Thursday 23 August 2012

Musketeers of Sir William Pennyman's Regiment of Foote

These are the photos of my current project. To completely re-vamp, re-organise and re-base my English Civil War collection.  I have been working on a few things at once (really shouldn't do but hey I am a wargamer!) but at the same time as doing the casualty figures I have also been working on these musketeers.


These are a musket 'wing' from Sir William Pennyman's Regiment of Foote.  The figures are from Bicorne Miniatures and I have to say I absolutely love the range and have done from the day I first saw them.


I love the detail; the holes in the uniforms, the patches, the individual characters. I like how the muskets have a solid look about them and with so much detail.  Some companies have figures with awful stubby little muskets...not these...these have heft and are a joy to paint.


Traditionally I always seem to have used too dark a blue for my ECW figures.  They looked more like Frenchmen with broad brimmed hats.  I did my research with these and looked at the re-enactors from this regiment.  Their uniforms have a lovely 'washed out' look, just like I would imagine vegetable dyed clothing would look (actually I say that but what vegetable is blue?..I know nothing of dyes to be honest!).  Anyway I like the faded look. Campaigning in sun and rain must surely have faded the uniforms quickly.



A few rear shots of this Royalist unit.  I really like the way that all of the equipment is visible and also a pleasure to paint and bring out.

You can have some fun with the details:


It took me hours to light all the match-cord! (only joking, but you can add little details like this with ease and it just adds something to the figures).


Here we have the new wing joined by the one I completed and re-based previously.  I just need to purchase a pack of pikemen and I can finish the pike block. I will have a whole regiment complete then.  I must be mad making 40 figure regiments, but it does look so good on the table!

4 comments:

  1. Woad is a vegetable (a type of mustard I think) and is the classic blue dye.

    Lovely painting and, yes you are mad to do 40 figure regiments.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A great looking, well painted unit!

    I like big regiments on the table as well, can't stand those 12-20 men regiments.

    Cheers,
    Thomas

    PS: Nice blog, it's on my list from now on!
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you both for your kind comments. :-)

    Epictetus, yes of course thank you - Woad - I should have realised that was the obvious dye source...the lack of which famously lead the French to use white coats for a short time under Napoleon.

    I hope to finish another regiment shortly. I just need to go outside and hammer out some steel wire to make pikes. It makes me feel like a real 17th century blacksmith! ha ha! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. They look excellent, Jason!

    This is actually one of the few periods where I like big units, but really, most ECW battles were quite small affairs, so a relatively modest number of big regiments is reasonable (and do-able). I think big regiments for, say, the Napoleonic era is kind of insane myself, but to each their own.

    Indigo was the blue dye used for French Napoleonic uniforms; it derives from a plant native to India and known to (and imported by) the Romans; the British blockade made it difficult to import, hence the expermental (and short lived) white uniforms. Evidently woad does contain the same dye, though.

    ReplyDelete