Keep Your Powder Dry

Of all the Civil War related films and TV series that I have watched, this is without doubt the best of the lot, and that is despite the fact that there are very few battles taking place on screen. At the root of the film is the relationship between Oliver Cromwell (Tim Roth) and Thomas Fairfax (Dougray Scott); and of course how they deal with Charles (Rupert Everett). The film was beset with financial woes, and it is surprising that the film was finished at all, let alone released. It's original title was Cromwell and Fairfax, but it seems they couldn't even afford that. Later editions of the DVD use the title "To Kill A King: Cromwell and Fairfax". Moody and evocative, this really is a very good film. If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

So, mid-March last year I found myself on Naseby battlefield at 6 o'clock in the morning. Which is pretty impressive considering it is a two and a bit hour drive from home. Why on earth was I there at that time of day? #1 son had gone on a day trip (!) to Auschwitz and had needed to be at East Midlands airport at silly o'clock in the morning. In my wisdom I decided that it wasn't really worth driving home, only to have to drive back to pick him (and the rest of the contingent from his sixth form) up. So amongst other things I decided to have a detour to visit the battlefield. As it was foggy and dark at that time I stopped for a brief coffee, before heading off to Rutland Water for a meeting. Returning to the battlefield in late afternoon, by which time it was basking under blue skies. The battlefield is very well preserved, with few buildings built on top of it. Unfortunately there are few rights of way across the fields but there are a number of staged vantage points wi...

Postie has just dropped this book on my doorstep. Bought from Caliver Books, this German language tome has enough English titles and captions that even I can understand it. Combining all published ECW flag reference books in one handy volume. Flags illustrated are referenced to their original source. They are represented in full colour: split into Parliamentarian, Royalist, Irish and Covenator sections, and are then ordered in trained band/militia, infantry and horse sections. Flags are listed in alphabetical order, with a number of flags listed as 'unknown'. Where only remnants remain (ed) such as Prince Rupert's, then alternative interpretations are also shown. Also, where sources disagree on the layout of markers for 4th captain, say, both options are illustrated. So far, I've only had a cursory look, nor have I tried to translate the introduction, but this looks very very good. If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  suppo...

TimeCast have recently released a latex  field set  which looked the business, so to speak. Gamers using larger scale figures can easily use corrugated paper or those ridged doormats to make ploughed fields, those of us fielding 15mm armies, well the furrows would be just too big. (A fine bit of needlecord would probably do, but as this is not the 1970s I'm not quite sure where to get such cloth from, or even if it still exists.) I ordered two of the field deal 3 packs. Giving four 9"× 6" fields, two 6"× 6" and two 6"× 4" fields. They arrived within a couple of days. An olivey green colour I gave them a good wash and dry. They were sprayed Humbrol dark earth and given a glaze of Windsor and Newton nutbrown ink, the edges were flocked before a good coat of Army Painter Matt varnish spray. These would have been really quick to do, but unfortunately I killed my biggest brush trying to evenly apply the Humbrol basecoat. I don't know what...

Having posted pictures of my attempts at painting thatch, which I thought were quite good, I realised how shoddy they actually were. Possibly the greatest benefit that this blog has given me is the sight of my own painting attempts super-enlarged in all their gory detail. I knew that my dark ages buildings thatch was awful and needed redoing, but I had thought that my Hovels medieval range thatched buildings were 'okay'. Wrong! So after much experimentation I came up with the following recipe for painting thatch. They look right for 15mm, maybe supersized on tablet or laptop screens might do them an injustice. Basecoat: RailMatch 'worn tarmac' a mid to dark grey. Once applied it looks just wrong, and I understand why many people turn to the yellow and brown palettes. Next up was a very heavy drybrush with Foundry Moss 29B. A green brown,  it toned the grey down considerably but seemed much brighter than I hoped for. Final step was a glaze of Windsor and Newton nu...

Whilst perusing fleabay I came across a 'lot' of ECW buildings for sale. All Hovels models, many from the English/rural range but also many that I didn't recognise. A quick look at the Hovels website and I found them in the medieval range. Sadly I missed out on winning the auction as I think the seller had absolutely nailed the colour of the thatch. Some models in the range are much more suitable than others, here are the ones I chose. Not 100% happy with my thatched rooves, think they need a bit more grey... Update: thatch has now been repainted. Keep an eye out for a future post on painting thatch.  see here Here's the updated buildings. 4M5 7M5 5M5 6M5 8M5 If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

Always on the look out for suitable buildings I found these from the same manufacturer as my figures, a barn and a store house. One advantage of seeing my own 'stuff' on a screen, and magnified, is that shows up all the imperfections. In this case just how awful the thatch is. Needless to say, they have been repainted. I will, however, leave these pics here as a bad example. Keep your eyes peeled for a post about painting thatch in the future...  see here The updated version If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

If you have read my earlier post about the Red Lion pub, you'll be aware of my thoughts about wargaming terrain. You'll also know my paint palette colours for my ECW buildings. Here's the rest of my buildings from this range from Hovels. I seem to have got a little carried away with the 'generic houses' (1T5 and 2T5) - to give a little variety some have slate rooves, some tiled. The church (4T5)...  ...the blacksmith's forge (6T5), which looked much better once some flock was added... ...and the manor house (7T5). My usual paint regime applied here: undercoat of Liquitex raw umber; windows Foundry Prussian blue; white panels badly painted white (so patches of undercoat show in parts/ and white is patchy); wood frames RailMatch weathered black; stone work RailMatch weathered stone painted on badly, again to give an uneven coat; slate rooves Coat d'Arms slate grey; tiled rooves Coat d'Arms orange, then heavy dry brush of Coat ...

Putting aside the use of seventeenth century misogynistic language in the title this is a fictional account of one thinking woman's (how very dare she have her own thoughts and opinions - hence she earns the epithet 'whore') journey through the Civil War period. An acclaimed writer, favourable reviews from the broadsheets, and with a pretty stellar cast (Peter Capaldi is brilliant as Charles I) this promised so much. Looks really good, has a good 'feel' to it; and of course it provides good inspiration for choosing general clothing colours, and being on in the background whilst painting. Won a Bafta for best costume design. Historical accuracy: they manage to throw in quite a bit of accurate history - the Diggers, the Levellers, Lilburne, Burford mutiny, Bradshaw's armoured hat. Episode three covers Cromwell's Irish campaign: at thirty minutes an Irish officer rides out of Wexford with his helmet on back to front, cut to next scene and it is on correctly. ...

I am a great fan of Hovels's buildings, having both the La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont buildings. So it was inevitable that they would be my first port of call for some ECW buildings (more on that in a later post). Their range is quite limited, so when the manufacturer of my figures released some ECW buildings I snapped them up. They match size wise the Hovels buildings really nicely. They come in two halves - the ground floor and upper floor/roof are separate. Chimneys are cast in white metal and require gluing in place. The two halves marry together well, although a little bit of green stuff was required to make any gaps/cracks between the two halves disappear. Paint followed my usual pattern - an undercoat of Liquitex spray burnt umber. I then badly painted the white panels in (so some of the undercoat was visible); timber frame was painted with Rail Match weathered black, which is one of my go-to colours at the moment. Windows were Foundry Prussian blue. Roof Coat d...

I am a firm believer in scenery being as important as figures in a wargaming sense. We spend hours lovingly painting our figures, only for all that hard work to be undone by a dreadful battlefield on which we play. Which brings me to my first post about buildings. Here's a tavern from the  Hovels  English/rural 15mm range (3T5). I have taken the tavern sign from an ECW sprinkles pack and added it to the building. A simple enough job with a pin vice. I am particularly pleased with the pub sign - a Google search found the sign (a real seventeenth century one), which I resized to fit and printed onto inkjet decal transfer paper. Printed using an HP deskjet, so nothing fancy. The decal paper is really simple to use as long as you follow the instructions! The instructions said the image needed sealing with three coats of varnish. Don't whatever you do use brush on varnish, as the first coat makes the image run. I used Army Painter spray on matt varnish which seems to have ...

Whilst happy to celebrate my Parliamentarian heritage and leaning (my great × lots uncle became General Treasurer of Lancashire for Parliament in 1643), if Parliament* was against cake I may well have to become a turncoat and rally to the King's aide. * it being that time of year, it is only right and proper to debunk the commonly held fact that Cromwell banned Christmas. The Puritans who held the majority effectively banned Christmas as a) they believed it to be wasteful and a sin, and b) as an attempt to persuade the Scots Presbyterians that only by supporting Parliament could they achieve their goal of religious tolerance. Parliament banned Christmas, not Cromwell. If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

... were one of Julie Andrews's favourite things.  Here's one of mine.  A blast from the past, some old Minifig's boxes. A couple of the fabled Hinchliffe blue boxes, and a more recent offering from Foundry*. Okay, completely superfluous and adds an extra cost to figures, but you've got to love a little box haven't you? * don't worry, I haven't gone over to the 28mm side, I bought some paint from them. If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

Inspired by Streeter's representation of infantry blocks on his Naseby engraving, I set about planning my regiments of foot. I decided on wings of 8 musketeers, which handily is a pack; a pike block of 12 pikemen (1 1/2 packs); command strip of 4 (1/2 pack), and a couple of halberdiers (1/4 pack). So a regiment was 4 1/4 packs or 34 individuals. Basing - rather than base for a particular ruleset (not important if I am providing both armies) led to the following idea. Base figures  on 15mm × 40mm. This would suit strips of 4 figures, with halberdiers based 1 per 15×40. A couple of blank bases would make everything neat and tidy for a  120mm × 60mm movement tray. This would also give the option of having the command strip at the front or at the back once the roughtie toughtie stuff starts. Here's a couple of views of Colonel Charles Fairfax’s Regiment of Foot to illustrate my infantry organisation. Pretty pleased with how they have come out. Current...

The National Army Museum (Chelsea) reopened last summer after being closed for two years. I never visited prior to the revamp, so can't 'compare and contrast'. Well presented, spacious, excellent café - although thanks to its location don't be at all surprised to inadvertently eavesdrop on conversations that come straight from the 'overheard in Waitrose' Twitter feed. One of the first galleries covers the Civil Wars, the highlight being Sir John Gell's Regiment of Foot standard. Sir John Gell's was the Derbyshire regiment so a bit of local pride seeing it. There are a few other items of interest, and portraits of Cromwell and Monck. An original Sturt engraving of the Streeter's Naseby plan is also on display. Cavalry often wore an armoured left gauntlet (bridle hand) for protection. What is particularly interesting is the fish scale buff leather upper left arm protector - I don't know of any other example on display elsewhere ...