Painting of the leader figures progressing and another instalment of the campaign diary.

Having continued painting my leader figures over the Christmas period, the leader figures are nearing completion, some final base colours to apply before a wash and then highlighting. I am simply using the horses as holders for the mounted figures at the moment. This saves me having to drill into the metal figures and place them on cocktail sticks, they always seem to fall of at a critical moment when painting. The horses will be painted last.

The Marquis of Montrose on the left, another unnamed general, a standard bearer and finally on the right a mounted guard.

 General view of the figures.

 Front row from left to right, Charles II, Earl of Newcastle and Lord Byrom.

from left to right, the king's herald, Earl of Essex and Duke of Buckingham. 

 left to right Generals Waller, Hopton and Grenville and Lord Leven.

The figures are coming together nicely and are a joy to paint, the main decision is what colours to dress them in. Virtually all the leader figures are named, but of course they can be whoever I want them to be for any particular battle.

I have also entered the January Painting Challenge, set by a modeller on You Tube. Although I still have plenty of work to do on the leader figures, it is always good to enter a challenge to paint up a regiment in a month, give you an incentive to finish the project. I have chosen a box of Warlord Games Scots Lancers, they will be the first light horse in my armies.

 Twelve figures, well actually fifteen mounted troopers as the box included a bag of metal that contains three Moss Troopers. I shall not be using them as I have another project in mind for them later. The figures are superb moulds as you would expect from Warlord Games. When the box arrived at my home it was minus the bag of metal parts, which of course included the six arms holding lances, not much of a lancer regiment without lances! I contacted Warlord and they sent the missing bag within a couple of days, not only that. I had enquired about cavalry casualty figures for the Pike and Shotte range, they have no current plans for any but did send me three dead horses from their Zulu box set free of charge.

The plastic sprues, also comes with a metal bag of arms holding lances, different headgear and of course the previously mentioned Moss Troopers.

Finally, for this post I have penned another episode of the fictional Civil War campaign, I hope you enjoy part 5.

A Flight of Fate

22^nd March 1642

Twiston Hall

James Appleton stood by the large table in the dining room, as he had done for many years. He had served as head servant to the old Lord Twiston-Rawlings, a kind, generous and caring man, the total opposite of his son, who now sat finishing his meal in the company of John Parr, the captain of the foot regiment, that was even now camped in the grounds of the hall.

But although James was silently comparing the old Lord with his only son, he still listened to every word, though most of what Sir Royston had to say wasn't worth listening to, but every now and then he would say something which was of interest to the Governor of Hull and the Parliamentarians who occupied it. The faithful old servant would carefully write a note, privately, up in his quarters and attach it to the leg of a pigeon in the coop situated in the grounds. The bird would carry these little snippets of information to the parliamentary held town, some sixteen miles away, a short, quick flight for a pigeon.

Now was one of those times when it was worth listening to the spoilt, oversexed fool who now, through no effort of his own, owned Twiston Hall and all it contained. The pair were discussing the loan that had been promised, to aid the king in gathering weapons and supplies.

'Appleton, my good fellow,' Sir Royston turned in his chair and bid James forward.

The old lord always addressed him as James, but not this young cock, oh no, he was lacking in manners to anyone who he deemed to be beneath him, thought James as he stepped forward to stand beside Sir Royston.

'How long would it take to pack up the family plate for wemoval to a safe place in York?' he said, pointing his finger to his empty claret glass.

James reached forward for the decanter, I could throw it in a couple of chests in thirty minutes if I so wished, he thought. He refilled the glasses of both gentleman. 'It would take at least two days sir, there is rather a lot of it.'

'Two days!' Sir Royston spat the words out, 'for goodness sake, surely it can be packed up quicker than that?

Not if the parliamentarians in Hull wish to intercept it and remove it from your worthless hands, thought James. 'Sir, there are items of great value, not to mention of a very fragile nature, all need to be carefully wrapped and protected in chests filled with hay. Not only that sir, I would expect that you would want a full inventory of every item that is packed for your future reference.'

Sir Royston picked up his glass and swirled the contents around. 'Of course you are wight on all those things Appleton, an inventowy would certainly be needed. Make a start on it tomowow morning and it can be twansported in three days time on the 25^th.' He turned back to face Captain Parr, send word to York that the escort of horse will be wequired to be at the hall by the evening of the 24^th.'

Captain Parr nodded, 'Will we be transporting it overnight? Less prying eyes to see what is happening, he said.

Sir Royston had imagined entering York at midday, when most of the population would see the grand entry of Brigadier Sir Royston Twiston-Rawlings and his command, flags billowing in the wind. Why even the king may be among that number to see his triumphal entry, not skulking into the city during the dark of night. No, that would never do, he thought.

'No, we will leave at 8am on that morning, that webel scum in Hull are too busy wowwying about the appwoach of the king and his army, they won't be able to spare men to venture this far.'

Captain Parr said quietly, 'The king seems in no rush to travel to the town and demand its surrender, and each day the garrison grows stronger.

'I think the king and the Earl of Newcastle know what they are about captain!' Sir Royston snapped back. 'Back to the matter in hand, the webels will never know about our twansporting of the plate until it is too late for them to interfere in any way and they could never march a force up here in time, my plan is perfect.

Thanks to a little flying messenger, the Governor of Hull was reading about the plan just an hour later...