Keep Your Powder Dry

I recently documented my command stands, and expressed some thoughts about my representation of historical figures, namely Black Tom and Prince Rupert. See here and here. Well, they have both been rebased, with added ensign and a personal standard. Rupert has a banner based upon a description of his banner captured at Marston Moor (and illustrated in the Forlorn Hope Guide to Edgehill), and Sir Thomas has one that was illustrated in an old Military Modelling series of articles available from BCW Regimental Wiki . A rebased Black Tom and ensign. Rupert, Boye and ensign. There are also a number of new 'generals' who have mostly benefitted from my newly acquired evangelical zeal for headswaps. I have tried to paint their hair the correct colour: I based hair colours on portraits found in the book "Portraits of the English Civil Wars (The Face of War)", Google helping out for those I couldn't find. Helmets are a great cover-all if in doubt! Fir...

Well I have finally stopped procrastinating and bought some Scottish lancers. After the success of Leslie's lancers at Marston Moor most, if not all, Scots cavalry regiments ditched their armour and took up the lance. Many of the Scots regiments were struggling to arm their troopers with pistols anyway, whereas lances were easier to come by; plus the smaller Scots horses were much better suited to the role of light unarmoured cavalry rather than heavier harquebusiers. Strangely, when Scots cavalry did have pistols they liked to carry as many as humanely possible; in some cases five pistols were carried, two in holsters, two tucked in boots and another tucked in at the waist. Sounds rather like Blackadder's cousin MacAdder "the most dangerous man to ever wear a skirt in Europe". Which makes me sigh a deep sigh of relief. I had been toying with the idea of a regiment of lancers and a regiment of harquebusiers. Which would have involved lots of head swaps, and crea...

I have previously documented (albeit briefly) my casualty markers,  here ,  which were not unit specific - just a dead person in one of three poses. I'd painted them in none uniform, civilian colours thinking that they could be used randomly. My recent cavalry expansion, and the realisation that my artillery had no casualty markers meant some more were required. I painted up the harquebusier casualties really quickly then had my light bulb moment: "I wonder if I have enough cavalry casualty figures for every cavalry regiment?", which then quickly metamorphosised into "casualty markers shouldn't be random they should be unit specific". A box of Parliamentarian casualty markers for horse and foot regiments.  Once I had got my head around what to do, and how many of each casualty type was required, I quickly realised that I had exactly what I needed, I didn't need to buy anything else. Spares box to the rescue. Now cavalry units have a dead ha...

Well frame guns actually. So not really cannons. Leven is reported as having 88 of the things in his artillery train in 1644, more than half the total number of pieces in the entire train. Not surprisingly, no frames survive, and there are no records of what colour they were (descriptions are pretty scant too). We do know that the Scots treated their larger ordinance carriages with pine-tar, so an ochre colour is probably not too far from the mark. Scottish ordinance was usually bronze rather than iron favoured by the English foundries: the one surviving frame gun barrel is brass. In later years the Scots moved to iron pieces wrapped in leather, I have chosen to paint my frame gun barrels black. As you will be aware, my fighting men are all from the same manufacturer. I knew that they make frame guns and Scots artillery crew, the problem would be trying to find a suitable pack horse to carry the frame gun (in lieu of a limber). There's one in their WW2 British 14th Army sect...

Here's my attempt at a step by step guide on how to do it - a really simple task, that just seems very daunting. All you really need is a little confidence in what you are doing. But be warned - once you've done a few, it becomes quite addictive. First clean up your figures, removing any mould lines and flash. This is especially important for the head, do this whilst still attached to the sprue. (As it is much easier to do now.) Next up the scary bit. It's only scary the first time you remove a head. Grab the head with a pair of pliers and twist. Try and twist in one smooth motion, and keep going until the head comes off. In case you are wondering, those are really small pliers, not an extreme example of 15mm scale creep The 'head twist' doesn't work for some figures, mainly because of their pose. In these cases you will have to cut them off. I have a nifty pair of snips that does the job cleanly. However I do much prefer the head twist method as it lea...

Newark played an important role in the Civil War and has a number of places of interest for the Civil War enthusiast. First off is the  National Civil War Centre , housed in the old Newark museum the buildings have been tastefully renovated. The main gallery is devoted to the Civil Wars, mostly interpretative panels and interactive stuff (and dressing up) for the kids. They have recently acquired 25 pieces of armour which they hope to display in the coming years. This should pad out the collection nicely. The museum has a slowly revolving exhibition upstairs, the current exhibition is '‌The World Turned Upside Down'; previous exhibitions have looked at C17th battlefield medicine, and (at the time when I first wrote this entry) ' Cutting Edge' - which had a number of Sir Thomas Fairfax's military items (complimenting his wheelchair which takes pride of place in the entrance). There are also a number of other military items on display. The followin...

The Commandery in Worcester is a magnificent building rooted in the history of the ancient city of Worcester. For the ECW gamer it becomes particularly relevant as Charles II's headquarters during the Battle of Worcester.  The building has been beautifully renovated, and is approached from the city centre by crossing a bridge which has a balustrade resplendent with pikes, breast plates and helmets. The galleries were revamped last year, and now tell the tale of Worcester in the Civil Wars more appropriately.  The galleries don't just tell the story of the building during the Civil Wars but also it's  role in medieval times.  For the ECW aficionado there are a number of artefacts and interpretive panels, some reproduction uniforms and artillery pieces, as well as some hands on exhibits for the small people. But what really shines out is the beauty of the building itself. Bank holiday weekends often have a re-enactment society event on...