 copies, so if you are a kindred spirit with me, i.e. a member of the John Ray Fan Club, then you will want to visit the site and click on the e-mail link to express your interest in purchasing a copy for your own library. 

I have been a long time fan of John Ray's sculpting talents and his ability to focus in on one historical period. John learned his sculpting trade via his friendship with the late Steve Hezzlewood, who many of you know through his work on the RSM Miniatures line of 18th Century figures. I can't recall when I first saw John's work, it was probably in an old issue of Wargames Illustrated when I saw pictures of his Zulu War and AWI collections. When I saw the latter collection, my first thought was "I didn't know that RSM Miniatures made those figures?". It was only later that I learned that John had sculpted the figures for himself and that he was building up a large AWI collection.

Imagine that you have the talent to sculpt wargame figures. Then imagine that you could have any figure that you wanted, just by collecting some copper wire, a soldering iron and some epoxy putty or Milliput. Well, that is what John Ray can do.  One of his trademarks is the vignette. John draws inspiration from historical military art prints and then recreates the scene in 28mm figures which grace his wargame table. Over the years, I have been following his AWI project with great interest and watched as this evolved into a wider hypothetical European war that might have taken place during the 1770-1789 period. John built Hessian, Prussian, French, Spanish, Austrian, Russian, Ottoman Turks and probably a few countries that I have missed.