"One last rocky wood-chip hill for Charasiab 1879" Topic

I thought I was done building these terrain pieces for the Second Afghan War battle of Charasiab, but the more I studied the research materials related to the battlefield, the more I realized I needed just one more, so… here it is:

(NOTE: when I refight the battle this hill -- which anchors the West edge of the Sang-i-Nawishta Gorge -- will be occupied by a battery of Afghan regular artillery, but for photo-op purposes I stuck a tribal gun up there.)

If you'd like to see a few more pics, please check them out here:

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I have not yet posted my usual ton of WIP pics showing how it was built, but I hope to do so soon…

Great terrain,thanx for the step by step demonstration,using woodchips was perfect.

Brilliant…

I've admired your hills, and would like to try making a few for my Vikings and colonials to fight over. Perhaps it is lack of sleep on my part, but it looks like a stone snake head there to the left of center. Which is interesting, in that it would seem that a little judicious picking away at the wood-chips would give you a fantasy hill or ruin.

Grelber

Very nice work – I'm looking forward to the WIP. In the meantime, a question: did you dry the chips somehow (low oven perhaps) to ensure any moisture in them was out?

but it looks like a stone snake head there to the left of center

It does, doesn't it? Probably would not have noticed if you had not mentioned it. I'd leave it!

Doug

Great timing! I'm just about to start gluing together a bag of bark so your post came in the nick of time. Thanks much!

You are just a terrain making fool! Great stuff!

Hey, guys, thanks for all the positive comments!

You're right, Smokey, I AM a terrain making fool! But I swear, this really is the last of this particular style -- unless I build a couple as special favors for a pair of gaming buddies at disparate locales across the country.

For anyone looking for a step-by-step tutorial "How To", here's a LINK to the post I put up the very first time I built one of these, low those many eons ago, back at the end of 2011/start of 2012…

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That post has most of the various colors for the paint scheme included in it, but this post on yet another hill is shorter, and I think the color paint scheme is featured more prominently:

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Grelber, with regard to their usefulness for Fantasy gaming… when I put that first blog post up way back when, I actually cross-posted it to the Fantasy boards, as I also thought their style could be useful for that genre. The "Snakehead" effect comes mostly from the angle that particular wood-chip was hot-glued at, but if you set out to create animal or monster or mythological figures, you could certainly do it, with just a little bit of whittling of wood-chips. That could also be useful for Pulp games, with sacrificual stone carvings on the sides of mountains on Skull Island or other similar locations.

I think they'd look great with Vikings as well! Before my hobby time became completely devoted to the Second Afghan War, I used to play a lot of 28mm 14th and 15th Century Medievals, including Swiss vs. various Germanic powers, Holy Roman Empire, Free Companies, and Burgundians. If I ever get back to that, these hills could serve as moutains in Switzerland as well. Before he moved away to Canada, an old gaming friend of mine wanted to use them for Napoleonic guerilla battles featuring the Tyrolean Militia sold by Eureka. Could also work well for the Old West, and I actually used one of them as the high ground on the outskirts of Camerone in the big 150th anniversary game I ran at my place just a little less than a year ago on April 30th, 2013. So in a way I guess they are a gift to myself that keeps on giving!

Could you post a photo of your whole table for Charasiab with all your sand hills and rocky mountains in position or is there still more work to do? You are a great inspiration and it makes me want renew work on abandoned NWF projects. I really like how your 72nd Infantry look and now I am trying to figure out how to put together a similar unit out of unpainted lead that I have along with some of the Perry figures I ordered. The tartan looks like it could be a stumbling block for me though.

Hi Rhingyll,

Thanks very much for your compliment, which made my day!

I posted a few pics of the full terrain lay-out, still in its unfinished form, a while back, but that was before I'd finished as many of the low sandy hills and the last of the rocky wood-chip variety. I actually just moved my desk around so I could lay the entire Charasiab set-up out in my home office, so now that you asked, I'll try to take a few pics and post them when I have a chance.

It seems like I've been working on this forever, but there is still one more big step, making a pair of 6'x2' terrain boards with the Logar and Kabul rivers on them. The first stumbling block is I really have to clean up my garage before I start tackling them, or else my wife will divorce me, or kill me, and divorce is not really in her nature, or mine either!

The few other things to finish up are the last two low sandy single contour hills, and the stone monument marking the Southern entry to the Sang-i-Nawishta -- "Written in Stone" -- gorge, carved back in the 17th Century to commemorate construction of the Road that runs through it, North to Kabul, at the command of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who is much better known for building the Taj Mahal.

I'm glad you like my 72nd Highlanders, I love them myself, though I can claim no credit, since I didn't paint them. Back in the day, when I used to paint all my own figures, most of which were 15mm, I did one unit of colonial highlanders in trews and a couple in kilts, and they were all a challenge! But if you take it slow and steady, and are not too hard on yourself at first, you will probably be all right.

Here's a collection of "How to paint tartan" links from Guild Wargamers --

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And here's a pic showing the 72nd regiment's tartan pattern, from the post Tony Barton did on how he created his 1/6th scale 72nd Highlander, which I blogged about not long ago --

Start with a good solid red and go from there -- and best of luck!

Have you seen the new Woodland Scenics product cslled Shaper Sheet? I am going to order some to see if I can use it to make some quick generic type hill/mountain stuctures. I am wondering if it will be sturdy enough, once covered with plaster, to support the wood chips? Ia m going to give it a try on a small hill. Might take me a month to complete but I will let you know the results.The Shaper Sheet product is very intriguing after seeing their online video demo and I think it would be especially ideal for creating the less intricate sand hills you have mentioned.

Have you found a source for the Afghan OOB for Charasiab?

Experimenting with using Woodland Scenics Shaper Sheet for the first time and made this sand hill in about 45 -50 minutes including drying time.Will use plaster to make it more rigid on final versions of hills. Need to figure out best way to base it too.Just a quick attempt to see how it would look and if it was feasible.

Wow, Rhingyll, you have been busy!

I had not heard of the new Woodland Scenics "Shaper Sheet" until you mentioned it above. I checked it out online, and it looks impressive, and potentially very useful. Looks like you made very fast & efficient use of it, and your hill looks good -- I really like the rocky scatter and the grass tufts on the finish! If you make another one, I would try for a slightly more irregular shape -- though I know some gamers prefer more rectangular hills, for a variety of reasons.

In his book, "41 Years in India" (here's a link to a free online edition: link ) General Roberts reports the Afghans at Charasiab had 13 Afghan regular regiments with 13 guns, plus eight to ten thousand tribesmen.

In "Recollections of the Kabul Campaign, 1879 & 1880", Joshua Drake, who served as an officer during the campaign, says there were 16 Afghan guns -- 12 on the heights and 4 Armstrong rifled breech-loaders concealed in hidden ground to the West of the Sang-i-Nawishta Gorge.

Afghan regular infantry regiments could have as few as 300 men, but average size was about 500, so 13 regiments' worth of troops would be at least six-thousand, maybe seven-thousand regular infantry, plus artillery crews for the 13 or 16 guns. So altogether, certainly at least 15,000 Afghans, and perhaps as many as 18,000, occupying an incredibly strong defensive position, faced by Roberts' army of about 4,000 men with 18 guns.

Re: the "Shaper Sheet" -- what struck me was its potential use to more easily create tall sheer or steep cliff faces, hillsides or even mountainsides. I will try to get some and give it a try, so thanks for mentioning it!

Based on the fact that the Afghans occupied high ground I am thinking if they had any cavalry it would have been to the east north of the two conical hills shown on your maps or on the west of the large northern hill. This is a battle that appeals to me a lot for some reason. I usually play the "Colonial Adventures" ruleset as it works well for solo play. It also has the same sort of unit sizes and Sword and Flame. I counted up the Regular Afghan figures that I have, painted and unpainted, and could do ten 16 man units (1:30 ratio) with one kilted guard unit. I have enough artillery. Going to be some work but I think i can get everything done by July 1st or so. Hope my entusiasm doesn't wane once I get into it.