When I first looked at this part of the challenge I was initially skeptical that we would see many entries. For a very short period of time. Then I realised that the kind of English wargamer this challenge attracts will also have their local pet civil war battle from which they know the names of the commanders wives dogs grooms, and every East coast American will also have a civil war battle because local for them means anywhere within a 3 hour drive. If I drive for three hours I can either go visit my sister in London, or get chased out of a pub in a village in a Welsh valley whose name I can't pronounce and whose denizens think my phone is sorcery.
As it turns out, so far, the local history entries have been much more diverse and have evaded most of my preconceptions.
The City of Bristol has a long history from it's inception as an adjunct to the thing the Romans really wanted in Bath (hint, it was baths) to a prize that was besieged at least once during the "English" Civil War, to a gateway to Empire and trade. I'm not interested in any of that. My wargaming muse does not that way go.
No, we're going much more local, much more recent history. Although, our story does start with that gateway to trade thing.
Edward Colston was a 17th/18th century merchant who made his money from, amongst other things, the traffic and incidental murder of kidnapped people from Africa to America. He gave some of this money to various charitable ventures in Bristol and elsewhere which bought him a lot of namesake institutions, and, in 1895, a statue by the waterfront. This wasn't immediately controversial, but in the 1990's calls for the statue's removal were being made on the public record. Nothing was done other than the addition of a milquetoast plaque in 2018 acknowledging his role in the slave trade, although notable buildings and institutions began renaming and distancing themselves around this time.
In 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the US (because all news is now local news), the statue was torn down by a mob and dumped in Bristol harbour. Since being recovered it has resided in a Bristol Museum within it's proper context.
This terrain piece is an allusion to that event, especially once placed in it's proper context of Bristolheim; an ongoing Mordheim campaign set in an Old-Worldified Bristol and environs. My friend has a beautiful set of terrain, including similar allusions to other Bristol landmarks, his favourite pubs, and so on.
The piece doesn't actually resemble the Colston statue that much. Not the plinth, not the surrounding stonework, not even the statue himself which is a repurposed "Francois L'Olonnais" from Blood and Plunder. I was tempted to pick up a figure especially for this project, but L'Olonnais fit the trifecta of close enough to Enlightenment, close enough to the Mordheim aesthetic, and most importantly, being at hand with no other plans and therefore, free.
I don't really make terrain. This was something of an experiment for me. Additionally I had to reach certain aesthetic standards to make this fit in with the aforementioned beautiful terrain. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, especially after reading around for advice and learning to stop worrying and love the inexpensiveness of my medium.
You'll note that I have mostly refrained from editorialising in my retelling of the tale of Colston and the dunking of his statue. I have no interest in bringing the ongoing pissing contest that is the anglosphere's culture wars to this blog. I dont think Curt and the minions would appreciate it, and I hope you don't either. Bristol has moved on. If you still have strong feelings on the matter for some reason, I suggest you do too.
The piece is nowhere near a 6" cube, being 4*4 and with a 2" high plinth, so...
1 x terrain piece at 3pts?
1 x challenge at 20pts
for 23pts
Nice work on the terrain piece Sebastian. I like the flagstones (done with card? You didn't say) and the moss effect you did in between them. What's the plinth made of? I have questions, but not about Colston, I'd like to hear more about how you executed this project. 23 points for you in any event.
Dallas
