Friday, 10 December 2021

War of three Kingdoms/ECW 16 Sir Henry Bard's regiment of foot ,Lord Hopton's blue coats ,Sir Allen Apsley's regiment of foot and the Marquis of Hertford's regiment of foot.

 First up, sorry  it's  a long post, I got bored putting up individual units, so here are most of the rest of the figures I got off of Blax.

 Sir Henry Bard's grey coated Royalist regiment with interesting flags supplied by warlord games.  Another regiment at Cropredy ,raised in 1643 and at first Newbury, in 1644,Cheriton, Cropredy, Lostwithiel, 2nd Newbury, in 1645 Leicester and Naseby. Once again, a wash, rebase,new flags and some pikes.








Lord Hopton's regiment of foot,blue coats and red flags( warlord),raised in the Bristol area in 1643,storm of Bristol, siege of Gloucester, first Newbury,in 1644,Cheriton, Lostwithiel, Cropredy second Newbury. In 1645 besieged in Bristol and 1646 besieged in Pendennis . I really like the shot with the muskets over the shoulder. 








The next Royalist foot regiment, Sir Allen Apsley's, red coats and a jazzy (gyronny)flag that looks like the mosaic path I put down during lockdown! Raised in Devon in 1643,in action in 1644 at Cheriton, Lostwithiel, Cropredy, Newbury and in 1645 at Leicester and Naseby. Once again washed, some new pikes,rebased and  new flags that I overpainted on colour copies of some other warlord white  based flags. There are a couple of non red coated shot ,just to break up the uniformity, it's not Napoleonic you know! My Napoleonic project has taken quite a hit with the rebasing project but almost all over now.









The Marquis of Hertford's regiment of foot, I had to do these as Hertford is where I  live, here I am on shaky ground as generally these are depicted as a grey or white regiment, however the general view is that this is tentative and not definite, into this scintilla of doubt I have shoe horned my green coated regiment and dare anyone to argue with me! The green flags have Hawks lures as their device which I have painted on  photocopies of  green warlord flags. Raised in 1642 in Somerset, besieged in Sherborne Castle, in 1643 battle of Lansdowne,besieged in Devizes, tookpart in the storm of Bristol, a detachment is believed to be at first Newbury.  In 1644 Cheriton, Lostwithiel, Cropredy second Newbury. In 1645,storm of Ledbury, storm of Leicester and Naseby. Sir Bernard Astley took over as Colonel at the end of 1643.









Here they are with a spare officer type who I have mounted as a command base,pretty sure he's  a Foundry figure as I  already have him on a different command  base,I've mounted the other two spare figures as command stands as the half armoured chap was a bit big next to the Foundry figure and the cavalry chap was too dynamic to go with either.I know I have to touch up the edges of the flags when I've got some green on the go and next time try and get everything in focus maybe? All that's left is to paint up six more Essex shot to make up the numbers for a trained band unit, which won't be for a while. After that I have to flag up my existing units ( which funnily enough pretty much mirror this collection, one yellow, red,blue, green and grey!) they've only got temporary flags, I will be issuing them with appropriate parliamentarian flags for the battle of Cropredy, who knows maybe I'll play a game of it at some point, still to paint, artillery, a Royalist cuirassier unit and some clubmen     ( we will draw a veil across the army of Montrose sitting in it's box with all that tartan, oh the horror!) and then reflag my Covenanters with correct flags for something as opposed ones that just look pretty? After that, a scratch  built modular star fort ? A scratch built fortified manor house? Ah the dreams of a wargamer! As for Croats and Polish Hussars and Ottomans, let's have a look after all the above are done shall we?!






Well that's quite enough of a very long post,had a game cancelled last week, hoping to get these chaps out for a nice big pike and shot  game next Wednesday .
All the best Iain 

Sunday, 5 December 2021

War of three Kingdoms/ECW 15 two units of dragoons

 A newly painted figure? Unheard of! But it is so, rapidly painted ( impressionistic Keith?) and not really matching his comrades,he is an Essex musketeer so not strictly a dragoon but why quibble when ,with the addition of this chap I can field two red coated dragoon units, one for each side with suitably generic standards, supplied by warlord games. To make up the numbers I press ganged various spare officer types and promoted pikemen into ensigns for the dismounted element. For the mounted chaps I found some spare officers to lead each unit and two cavalry troopers had their swords removed ( one had his sword already broken off) and hands drilled out to take a standard. All ( bar the newly painted chap) have been washed and rebased with new flags,the red really sings out once cleaned, I was slowly working on two more units of dragoons when I received this collection, all I  know is that neither will be a red regiment!












Both units together to prove that I haven't just painted one unit and moved them around!



The only little soldiers I have been painting lately, shiny soldiers of the queen I think? Next up will be most of the rest of the remaining rebasing chaps and then maybe some Napoleonic cavalry, while prepping for the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge which will be starting later this month.            All the best

 Iain 

Thursday, 2 December 2021

War of three Kingdoms/ECW 14 John Talbot's regiment of foot

 This is the first completed regiment of foot from the rebasing program of figuresI receivedfrom Blax. I  have them as  John Talbot's regiment of foot as they were originally done by the previous owner,however I had to remove the flag as all my flags are removable for this period and the original flag did not survive the experience, two warlord flags have taken it's place and a pikeman has been promoted to being an additional ensign. A Royalist regiment raised in Ireland ( from English troops I think) in 1643,fought in 1644 at Cheriton, Newbury, Lostwithiel and importantly for me Cropredy as I am basing both my Royalist force and Parliamentary force on that battle ,yellow coats and flags with Talbot hounds on them. I was lucky that there were different shades of yellow for the shot so that I can get a bit of variety. Rebased, reflaged,some new pikes and washed, here they are.











Nice  chunky sculpts and a  more detailed painting technique than mine ! I've retained the original basing material where I could and added a bit  to  it on bases that match mine. I'm very happy with them and the next four regiments should be along shortly. 

All the best 

Iain