Friday, January 29, 2010

The Hanging Rock Battlefield in Miniature

Recently, I described how I was working on a version of the Hanging Rock battlefield, at a 1:20 scale for 15mm miniatures. That battlefield is now more-or-less complete and is shown below.

I first had to identify the area in which the fighting was likely to have taken place (see here, here, and here). Early on I realized that I couldn't make an exact representation of the area as it likely appeared in 1780. Therefore, I settled on a certain amount of abstraction. I didn't create miniature hills, ravines, and watercourses per se, but rather represented these things using variations in the "vegetation." Also, the trees are spaced somewhat far apart; this is necessary so that I can move the miniatures about on the battlefield. As a consequence of these decisions, the miniature battlefield may not closely resemble the Hanging Rock Creek area in 1780, but it at least captures something of the flavor of the time and place.

Two Maps of the Hanging Rock Battlefield (click to enlarge). The map on the left is from Google Maps. The map on the right is from ACME Mapper. In both cases, today's Flat Rock Road (which follows roughly the same path as the 18th-Century Camden Road) runs from north (at top) to south. Hanging Rock Creek runs from the top of the map to the right. I believe Bryan's North Carolinians were encamped on the hill near the upper right. The lakes in the area were not present in the 18th Century. Several small streams in the area are not represented on the map on the left.

Hanging Rock Battlefield in Miniature (click to enlarge). As per above, the Camden road runs from north to south. The farmland at center left is the site of the center camp (note the brush hut near the cabin). The encampment of Bryan's North Carolina Volunteers is in the woods at the upper right. The encampment of the Prince of Wales' American Regiment is in "Cole's Old Fields" near the lower right.

3 comments:

  1. That is a great looking battlefield. Well done!

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  2. Well, thank you for the kind words. I've started to take pictures of the battle itself now, and I'm happy to say that good stuff is on the way.

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