This week has seen the culmination of a project that I started in around 2019. I had the crazy idea of collecting all of the units for the Battle of Culloden, and after working out the ground scale, realised that I could probably represent it best in 10mm and get most of the battlefield area on my 8ft by 4 ft board.
The project had many stops and starts but I settled on completing the Government Army first of all before giving the Jacobites my full attention. The Government Army was completed in around 2021 and since then I have sporadically added to my Jacobites. In December last year I took a pause from painting Napoleonics and decided to just go all out with completing the Jacobites. I still had about 70% to go, but I really wanted to get the project completed. So since mid - December I have just painted Jacobites and nothing else.
I found it easier to focus on the painting and then do all of the basing at the end. So there have been no attractive painted units to show as nothing has been finished properly until last week.
Now all of the real work has been done, I can now play out the battle this coming weekend. It was a deadline date that I set about a month ago, and other than a few casualty stands for markers, It is done.
So to the game planning. Well, throughout the project, the two books shown further up have been of immense help. Both are excellent. Stuart Reid really knows his subject and the maps in both books have been essential really throughout the whole project. I read 'Like Hungry Wolves' early on in the project and I read it again a few weeks ago to get the inspiration for the final painting push.
From the books I realised that there are some key features that need to be represented. One of these is the road to Inverness which was sunken on the battlefield. I wanted to show this so out came the towels and dishcloths to start creating the topography to go beneath the mat.
As you can see in these photos, the books were used throughout, along with a recently produced Warlord Games guide, to get the features right. I must admit to having some nervousness as I worried in case my calculations were not correct and that I wouldn't be able to get the armies on the table.
There was some trial and error for sure! My initial setting up without the units showed that I had shifted various features too far in one direction, and I had to move the road and the enclosures again and fine tune it.
Seeing it all take shape has been a total joy. All those years of painting and then several months of intense painting to then see an entire army, and indeed, an entire battle, laid out for the first time. The fruition of a huge labour intensive project.
I can honestly say that I have learned a lot, especially about painting 10mm figures. With the Government Army, I put far too much detail in. I tried to reduce down some of the steps to how I would normally paint larger figures, but I was still doing daft things, like using a wash which matched the colour of the areas of the uniform. So I used a red wash on the reds, Blue wash on the blues etc. This was labour intensive and not necessary. The Army looked outstanding for sure, but excessive on 10mm figures.
When I got to painting the first Highlanders, I spent too long painting tartan, when I really only needed to create an impression. I then changed to using Pigma pens to try to draw the lines of tartan on, but I found this very hit and miss. If the ink did not apply properly then going back over an area often cracked and flaked the paint. In the end a simple set of vertical and horizontal stripes of just one thinned paint shade was sufficient.
I also only used one wash colour. Army Painter Strong Tone became my friend. I just painted it over the entire figure after the basic colours were on.
The process was as follows: I glued an entire regiment on to thick plasticard strips with PVA glue (I used stronger glues for years for this - it makes it unnecessarily difficult to take the figures off the strips.). PVA might not be able to hold 28mm metal figures, but for 10mm it is perfectly good.
I then undercoated with a light grey colour. Basic colours were then applied before using the Strong Tone wash. Once dried, I just dabbed on a light shade of the base colours to bring out the highlights. Important small details such as straps and bonnet ribbons and tricorn lace was more carefully applied. I tried wherever possible not to spend too much time touching anything up again afterwards. I think the main exception was tidying up around hat lace as this really stands out if you get it wrong.
A spray of matt varnish over several regiments at the same time and it was all done. The wet cold weather has been problematic so I have been pre-heating the loft space by leaving the attic door open for half an hour, then creating a spray booth in the loft. A good protective mask and two coats of matt varnish and the figures were ready for basing.
The Government Army that Pendraken produce (I think Seven Years War British), have standard poles and paper flags. Some of these pre - coloured flags I have painted over to produce the necessary colours that I needed for my regiments.
The Jacobites have cast on flags which required some research and careful painting. I have to say though that I don't think any flag took more than an hour of time, so my pre-painting fears turned out to be unfounded. I was very pleased with the results too.
I haven't so far given any commentary on the units or terrain features in any of the photos. It is my intent to take photos during the game on Saturday when I will then give a battle report on how it goes. In this case I will give more detail and maybe get some more close ups too.
Saturday's game will be using Black Powder rules but modified for 10mm figures and with my own battle specific amendments. I have typed out a 4 page guide to the scenario with all terrain modifiers and ranges etc on as well as any other key events which need to be reflected. I have also leaned on the Warlord Games guide for many of the unit stats. I'll be using the Highlanders as largely musket armed, as per documentary evidence, though of course this does not mean that they won't be attempting their renowned charges!
I have modified the Black Powder mortar rules to enable range estimation and scatter dice. The main reason is that I think this adds to the fun. Hits should not be automatic but based on ranging in, with some deviation due to wind, wobble and powder! The Coehorn mortars will not be overly effective as the boggy ground negated their effects largely.
The stressed, exhausted and somewhat demoralised Jacobite Army (that failed night march must have left them doubting their leaders!) will also be affected by one of my new rules called 'Goaded by the Guns' which will leave the Highland element unwilling to stand in line and just take casualties. This should prove interesting and hopefully cause some historic counter-actions!
The command aspect will be really interesting, especially for the Jacobites, which seems to have had a rather shambolic structure. Relations between commanders were not good and Colonel Sullivan is going to have his work cut out trying to get units to do what he wants (Lord Murray will not have suffer the impertinence of Sullivan giving orders to his units, so failed command rolls in Murray's Division cannot have re-rolls by Sullivan!)
The amendments should make introduce many of the unique aspects of the Battle of Culloden, and as well as being a game, I hope that it will also help me to visualise what happened, how and why...even if we do end up changing history!
I'll finish off here by leaving a few more photos for you to enjoy.
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