Keep Your Powder Dry

  Bit of an eye candy post today; where I finally get around to painting the Royalist harquebusiers on foot (they've only been sat in the 'to do' pile for nine months or so). For those of you new to KeepYourPowderDry, or the Civil Wars in general, you might be wondering why anyone would want dismounted cavalry. In a nutshell regiments of horse joined in the besieging of houses, but as horses weren't particularly useful when attacking a house, their riders dismounted to fight. They were often in the first wave of assault troops as their buff coats and armour afforded them considerable protection (in comparison to infantry). Plus it also gave them a share of any spoils if the assault was successful. For more information about the role of harquebusiers in sieges, and a look at my existing assault parties see  here . These are Steel Fist figures from pack ECWF 09, but as I have zero faith in Steel Fist swords (they are much too slender to be practical) I have replaced th...

I finally return to painting Irish Confederate regiments of foot: is the delay down to the fact I ordered the wrong figures, so now  have to carefully cut away cast pikes and drill out hands; or, is it because I can't face researching regiments due to inconsistent spelling of names, and the fact that Irish gentry thought it would be a jolly wheeze to give every male in the family the same name? It matters not. Ladies, gentlemen, and everybody in the middle... I proudly present Sir Phelim macShane Ó Néill's Regiment of Foot. And there's the start of my woes. Sir Phelim Ó Néill. 'Cheife Traytor of all Ireland'. Apparently. Known for his flamboyant colourful clothing that 'set off his red hair'. Phelim, sometimes Felim, Phillom, Féilim; O'Neill, Ó Néill, sometimes O'Neil, Néill, and all combinations of the two. I'll stick with Phelim macShane Ó Néill, if it doth offend thine eyes - sorry. Phelim was born on 1604, eldest son of Turlough Ó Néill of th...

Bit of an eye candy post today; where I take a look at Steel Fist's new harquebusiers on foot pack . For those of you new to KeepYourPowderDry, or the Civil Wars in general, you might be wondering why anyone would want dismounted cavalry. In a nutshell regiments of horse joined in the besieging of houses, but as horses weren't particularly useful when attacking a house, their riders dismounted to fight. They were often in the first wave of assault troops as their buff coats and armour afforded them considerable protection (in comparison to infantry). Plus it also gave them a share of any spoils if the assault was successful. For more information about the role of harquebusiers in sieges, and a look at my existing assault parties see here . So what comes in pack ECWF 09 and are they any good? For your money you get 12 dismounted cavalry figures,, 4 with swords raised, 4 with pistols, and 4 with carbines. Beautifully sculpted, as always. In the past my small orders from Steel Fi...

Bit of a buy one, get two more free post today, kickstarting a new year. Regular readers (hello all twenty of you) familiar with my Cannons for The Catholic Confederacy post will know a little about the state of Ireland's C17th roads. (TL;DR they were a bit pants). As a result of the rubbish roads, it is sort of inevitable that the Irish baggage train would be light carts and pack horses. But, as we know that they did haul demi-culverin around they would have been able to move heavier carts around too. So here's my fledgling Irish baggage train: a heavy cart from Museum Minatures. Additional drum from Peter Pig, a Peter Pig dragoon horseholder (with a headswap) as a drover, a SteelFist drummer rounding the base off. I will be adding some light carts to my two Scottish armies and my Irish army at some point. With Magister Militum shutting up shop, I have managed to pick up the last three packs of pack horses in stock, and some Scots horseholders; hopefully, a buyer will be found...

 Just as my Royalist command got a bit of a spruce up, so has my Parliament command. A gentle reminder that these figures are true 15mm sized; the names given but figure manufacturers and sculptors is 'nominal' at best, as they are too small to look definitively like portraits of the people that they are supposed to represent. Whilst some of the Steel Fist character figures do have more than a passing resemblance to portraiture, they can represent whomsoever you jolly well want them to be - very few will have any idea, and the few that do, probably don't have a magnifier with them. These figures are tiny. With this in mind, I have picked my Fantasy Football League team of Parliamentarian command figures... This time, additional figures coming from Steel Fist's ECWH 21 pack: Parliamentarian Commanders. As a number of the characters in the pack are already represented in my Parliamentarian army, a little repurposing will be required.  My 'senior commanders' are ba...

After much prevarication I finally took the plunge and purchased the Steel Fist commanders packs to boost my command figures representations. A gentle reminder that these figures are true 15mm sized; the names given but figure manufacturers and sculptors is 'nominal' at best, as they are too small to look definitively like portraits of the people that they are supposed to represent. Whilst some of the Steel Fist character figures do have more than a passing resemblance to portraiture, they can represent whomsoever you jolly well want them to be - very few will have any idea, and the few that do, probably don't have a magnifier with them. These figures are tiny. With this in mind, I have picked my Fantasy Football League team of Royalist command figures... Steel Fist list their Royalist command figures (pack ECWH 22) as King Charles I, George Digby Earl of Bristol, Sir Jacob Astley, officer with telescope, aide delivering message and standard bearer. The standard bearer woul...