Keep Your Powder Dry

Regular readers (hello all seven of you), will hopefully have seen my previous post about siege engineers  and will be familiar with the artefacts in museums across the country, and my attempt at creating some figures. As PP still do not make a pack of siege engineers, and not being 100% happy with my previous attempts, I decided to have another go. First off an easy conversion, to remind me how to use greenstuff.  Top tips:  Patience.  When mixing greenstuff twist rather than knead the two parts together. Let it go 'off' slightly before trying to work with it. Build stuff up in layers. A little and often is better than a lot all in one go. More patience.  Trim out and discard the little bit in the middle of the strip where the two colours have been in contact with one another. If you are remotely happy with what you have done, stop! Don't do anymore. You can add to it once it is dry.  Keep wetting your tools (but not too much).  If you have never used...

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...

The last of the Royalist regiments of horse to take their moment in the spotlight. Sir Charles Lucas is probably most famous for his execution, or "The Loyall Sacrifice" as the Royalist newsbooks would describe it. Charles learned his soldiering, as so many did, in the Netherlands during the 1630s, before returning to fight in the Bishops' Wars. He would be knighted for his efforts in 1639 and be appointed governor of Richmond (the Yorkshire one). As the King was raising his banner, Sir Charles would raise his Regiment of Horse. The Regiment would have their  first taste of combat at a skirmish at Padbury; followed by First Newbury; Hunsborough Hall; Bradford; Boldon Hill; Chester-le-Street; and Marston Moor. Lucas would be wounded and taken prisoner. He would help to identify the eminent Royalist dead for honourable burial. It is said he wept at their numbers. The Regiment would continue fighting at Malpas; Dorchester; were possibly at the storming of Ledbury; skirmishe...

Yet another confusing journey attempting to work out which Forbes we are talking about: why do landed families always give their offspring the same names? After several false starts with my research, I realised that these lancers were in fact Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Forbes of Echt 's Troop part of the Master of Forbe's Regiment of Horse. William Forbes, the Master then later Lord of Forbes would raise a retinue for the First Bishops' war, again for the Home Army, then various regiments from 1648 onwards. He would raise the Master of Forbe's Horse, the Lieutenant Colonel would be Arthur Forbes of Echt. Both William and Arthur were loyal Covenanters, having supported and raised men for the Covenant since 1639. Raised in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, they were soon ordered to Perth where their numbers swelled. Seemingly a bunch of ne'er do wells, a number of their men appeared before the Presbytery Courts for getting up to mischief (in other words fornication, having...

Thomas Leveson was Governor of Dudley Castle from 1642. Leveson was, apparently, a rather scary fellow who terrified both friends and foes. The Regiment was raised as a garrison regiment for the castle, although they did occasionally venture out to rampage locally, or further afield if asked nicely by Prince Rupert. Present at the storming of  Chillington House; they fought at  Newark, Marston Moor, Leicester, Naseby, and Stow on the Wold. Surrendering Dudley Castle in May 1646 to William Brereton without putting up any resistance, Thomas would go into 'permanent banishment'. He would die in France in 1652.  Dudley Castle was slighted, although the rather impressive remains live on at the centre of the site of Dudley Zoo. Straight out of the bag PP figures, cornet by Maverick Models, and bases from Warbases. Following on from the discussion with regular reader #4, Dex (see comments below): I clearly have missed a trick here with the cornet. There are three known cornet de...

Molyneux, sometimes Molineux, was Viscount Molyneux of Maryborough in the Irish peerage. Richard inherited his title aged 6, when his father died. Molyneux attended the commission of array on Preston Moor, and assisted at the seizure of the magazine at Preston. On the outbreak of the war he raised two regiments, one of horse and one of foot, composed chiefly of Roman Catholics. They formed part of the Lancashire forces under the command of the Earl of Derby. Present at the siege of Manchester; the siege of Brampton Bryan; Chipping Campden; stormed Crewe Hall; the siege and battle of Nantwich; they marched north with Rupert to relieve York fighting at Stockport, Bolton and Liverpool on route, before fighting at Marston Moor. After Marston they would fight at Ormskirk and possibly Montgomery. Molyneux would finish the First Civil War in command of Prince Maurice's Lifeguard of Horse. Molyneux continued to support the Royalist cause after the King's surrender, but was not involved...

Socially distanced, after work cheese and wine, definitely not a party (note everyone wearing masks). Saturday boy showing himself up again 🙄 I am somewhat surprised to still be writing this nonsense after four whole years - who'd have thunk I'd have this much to blather on about? And who would have thought that the number of regular readers has reached the dizzying heights of 'possibly seven' - a number that other bloggers can only dream of. So I am told. Well somebody must be reading this as the page number thing keeps ticking over. Unless it is my mum, constantly clicking away, or some hackers in some far off distant land hoping to bring down great instruments of state (sorry you've got the wrong website, you want sites that end gov.uk) I'd like to thank everyone who has supported the blog via Buy Me a Coffee, it really is very greatly appreciated. Your contributions pay for the domain, and help towards parking fees, house entrance fees and some fuel; it doe...

Not a 'new' Regiment, but another in the series of 'briefly mentioned, I'd better go into a bit more detail'. So here are fifteen minutes of fame for Colonel Sir Edward Widdrington's Regiment of Horse. Sir Edward Widdrington was born in 1614, son of Roger Widdrington of  Cartington Castle in Northumbria. A Roman Catholic, he was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1635. Sir Edward  raised 200 horse for service to the King, and Newcastle's Northern Army. They were repulsed from Bradford; fought at Seacroft Moor; stormed Wakefield; were possibly besieged in Scarborough Castle; fought at Marston Moor (where Edward commanded a brigade of horse). What happened to the Regiment after Marston Moor is uncertain.  Not helped by some confusion between Sir Edward, and his cousin Lord, Sir William Widdrington. I was hoping that John Barratt's "A Rabble of Gentility, The Royalist Northern Horse 1644-45" , and Reid's " Cavalier Army Lists" migh...

Fret no more regular readers (who I am led to believe now number almost seven): a return to the normal Monday posting sees yet more Scots cavalry... Alexander Leslie was an accomplished soldier having first fought for the Netherlands, then Sweden in the Thirty Years War. Gustavus Adolphus thought so highly of Leslie's skills he knighted him and made him lieutenant general. He would return to Scotland in 1638, in response to the crisis brought about by the introduction of the Laudian prayer book, and the signing of the National Covenant. Leslie/Leven had in effect two Regiments of Horse - his Life Guard and his 'normal' Horse. This post looks at the 'normal' Horse, and tries to make sense of their somewhat complicated timeline. Leslie was commander in chief of the Scots Army for both Bishops Wars. For the second war he commanded the Fife Horse who were raised in Kirkcaldy and Cupar. They didn't really get up to much apart from crossing the border, occupying Newca...

Apologies for a not-Monday posting! So here without further ado is Major General Sir John Brown of Fordell's Regiment of Horse Sir John Brown learnt his soldiering on the continent, and was commissioned as one of the first three cavalry troop commanders of the Solemn League and Covenant (he would later receive a commission to be lieutenant colonel of Leslie's Horse). In May 1645, Brown was commissioned colonel of his own Regiment, which was to be made up of four troops. This was quickly amended by the Committee with the Army who raised the Regiment's strength to eight troops.  The newly formed Regiment would be quartered in Cumbernauld. In October 1645 the Royalist Northern Horse were retreating from Yorkshire, and attempting to head north to join up with Montrose's Army. Brown's Horse met the Northern Horse at Annan Moor. Brown's men routed the Royalist reserve line (commanded by Langdale) which in turn led the front line (commanded by Digby) to flee. Brown...

This week a bit of a book review. Which is a bit odd, because it is two books. Steve Archibald published his first volume with Redcrest Books (part of Amazon) a couple of years ago. The first volume covers English and Scottish Foot Regiments. His second volume covers Cavalry Cornets and Guidons. Both books are well researched: anyone familiar with the source material will be able to see that the author has gone back to primary source material to check the designs rather than simply rehash the Military Modelling flag articles from 79/80. You'd be surprised how many other authors and flag manufacturers have used the MM articles as their source material. The giveaway that the author went back to original source material Many flags were only described, rather than illustrated, in source material - so they are only an artist's interpretation. Publishers of flag books take note: this is how to do a flag book - full colour illustrations! The Foot volume starts by explaining the differ...

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)...