The Budget Model Railways Challenge: Inspiration for my choice of layout

As regular blog readers will know, I've always hankered after having some sort of indoor equivalent of John Ruddle's garden wargames setup.

John's setup included a garden railway, and it was looking at several of the photographs that included railway track that inspired me to think about modelling a border fortress that is served by a spur from a major railway line.

The only problem was that I didn't have a model fortress to use on my layout ... and then I remembered that back in 2023 I bought a plywood model castle from the English heritage shop at Deal Castle. Luckily, I had not put it into storage and after a quick search of my toy/wargame room, I found it.

The pieces just push together, and when fully assembled, it looks like this:

I assembled mine ... and realised that it was far too large for the layout BUT that its parts could be adapted so that I could build a small fortress and have plenty of parts over that I could use to build other buildings. For example, the two towers could be used as the basis of a church or cathedral.

My next task is to build my small border fortress ... and I hope to do that over the next week.

John Ruddle’s garden wargame: Some more photos

Whilst sorting through the pile of clippings in my office I found several more photographs of John Ruddle’s garden wargames.

The man himself! John Ruddle sitting in the midst of his garden, surrounded by the terrain over which he fought his wargames.

A detail from the above photograph showing some of the numerous buildings that he constructed.

The main British naval base.

A full-scale naval battle in progress on John Ruddle's lawn/ocean.

Part of the British army on parade at one of the numerous barracks that dotted the garden battlefield. Notice its proximity to the railway, which enabled the troops to be rushed to the frontier in times of diplomatic tension.

A British coastal town. It has several defensive mobile artillery batteries as well as a small barracks for its defenders.

A typical inland town. Many of the model buildings were apparently based on real buildings.

Another British port. The building at the front with the double set of stairs leading up to its front door seems to have been based upon ...

... the Queen's House in Greenwich.

I was particularly interested to see so many of his warship models ‘sailing’ across his lawn/ocean. Truly inspiring, as were all his models.

Toy Soldier Collector & Historical Figures magazine: October/November issue No.113

This is a magazine that I would not normally have bought, but this issue contains two articles that are of interest to me.

The first was written by Paul Wright, and is about the latest, revised edition of his book FUNNY LITTLE WARS. I’ve fought several wargames with Paul (including a refight of the Battle of Waterloo on the lawn of a large house in the centre of London) and played a small part in the process that lead to his book’s publication.

The second was an obituary written by James Opie about John Ruddle. I knew that John had been an avid collector of Britains toy soldiers and had used them to fight his garden wargames, but I wasn’t aware of his importance in the development of the BMSS (British Model Soldier Society) and the creation of a national toy soldier collection.

John Ruddle RIP

It was with great sadness that I read that John Ruddle, the doyen of garden wargamers, died recently. Although I never met him, the photographs and articles about his outdoor wargames have inspired me over the years, and more recently spurred me to develop my Belle Époque project.

May he rest in peace in the great wargame garden above.

John Ruddle's garden wargames ... on TV!

Whilst I was away on my latest cruise, Brian Cameron (a regular blog reader and fellow wargamer whom I have known for forty years) sent me a link to a short film report about John Ruddle's garden wargames that appeared on the BBC's Nationwide programme back in 1978.

The report includes some wonderful views of John Ruddle's collection of buildings, figures, and model ships as well the collection of figures that did not take part in his garden wargames.

I was able to capture some screenshots from the report, and they show some of John Ruddle's buildings, figures, and model ships in some detail.

I find this very inspiring, and I only wish that my garden did not have a 1-in-10 slope!

Even more photographs of John Ruddle's garden wargames

The second article about John Ruddle's garden wargames has no byline, but I suspect that it was written by the late Stuart Asquith or Duncan Macfarlane.

A German garrison town. Several regiments of German cavalry (including Uhlans and Kurassieres) can be seen in the photograph.

Part of Austrian-controlled Italy. An Austrian warship can be seen moored alongside.

A British battleship cruising off the coast of a German colony in Africa.

One of Britain's naval bases and commercial ports.

Another British commercial harbour. Several merchant ships can be seen unloading their cargoes. Royal Navy warships and a column of troops can also be seen in this photograph.

Austrian-controlled northern Italy. The sefront here looks very similar to that of Venice, including the Doge's Palace, St Mark's Basilica, and the famous Campanile.

Two of the Royal Navy's eight destroyers ...

... and two of her six torpedo boats.

A Cornish fishing village.

The home of one of Britain's Admirals.

A British cavalry barracks in India.

A British hill fort in India, garrisoned by Sikh soldiers.

One of Germany's border fortresses. Nearby is the border with Britain.

Near to the German fortress is one of Britain's. Its garrison includes a Highland regiment.

A major British barracks and railway station.

A typical German town, dominated by its ornate castle.

A British stately home. It looks a bit rundown, but this does not seem to be worrying the owners, who are enjoying the good weather on their house's terrace.

Part of the French coast. Her pocket battleship (the Richelieu) can just be seen in the naval base in the top right-hand side of the photograph.

I think that these photographs accompanied an article in an early issue of MINIATURE WARGAMES, but I am not 100% sure of that fact.

More photographs of John Ruddle's garden wargames

In my files of magazine clippings, I found a couple of articles that described John Ruddle's garden wargames.

The first article was by the late Stuart Asquith and was published in PRACTICAL WARGAMER in November/December 1990.

A British fortress, garrisoned by Royal Marines.

A typical coastal fortification that is positioned on a hill so that it can defend a small harbour.

A 'Palmerston Folly'. It overlooks an area of disputed territory.

Have I taken a wrong turning along the way?

Over a fortnight ago I read on Tradgardmastare's blog (The Duchy of Tradgardland) that he had managed to buy a copy of John Ruddle’s book about collecting Britains model soldiers. I decided to buy a copy ... and after a brief search I found and bought a copy via eBay (as can be seen from my recent book review). I have since spent several relaxing hours scanning its pages ... and it brought back memories of John Ruddle's garden wargames.

I have previously written about John Ruddle’s garden wargames (here and here), and I re-read what I had written … and this gave me quite a bit of food for thought. In particular, the following had particular significance:

'John's garden was laid out to represent six countries: Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, and Turkey, and areas that include Flanders, Africa, Arabia, and Northern Italy are regularly fought over. The actual layout was in no way geographically accurate, with the lawn acting as the 'sea', the paths as 'rivers', and the various flowerbeds and rockeries as the countries. ... Besides an army, each country had a navy. The British had two battleships, two cruisers, eight destroyers, and six torpedo gunboats, and facing them was a German force of one battleship, four cruisers, six destroyers and four torpedo boats. The French was unique in that their navy had a pocket battleship.'

One of the British battleships in harbour. Two of the six torpedo boast are moored alongside just behind her.

The French pocket battleship Richelieu moored alongside in the main French naval base. A French destroyer and two French torpedo boats can also be seen in this photograph.

It set me wondering if I might have gone off in the wrong direction with my Belle Époque project. Perhaps I might have been better to follow John Ruddle’s example and used six real nations but with imaginary geography. It would certainly make some things like place names a lot easier, and as I found with my recent Franco-Prussian War of 1810, a simple map with real place names is perfectly workable for use in an imaginary wargame campaign.

Its certainly something that I need to think about.