Brown Paper Parcels Tied Up With String

-
...were one of Julie Andrews's favourite things. Here's one of mine. A blast from the past, some old Minifig's boxes. A couple of the fabled Hinchliffe blue boxes, and a more recent offering from Foundry*. Okay, completely superfluous and adds an extra cost to figures, but you've got to love a little box haven't you?



* don't worry, I haven't gone over to the 28mm side, I bought some paint from them.



If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider supporting the blog. 
Thanks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

-
Image
When I first started my Civil War gaming project I relied upon the many ECW coat colour tables on wargaming websites. As my project has progressed, my library has got bigger, my research has gone back to primary sources rather than relying upon second and third hand sources; and I have noticed quite a few errors in these lists for wargamers. I have also noticed the same errors appearing in multiple lists.     As a result of continually seeing 'the London Trained Bands and their Auxiliaries wore red coats' (there is no evidence supporting this at all, the evidence, whilst not explicit suggests that the London Trained Bands wore civilian clothes - some of the Auxiliaries might have been issued with blue winter coats) I decided to write my own list.  So here it is. If your allegiance lies elsewhere you might want to look at  Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours & Part 3B Montrose and the Irish Brigade Pa
Read more

Stuff That Makes Life Easier

-
Image
A bonus post. Crivens! On a Thursday too! In my quest for the easy-life, I have come across a number of bits of stuff, that, well, just make everything easier. Regular readers (hello both of you) will be aware of my almost evangelical zeal for the joy of blu-tack. Those of you who are new a quick precis: blu-tack is a really good way of holding figures/sticking them to the cutting mat when doing stuff that will almost certainly result in loss of blood when you get it wrong. Drilling out hands, drilling heads, major conversions that involve sharp stabby, pointy things basically. For an example see here . Tongue depressors/waxing sticks are cheaply and easily available on fleabay, and make the painting of large numbers of figures a lot easier to manage, less messy, and a heck of a lot quicker. But what of those figures that are really awkward, or need extra bling?  Enter the painting handle. There are some really fancy wooden ones, with celtic designs etched on to them. Blingtastic, but
Read more

Birmingham: Sieges, Battles and Skirmishes

-
Image
The ECW Travelogue ventured slightly south to Britain's second city. Although in seventeenth century Britain  Birmingham was a small town, existing in the shadow of the once great medieval city of Coventry. In 1520 Birmingham boasted a population of about 1000, by 1650 it was about 5000, the rapidly expanding town had become the fifth largest in the country boasting three markets. From medieval times the town had a history of manufacturing, mostly leather and textiles. This changed in the early seventeenth century and Birmingham became famous for metalwork - in particular ironwork. The townspeople mostly supported Parliament in the Civil War and iron mills made arms for the Parliamentary forces: Robert Porter's Town Mill alone supplied 15000 swords to Lord Essex. Coupled with Birmingham's location it becomes easy to see why the town would become of interest to the King. Birmingham and it's environs witnessed a number of small battles and skirmishes as well as the more f
Read more

Coventry

-
Image
When one thinks of Coventry, one thinks it is part of the general industrial sprawl that is the West Midlands; and a city that got flattened by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz. This does Coventry a massive disservice. Medieval Coventry was one of England's great cities; founded by the Romans, it expanded into a religious centre in the 700s. A market was established and by the twelfth century a castle was erected. By the fourteenth century Coventry was an important market, boasting guildhalls and a great civic wealth based upon the cloth trade. Between 1350 and 1400 the city erected stone walls, fully encompassing the city. Coventry was described as having 12 gateways and 32 towers; although this would appear to have been 20 individual towers and 12 gateways (with towers). This is backed up by Speed's 1610 map of the city. The city had a strong affiliation with the crown, but when Charles I requested the tax known as "ship money" in 1635, protests broke out. By the time
Read more

Blue Regiment of Foot of the London Trained Bands

-
Image
And so, dear readers (hello both of you), our attention returns to the London Trained Bands; rather than regale you with discussion about their uniforms (or lack of them) I will, instead, direct you  here . The Blue Regiment was the fourth in seniority within the London Trained Bands system. It was recruited from the wards of Bridge, Walbrook, Bread Street, Candlewick, Dowgate, Vintry, Cheap and Queenhithe. Although the London Trained Bands were used primarily to defend London, regiments marched out from the City with the Earl of Essex’s army on a number of occasions.   The Blue Regiment were at Turnham Green; went to the relief of Gloucester; fought at First Newbury; took part in a skirmishes at Aldermaston and Padworth; and returned to Newbury for the Second Battle. After Second Newbury they returned to London (the other LTB regiments returned to London not long after) as the New Model Army became Parliament's field army of choice. After 1645 nothing really of note happened with
Read more

Houses of Interest: Lancashire

-
Image
Whilst writing the Prince Rupert travelogue I became aware of a number of houses which had some link to the Civil Wars, but were not tied to Rupert's advance north. Nor could they claim a close connection to a particular battle, such as Bolling House's role in Adwalton Moor . In this series you'll find houses that didn't fit the Rupert narrative very well; were closed to the public at the time of writing Rupert; or, I hadn't known about a Civil Wars connection. I propose to write one entry per county, and will update each entry as I expand my visits. I will change the date stamps of updated entries so subscribers (hello both of you) will be informed of updates. Initially I will look at the counties most local to Château KeepYourPowderDry - Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. And so we turn to Lancashire... One such house is Hoghton (pronounced Horton) Tower an Elizabethan fortified manor house. Strong connections to James I who stayed for three d
Read more

Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot

-
Image
Continuing my therapeutic blogging (write rather than rant) antidote to incorrect English Civil War coat colour tables for wargamers, I give you the Royalist Regiments of Foot Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 4  Dragoons, Horse and the New Model Army coat colours and information about the  Trained Bands Same rules apply here, as they did with the Parliamentarian coat colours: Regiments often got renamed when command passed to a new colonel - these regiments are listed under their first name e.g. Jacob Astley's Regiment was originally Richard Fielding's Regiment. Coat colour notes refer to contemporaneous references and some of the deductions made by Reid, Spring,  Peachey and Prince. You will also notice that some regiments have several coat colours listed. Where there is some question around a coat colour I have tried to give an explanation or provide notes. Don't forget the golden rule of ECW coat colours: there was no uniform
Read more

Battle of Winwick, 19th August 1648

-
Image
 The Battle of Winwick, also known as the The Battle of Winwick Pass, and the Battle of Red Bank (I've also seen it referred to as the Battle of Warrington) was the culmination of the Battle of Preston  . The defeated Scots Royalist Army had fled from Preston pursued and harried by Parliamentarian soldiers from The New Model Army and The Northern Army. Those soldiers who hadn't deserted the Scots/Royalist Army rallied and mounted a last stand on the outskirts of Warrington at Winwick. Lobster pot helmet on display at Warrington Museum and Art gallery As the fighting was almost continuous over the course of three days, Winwick is often described as a continuation of the Battle of Preston. The now mainly Scottish Army loyal to the Crown formed their lines along Red Bank (which is now the course of Hermitage Green Lane), the steep banks on either side giving an indication why the Scots chose this to boost their defences. Hamilton had taken most of the cavalry to defend t
Read more

Coat Colours Part 5: The Trained Bands

-
Image
As I was about to post about the Tower Hamlet's Regiment of the London Trained Bands, and about to go down my usual ranty rabbit hole about coat colours I thought it better to write a general post about Trained Bands. This got out of hand a little and became the coat colours series, without even touching upon the Trained Bands. When I first started my ECW project I took at face value lots of information from what I believed to be 'trusted' sources. Which is why my original Tower Hamlet's Regiment wore red coats and carried the 'wrong' flag. They were quickly given the correct flag, but the red coat issue was slowly nagging me. They have since been rechristened John Birch's, and the Tower Hamlets LTB has been raised anew. This post is a bit more than  Coat Colours Part 5 Part 1  Parliamentarian coat colours Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 4  Dragoons, Horse and the New Model Army coat colours ... it also constitutes   Fl
Read more

Painting Guide - Equipment

-
Image
Having spent quite a bit of time, not to mention a few thousand words, prattling on about the colours (and paint codes) that I use to paint my toy soldiers, it is probably only right and proper that I discuss the hardware carried, and worn, by soldiers. This is an excuse to share lots of little bits of information that I have come across whilst researching my armies, and wider questions such as coat colours. Don't be surprised if there is a digression or three. For those of you new to the blog here are the other posts: What Colours To Use? What Colours To Use Part 2: Paint Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot Coat Colours Part 3: The Scots Coat Colours Part 4: Others - NMA, Dragoons & Horse The Trained Bands Caveat: these are my observations, with a smattering of references thrown in for good measure, they are in no way definitive. They could never be. The best we can ever aspire to, when modelling soldiers of th
Read more