Keep Your Powder Dry

The first of the bonus regiments of foot. Regular readers (hello all eight of you) will have spotted some halberdiers and command figures feature in the Which Figures Part 2 post and wondered what became of them... I shall start with what we know about Tillier's, hopefully dispelling a few wargamer facts™ in the process. Raised in Ireland from Dublin garrison detachments of Ormond’s army in 1643, they returned to England in February 1644. Don't be confused about the 'raised in Dublin' bit, these men were in the main English or Welsh. They would skirmish at Market Drayton; fight at Newark; possibly take Longford House and Tong Castle; march north with Rupert and storm Stockport, Bolton, take Liverpool, before fighting at Marston Moor where by all accounts they took very heavy losses. The Regiment was practically raised anew and would go on to the siege of Montgomery Castle, and battle of Montgomery. They stormed Leicester; fought at Naseby, again taking heavy losses. Re...

Regular readers (hello all eight of you), will have seen me complain that I had underrepresented the Solemn League artillery train, so I added a paltry minion and limber to beef up their artillery train. A handful of frame guns and a minion doesn't really cut it, does it? So I have added a brace of  sakers. Sakers and crews from PP; limbers from Museum Miniatures, with a PP horseholder who has had a headswap. Custom casualty markers from Warbases This time I went for Cd'A wood for the gun carriages, with my now trusty mix of Foundry blackened barrel shades for the metalwork (light for the wheel tyres and dark for everything else). If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

Regular readers (hello all seven of you, maybe even eight now) will have seen my claims that my baggage train was finished and that there would be no more expansions. In fact you will have seen me claim this a number of times. Cutting a very long and tedious story short, space appeared in my baggage train boxes. Oh noes, I hear you cry, what is to be done. Fortunately the now vacant space was just the right size for a small cart... Not wishing to upset the karmic apple cart by having empty space I ordered two barrel carts from Museum Miniatures. As always, the drover that came with the pack was discarded and replaced by a PP horseholder.  In the interests of prettification the Royalist incarnation has a Naismith marching musketeer on its base; Parliament's has a Steel Fist flautist (from command pack 3). The complete Parliamentarian baggage train... ...maybe I have overdone it. A little. (The Royalists have a similar sized train too.) If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the othe...

I'm of an age where it is de rigeur to be curmudgeonly about anything and everything, lamenting about how much better it was in the 1970s (it really wasn't, trust me). So you will no doubt be expecting me to rant and rail about the theme park presentation of Warwick Castle. Sorry to disappoint. I really like how the castle is presented, with only a few gripes, most notably the hidden speakers blasting out the sounds of merry olde England™ everywhere.  Warwick Castle is old, and I mean proper old. Having its roots in a AngloSaxon burh built upon Æthelflæd's instruction in the early C10th. William the Conqueror would build a motte and bailey castle upon the site in the C11th, the stone castle starting to appear from the C12th. So why does the ECW travelogue take a visit to the theme park castle? It certainly wasn't to sample the delights of Zog's kingdom adventures or the Horrible Histories maze. Caesar's Tower Fulke Greville was granted the ramshackle ruins in 1...

The Gordon Horse were originally raised for the Covenanters but changed sides and fought alongside Montrose. They then appeared to wage their own private war against anyone and everyone who wasn't a Gordon. Lord George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly, was commissioned to raise a regiment of 8 troops for the Covenanters: they were raised  in February 1643 in Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Moray and Northern Scotland, they were based in Moray. They failed to appear at Berwick; parts of regiment join Callendar at Newcastle; Lewis would lead them at Aberdeen. By February 1645 Lord Gordon changed sides to become Royalist: troopers from his Regiment of Horse either follow him or disperse. The now Royalist Regiment fought at Elgin; Dundee; Auldearn; Alford; Kilsyth; and Aberdeen. That was the easy bit. Now for the complicated story of which Gordon was in command... Lord George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly on display at Warwick Castle Lord George Gordon, 2nd Marquess of Huntly,...

Way back in the innocent days of the tail end of 2017, when if you entered a bank wearing a mask you'd have a lot of explaining to do, I started this blog. It was meant as a store for all the snippets of information that were lying around on scraps of paper; something that would help me buy the correct version of Stirland Battlemire/Mud (I'm not sure, think it is mud, would have to check here first) when I visit the shops - even when I'd forgotten to take my shopping list with me. I didn't really expect many people to visit, or even read my inane ramblings. As the little counter thingy has just rolled past a very big number (a quarter of a million!) I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has visited the blog; read my nonsense (unlikely); looked at the pretty pictures (more likely); followed @KeepPowder on Twitter; liked posts; retweeted; commented upon posts; used one of my Google maps; promoted the blog on their own blog or website; generously supported t...

The best thing about painting highlanders is that when you have finished, you know that you don't have to paint them again. Technically that is true for any figures that you paint, but to be honest I don't actually mind painting harquebusiers. I positively enjoy painting London Trained Band regiments. But not highlanders. I really dislike painting highlanders. I mean I REALLY dislike painting highlanders. It's not like it is just an aversion to painting 'tartan'. They are just all round bloomimg horrible to paint. With their little knees on show; the tricksy billowing folds of their plaid; their 'apostles' hidden amongst it all; not to mention their strange fixation with offal based 'food' products. But I digress. Colonel William Gordon’s Regiment was raised in Strathavan, a small glen some thirty miles south of Elgin. This branch of the Gordons came from the town of Minimore, near what is now  Glenlivet. The Regiment was commanded by Colonel William...