Keep Your Powder Dry

A little reorganisation of the storage boxes vacated some space for my Army of the Solemn League and Covenant. Here's the second of two new units. A return to painting after a very Scottish-centric focus for most of last year, sees a Covenanter commanded shot unit come to life: Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth's Firelocks. Philforth' s  served in the Bishops' Wars and on the Preston campaign in the Second Civil War. Sir Alexander Fraser was born in 1604, the grandson of  Alexander Fraser of Philorth, founder of Fraserborough. Sir Alexander inherited his grandfather's estates in 1624, to the exclusion of his father. He was known as the 'younger of Philorth' until his father died in 1636/7. It is doubtful whether Sir Alexander was an enthusiastic Presbyterian, or whether  he had any strong objection to Episcopal government of the Church, but he seems, like many others, to sign the Solemn League and Covenant when it was  brought to Aberdeen by Montrose in 1638....

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...

We all have these 'I could just...' ideas about our toy soldiers which usually involve buying even more shiny things™. There's a couple of *big* thoughts kicking around my head (my RoF really need a third line of musketeers, I need a highland pike and shot equipped regiment, and surely I need to represent my dragoons mounted too) which get beaten with a metaphorical big stick every time they start making any sort of noise. Recently a new 'I could just...' thought appeared, and before I could find the metaphorical big stick, I had placed two small orders. Jings and crivens*. My armies field three types of artillery - light, medium and heavy (not including frame guns, or the solitary shared siege mortar). Each gun has its own limber. Light guns have a Naismith limber pulled by two horses. Medium and heavy guns have Museum Miniatures limbers and a four horse team. My 'I could just...' thought didn't like medium and heavy guns having the same limber. It argu...

Having just had a reorganisation of my storage boxes, and realising that my two Scottish armies now had space... I resorted to going through my spares boxes in order to work out what purchases would be required to fill the newly found vacant space. A Freikorps Covenanter officer Might as well paint them up whilst I await the postie bearing packets of lead and freshly layered MDF. Inspired by my attention becoming very Scottish-centric over the last year or so, I have decided upon some more Covenanters. Command figures found for a new regiment of horse, and company of firelocks. Great, that saves a tenner. But what are these, lurking in the Celtic spares box? Two pack horses (for frame guns) and horse holders and a civilian woman.  Montrose's artillery park gets a 200% expansion, with just a pack of Scots artillery crew and a pair of custom casualty markers from Warbases needing to be purchased. Only problem was that the 'woman' is actually a monk. Something I only realised ...

On one of the rare occasions that I visit Facebook I was perusing the Victory Without Quarter page, and saw some beautiful 28mm storming party figures. In amongst the pictures were three figures carrying a ladder. Obviously a storming party needs ladders, but I don't have any! An idea germinated... Could I make a ladder party? Where any figures suitable to chopped and changed into what I wanted. I've got some ladders tucked into a corner of my Château Hougomont model, might have some spares somewhere. A rummage through my spares box found some standard bearers from PP pack 17 'foot command advancing' and a lowland pikeman from pack 82 'Scots pike 45' open hand'. Both have potential.  The 'raw materials' Couldn't find any ladders, they were from Magister Militum, who have now shut up shop. So no more available from that source, PP make a pack, but I didn't really want to spend the best part of £10 on just a pack of ladders (the £4.50 post and ...

Continuing the theme of figures becoming somebody else, I thought I'd steal the reveal from Stars In Their Eyes... I'm Oliver Cromwell, and tonight Matthew I'm going to be  Colonel John Okey.  Possibly my favourite figure from the entire range of 'characters'. This pose really lends itself to a vignette with the figure talking to a figure on foot. The perfect figure for this being the General Coaker collectable figure from PP. Originally these limited free figures were available for attendees at PP game days, but more recently they have become a wonderful way of remembering gamers and friends of PP who have passed away. Limited to one per household, I'd already utilised my General Coaker figure in a regiment of foot, but was fortunate to be gifted another (thanks Will). Maybe the figure on foot has just climbed down from a tree at Naseby and is reporting the location of the King to his colonel? John Okey was a London merchant, and later an MP for Bedfordshire. H...

The current rash of 'new senior officers' continue. When will it stop? Pretty soon I'd imagine (the box of shiny things is now empty). So here is a senior officer apiece for the The Solemn League, Montrose, and The Catholic Confederacy. These are PP figures from their 'personalities section, who have been repurposed. As with previous figures from the PP personality section, major surgery was required to remove the vast majority of their bases. First up is  John Lindsay, Earl of Crawford-Lindsay , who is the Hasselrigg figure from the range in case you are wondering. John is resplendent in full cuirassier armour. John, born around 1598, was the eldest son of Robert, 9th Lord Lindsay,  and Lady Christian Hamilton. On his father's death in1616, he became the 10th Lord Lindsay of the Byres. 1633, he was elevated to  Earl of Lindsay. He also inherited the Earldom of Crawford following his cousin, Ludoivic, forfeiting the title in November 1652. He was appointed Treasurer...

 Two more PP characters are re-appropriated to be somebody else.  I had thought long and hard as to whether I would actually use these figures, the ensigns quickly made their way onto fleabay, the personalities have sat in a drawer awaiting their fate. Each figure has a much thicker base than the normal PP figures, which accentuates the size difference. Figures also have their name in raised detail on the base. I needed to trim down the bases. Thinner bases would help blend the personalities into the rest of my armies. Henry Bard, 1st Viscount Bellomont ( This is the Charles I figure. PP missed a trick by not sculpting the figure wearing his Order of the  Garter riband. Thankfully, by not having a garter riband it makes it much easier to change who the figure is.) Henry has graced these pages before with his Regiment of Foot . Bard had travelled considerably, having visited Paris, and journeyed on foot through France, Italy, Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt. It is alleged tha...

Realising that my finished* Irish Confederate Catholics were lacking in the command stakes, I decided to utilise the Peter Pig characters that were sat in my spares box. The character packs are heroically sized in comparison to the rest of the PP ECW range, I had thought long and hard as to whether I would actually use these figures, the ensigns quickly made their way onto fleabay, the personalities have sat in my spares box for a very long time awaiting their fate.  Each figure has a much thicker base than the normal PP figures, which accentuates the size difference. Figures also have their name in raised detail on the bases. Thinner bases would help blend the personalities into the rest of my armies. The base trimmings from just three figures Next I had to decide who they were going to become... So here are my latest Irish Catholic command figures. Sir Ruaidhrí Ó Mórdha ( This is the Essex figure from the character range.) Sir Ruaidhrí Ó Mórdha, sometimes Sir Rory O'Moore, or eve...

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...