Waterloo - From a 1000 piece Jigsaw to a one piece Picture

It all started with a trip to Edinburgh Castle Museum and seeing a marvellous display of the Scots Greys famous picture of them charging at Waterloo. Then there was a chance find in a charity shop of a jigsaw of the same print (see below, I would say a 54mm or 28mm diorama begs doing to do it justice): 

After the epic marathon of putting this incredibly hard jigsaw together (which became a byzantine exercise in matching shades of blue, shades of red, shades of white and shades of brown as described in a previous post [see link])/ By the end of piecing it together, this second-hand jigsaw was well and truly war weary so I soaked in PVA glue and made "an item" of it (see below, I think it splendid in its final state - alas missing only one piece [but coloured brown behind to conceal the gap]. Whether it was sold to me minus this one piece (the peril of second hand jigsaws) or I had managed to lose it is unclear, at one point there were three missing pieces but the other two turned up in "the strangest of places"): 

It seemed all very fitting as at the same time I was playing the Worthington's Waterloo solitaire game (see below, it plays really well and I have also used it as a cooperative team game, where the players comes too a consensus of what decision to do next): 

It is a map based, decision orientated game with a Bot based [AI would be too generous] enemy (see below, high level as each block represents a brigade):

Next up is to convert it to a figure based equivalent using the Warlord Epic Scale Napoleonic miniatures.

Easter Project: Jigsaw - Charge of the Scots Greys - Scotland Forever

This is a fine piece of historic artwork with a slight personal touch as the father-in-laws grandfather served in the Scots Greys in the inter-war years in India (see below: 1000 pieces of blended colour fun, note the rest of the experienced jigsaw makers ran for the hills when I opened this one up): 

I literally could only keep my sanity by working a region at a time (see below, the outer frame was done first, then the red uniforms with (annoying black hats), onto the horses whilst muttering under my breath):  

Horse's heads complete I moved onto the bodies and legs (see below, the study in white and cream was a different form of madness, at least the legs helped me segment the very challenging brown earth section):  

The finished masterpiece, I do think it looks impressive (see below, shown with three missing chinks - due to its missing parts and an element f wear and tear I think its active days as a jigsaw are over. Rather than chucking it I plan to slide it onto a board, PVA it into place - then fill in the remaining two spaces): 

Footnote 1: I was mighty glad (aka understatement) to have finished it but slightly saddened about the three missing pieces, which later reduced to "two" when I discovered one in an unusual place. Either I picked it up already "short" from the Charity Shop or managed to lose two with all the holiday travels (I used one of those clever jigsaw zipped portfolio folders to transport it). I also do have a small number of 28mm Napoleonic Scots Greys I was thinking of painting up (a couple of sprues rather than the whole Warlord Box).

Footnote 2: Another lost piece turned up so I am only one down .. who knows it may yet turn up!

Xmas Jigsaw Fun

It may have been a Walt Disney family-themed jigsaw but to me it was a thousand pieces of fiendish family fun that had three generations of family [grandmother to mother to granddaughter] poring over the pieces with intense determination for three whole days (see below, especial thanks goes to Gran's patience in finding all the edge pieces for a sensible "framed"start):

For a moment at the very end we thought it was going to be an "unfinished masterpiece" as there were three missing pieces but thankfully they were found after a hurried search of the floor under the table ;)