Enacting Project 64

(Image from Clipart Library)

[Warning: the following is wordy and self-indulgent]

The idea of a Project 64 came into my head while I was thinking about doing this post. There is no such thing, of course.

There could perhaps be a Project 15, 'cause it began to formulate about 15 years ago as a dream that I have been working towards since. Or perhaps Project 60, since I expected to be able to make significant progress from that age—fortunately I have been able to remove the 'impediment' of full-time work a bit earlier.

I refer, of course, to what several readers of this blog termed 'an ambitious project'. Yeah, I know, "Sure James," snigger, snigger, knowing smile and wink, "as if you are gonna be able to do *that*." Well, you can wipe the smirks off ya faces, 'cause as long as I am able to put sh!t up on this blog, it's gonna be a going concern! 😜😀😂

All jokes (and joking rudeness) aside though, I wondered that myself. Several times.

For years I worked on the easy, first step; acquiring resources, mainly figures but also reference material for the background and details of actions and orders of battle. In more recent years I have spent a lot of time on orders of battle, especially for the largest actions of each campaign. This 'informed' step one as it lead to a few 'needs' to fill gaps.

That was all great, but progress on the most time consuming bit, painting the figures, was haphazard and slow. I was lead from one campaign to another campaign by my own butterfly behaviour and as I joined games with others and thought, "Yeah, I'll do up some/most/all of my figures for that." The result is that I have loads of figures that are 50–75% there, more that are prep'd only—and more that are merely sorted into drawers and boxes. I have posted several times about how I am gonna approach it and how I am working on this or that load of figures. Hmmmm.... Was this after all, a stupid pipe dream that is difficult enough for a well-directed wargamer to achieve, but nigh on impossible for one easily distracted, like me?

This has changed, quite suddenly in the past few months; thanks to a few, small ships, and three people. Firstly, Julian. It was because of him wanting to try out "It's Warm Work" (which left both of us cold) that I looked at my 1/3000 ships and said to myself, "I should finish them one day." They were an example of what I mentioned above. I bought the first of them in 2004, half painted the French ones, then put them aside. I got them out occasionally, looked at them and put them away again, saying "one day". After the game with Julian I got them out and said, "B#gger it, let's just get on and assemble and paint them ALL." This was not an easy process, but I made myself stick to it. It even expanded when I thought about getting some more ships. Here we bring in the second and third 'influencers': Tim, who mentioned to Julian about the Forged in Battle ships (the latter duly passing on his suggestion to me) and then Keith who said to me, "What are you waiting for, just buy them!"

Completely those 1/3000 ships has me determined, 'focussed' and gettin' right into it. Hang on, I am lying to myself again; those ships are not all completely finished! Ah yes, but finalising the frigates for the game last Sunday showed me that they can be. The larger Navwar ships will be easier to work with, the Forged in Battle ships are easier still and I will be able to finalise the ships that I need ahead of games in the chronology. See, got you. (This is not a case of me kidding myself.)

The other development that has me excited, focussed and driven was working out how to make progress with the over-arching, 'ambitious project'. I had previously thought of a few approaches to try. I have considered doing the lot from sometime in the French Revolution, or perhaps picking a few key campaigns/battles so as to work from the beginning, middle and backwards 'all at once', more recently it was to focus on the 'Napoleonic' era, starting from 1796. Here's where those ships come in again.

Having enough ships to do it, I have already decided to attempt all of the naval actions from 1791. This is not a big challenge. I may not get enough time to get through them all, but will have enough ships completely-completed, in short order, to do so. A couple of weeks ago I thought, "Perhaps I should combine land and sea actions to mix up the games a bit and to help with the chronology?" I looked at including a selected few of the battles of the earlier revolutionary wars. Leafing through Digby Smith's "Napoleonic Wars Data Book", which is a great place to start to get an overview of most of the actions of a campaign, I saw battles of the Kosciusko Uprising (for which I already have some Russian figures in Potemkin uniform—albeit prep'd only :), but with others ear-marked for Polish regulars and scythemen), the War in the Vendée (which I had not considered before) and the Haitian Revolution (ditto). So, I thought, "D@mn it, let's go for the lot, from 1791–1815, on land and sea!"

This will provide a focus for figures to paint (be it finishing off some part-done or starting some of the collected 'resources' from scratch) and will bring in various campaigns/eras that I have wanted to do. I will slowly build armies that can be re-used in later years, building 'capacity: such as early Russians (Potemkin, post-1796 and, eventually, 1805), early Austrians in kasket (for early Revolution to 1800), early Prussians (I'm happy to use the 1806 uniform from 1792), early Spanish (suitable out to 1809) and so on. Furthermore, I can structure my reading around the campaigns/wars as they occur. No wonder I have been so excited these past few weeks!

With the ships 'under control', it is time to move to terrestrial forces. We are off soon for a few days by the coast. We have made the same trip for the last few years, enjoy the location and don't do a lot while we are there, so it is an ideal time to get some figures painted! I have duly packed up 236 early French infantry that have been 'screaming' to be finished for ages now.

Box 1. Prior to today, I had not touched these figures since I applied my basing material to them in January 2022. Today I added white to the figures of regular infantry (ex-Royal army).

Box 2. Also with white painted on the few figures in the white uniform of previous regular infantry.

Having painted the former regulars, I decided to paint a few of the figures that will be in the uniforms of the revolution (and beyond). In these photos they have had the main colours applied (apart from black). It was my first go at painting a flag of this era. This one is for the 75eme demi-brigade de ligne (aka 75e ligne) from 1796, Army of Italy, which is the focus for these figures—but they will end up in other theatres, campaigns and countries as well!.

Painting these few has given me more confidence.

It's also time to read up on the background to these early campaigns. I have two books to take with me.

This one about the French Revolution and Europe:

I picked it up sometime in the 1990s. Not read it yet(!), so it's a good way to refresh myself and to learn more about the French Revolution. I've not read about the revolution (apart from bios of Napoleon) since school. It will be interesting to see whether Saint Domingue gets a mention.

I know next to nothing about the revolt of the slaves (and others) in Saint Domingue—the Haitian Revolution—so ordered this book by Dubois and Garrigus when I decided on this path.

Dubois is one of the main scholars of the Haitian Revolution (and Caribbean history more broadly). This book is written as an introduction for university students. It has a brief introduction to the revolution and contains translations of 45 primary sources. I have read 21 of the 38 pages of the introduction. I am only up to 1794 but already know so much more than I did from skimming info. on the web (unsurprisingly). I have read a couple of the primary sources and they are fantastic sources of detail, events and attitudes.

I have a second, more detailed book by Dubois on the way.

This one is far more detailed about the background, course and effects of the revolution. I am hoping that it may arrived tomorrow before we leave, but it does not look likely.

I am on a path that two wargame-bloggers have trod recently. Stuart S of Dust Tears & Dice and Ray Roussell of Don't throw a 1. I follow both of their excellent blogs and will look to their entries about the Haitian Revolution for inspiration, particularly regarding figures and painting, as well as terrain, but I will not be trying to emulate the detail and beauty of what these fellas did in either respect!

Once I have finished Hampson's book, I will read another that I bought second hand in the '90s.

That will do for general background. I can then get into the detail via the histories of Thiers, Jomini and Phipps, as well as some more contemporary work.

So much wonderful enjoyment and edumication to be had!