Keep Your Powder Dry

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...

Montrose's army wasn't known for it's artillery or baggage trains, but they must have had one. A good rummage (who doesn't love a good rummage?) in the spares box provided some dragoon horseholders, who with a headswap for a Scots bonnet some became little Scottish men. A Museum Miniatures open wagon with load, with a couple of extra PP drums and a Donnington halberd fancying up the cart's load up a bit. As Montrose wasn't really known for his artillery train I had a spare PP frame gun and crew lurking in the spares box. Also residing in the spares box was a Magister Militum pack mule, a suitable candidate to transport the frame gun between jobs. I would like to point out that my spares box is not enormous, nor does it hold riches beyond belief. In fact, apart from far too many standard bearers it is looking pretty empty now. Of course an artillery expansion requires a casualty marker from Warbases. If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please ...

Regular readers (hello all seven of you), will hopefully have seen my previous post about siege engineers  and will be familiar with the artefacts in museums across the country, and my attempt at creating some figures. As PP still do not make a pack of siege engineers, and not being 100% happy with my previous attempts, I decided to have another go. First off an easy conversion, to remind me how to use greenstuff.  Top tips:  Patience.  When mixing greenstuff twist rather than knead the two parts together. Let it go 'off' slightly before trying to work with it. Build stuff up in layers. A little and often is better than a lot all in one go. More patience.  Trim out and discard the little bit in the middle of the strip where the two colours have been in contact with one another. If you are remotely happy with what you have done, stop! Don't do anymore. You can add to it once it is dry.  Keep wetting your tools (but not too much).  If you have never used...

A small expansion for the Scots Covenanter Army. With the apparent demise of Naismith-Roundway I discovered a stock of Naismith limbers at Keep Wargaming (no relation); as they are my preferred light limbers, I snapped up the entire stock. This has already seen a small expansion of Parliament's train of artillery, and the Royalist train is prepped ready for some paint. Time for the Army of the Solemn League to get some proper guns. They already have a number of frame guns in their train, this time they got themselves a minion and limber. Which is all rather historically inaccurate. Scotland's armies were lacking many things, but they had oodles of artillery pieces. It appears that a great number of Scots had earned themselves a living as artillerymen on the continent. One only has to think of Wemyss who was Parliament's master gunner. So a Naismith limber, with a PP dragoon horseholder with a headswap.  The gun and crew are all PP, the gun has utilised my new artillery pain...

The third of three Covenanter regiments of foot to get their time in the spotlight.   John Lindsay, the Earl of Crawford-Lindsay would serve as a Colonel in both of the Bishops' Wars; however, he did not share sole colonelcy of these regiments. He would not take sole colonelcy of a regiment of foot until he was commissioned in 1643 in both the Ulster Army, and the Army of the Solemn League and Covenant. It is assumed that most of the men, for the Ulster regiment, came from Fife. It is thought that the regiment may have taken part in expeditions led by Munro in 1643. Lindsay would return to Scotland in 1644 to join his 'other' regiment.  The Solemn League regiment was raised in 1643 in the Fife presbyteries of Cupar and St Andrews: they were commanded initially by Thomas Moffat, whilst Lindsay was in Ulster. There appears to have been a considerable amount of exchanges of officers between he two regiments during this time.  The regiment marched south with Leven's Army ta...

Another regiment that appeared only fleetingly: a Covenanter Regiment of Foot raised for the Bishops' Wars, then seeing service in England, Scotland and in the Second Civil War Originally raised in 1638 in Peeblesshire, they were involved in the capture of Dalkeith House, before they joined Leslie’s army at Duns Law. They were disbanded following the Treaty of Birks in June 1639. John, Master of Yester, received his commission late August 1643 to raise the regiment anew in Linlithgow and Tweeddale presbyteries. He selected a professional soldier, William Johnston, as his lieutenant colonel. The Master of Yester would spend most of 1642-3 accompanying the Royalist army in England. The regiment marched south into England and engaged in their first combat by storming the fort at South Shields. They would serve at the siege of York and Marston Moor, where they were brigaded with the Stirlingshire Foot in the Scottish second line. After Marston Moor they marched to Leeds. They would ret...

Not a 'new' Regiment, but another in the series of 'briefly mentioned, I'd better go into a bit more detail' posts. So here is fifteen minutes of fame for the Earl of Buccleugh's Regiment of Foot. Later known as Colonel Walter Scott’s, then Colonel William Baillie’s Regiment of Foot, they were also known as the Tweeddale Foot. The Tweeddale Foot were raised in August/September of 1643 by Francis Scott, the 2nd Earl of Buccleugh (now spelled Buccleuch). The majority of its men came from the presbytery of Selkirk. Numbering 1200 men they joined Leven's army in January 1644 and marched south into England. Their first engagement was at the Battle of Hylton to the west of Sunderland (also known as the Battle of Boldon Hills), closely followed by joining the besiegers of York. They were brigaded with Loudon's Glasgow Foot at Marston Moor, but fled the field after being broken by the left wing of the Royalist horse. They were then quartered in South Yorkshire, ...

As part of my pre-Salute challenge I painted up some more limbers, and a couple more carts for the baggage train, but couldn't finish them due to their drovers being part of a pre-order which was to be collected at Salute. Horseholders have now been painted, and basing completed and flocked. Particularly pleased with the Gale Force 9 spring undergrowth, adds a nice textural difference to the static grass. First up the baggage train. Nominally labelled as Parliamentarian or Royalist, but with no visible identifiers, so can be used for either side. These are from Museum Miniatures. Here's the limbers, from the Naismith range. And finally a couple of A&M (Donnington Miniatures) carts, that I picked up at Salute. They look nice but are awful to assemble. I really think that my baggage trains are now complete. Although there are a couple of horseholders in my spares box... If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supportin...

I've been pretty quiet of late: in the unlikely event that you have been waiting for the latest thrilling instalment I apologise. Salute, turned into a bit of a fiasco, only really managing to pick up preorders. Which was a real shame as there were a number of ECW games I wanted to view, and a number of vendors I wanted to visit. Alas, it was not to be (one of my boys was rather poorly). Straight after Salute I had shoulder surgery, so that put a bit of a dampener on my new found painting enthusiasm. Thankfully all looks to have gone well so time to ease myself back in gently. And so to the Matchlock range, they have much more meat on their bones than my usual figures, although heightwise they are surprisingly close. Which is why I have only really used figures from their 'characters' section to bolster my civilians or baggage train. The main focus has revolved around putting Essex's coffin on the battlefield. Inspired by an Easter showing of 'Cromwell' ...