28mm - English Civil War - Earl of Caernarvon's Regiment of Horse

 

Back to my favourite period of history this time.  If there are figures that I really enjoy painting, it is the English Civil War range by Bicorne Miniatures. 

I bought a lot of these when they were first produced and each time I see the Bicorne stand at a show, I saunter over to take a look at the figures.  I nearly did this again at Attack at Devizes in July, but thankfully before leaving I  had got my lead box out of the loft to find around £500 worth of unpainted figures still stored.  I decided against buying any more...yet!

I have had two terrific games with Ian in the last two months.  The Battle of Babylon Hill of 1642 and the Battle of Chalgrove Field of 1643.  Both of these battles are fairly small scale affairs and ideally suited for 28mm on an 8 x 4 foot table.  Both games were superb with so many things happening as occurred at the actual battles.  If I can find the time to to do full write-ups of these then I shall do so.

As I work through the excellent Scenario books published by Caliver Books, I realised that I needed some more cavalry for both sides.  Therefore I was very pleased to put brush to figure to produce another regiment of horse..

I wanted to paint up a regiment that had seen a good number of actions, as I like to to try to use the actual regiments as far as possible, for the battles that they were involved in.  Essentially though, only the standard really ties the figures to any particular unit, indeed they could be used for either side as only the command figures wear a 'scarfe' showing their allegiances. 

I mainly focus on Waller and Hopton's campaigns in the West. With this in mind I started studying unit histories.  One stood out in particular.  

The Earl of Caernarvon's Regiment of Horse had been in the West Country and in the Oxford Army.  As well as being in the West Country, there was a local connection in that they appear to have formed the garrison at Eynsham in West Oxfordshire and were also at the skirmish at Bampton in the Bush.  They would have therefore had ridden on the road going past my house many times (my house not existing at the time though), in their patrolling and marching with the field armies.

The excellent BCW-Project website provided flag information and more unit history.  The Regiment also served at Southam, Edgehill, Lansdown, Roundway Down, First Newbury and after the death of Caernarvon at Newbury, under their new Colonel,  Richard Neville, they also served at Cheriton, Cropredy Bridge, Lostwithiel, Second Newbury, and Langport among many other actions.  

The BCW Project gave details of the flag which enabled me to paint at least one of the Troop standards.

I tried different techniques again to try to give more depth of colour and to try to speed up my painting.

I also glued the rider to the horse before painting.  I think I spent too long previously, painting saddle details that never get seen.  

The Bicorne miniatures really are great to paint. The detail stands out crisply. I was able to use washes which fell into folds really well.

The trumpeter was good fun to paint too. Normally I saw trumpeters as a necessary evil, but this time I just wanted to make a good job on him and make him stand out. More time was spent on lace than I usually do.

I have to admit that I don't think I spent any less time than I normally spend painting, even with the increased use of washes.  I just enjoyed applying the colours.and trying to make a good job of it all.

Bicorne figures have really good faces. Lots of detail but without 'silly' faces - no heroic massive chins or gurning expressions. These are all quite believable characters.

These took about 3 weeks of evening and some weekend days.  I suspect that they are going to see a lot of action.  Now I have painted these up I feel like doing more, maybe for Parliament...but again, we will see. So many projects to do!

28mm -Grand Manner - Late Medieval Buildings

Recently Grand Manner had a sale of unpainted buildings.  Usually they sell only their painted resin buildings. I have eyed their superb buildings for many years but the painted goodies were beyond my pocket.  The unpainted buildings were a different matter though. 

Firstly I bought some Dark Age (early medieval) Buildings which I painted up, to a better standard than I thought I could (I'm a figure painter really).  These featured in a post a few months back.

I liked those buildings so much that I took the plunge and ordered a large set of late medieval buildings.

The numbering in the above picture was done by me so I didn't get confused as to which bit belongs to which building! I had lovely afternoon sat in the sunshine with a bucket of water and a nail brush and had an enjoyable unwrapping session followed by cleaning off the resin residue.

I have to compliment Grand Manner on their packaging.  Their care and attention is on another level altogether. I should have taken photos of the neatly individually bubble wrapped parts, with polystyrene foam inside supporting walls and beams.  As a result each building was most definitely undamaged and arrived very safely.  It was a joy to unwrap them and examine each one in turn. If it wasn't for the intense heat of the blazing sun, I would have said that it felt like Christmas!

The sculpting on the buildings is magnificent. On the market square buttercross above, there are even pigeons sculpted on. Quite wonderful!

Close up - the blurring is down to my poor camera-work!

As you can see there is a market cross and stocks too

And lots of buildings and also cobbled streets.  

I thought I would post the pics of these now, because it will probably quite some time before they all get painted up!

Their uses will be frequent though, and I suspect they will become part of St Albans for the Wars of the Roses, and numerous English Towns for Civil War battles too.

28mm - Napoleonic British - 69th South Lincolnshire Regiment of Foot - Perry Miniatures

 

Napoleonics...probably my first real wargaming interest.  I started with Airfix 20mm plastic figures like so many of us, after having collected 1/32 plastics and loving the box art.  20mm gave bigger battles and with tape measures and dice instead of throwing marbles.  I don't need to go down a well trodden path, I think we mostly share the same journey.

I then had some of the 25mm Prince August moulds and in the late 1980's and made some lead figures on my dad's electric cooker in the kitchen.  I added some Minifigs from the shop at Devizes in Wiltshire and made some units. I still have memories of the shop keeper going back to the back of the shop after every hand written order line and checking to see how many he had.  Sometimes, a few...sometimes none.  Making full units was hard in those pre-internet days!

I properly got back into wargaming when I bought my first house and took over the spare room in 1993.  This is the Status Quo. There has been no change, other than the troop numbers and storage boxes in my spare room...which have got larger and larger and larger...

..and yet...my Napoleonic armies have been stop/start ever since. I can barely call them armies. I'll paint a stand and then stop!  Then I'll try 15mm then 6mm and then back to a stand of 28mm after a gap of several more years. It's odd. I have probably 10-15 wargaming periods that I play and Napoleonics has always been neglected since that early start in my teenage years.  Is it the lace and detail? Probably - I can paint American Revolutionary War troops, lace too with no qualms.  Napoleonics always seems a level too far. I can paint a unit of 30 Normans in the time it takes me to paint 6 Napoleonic figures.

I started this Regiment back in 2015, inspired by the Waterloo 200 years commemoration.  They are the wonderful 28mm plastic British Infantry produced by Perry Miniatures.  I painted a stand at time to get into it it and then just stopped.  Reading some Napoleonic memoirs recently and also purchasing an original Napoleonic carbine a few weeks ago, inspired me to look at my collection again.  

I had one stand with flank company men and the command stand to go to complete the Regiment...the dreaded command stand.  Research was required on the drummers uniform, drums, officers lace etc etc nothing was straightforward!  I just had to go for it.  Three weeks later they were done!

The flag is by GMB. This is slightly larger than the prints that the Perry's thoughtfully provide on their on painting guide in each box.  I like the flags by GMB so try to use them whenever possible.  However they did require some trimming to fit on the gap between finial and hand.  I did kind of wish I used the Perry's supplied flags with just a bit of extra highlighting afterwards.

Once I finished these today, I just looked at them and wondered why I don't paint these and nothing else.  I am really pleased with them. There is something so iconic in that Waterloo campaign uniform, with oilskins over shako caps and grey overalls. A mix of the decorative and practical that shouldn't work but somehow does.  The Perry's did a wonderful job in giving each figure character and the right look.  They were a joy to assemble too.  I could have gone more regimented with their appearance, but I wanted a line of battle appearance, when fire is coming in and hearing goes!

Will I be painting more of these...oh yes.  When will it be?  I don't know.  I put excessive detail in (again) for wargaming figures, despite telling myself that I wouldn't.  I feel like doing something lace free now.

I suspect that once I take my Paget carbine down the range the inspiration to paint more will come straight back again as soon as I get the whiff of powder!

Battle of Southam - 24 August 1642 - 28mm Pike and Shotte Rules

 

 

It's not often that I do write ups of the games I play.  I think its more to do with the fact that I don't really take photos all the way through the game to create a good narrative.  I also forget what happened! It's also considerably easier and less time consuming to show painted figures instead.  

However, I should really do more write ups, if only to remember the really great games that I played.

The battle that Ian and I played the other week was from the excellent series of scenario books produced by Caliver Books entitled 'English Civil War Gaming Scenarios'. This battle is from Volume 3 by Robert Giglio.  The books are excellent in that the scenarios are transferable to any set of ECW rules and the information contained within is just excellent.

This battle looked interesting for several reasons. Not least because it was actually before Edgehill, and its not really that well known. The armies are a mix of troop types and it is not totally equal.  One side is stronger in infantry but weaker in cavalry.  Both sides are largely raw troops too...so care needs to be taken to avoid units breaking too soon.

The above image shows the start dispositions.  The horse units on the furthest end have been labelled as 'wings' for image space.  The Royalists have the River Itchen and bridge to their rear. The road runs from Coventry, behind the Royalists towards Southam, behind the Parliament army.

Above we have the Royalist foote unit of the Earl of Northampton's Regiment (though it is actually painted up as a Cornish Regiment with possible flag colours - there can't be many ECW wargaming armies with correct flags throughout!).  Stand-in units playing the part of the historical unit are going to be seen throughout this blog post..so ignore the flags!  I think only my Northampton's Horse regiment has the correct flag.

A view from behind the Royalist right wing. These cavalry troops are from the Redoubt Enterprises range which still look good, but when they came out nearly 30 years ago, were just incredible.

Still behind the Royalist lines. The light gun and Saville's Dragoons get ready in the Royalist Centre.

View from behind the Royalist Left. The cavalry are a mix of Redoubt and Bicorne figures.  This Royalist wing refused all orders to make it move throughout the entire game!)

 

The left half of the Parliament army arrayed above.

Another overview shot

A close up of fine Bicorne Miniatures cavalry

A rare sight, some of the English Civil War cavalry produced by Front Rank (closest to camera).  I painted these in around 1991. They have been re-based several time but they have held up well to the decades.  The Royalist cavalry have the better of the fight on their right and push break the Parliamentarians. Above, the reserve Parliament line attempts to make a charge to hold back the tide.

On the Parliament right, things should have gone much better. The Royalist cavalry they were facing consistently disobeyed the orders they receive to charge.  As my Parliament cavalry wing receive the order to advance to take advantage, they 'blunder' their order and move off to their left oblique to stand in front of my infantry.  This was not the 'infantry protection' movement that they were intended to make...someone blundered for sure!

A view of Northampton's Infantry from the point end.  Figures are Bicorne with possibly some of the old Renegade troops mixed in.

With my left wing of horse routing and my right blundering, it was down to the infantry to save the day. my Parliament army was stronger in Infantry so I had to make use of it. I decided to advance down the hill and attack.  Unfortunately the cavalry blunder blocked my infantry from moving, except for Col Denzil Holles's Regiment.  A raw regiment but imbued with courage (or imbued with something!)

It was a bloody affair.  The red marker shows they unit has become spent and the cotton wool smoke is disorder.  The Royalist light gun and infantry fire poured a deadly fire into Holles's men.  It was too much for them and alas they discarded their arms and broke and ran.

That was effectively the end of the battle. My narration makes it seem short but the game lasted a few hours and several game turns (we chat lots too!).  It played like many of the smaller battles of the Civil War historically seemed to.  Raw troops fighting with major collapses once things start going wrong.

With one broken cavalry wing and my Infantry brigade with most of its units spent, this meant that 2 of the 3 brigades were counted as beaten, so the last brigade had no choice but to turn tail and flee.

All in all it was a great game and made me wonder how 3 years could go by without playing one of my favourite periods (and probably with my biggest collection).  The game played well and it was brilliant to read about and play another battle in a war that set the whole area around where I live between Oxford and Burford, ablaze with battles, sieges and skirmishes.

In the actual historical battle, it appears that Colonel John Hampden's Parliament regiment made a determined assault down the hill, with the light guns advancing and firing to support with grapeshot at close range, causing the Royalists to break and flee (offering to sell their weapons in the nearby townes 'for 12 pence a peece'). So in history it was a Parliamentarian victory.

I look forward to playing more Civil War games soon, though with the arrival of hot weather, my mind often wanders to the Western Deserts of WW2...