Keep Your Powder Dry

So, gentle reader I hear you sigh and wonder how a trip to Les Invalides can be shoe horned into a British Civil War gaming blog... There are many reasons why you should visit Les Invalides when visiting Paris, but possibly the best reason to justify a visit is the fact that the ticket office queue is usually pretty none existent and therefore becomes the best place to buy your Paris Museum Pass  from (which means you can join the shorter queues at all the other museums). Think of Les Invalides and you will immediately imagine a temple to l'Emperor. Well it is, his body is entombed under the very impressive golden dome after all. Whilst all that is jolly good to see, my blog will focus upon the Renaissance exhibits. There are morions a plenty and some beautiful suits of armour, many rivalling the lion armour in the Royal Armouries collection (they have their own suit of lion armour too). Fine selection of wheelock muskets (didn't immediately see any matchlocks but...

First of my new dragoon regiments... My previous dragoon regiments are all on foot with horseholders, and kit bashed semi-mounted command. I like my existing dragoon command, and the overall look of my existing dragoon regiments (it's all that Streeter's fault), so I wanted to create something similar utilising the new figures. Once again the body of fighting men (twelve) are on foot, with six horseholders each with three horse, and a command stand consisting of mounted officer, cornet and drummer. That way I have managed to use figure from four of the five new packs. Part way through painting the figures I did start to question my wisdom of unit makeup - 18 horses, 18 foot figures, a casualty figure, and 3 mounted command figures. Lots and lots of horses and horseholders Waller's dragoons were raised in 1643 and fought extensively throughout the First Civil War: Battle of Lansdown, Roundway Down, Siege of Basing House, Alton Church, Cheriton,...

I know I said that my baggage train was complete, but in the words of Sean Connery's Bond reimagining "never say never". I was searching for a yellow and a red for some new dragoon regiment coat colours. Not being totally convinced I decided to paint some test figures. In my big box of spares I have lots of dragoon horseholders, so they seemed ideal candidates. Cutting a long story short they came out as I wanted them to, but what to do with them? Strangely, I hadn't actually thought about putting them to one side and using them in the new units. Vapnartak was on the horizon, and Museum Miniatures would be there.  Each baggage train consisted of eight carts: nine carts would be unbalanced, ten would be better.  Another quick rummage through the spares found two more horseholders, four marching musketeers, and two dogs. New additions to the King's baggage ...and Parliament's baggage I'm sure you can imagine the rest - two new engineer...

Always on the lookout for suitable buildings to populate the battlefield. I noticed that Magister Militum had a number of potential buildings in their range when I purchased my star fort . As MM were attending Vapnartak I thought I could pick up a couple of test buildings, and save on postage. As they don't normally take their building range to shows I pre-ordered them. Both buildings were pretty clean casts, minimal clean up required, only a couple of small bubbles visible. First up BD108 Wealden House. Nope, I didn't know what Wealden meant, I presumed it was a style of framing. A quick Google showed that I was on the right tracks: " The  Wealden hall house  is a type of vernacular medieval  timber-framed   hall house  traditional in the south east of England. Typically built for a  yeoman , it is most common in  Kent  (hence "Wealden" for the once densely forested  Weald ) and the east of Sussex  but has also been built else...

The great and good of the ECWS solemnly carry their wreath. Charles was beheaded on Tuesday, 30 th January 1649. This year was the 370 th anniversary of the regicide. Charles had spent time with two of his children, Henry and Elizabeth,on the 29 th ; and, had been allowed to walk his dog one last time in St James’s Park on the morning of his execution. He had a last meal of bread and wine, then walked from St James’s Palace, where he had been held captive, to the Palace of Whitehall. An execution scaffold had been erected outside the Banqueting House. Famously, he had asked for two shirts to wear, as he did not want anyone to mistake his shivering for fear. At 2pm, he placed his head on the executioner’s block and bade him make a clean strike. He signalled to the executioner his readiness by putting out his hands. So, I hear you wonder, have I suddenly become a monarchist lamenting the execution of King Charles? Not for one minute, it does give me the excuse...

 A snow-day allowed me to crack on and finish the final regiment of foot to be raised before Vapnartak. Colonel George Dodding's regiment was raised in Lancashire; George Dodding, himself, was from Conishead Priory in Ulverston (at the time it was part of Lancashire, now it is in Cumbria). He also raised a small unit of horse which took part in the siege of Lathom House and Marston Moor. His Regiment of Foot fought at Selby, the Siege of York, Marston Moor and Ormskirk. There's are a handful of headswaps in the mix, my favourite being the bandaged head on the drummer. Bases, and custom casualty marker from Warbases. The colour is the one illustrated in  Fahnen und Standarten , as for the coat colour... like so many regiments we simply don't know. As five of last seven regiments of foot I have painted have had grey coats I wanted to use some colour. Looking at my Parliamentarian regiments there are lots of reds, so I fancied painting a blue regiment (blu...

1643, Charles had signed a Cessation with the Irish and recalled soldiers from Ireland to reinforce his armies. Several regiments were sent to Cheshire where a new army was being raised. Lord Byron took command of that army in December of that year, and immediately started an offensive against the Parliamentarian forces in the County. These troops returned to England with a sense of brutality, not seen before in the conflict. One incident in particular shocked the population, no doubt adding fuel to the Parliamentarian fire. When a group of Royalists plundered the village of Barthomley, villagers took refuge in the tower of St Bertoline's Church. The Royalists made a fire at the base of the tower to smoke them out, which forced them to surrender. The Royalists stripped and executed twelve of the villagers and wounded eight others. Alan Garner's novel "Red Shift" uses this incident for one of the three stories within a story. Sir William Brereton, the Parl...

The latest regiment to rally for the Parliamentarian cause. My local regiment, plus there are so many artefacts relating to Sir John on display (his buffcoat at the Royal Armouries , and one of his standards at the National Army Museum ) meant I felt obliged to represent the regiment. Sir John was commissioned as a Colonel by the Earl of Essex in 1642, and a company of grey coats was raised in Hull. The original  draft of 120 men he received from Hull had been issued with uniform from the Irish stores before they left London. Notable action includes the first siege of Newark , the siege of Lichfield and Hopton Heath . The regiment was disbanded in 1646. Sadly no headswaps this time. Bases and custom casualty marker from Warbases. Dead drunk? I originally wanted a different grey to the greys I use for my Covenanters, so base coated the figures Coat d'Arms slate grey. It was just plain wrong, too dark. So I decided to consider it undercoat, and go back to Foundr...

Reading contemporary accounts there are reports of many atrocities committed during the Civil Wars; some of these happened, many were exaggerated and some works of fiction. The rise of the printing press meant reporting such acts was useful propaganda: proving that the enemy is evil, God is on our side, and ultimately swaying people to rally to the cause. Prince Rupert, for example, was famously portrayed as a witch, and Boye his familiar. One such atrocity that did take place, took place in Chapel-en-Frith, in Derbyshire. Fifteeen hundred Scots prisoners, taken at Preston, were being escorted to awaiting ships to take them to exile in the new world. They had come from Stopford (now better known as Stockport) under the conduct of Marshall Edward Matthews. They were rested in St Thomas Becket church in Chapel. Which sounds quite compassionate, only it wasn't. The current church would be considerably overcrowded with that number, the original church most likely slightly smal...