Earl of Essex's Regiment of Foote

The Earl of Essex's Regiment are now ready for action.  I originally painted the majority of this regiment somewhere in the mid-90's.  Like my other units created at that time, most of the figures were based on card single stands, flocked badly and with just one officer in the whole unit besides an Ensign.  I have recently spent a little while re-vamping these chaps and adding to their number to bring them up to my standard 40- strong Regiment.

"YAAAAHHH, Come and get some..!!!"

The regiment consists mostly of Wargames Foundry figures, but I filled in the gaps with Perry Miniatures.  The Perry Miniatures are really nice figures and don't fit too badly with the Foundry troops.  The Perry's are slightly taller, and a little bit of trickery was involved to make them fit better.  Basically the Foundry figures were glued to the MDF base on their original card stands. This adds a millimetre or so and brings their height up to the Perry height.  The comparison can be seen best with the musket officers who are Perry's alongside their Foundry subordinates.

The flags are GMB and look far nicer than the original single flag I had before for this regiment.  I think I used to have a Revo flag on there.  I had a little mishap when I sprayed the Matt Varnish over the flag and it started to turn white.  Some repainting was required but the colour matches were very close so I think I got away with it.  I haven't used cords with the flag finials. I don't think cords were used on English flags during this period (but I am happy to be corrected on this as I think they make flags look nicer!).  The cords would also make swirling flourishes of the flag by the Ensign, make the Colours look like giant swirling nipple tassles at a Burlesque show (I would imagine!). This probably wouldn't please a Puritan commander either! :-)

A Perry officer orders his Foundry troops to commence fire by Introduction

There is a lot I like about this Regiment and the Foundry troops are still pleasing after all these years.  I did spend some time deciding whether to retire my Foundry units and replace them with Bicorne/Renegade, but to be honest I think variety looks really good on a game board as long as the extremes are not too jarring on the eye.  I think by increasing the height of the Foundry figures on the base, it allowed them to blend in quite nicely.

Four Perry musketeers amidst the Foundry musket block

Another Perry officer with musketeers

A different view showing combination of Perry's and Foundry

I think in retrospect that I could have toned down the orange coats a little, but they look very attractive on the table and add colour wonderfully.  I have a number of old Foundry regiments to re-vamp but I'm completing some cavalry and dragoons at the moment.  I aim to start creating some command stands which I am desperate to do, as they play an important part in 'Pike and Shotte'.  I also really like command vignettes too.

Christmas was a really busy time for me and I didn't make it on-line to make a posting to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and Happy New Year, but looking at your posts it seems like everyone had a fabulous Christmas with many wargaming goodies! I received two excellent books on the ECW ;'To Walk in the Dark' Military Intelligence during the ECW, and 'Cromwell hath the honour but...' about Maj-Gen Lambert's campaigns in 1648.  I bought myself a copy of Warlord Games 'Triumph of Albion' which could just kick-start my barely started Peninsular War armies. I love Napoleonics but painting them is so time consuming...all that lace!

I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank MiniMike for becoming the 50th follower of this blog today, and  also I'd like to thank you all for the inspiration your posts give to me and for pushing my enthusiasm ever onwards.

Best wishes for 2013.

Jason