Thursday 2 February 2017

A Commission from the finest - "Murat at Eylau" - part one



A blast from the past - what a wonderful magazine this was.


One of the great advantages to having the opportunity to join John Ray's "A Military Gentlemen" Forum has been the wonderful people I have been able to correspond with.  Stating that they are "legends" of the hobby would not be understating the fact and I am so pleased to walking at the feet of so many gaming "Demi-gods", getting such wonderful advice, images of the most spectacular of figures and an insight into a group of truly inspiring gentlemen gamers.


One such fine fellow is the world famous Doug Mason.  For those wargamers of a certain vintage Doug needs no introduction.


For the rest of you, he is a famous wargamer, painter and converter of figures whose amazing work graced the pages of Miniature Wargames, Wargames World, Wargames Illustrated and any other magazine worth its salt over the past four decades.  So much of his work was seen at the Wargames Holiday Centre in the days of Peter Gilder where he was also an active participant.


I had a cunning plan as part of my ongoing Napoleonic 1805-07 project.


The picture that leads this post depicts one of my favourite Command vignettes of all time.  The keen eyed amongst you will recognise the work based upon Murat charging at the head of a mass of French cavalry at the Russians at Eylau in 1807.  I believe today that the original resides with the very entertaining and clever Mr Mark Freeth, owner of the current WHC in Basingstoke.


My idea was to ask Doug to make me another one for my own collection.  Being the fine fellow he is, he very happily said yes and set the wheels in motion.


The castings which are soon to be modified beyond all recognition




Starting to look like Doug is well on track

Such fine details go into the hand soldered stirrups and metal sheet beaten to be the shabraques



Pretty clever fellow is our Doug!


As you can see, this is getting very good.  I will post some more details shortly and then the finished item in front of his new command here in Australia however if you cannot wait to  see how Doug continues his wonderful work, simply visit his site here.


You will definitely not be disappointed.





6 comments:

  1. Carlo that is superb. I had not made the connection re Doug.

    I have today found out that John's figures were shot for WI in 2005. I am on a mission to find my 2005 magazines to see some.

    Richard

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    Replies
    1. I'm racing upstairs to see my 2005 volumes as I type!!!

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  2. Quite a coup Carlo. I well remember Doug Mason's name from my magazine reading all them years ago.

    FYI, one of my purchases while in the UK was a set of 8 (official ) ��discs contains Wargames Illustrated pdfs for issues 1 through 225.

    Salute
    von Peter himself

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    Replies
    1. That would have been a great pickup Peter. One of the smartest things I did many years ago before the school fees started to kick in was grab stacks of the old Wargames Illustrated binders and the same for the old Miniature Wargames.

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  3. Carlo,
    Yes, we are lucky to have some of the 'names' in the hobby, but the AMG Forum thrives by having members like You. Thank you, and all other members for supporting the Forum.
    Kind Regards
    John

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  4. Thank you for your kind words John.

    ReplyDelete