Colours 2025

My wargame show calendar closed on another year with mine and Steve M's drive up to Newbury last weekend to attend Colours 2025, which give or take a few hiccups between the Covid Lockdown and the odd visit to Warfare has become a regular finale in the JJ's Wargames show calendar and reported here on the blog since 2013, but seeing me attending for more years than I care to remember prior to that, going back to the show's earlier incarnation back in the Reading Hexagon days. 

A slightly truncated report on Colours 2013, put down to me just getting going with this 'blogging malarky' started my regular annual show reports here on JJ's, give or take.
JJ's Wargames - Colours 2013

We couldn't have asked for a nicer day to travel up to the show, with blue skies all day that showed off Newbury racecourse and the Dubai Grandstand off at its best which provides a first class show venue with plenty of parking and display space for traders, game organisers and wargaming punters alike to enjoy indulging themselves in the hobby.

A fact only emphasised once we got in to the lower tier, given over to the main traders hall, which as you can see from my picture was buzzing with gamers chatting and flashing the cash for those few additional toys to add to the collection.

As is our usual practice, Steve and I parted company with a time arranged to meet back up later, as we set off into the trade hall to make a few acquisitions of our own, which saw me indulging my passion in my current theme, 'The World Turned Upside Down' in the American War of Independence, but not before my eye was caught by another impending project, hopefully in the wake of the current one, namely Wars of the Roses. 

The objects of my eyes desire was to be found on the Athena Miniatures stand, where I had the pleasure of chatting to the chaps about longbows, the Mary Rose exhibition in Portsmouth and suggested book reading as I grabbed some pictures of the Wars of the Roses range of miniatures with ideas of incorporating these into my future army build plan.

There is nothing quite like seeing a range of miniatures 'in the flesh' and 'up close and personal' so to speak and the character of these figures was very attractive, not to mention the individual lead characters that I think would add a little bit more variation to the forces I have a mind to construct.

 

I have developed the habit of grabbing pictures of ranges that fire my imagination this way, so that I can easily reference them in the future and if you are unfamiliar with what's on offer from Athena, I thought I would include them here.

In a similar vein I took some time to stop at Charlie Foxtrot Models and specifically examine Colin Farrant's AWI range of builds, nearly all of which I now have in my stock cupboard ready to start putting together soon.

I'm conscious that Colin is planning his upcoming retirement, and with the sale of his business to Blotz, to complete by 31st March next year which is excellent news, I decided to grab some close ups of his range of AWI models to provide some inspiration for my own work and to ensure I had them during the change over period.

I have all the buildings featured here, together with several snake rail fencing kits and I am really looking forward to getting back to making model buildings and terrain again, but the figures are taking a priority at the moment.

There are lots of ideas here on weathering, the application of mortar between bricks, and clear plastic behind window frames to turn the mdf into a work of art that compliments the design skill that Colin has put in to developing this unique range of buildings.

 

As mentioned the figure collection build is taking precedence over terrain considerations at the moment, and one aspect in that process was overcome with a visit to the chaps at Gripping Best who now administer the Front Rank range of figures, with their range of AWI 28mm figures having already added to my own collection build.

However this time I was after something else, namely finials for my Regimental Colour Parties that help compliment the final look of those very important infantry command stands that carry them.

A close up of the Front Rank finial pack which contains eight of these metal casts.

I've recently been posting the builds of my plastic Perry units which come with finials in the infantry kits as seen below on my recent post looking at the 33rd Foot. However when it comes to the metal range, absence of finials could be a problem which is why I picked up a pack of the marvellous example you see above, which will be perfect for the job, carrying bags of detail that will compliment any set of regimental Colours.

As well as enjoying wondering around the trade stands and checking out the various ranges and associated stuff that supports our hobby, which saw me topping up my paint stock over at M&C Model Painting Services, and thank you to them for highlighting the colour variations in the new versus the old range of Vallejo model paints, which are my usual range, I also met up with other friends who travelled up for the day namely Steve L, Mr Steve and Lawrence.

The magnificent sight of a B-17 Flying Fortress, flying past the grandstand during our visit to Colours

Whilst catching a breath of fresh air out on the terrace of the grandstand overlooking the race circuit, our attention was soon caught by a rather large but familiar silhouette of an aircraft followed by four smaller types in diamond formation turning in towards the course, and I immediately unpacked the camera to zoom in and confirm my immediate assumption as to their identity.

The B-17 was followed by a P51D Mustang, an early and late mark Spitfire, proceeded by a Bristol Blenheim light bomber, an aircraft I had only ever seen before 'stuffed' in a museum.

We were treated by three fly pasts of a B-17, two spitfires, a P51 Mustang and perhaps one of the rarest sights still flying, a marvellous twin-engine Bristol Blenheim light bomber.

There was an air show taking place at Duxford the same weekend of Colours, so I am assuming these warbirds were involved in that and were using the Newbury racecourse as a convenient landmark to circle over before being given their clearance to head on over to Duxford.

 

Either way the impromptu air show was a real treat and being a bit of an aircraft nurd, I hope you will excuse my indulgence in what was a totally unexpected pleasure to add to the day at Colours.

What a real pleasure, seeing these amazing warbirds flying past, and I was so glad I had my camera to hand.

So with the totally unexpected air-show over I headed back in to see what games were on show that would grab my eye this year.

Two games in particular stood out for me and is reflected in the pleasure I had taking pictures from various angles to try and capture the spectacle they presented.

Waterloo using General d'Armee 2 - Too Fat Lardies and Dave Brown

I have walked the battlefield at Waterloo a few times, the most recent being back in the summer of 2015, when together with my sons Tom and Will we stood on Wellington's ridge and imagined the ground shaking at the approach of the massed ranks of French cavalry led by Marshal Michael Ney.

JJ's Wargames - Waterloo 2015

Looking behind our position we then pictured the chequerboard arrangement of brigade infantry squares would have formed in readiness to receive enemy cavalry.

Here we are in 2025 and Dave Brown and the Lardies had this spectacle of a game wonderfully illustrating this most famous battle within a battle, as only historical wargaming can do, and with all the detail anyone familiar with the action would want to see.

Guard Chasseurs taking skirmish fire from the edge of Chateau Hougoumont and its walled gardens

British Guards in square ready to support the gun line ahead whose gunners will let fly with close range cannister before running back to the cover of the infantry's bayonets and musket volleys.

French gunners attempt to get forward to support the cavalry against enemy sqaures.

French Guard foot artillery 

The Farm of La Haye Sainte bearing the scars of multiple French infantry assaults

Nassau Infantry nervously await the oncoming horse-flesh supported by perhaps Mercer's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery.

KGL Infantry on the crest of the slope

The Duke and his staff oversee the brigade square arrangements with multiple Colour parties amid the ranks

The young Brunswick battalions, bloodied but unbowed after their bruising at Quatre Bras

The 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers

Battle of the Five Armies, using Midgard Heroic Battles - James Morris & Chums

I wouldn't describe myself as a fantasy aficionado by any means, but if any fantasy game is likely to hold my interest for any length of time it is more likely to be, what I would call Classic Fantasy, better known as the world created by the late-great Professor J. R. Tolkien; and so I was immediately captivated by James Morris's Battle of the Fives Armies interpretation, with a definite nod to the book of The Hobbit, in which this battle serves as a climax to the story, by the background mountain range mimicking the artwork from the book.

The Battle Under the Mountain - Matt Stewart

The five warring parties were of course the Goblins and the Wargs against Men, Elves and Dwarves on and near the Lonely Mountain.

Reinforcements at the ready including the giant bear better known as Beorn the Skinchanger and of course the Eagles ready to turn the tide of battle right at the end.

Did I mention Perry Miniatures?

Of course when I say Perry Miniatures, what I mean is Mr Dave Thomas and the team who are the usual go-to for required figures when visiting key shows like Colours here in the UK and with a recent significant birthday just passed I was looking to acquire some AWI reinforcements accompany those that friends and family were kind enough to get me, with a couple of plastic box sets and a top up of Infantry Command.

To this I came back from Newbury with a start to my elite British brigades with a unit of charging grenadiers, two units of light infantry in round hats, the 23rd Fusiliers, 42nd Black Watch, six more Hessian Jagers to bring my current battalion up to twenty figures strong and eighteen Continental Infantry firing line, a mixture of long coats and hunting shirts to provide some skirmish elements for my Americans. 

In addition to the figures currently allowing me to turn out a couple of units, every three weeks or so, I was gifted a new addition to my library, Victory or Death, by David Bonk and published by Helion which has proved very useful for tweaking my current build plan, details of which I will cover in a later post for those who might be interest in my ideas.

Thus with the weather in a rather splendid state for a pleasant drive along the historic A303 on our journey back to Devon, passing Stone Henge on our way over Salisbury Plain, Steve M and I decided to call in at the Swan Inn on our way to Andover for lunch and other refreshments to finish off a perfect  day.

In addition to that, the fly-past brought back memories of my birthday spin up to Beachy Head and back to Exeter in time for tea.

What a great year 2025 is turning out to be, with all the fun of the autumn still to come.

As always, more anon

JJ