Keep Your Powder Dry

 The seventeenth-century siege was 'an affair of artillery', but the Irish had no proper artillery Raw Generals and Green Soldiers, Catholic Armies in Ireland 1641-1643 Padraig Lenihan The above quote sums up the state of the Irish Confederate artillery train  rather succinctly; plus, it also explains why they didn't fare particularly well in a war of sieges.  Demi-culverin Clearly the Irish had some guns, but what did they have and how many? Details are scant. The Irish did not have expertise in gun-founding, just two gun foundries existed in Ireland and they were in the Anglo Scottish settler communities: Boyle's foundry at Cappoquin and Blacknall's at Ballinakill.  Irish attempts at artillery manufacturing did not go well: Viscount Clanmalier had a tin cannon made that simply did not work; the leather cannon used at Ballyalla was even worse as it effectively blew up. They fared much better making fake cannons: a wooden cannon helped Daniel O'Dunne capture Cas...

Well we all knew that it wouldn't last. 'Finished'? You were right to scoff regular readers - and as an aside, it appears that the regular readership has advanced to the dizzying heights of nine! So, hello all nine of you. As so much conflict during the Civil Wars was siege or siege related, I thought it was only right and proper that I had a mortar. Which wasn't quite so straightforward as you would imagine.  I decided that I should have two siege mortars, one 'deployed' and another 'in transit'. The 'in transit' version being a useful scenario goal - stop the mortar being deployed! But first the tricky issue of sourcing all the parts. Blue Moon make an ECW siege mortar - but alas their figures are 18mm, and the mortar was just too big. Freikorps 15 are in hiatus whilst they relocate, plus their Civil War/30YW ranges have disappeared from their online catalogue.  Magister Militum have a couple of offerings, but their figures are a little small i...

Regular readers (hello all eight of you), will have seen me complain that I had underrepresented the Solemn League artillery train, so I added a paltry minion and limber to beef up their artillery train. A handful of frame guns and a minion doesn't really cut it, does it? So I have added a brace of  sakers. Sakers and crews from PP; limbers from Museum Miniatures, with a PP horseholder who has had a headswap. Custom casualty markers from Warbases This time I went for Cd'A wood for the gun carriages, with my now trusty mix of Foundry blackened barrel shades for the metalwork (light for the wheel tyres and dark for everything else). If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

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 be familiar with my tit-for-tat army expansions. So just as Parliament had an artillery expansion, so the King's Army requires one too. With the apparent demise of Naismith-Roundway, I thought I wouldn't be able to get hold of any of my preferred 'light' limbers. Thankfully, I discovered  KeepWargaming  (no relation) who have a dwindling stock of Naismith figures. I quickly purchased all of the limbers in their stock room.   So here are my final planned Royalist figures: two minions, crews and limbers. Figures from PP, the gun is listed as light gun. Regular readers will be aware that I wasn't totally happy with my cannons. Historically the metalwork was most probably black, but it just looked much too flat. So these have painted using my new paint recipe: instead of matt black I now use Foundry blackened barrel. I have two shades of the paint, the lighter version being used for the wheel tyres (my thinking being that th...

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...

Due to continual 'ah, but I need to represent this unit' type scenarios I came to the conclusion that I needed some more artillery for my armies. This coincided with the demise of Naismith-Roundway and I thought I wouldn't be able to get matching limbers.  Thankfully, I discovered KeepWargaming who have a dwindling stock of Naismith figures. I quickly purchased all of the limbers in their stock room.  (So expect similar artillery posts about the Covenanters and the Royalists.) So here are my final planned Parliamentarian figures: two minions, crews and limbers. Figures from PP, the gun is listed as light gun. I must confess that I wasn't totally happy with my cannons. Historically the metalwork was most probably black, but it just looked much too flat. So I decided to paint these differently. I decided to use Foundry blackened barrel. I have two shades of the paint, the lighter version being used for the wheel tyres (my thinking being that the paint would be more worn)...