Keep Your Powder Dry

Way back in the mists of time I painted some Freikorps 15 'camp followers'; as I decided I had far too few civilians I turned my attention back to this pack.  Partly inspired by a recent trip to Amsterdam, and swooning at the sight of the Vermeers in The Rijksmuseum, here's my latest batch of civilians. The colour palette for the clothing has been lifted straight from Vermeer's works. Mostly from the aforementioned Freikorps 15 pack, there's also a few figures from the Minifigs Hussite Wars camp followers pack 214X. Freikorps camp followers a single casting women with buckets women looking stern women with babies April 2025 update, there appears to be an issue at QRF/Freikorps concerning ownership of some of the ranges. Might be worth checking out the wargame forums before placing an order. Caveat emptor. Minifigs Hussite camp followers I particularly like the woman with the firewood bundle If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  su...

I've watched enough nonsense on the telly box to know that every historical/supernatural setting requires a prison wagon (effectively a cage on wheels) in which the good people round up witches/monsters, or alternatively the evil henchmen (who are all, almost certainly, called Igor) round up innocent civilians to aid their master's fiendish plans. (delete as appropriate). In fact, spurred on by a regular reader (hello), and their questions about Witchfinder General they asked me where my prison wagon was. Well, as I didn't have on, nor any excuse to not have one, I was spurred into action. I decided to utilise the chassis of Donnington Miniatures' CB14 Open 4 Wheel Wagon. The wagon comes as a kit, flat bed, separate sides and baggage. I ditched the sides, and will utilise the baggage elsewhere. Four Museum Miniatures' draught horses from my spares box will pull the cart. But how to fabricate the 'cage'? A few test pieces proved that I could utilise matches a...

Every agrarian society needs livestock, even in 15mm land. So I thought I'd better provide some. My inner model railway modeller/ reader of glossy rule books with idyllic 'scenes' voice told me I needed more, yes more, battlefield clutter. First up are some piggies. These are from Hovels, and were extras from my    'Pig Sty' 18D5 (from their ancients range). Next up are some chickens. There should probably be lots more of these, but can I face painting beaks and combs on such tiny things? Yes, I can. So no doubt there will be more of these at some point, when I next place an order with Pendraken. Considering England's wealth was based upon the wool trade I thought I should have lots of sheep. Is forty sheep a lot? Enough to make a landowner fat and wealthy from the profits. Probably not. More will arrive from Pendraken at some point I'm sure. Pendraken have a very useful range of animals in a plethora of figure sizes, one of their cats is located on a Parli...

Well, obviously, it is never a good day for a hanging, but how else was I to title a post about C17th capital punishment other than to utilise the title of the 1959 American B Western film? Or movie, as our continental cousins would have it. In the C17th if you had been really bad* you were condemned to death. If you were rich you had your head chopped off; if you weren't rich or noble, then it was an appointment with the gallows. Gentle reminder, despite what Hollywood insists, witches were hung - they were not burnt at the stake. My victim has green breeches ties at his knees, a not so secret sign that he supported the Levellers. Was he involved in one of the many Leveller led revolts of the Army Newly Modelled? Was that what led him to his appointment with the gallows, a victim of military justice? Hallmark Miniatures make a man in C17th dress hanging from a gallows,  something that I have kept adding to my basket and then removing every time I'd been placing an order at Ma...

Those of you 'tuning in' expecting an homage to 1960s/1970s 'journalist who travels' Alan Whicker - you misspelled Whicker... you forgot the 'h'. This post instead tips its hat to the seminal 1970s horror masterpiece 'The Wicker Man', which was released almost exactly 50 years to the day that this post was published.* As part of my side-project, dabbling around in C17th supernatural gaming courtesy of Witchfinder General  I keep an eye out for suitable figures. I came across a wicker man resin figure available from eBay seller Dreamholme Scenics. It always seemed to be out of stock, and only ever 'in stock' when the household budget was a bit tight. Well ,the stars have finally aligned, and I have bought one. This is one of, if not the best resin casting I have bought. Clean, no bubbles and a perfectly smooth, flat base. The arms are separate, and there is a separate door. Also supplied are two tiny, blink and you'll miss them, magnets. The m...

I quite fancied a coach, no other reason that it would look nice on the battlefield.  No doubt Robert Morley as the Earl of Manchester had a hand in this 'need'. A little bit of research (i.e. Google) showed two options available. Magister Militum and Essex both having a C17th gentleman's carriage in their listings. But no picture on the Essex website. A little more Googling brought up a review: the writer* ditched the Magister Militum offering as it was too complex and fiddly to build. So I ordered the Essex one on the strength of it (and my experience of having had a run in with MM Scots frame guns, which are really fiddly to assemble, which went in the bin). The coach arrived promptly, along with a restock of brown paint... must be more harquebusiers in the offing. The coach body comes in three parts: two sides and a roof. Attached to the body are the springs - take very great care not to damage them!  Unfortunately the two halves needed considerable greenstuff action to...

I was having a bit of a sort out/procrastinating about doing a gajillion headswaps of  clubmen*, when I discovered some really useful figures in my 'spares box'. In the interests of 'balance' it must also be pointed out that there were some pretty useless figures in the spares box too (vampire with modern pistol, lots of deaded/wounded Scots highlanders etc). Well, it would be a criminal waste not to use the useful figures wouldn't it? The Scots Covenanters, now have a baggage train (of sorts). A witches' coven, complete with bubbling cauldron. The impressive bit being the fact I hadn't lost all three (separate) legs for the cauldron. Please note my witches look like witches, so have green skin and black clothes. Plus also in the pipeline are some more artillery pieces for the Parliamentarian and Royalist armies. Yet more baggage for those two armies too (well I did have rather a lot of spare horseholders), and another unit of commanded shot ...

The dreadful Witchfinder movie sent my train of thought to the myths, plague, and superstitions of the seventeenth century. Which ultimately led to the  Witchfinder General rules. A fierce group of  C17th Welsh women, in national dress, seeing off some strange  cat/bird hybrids. Once the seed had been sown, I needed to do some research so the Underworld box set had to be watched. PVC catsuits must get hideously sweaty in battle, plus it's probably not a look everyone could carry off. I've already got a motley crew of civilians, some rather splendid plague physicians, priests, and a witchfinder figure from Matchlock, so I didn't think that it would be too much of a leap to find werewolves, vampires, barguests and noctelingers. Or so I thought. Figures are easy to find in the '15mm' interpretation that is closer to 20mm, less so in the '15mm is 15 actual millimetres' figure sizing. I eventually found some. Magister Militum provi...

Clearly trying to avoid finishing the latest regiment of horse, I had a look at the Matchlock listings over on Caliver Books (if the 'one legged musketeer with pig' ever comes back into production I'll be first in the queue) and noticed 'general in mule litter with servant'. I'd heard tell of such a set but had never noticed it in the listings*. So it had to be ordered, along with a few other generals, purely in order to justify the postage. An adventurous casting, which needed considerable cleaning up. Painted the inside Railmatch weathered black, and block painted the general before gluing the two halves of the compartment together. Liquid green stuff applied to the join lines. The mules had their undersides and muzzle stippled with Coat d'Arms bone to make them look distinctly mule like, rather than just undersized horses. I began to wonder how it would attach to the mules when complete. I needn't have worried as it glued neatly and sec...

Every battlefield will have villagers, probably running away very quickly. My ECW villages are populated from a number of sources. First off the offerings from the manufacturer of most of my troops; there's a trio of useful packs - scarecrows and  villagers, sprinkles, and clubmen Matchlock Miniatures  have an impressive range for the ECW, their figures have quite a bit more meat on them than my 'normal' figures, and from time to time have sporadic availability. They have a really good selection of  'characters'. I have chosen their Witchfinder, ratcatcher and surgeon packs.   Every so often fleabay throws up a gem. Here's a little vignette of Matchlock's regimental agitator, musketeer with chicken, and musketeer with pipe. All I've done is rebase them. The unknown cart is particularly nice. Freikorps 15 (yes still available) from TSS have a useful camp followers pack which match the other figures really well. Update...