The Red Lion

-
I am a firm believer in scenery being as important as figures in a wargaming sense. We spend hours lovingly painting our figures, only for all that hard work to be undone by a dreadful battlefield on which we play.


Which brings me to my first post about buildings. Here's a tavern from the Hovels English/rural 15mm range (3T5). I have taken the tavern sign from an ECW sprinkles pack and added it to the building. A simple enough job with a pin vice.

I am particularly pleased with the pub sign - a Google search found the sign (a real seventeenth century one), which I resized to fit and printed onto inkjet decal transfer paper. Printed using an HP deskjet, so nothing fancy. The decal paper is really simple to use as long as you follow the instructions! The instructions said the image needed sealing with three coats of varnish. Don't whatever you do use brush on varnish, as the first coat makes the image run. I used Army Painter spray on matt varnish which seems to have done the trick.



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

Lord Brechin’s Regiment of Horse

-
Image
Inspired by last summer's holiday to Scotland, and in particular the imagery on display at the West Highland Museum, Fort William, may I present Lord Brechin's Regiment of Horse. I realised that my Scots fielded lancers and harquebusiers, but there was no pistoller/Moss trooper type unit (lightly armoured with buff coats and armed with pistols). So here they are: oodles of headswaps for Scots blew bonnets, and a little bit of filing to remove chest and back armour. George Maule, Lord Brechin, spent most of the Wars abroad, only returning to Scotland when he was commissioned as a colonel of horse, and ordered to raise a regiment of horse in Forfarshire, the Mearns and Aberdeenshire on the 28th February1649. His goal was 480 men, by the end of July he had  managed to raise just 160.  Early in August the Estates ordered the levying of more men, exact figures actually raised are difficult to establish (390 more men were to be raised but this total figure was split between Bre...
Read more

Civil War Lego

-
Image
Yes, you read that title correctly. English Civil War Lego . The good people at the Cromwell Museum have teamed up with United Bricks to create a small range of Civil War figures. As it was the Cromwell Museum who initiated the project, it will come as no surprise that Old Knoll has been created as a minifigure. Old Knoll and his hat. In case you are wondering, the blutack keeps him in place on top of my monitor  On the grounds of impartiality, Charles I has also been created. As it is Lego you can easily recreate his beheading without all the gore and mess.  As Château KeepYourPowderDry has familial links to the Parliamentarian cause, I don't own his minifig. There are a number of soldiers in the range: a musketeer, a pikeman and a pair of harquebusiers.  There's also an officer, Samuel Pepys, and Matthew Hopkins the self-styled Witchfinder General, a very foppish looking Rupert, complete with his trusty Boye, and the latest release Elizabeth Cromwell. The museum sold ou...
Read more

Photography Part Two: Museums

-
Image
Regular readers of the ECW Travelogue will know that I often have to apologise for poor quality photographs taken in museums. Normally this would be down to operator error (i.e. my incompetence) but on these occasions it isn't: it is down to museums becoming light airy public spaces. Great for the building ambience and visitor experience, awful for taking pictures. But I may have found a solution (discovered at the Birmingham photography show, just like the Foldio studio). Just as my original photography post showcased a cheap, simple solution for taking photographs of miniatures; so this post will showcase a cheap, simple solution for eliminating light reflection in museums. In use at home on a glass cabinet door - even I draw the line at taking a picture of myself using this in public. It is called an Ultimate Lens Hood or ULH for short. They come in three sizes, and a special version for mobile phones; I've got the 'Go' model, or medium sized one (£20) w...
Read more

Some More Parliamentarian Command

-
Image
Those tempted to purchase from Naismith should check the status of the company on internet forums, as service can be sporadic at times. The Naismith-Roundway website has gone, and the domain is available to purchase.  Sadly, it does now look like Naismith have disappeared. However a limited stock of Naismith ECW can be found in stock at  KeepWargaming  (no limbers I'm afraid, as I've just bought the last packs). They do have the personality packs listed as in stock. In the interests of balance, here's some more Parliamentarian commanders. Like their Royalist counterparts these are also Naismith sculpts. My observations from the Royalist personality pack stands for these too - beautiful sculpts but they do lack an element in size consistency (in this case heft). These, like the Royalist Naismith commanders, have been mounted upon replacement horses. Rather than being representative of Essex, Fairfax and Cromwell these figures have been painted to represent Major Gener...
Read more

Lord Spencer’s Regiment of Horse

-
Image
Henry Spencer fought at Edgehill and was rewarded for his services (the £3000 he gave to the King was purely a coincidence) by being made 1st Earl of Sunderland (and in case you are wondering, yes he was a forebear of a certain Lady Diana). Lord Spencer's was part of the King's Oxford Army. Formed in 1643 they fought at Bristol, Cirencester (where they suffered very heavy losses, some sources suggest they were completely captured), and First Newbury where Lord Spencer was killed by a cannonball. The Regiment continued as Spencer's Regiment of Horse fighting at Lostwithiel, Second Newbury, Donnington, Langport, Torrington before surrendering at Truro in 1646. The Regiment was raised anew by Colonel Thomas Colepepper (who had previously been the Lieutenant Colonel of Spencer's, so presumably he became the Colonel on Spencer's death) in 1648 where they were involved in the events at Colchester. I have chosen them to carry Colepepper's cornet - bears...
Read more

Fanny Lye Deliver'd

-
Image
The story of the Civil Wars is a story of two men, Cromwell and King Charles, butting heads over how the three kingdoms should be governed. A rather simplistic and stylised (not to mention inaccurate) view, but a view that seems to dominate our history books, and national consciousness. But what of the lives of the others who gave and suffered so much during the turmoil? Civil War petitions give us an insight, as do household records such as Lady Fanshawe's Receipt Book. The 'lot' of women rarely taking centre stage in our view into seventeenth century Britain, but that changes with the latest film that is set in 'our' period, albeit a slightly strange cinematic offering. Fanny Lye Deliver'd has much in common with earlier films set during the period: it was beset with financial issues and nearly didn't get released (as did To Kill a King), ventures into magic mushroom use (A Field in England), and features a strange group of radical thinkers (Winstan...
Read more

Even More Royalist Commanders

-
Image
Three more Royalist commanders, these were part of the package of figures that were listed as in absentia for a goodly while. First up Sir Ralph, Lord Hopton . My first use of my new russetted armour paint recipe. I hope that you have noticed that I've tried to give him the correct colour hair (according to his portraits), otherwise all that effort will be for nought. Regular readers (hello both of you) will know that we have already met Sir Ralph here on KeepYourPowderDry before: his story epitomises the notion of 'England tore asunder' as his opponent in battle was invariably his good friend Sir William Waller.  As a 21 year old Hopton undertook the C17th equivalent of a gap year, but instead of travelling to 'find himself' his goal was to 'learn languages'. Finding himself caught up in the Thirty Years War he joined a volunteer English force fighting for Frederick of the Palatinate (whose sons Rupert and Maurice we know quite well). He, and his good frien...
Read more

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  Introduction   Part 2  Royalist coat colours Part 3  Scots coat colours Part 3B ...
Read more

What Colours To Use?

-
Image
The mental images we have of seventeenth century dress are invariably of a dashing cavalier, wearing extravagant clothing and an ostentatious feather in a broad-brimmed hat; or a dour Puritan dressed in black and white. A heavily stylised, but very enduring set of images created by the Victorians. But what was the reality? Some clothing from the time still exists, although this will, by the very nature of things, have belonged to rich owners. It has been suggested too, that due to interest in the civil wars, that these surviving garments have been fancydress-ified by the Victorians to achieve the romantic nature of dashing cavaliers and their ladies. Thanks to rising temperatures the C17th and C18th graveyard at Spitsbergen is giving up its inhabitants - whalers buried in their clothes. Many of these remarkable garments are on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (they also have the fantastic Night Watch painting). If you can't just pop into Amsterdam you can see some high res...
Read more

Scots Command

-
Image
Regular readers (hello both of you) will know that I am always on the lookout for suitable commanders to augment my armies.  This time my attention turned to Naismith whose figures match nicely heightwise with PP. Naismith horses are a little 'esoteric' so they were ditched and replacement PP horses sourced. All these figures come from just two packs - the Montrose character pack (EC14 Montrose, Leslie and Dundee), and the EC06 mounted Scots officer pack. Those tempted to purchase from Naismith should check the status of the company on internet forums, as service can be sporadic at times. As of 03/01/2021 the Naismith-Roundway website has gone, and the domain is available to purchase. I fear that these ranges may now have disappeared. Update April 2021: sadly, it does indeed look like Naismith have disappeared. However a limited stock of Naismith ECW can be found in stock at KeepWargaming (no limbers I'm afraid, as I've just bought the last packs). They do have the per...
Read more