Paint your wagon - French army logistic solutions

 I have been wanting to get some French wagons scratch built for a couple of years, but the project has kept getting shelved.  At the end of 2024 I bought a set of Bacchus Ox wagons (EQ 11 in the catalogue), but the wagons seem to be those from Baccus Waggons (EQ 1).  

This gave me a slightly longer wagon than I wanted, with no tilt, but the detail on the limber is really nice and I now have a herd of oxen (24) for other projects.  I'm building armies for the Peninsular war, a bit of research indicates that the Spanish use Ox Carts and the British mainly used mules.  So the Oxen will be pulling carts - more of this here.

I also currently have surplus French gun and ammunition wagon horse teams, so that's the motive power for the wagons sorted.  I decided to make 4 wagons in total, using 2 x horse teams for 3 smaller wagons and a 4 x horse team for the larger wagon.

Of the 4 wagons, 3 got the front box/locker sawn off ready for a new front to be added.  For the tilts I decided to use 2 x 1.5 mm plastic strips glued side by side, topped with 2 x strips of quarter round plastic strip also at 1.5mm wide.  The strip was, of course, bought for something else.  Here's the start of the project - the two wagons at lower left have been shortened.  

Here's the three shortened wagons and the original wagon with the plastic tilt formers added.  They needed filing at the ends to get the tilts levelled up and the tops and sides needed any slight ridges from the joints between the plastic strips removing by a bit more sanding. 

Here's what they look like when the paper tilt cover is added:

The next step is to add fine paper strips on top of the tilt for the hoops - the hoops are under the tilt but creating a ridge.  I also added paper strips to represent the canvas doors at either end of the wagon.

Here's a quick recap of the changes so far:

The fun bit is adding the loads at the rear.  I added stowage on the three 2 horse wagons.  The stowage is various bits of square plastic rod cut to ammo box or travel trunk size, with some round bits as well.  One of the wagons had half a cover from the carts set added as a tarpaulin.

Here's the dry run for one of the wagons.  I really like the detail on the front axle casting.  Note the little side box on the left hand side - not sure what this box is for, but adding it gives that French wagon outline.

Front shot showing the front tilt flaps and bench seat.

Right hand side - random stowage at the back.

Here's what they look like painted up - I've painted one wagon to start with.

The rear of the wagon with the tarpaulin cover.

The source materials I have seen show wagons with drivers on the horses and wagons with the driver on the wagon front seat - so having the driver on the horse seemed an easy solution.  As the drivers are logistics, not artillery, the uniforms are light blue with dark brown lapels, collar and cuffs. 

I decided to push on with one wagon and here it is:

It's a tad dusty from the road.  Finished in time for Bash Day North in Sheffield in late June, one of my OWS friends asked "you wouldn't happen to have a wagon? for the game he was hosting - happy to oblige!

In the last couple of weeks I got the next bases prepped - I build up the road with bits of card - ready for the groundwork and varnish coats.  I varnish the wagons separately and attach them once I have made the groundwork.

Here's the first three wagons finished.  Coming to a table near you soon!  One horse team rider has a tall plume, as convoy leader, apart from that they are the same uniform.  I slightly changed canvas the tilts on the wagons to reflect dirt and sun fading from use. 

So, a neat little project that will sort out your wagon needs for the French army.  The next instalment will look at the 4 horse heavy supply wagon.

As ever, I hope this encourages you to have a go at making these!

Ox Carts for the Peninsular

 I have been building French wagons for the BBB Napoleonic Scenario books and, as i had a wagon spare, i thought I would make a British wagon.  According to the internet the lack of horses in Spain and poor roads meant that Wellington's armies used pack mules for logistics, so the utility of a British wagon model was negligible.

The same research indicated that the British (and Spanish and Portuguese used ox carts)  As I had bought a pack of Tumbrils (EQU02 in the Baccus catalogue) I decided to make some Ox carts.  Buying Ox wagons for the wagons provided Oxen.

I made three adjustments to the wagons:

1 - Balance - my first wagon was very finely balanced, so at the last minute I drilled holes into the wagon and inserted fine staples inside the wheels to provide a bit of extra fixing.  The Mk2 wagons got this mod from the start.

2 - Change the shafts - the tumbril comes with two shafts as it's a 1 horse wagon.  These were removed and a single pole inserted at the front.

3 - Harness the oxen - the oxen got neck collars to make them look like they were harnessed to the cart.

I also lengthened the base to 1 and 1/4 inch, as I felt the Mk1 only just fit on the base and I was concerned that the wagon was too near the edge.

Here's the base models:

Here's the based oxen and painted carts with loads:

Two carts have covered loads, one has round plastic strip cut in 4 mm lengths to represent barrels of olives, or perhaps Spanish red!

Here's the finished carts:

I have not based drivers with the carts - my plan is to make single figures of the 4 main armies to show which nationality currently owns the carts.

A fairly simple bash to give some attractive logistic units.  I hope that this encourages you to have a go!

Waterloo Bloody Big Bash Day North - 27th June 2026 - the AAR

 Two weeks ago a group of like minded folk gathered in Sheffield for Bash Day North, which was held at Crookes Social Club

Bash Days feature a number of games using the BBB ruleset, usually using 6mm figures, with a spread of historical periods.

A number of luminaries from the Oxford Club supported the event - Chris - who wrote the rules in collaboration with Dave W, Crispin, Bruce, Mark J and Mark Smith, who wrote the Waterloo scenario that we were using.

I have posted about previous Waterloo games before here, here and finally here.  

Set-up - Mike and I set up the terrain and waited for interested parties to turn up and take charge:

For the French we had Russ and Chris, for the Allies Matt and Mark J, later Emily joined this team.  North is to the left of this picture, I umpired for the Western side of the table and Mike B (the other Ilkley Irregular) umpired for the Eastern half.

Turn 2

The French went for a left hook and besieged the chateau of Hougoumont.  In the centre they formed a gun line and pushed into the British left.  The mass of troops to the middle right of the picture is the French Guard, who move on turn 3.

Turn 4

By turn 4 the French were putting pressure on the Allied right and centre, whilst sending the Guard to deal with the Prussians arriving from the East.

Turn 6

By turn 6 the French had taken Hougoumont but the tempo of the left hook was slowing.  at the far side of the table the Prussians were shaking out into line as the Guard deployed to stop them.

Turn 8

After a ding dong battle in the French centre and left, France had taken La Haye Sainte & Hougoumont.  The Allies still held the ridge and retook Papelotte, whilst hooking up with the Prussians.  At the start of turn 9, either side could still win.

Turn 9

The battle closed with the French centre and left wings, as well as the Allied right, able to defend well but unable to make further headway.  On the Allied left the Prussians made headway against the French defenders, but were unable to breakthrough.  The game ended in a draw.

Afterthoughts

Firstly, a big thank you to my fellow umpire Mike and our worthy contestants.  Win or lose, it looked like they were enjoying themselves.

BBB once again delivered an exciting re-run of a historical event, close enough to actual history but with opportunities to do better on the day.  

Because the BBB rules are fairly simple, Generals spent more time making decisions and reacting to the game than micro-managing their armies in detail, there was definite ebb and flow as the battle progressed.

It was still all to play for till the last turn - the French left nearly launched a cavalry strike to get Mont St Jean, in the British rear, the Prussians nearly got behind the French lines.

I hope that this inspires you to have a go!

Allied & Prussian troops from Mike's collection, I provided the French.

Borodino for Joy of Six - Defences & Houses

 In just under two weeks time Mike and I will be hosting Borodino 1812 as a participation game at Joy of Six.  I needed to make some defences and some houses - here's how I did it, I hope it encourages you to have a go yourself!

The defences - these consisted of the redoubt and the big and little fleches.  These were very recent earthworks, so needed to be mainly soil with reinforcing timber.  I have some mdf trench sections, so I used these for the timber reinforcement and built up the terrain using lengths of lolly stick, suitably cut to size!

The formers:

Note gun ports cut once formers are finished

Redoubt to the left, Fleches to the right

A close up of the Fleches former

This is what they look like when polyfilla has been applied, followed by covering in basing sand, painted and highlighted with earth colours.  Even tough it was summer I reckon the earth would still be dark.

Here are the finished articles - matt varnished and flocked.  

The Houses Pendraken produce a very nice 6mm Russian Church, so I needed 8 more houses to be able to fight the two Russian scenarios in the Napoleon's Bloody Big Battles Scenario book.  This is the basic shape for a 1 storey building.

The next step is to clad the building in logs - in this case 0.4 mm round plastic strip.  Half way through the process I switched to 0.4mm half round strip.  The roofs got strip as well.  All of the buildings have a 2mm strip of stone to simulate the base that the building sits on.

They got a blast of primer and then a coat of acrylic black.  The church is from Pendraken and is also a simple wooden building.

Here's what they look like finished, basically lighter and lighter shades of grey to get that weathered silver timber look.

The most painstaking bit is the creation of the log walls, which need individual strips gluing on, but it doesn't take too long per house.