First English Civil War

[Glorfindel]

Thanks chaps.

I've never painted ECW figures before so this is a bit of a departure.   Still has
the appeal of something new and shiny.

After painting the two Regiments up (which were pretty much an impulse buy),
I have decided I need a plan !   My intention now is to raise two brigades of foot
with supporting guns and horse.   Each brigade of foot will be based on one of the
completed Regiments supported by two slightly smaller Regiments.   

The larger Regiments comprise four bases (2 x pike, 2 x musket).   The smaller
Regiments will drop one of the pike bases to give a 2:1 ratio of muskets to pike.

Although generalising about the ECW appears difficult, my understanding is that the
Royalists had a harder time arming their Regiments with the musket and had to rely
more on the pike.   As such, I thought I would try to reflect this in some small way
with the larger Regiments based on a 1:1 ratio.

Cavalry and artillery are still off in the future somewhere and I will need to do some
research before deciding numbers / organisation.

Anyway, thats the plan.

Cheers,

Phil

[kev1964]

Beautiful work Phil, looking forward to seeing more of these,


kev

[nikharwood]

Very nice Phil 

[Steve J]

Great work Phil .

[Hertsblue]

Hi Phil,

Hopton's bluecoats (or should that be "blewcotes"?) are looking good. Were you aware that Hopton's were a Cornish regiment (although Hopton himself was a Devon man) and that the Cornish were always reluctant to leave the Westcountry? I think they got as far as Bath and Devizes but not much further. Might be a factor in deciding what army to model?

Ray

[Glorfindel]

Thank you for the kind words chaps.


>>the Cornish were always reluctant to leave the Westcountry? I think they got as far as Bath and Devizes but not much further. Might be a factor in deciding what army to model?

Very interesting - thank you.

I must admit that I am just picking Regiments that (a) I like the look of (b) that I can nick the flags for from the 'Wargames Designs' website
and (c) that I have some coat colour information.

So, for example, I am likely to paint the Marquis of Newcastle's Whitecoats next, followed by the Lifeguard.
Cherry-picking at its worst !

For a previous project (Great Northern War in 6mm), I took a completely opposite angle - working from
a particular Order of Battle (Holowczyn).   This was a great help, particularly when you have a limited
understanding of the period.   If you are interested, a few pics here :

http://s761.photobucket.com/user/glorfindel-666/library/#/user/glorfindel-666/library/Great%20Northern%20War?sort=2&page=0&_suid=138938025859306998811964726037

I had thought to try something similar but the very limited uniform information lead me down
the above path.  From the information I have read, it does seem that there is limited hard
evidence which doesn't sit well with today's 'need to know'.   Very frustrating.

Your email has prompted a nagging guilt, but, at the moment I only plan to paint 6-8 Regiments of foot.   As
such, I need to maintain momentum / interest and will probably continue to cherry-pick.   Sorry !

To balance things up, however, I do like the idea of some really rag-tag Regiments which, I imagine, can be
used as part of any army.   Perhaps, by just using Pendraken's peasant figures (or, at least) including them
in the rear ranks !

Thank you for your help.

Phil

[Steve J]

I must admit that I am just picking Regiments that (a) I like the look of (b) that I can nick the flags for from the 'Wargames Designs' website
and (c) that I have some coat colour information.

To be honest that's what I tend to do for Black Powder period. I'm not a purist for this period but want units that look colourful on the table and hopefully have great units names etc. To me it adds to my personal gaming experience . To others I'm sure it would/will cause palpatations and fainting fits requiring the immediate administering of the smelling salts .

[FierceKitty]

I'd say in 10mm 8 regiments of foot would be rather a lot (assuming they're not one a 1: 500 figure to man scale). I use seven tercios a side for ECW, with appropriste proportions of the rest, and haven't found that games were over too soon.

[Hertsblue]

Mightily impressed with your GNW 6 mils, Phil. I notice that the infantry units are are set right back on their bases. Is this so that they maintain correct distances between units, or is it to give a minimum range for combat?

[Glorfindel]

Hertsblue,

Many thanks for the kind words.   I spent a lot of time painting the GNW figures up and it is always
nice to have that appreciated by another wargamer (who has an idea how long this takes !)

I wish I could say that the positioning related to either of the points you mention.   To some extent,
it is purely aesthetic but, there is also a suggestion that it reflects the ground 'controlled' by the
Battalion.   When two battalions face each other during a firefight, I think that the basing gives a good
impression.

The 60 x 30mm bases are fairly standard for Baccus figures so, as a novice, I just went with
the flow.  I certainly prefer this look to very thin bases that purely allow space for the figures.

My first 6mm figures were Baccus ACW and, for these, I tried a couple of ways of basing them.   After
a time, I adopted the approach you see here.   It is easy to position the stands on a base and helps to
maintain a regular appearance when Brigades are in line.



Phil

[Hertsblue]

Thanks for that, Phil. It's an interesting concept and one I feel tempted to imitate.

Ray

[Glorfindel]

Hi chaps,

I present the Marquis of Newcastle's Regiment of Foot (The Whitecoats) for your amusement :






More pics on the Photobucket account :

http://s761.photobucket.com/user/glorfindel-666/library/10mm%20English%20Civil%20War?sort=3&page=1#/user/glorfindel-666/library/10mm%20English%20Civil%20War?sort=3&page=1&_suid=139050448357205323766557509446

Cheers,


Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I don't find then amusing at all, these are seriously good!

Sorry, bad pun, had to be tried! Great great work.

[Steve J]

Great work once again . I like the fact that the white is not too white, much more a bleached linen look from the photos.

[mollinary]

Great painting! I am interested to see you spread your ensigns between the musketeers and pikes.  Relying on all those contemporary woodcuts, I have always concentrated them all with the pikes, anyone know what the most common practice was?

Mollinary

[Subedai]

Thanks chaps !

>>But are you sure that's the first English Civil War?

Too uniform ?   I'd be interested to hear what you think about this.   I've read different
views ranging from 'men in rags' to 'fully uniformed bodies'.   Haythornewaite (The
English Civil War Illustrated) and Osprey seem to come down on the latter side of the
argument.

I'm trying to add some variety to the line troops but keeping a sense of a Regimental
colour (green in this case if you hadn't guessed !!).

I suppose at the end of the day, its a balance between your reading of history and the
fact that you want the Regiments to have a sense of identity on the table.

Of course, you might be on about something completely different !   

Cheers,


Phil

They certainly are lovely little chaps.

Without checking sources, I'm sure that Peter Young's books on Edgehill and Naseby have copies of orders for cloth to make only doublets meaning that the soldiers would wear their own britches. Where it gets a bit confusing is if a regiment had a reissue of cloth and it was a different colour to the previous issue.

[Techno]

Look terrific to me !! 
Cheers - Phil

[Glorfindel]

Thank you for the kind comments.   Much appreciated !

I've tried to maintain a consistent colour for the shirts while adding lots of variety for the
trousies and caps.   I thought the white shirts would soon become filthy so have only
added tiny touches of white over a light brown base / cream highlight.

Inrteresting to hear about the spread of ensigns.   I must admit that I'm not an expert
on the ECW (a recent interest) so all information is good.   I'll see what it looks like
when I come to paint up the next Regiment (King's Lifeguard).   I think it might actually
look quite effective.

Thanks again.   Onwards and upwards !

Phil

[nikharwood]

Nicely done 

[Womble67]

Looks great to me

take care

andy