"Waterloo Crossroads" Topic

Dear Forum Members,

Well, it has been a while, and my apologies for being absent from the forum for so long. A late summer blast of heat here in the UK has allowed me to get outside and start the next section of my Waterloo project: the area north of La Haye Sainte to the crossroads. Here are some photos:

There are five squares, 79th Camerons, 28th Glosters, 27th Inniskillings, 32nd Cornwalls and 8th KGL.

This is the cottage just north of the crossroads:

8th KGL in the foreground:

28th Glosters in the foreground:

1st/95th line the hedge and occupy the sandpit:

The sandpit from La Haye Sainte:

About half of the 1st/95th are in place:

The orchard looking north:

There is still a great deal to do, but they're already about 4,000 figures on this part of the diorama. Hope you enjoy!

Magnificent, and getting more magnificent all the time!

This is such a labor of love and dedication on both your part and the parts of your devoted helpers.

Jim

Absolutely amazing. I am completely blown away.

That is great, but do you keep it outside all of the time?

Thanks everyone! No, it can only be assembled outside but the model dis-assembles into sections each of which has a lid which keeps it air and water tight and is stored in a dry barn.

I will repeat what others have said elsewhere. How interesting it is to see the sandpit portrayed and manned by the 95th, but also the rest of the regt just to the rear manning that hedge.

Does aerial photography/LIDAR reveal any trace of the pit now? Scratching around at the verge of the Chausse one can see there is very sandy earth still, but I suspect it was all filled in to make that tram stop decades ago, itself now lost to memory only.

and here is a dumb question. Why a sand pit, without slides or a paddling pool? Was sand needed for construction work and, if so, who actually had the rights to dig it out?

Perhaps the intended playground construction was interrupted by the battle.

Presumably the landowner had overall rights over extraction from the sandpit, but perhaps had contracted them out.

For comparative purposes check out the Siborne model at the Royal Armouries in Leeds: link

This was extensively and badly refurbished some ago. A problem that can't easily be reconciled is that while the field system matches that of the other Siborne model at Chelsea, the colour scheme is notably lighter at Leeds compared to Chelsea:

Interesting that Mr Silbourne has ripe wheat in his Leeds picture.

When I attended the 200th re enactment the crops were green as you would expect in June, before starting to ripen.

Stunning work as always Captain.

Best wishes,

Chris

Oh we have all done it. I had my 28mm RHA battery, at Waterloo, unlimbering in front of an orchard of ripe apples (because the model trees came that way and looked so good)

It is very interesting to read how much taller crops grew back then, before clever breeding and now genetic engineering. No Miracle Wheat at Waterloo in 1815.

Much discussion about the different terminology applied to crops US vs UK. What the US calls Corn, and is such an obstacle at Gettysburg, is just as bad at Waterloo today. Impassible in modern growth patterns. But we call it maize and it's only for feeding critters. We don't get corn cobs on top to BBQ. Wrong climate.

Wheat we all agree on. The bits on the top become bread, the stalks become straw, for bedding for the farmer's critters.

Grass becomes silage for the Winter and, again, food for the farm animals.

But yes, everything was much greener in June 1815 and then flattened and destroyed by human madness. However spectacular.

I never realized the sand pit was that big.

Quite shallow open cast mining! It was and remains a very industrial part of Belgium. The road adjacent to the sandpit was famously black from coal dust dropped by the coal wagons heading north from mines to keep Brussels warm and feed iron foundries.

I can't open the links, as there I only have broken image icons. Is that me or something else?

What a stunning achievement! A true labour of love!

The links take you to the Leeds Armoury. Low down there are then links that take you to their images of the original MkII model. They are really clumsy links, but should get you there. Honestly not that sure they are worth it though, it is not as good as the NAM model, in reality.

Thanks Mr D.

Adkin has an old print of the tall crops in his companion book as you probably know.

Just for the record, the Maize / corn fields of the ACW were fairly easy to cross.

The farmers used a chequerboard pattern in order to facilitate harvesting with pumpkins/squashes helping to keep the weeds down.

It's fascinating how much we learn as a by product of our hobby.

Best wishes,

Chris

Very many thanks for all your kind comments. A few close up shots after I took each section apart and put the model back in my shed:

Next, I'll be working on Rogers and Ross's batterie either side of the crossroads. Hope you enjoy!

What a teaching tool this is. 4,000+ figures!

Even the English weather cooperated.

Brilliant

Oh we all know that the Captain is the Ridley Scott of 1/72 scale. The end result will be more than 4,000 figures. Thirty fold at least, maybe a significant multiple of that.

I think what he calls "a shed" would home a Northern family of fifteen and their livestock. (We have it tough upp here mind)