A change of period!

Well, as I had been threatening to do for a while, I have changed historical periods.  I always go in circles like this. My circles normally last between 6 months to 2 years then I get into something else, depending on what inspires me, and then I return to it several years later. So having obtained my copy of 'Pike and Shotte' rules and being suitably inspired I decided to re-vamp my English Civil War armies.  Some of these figures I have had for over 20 years. The Minifigs troops I started with have been retired, as have my Hinchliffe and Old Glory figures.  This leaves Bicorne, Renegade, Redoubt, Foundry, a small smattering of Essex and a few 20 year old Front Rank figures.

I think these are Front Rank

I started with 'Forlorn Hope' Rules which I used to read avidly in the 6th form centre at my school between lessons (so 24 years then!).  These rules I used until about 10 years ago, when I just despaired at the slowness of the games. It seemed to take 2 days to play an action that might have lasted 2 hours in reality!

A nice Redoubt gun and crew

I tried Warhammer English Civil War, but despite the beautiful cover artwork and the glorious glossy pictures, I was unhappy with them.  The artillery is nuclear for a start!  I think I spent 4 years tinkering and re-writing them and then I played 'Hail Caesar' and thought...'Hmmmm I can picture this working with English Civil War' and then I heard that a set specifically for ECW was being brought out!  (Oh all my lucky '6's happening at once!).

A hefty piece and crew by Essex

So I have started the big re-base.  I painted all the figures and guns here somewhere between 10 and 22 years ago.  All my artillery figures were based singly and the guns were separate and it was really a pain in the butt getting them out of the boxes and putting them away and moving them on the table.  I am so much happier with them based altogether as a crew with their guns.  I also decided to put a lot more effort into the basing.  Inspired mostly by my fellow bloggers and some of the amazing basing tips I have picked up, in all honesty (so thank you so much to you all for that).  The large bases I have used are MDF pre-cut as my plastic card goes too bendy and I seem to mess up cutting straight lines!  I have also started to paint the edges of the bases in a black/brown colour.  I always used to try to cover the edges in basing material to disguise the edges (see my celts etc in previous posts), but I noticed a trend in the hobby magazines of dark edges, and I think it looks quite nice in forming a frame for the piece displayed and putting the focus on the whole stand.  I'd be interested in your thoughts on this method.

Wargames Foundry Covenanter Frame Gun

That's my artillery so far, though I have two Minifigs galloper guns to base yet if I can find some crew by another company to put with them. I want to get those complete for recreations of the Battle of Roundway Down (A place I visited on the way back from the Wargames show at Devizes this weekend just gone).

Wargames Foundry Mortar and Crew

I've changed my photography technique too, using curved white paper as a background and using flash and no macro this time. I also found a handy setting called 'Cuisine' which I think is meant to allow you to photograph food in fine detail before you polish it off! (Thank goodness I don't eat much fast food!).  It seems to have avoided the yellowing I was suffering in my photos before, though that might have been caused by the flourescent bedroom light....more experimentation needed I think!

Redoubt useful artillery bits and crewman

So this marks the start of the big re-vamping of a collection.  Infantry and cavalry will follow in due course. Of couse I should say 'should follow in due course'.  At the show at Devizes I bought some 28mm Ancient Greeks and 'Battlegroup Panzergrenadier' for WW2....This wargamer does give in to tempatation! :-)