Project finished, but another to continue.

The final unit for my Wars of the Roses armies has now been completed. Twelve Scurrers, Prickers, Hobilars or whatever these light cavalry went by the name of. So now I shall return to my English Civil War of Wars of the Three Kingdoms project. I have a number of units to complete for the war in Scotland as well as a couple more English foot regiments.

The Scurrers, can be employed as scouts, foragers etc. A poor man's cavalry who will work for the highest bidder.

The Montrose Irish will be reinforced by this cannonade, which can be packed onto a mule, as can be seen in the background. It will be served by a crew of three.

The Montrose Irish will also receive a second foot unit, and I have this command group, unique from the common plastic sprues.

These eight Irish Pike will make up the rest of the 12 man command/pike stand.

Two sleeves of eight shot will be taken from a common sprue. This gives me a regiment of 28 figures, a number that I have settled on and which looks good to my eyes.

This little lot will keep me busy for a while, and then I can create a second foot unit for the Covenanter army.

Care Package

Hi all, just a quick post about a care package I received from my good friend Gab's, some figures he had no use for, but which will fit my armies perfectly. All will be added to my Montrose Irish force.
The figures are more 25 than 28mm, but that isn't a problem for me, I will mix and match as required.

All the figures received are laid out on the painting board.

Sadly, the paintwork on the figures is beyond saving, so a bath in Dettol awaits these guys, on the left are ten cavalry figures. I am thinking of changing out three of the figures for the three metal Moss Troopers I have from the Scots Lancers box set. This will give them even more of a Scottish feel.

This guy will be perfect to add to the mule packed light artillery piece I have for the army.

A squad of nine firelock storming party methinks! Will add a shock factor to the army.

Finally, the horses have been cleaned up and given a coat of light grey primer.

So all in all, a fine addition for the Marquis of Montrose in his fight with the Covenanters. Thanks again to Gabs for passing on these figures. I shall show more as and when I begin to clean and paint the figures.

Wars of the Three Kingdoms Project. - Irish and Scottish troops.

On my return to a lapsed project, namely the Wars of the Three Kingdoms or English Civil War, I have completed two more regiments and also had a battle with 28mm troops on a small table! So a busy, but enjoyable few days. I have finally added some Irish and Scottish troops to my collection.

First up are the Scottish Covenanters, dressed in their Hodden Grey uniforms and topped with blue knitted bonnets.

The bonnets appear green in the photographs, but they are a light blue.

Next up is their deadly foe, the Montrose Irish. In front is Alisdair 'The Devastator' Mac Colla, a giant of a man with his two bodyguards. These boys favoured white trews and any captured Covenanter clothing and equipment they could lay their hands on.

A motley, but fierce bunch who ran the Covenanters ragged in the Highlands of Scotland, defeating four separate Covenanter armies in the process.

All the boys lined up.

Next on the table will be a reinforced box of Highlanders.

I also managed to fit in a game of Pike and Shotte over the weekend, using a table measuring just under 5 x 3 feet. Some basic scenery and a building were laid down and I used a single base of figures to represent each regiment.

A full turn by turn battle report is available to read, with lots of photographs, on the Tabletop Commanders Blog page.

A return to the War of the Three Kingdoms.

After a year away I have completed another unit. This time it is the Montrose Irish who fought on the side of the king. They still need a wash, but otherwise are complete. Their adversaries are now on the painting board, the Scottish Covenanters. The photos are not great as I had to take them indoors due to it snowing outside.

Two sleeves of eight shot on each flank, with pikes and command in the centre.

Alisdair 'the devastator' Mac Colla and his bodyguards bottom centre.

Difficult to see in these photos, but some of them are wearing plaid scarves/sashes, which came out reasonably well using a set of ink pens.

All change on the Project front.

I had forgotten how awful the soft plastic of 1/72nd scale really is. It is a long time since I worked with this scale and after working with metal and hard plastics for the last few years, I simply could not motivate myself to actually paint them. First of all one of the horses was minus a tail, it was not in the box, which was shrink wrapped, so it must have broken off prior to being packed. Then when fixing them to pennies with blue tack, I managed to snap two of them off their bases. The spindly little legs just came away.

The upshot is I chucked the whole lot back in their boxes in disgust and have gone back to 28mm. If I do attempt a Hundred Years War army, then it will also be in 28mm. All my 1/72nd scale will be going up for sale on that well known auction site.

So, with that project thrown out of the window, I am returning to my English Civil War, or more correctly The Wars of the Three Kingdoms, armies. I am going to add the Montrose Irish, Scottish Covenanters and Highlanders to the ranks of my English regiments. There are also three or four more boxes of standard infantry to build and paint as well.

Today, for the first time in months, it is sunny and actually quite mild, so the metal figures from two of the packs were duly taken outside and sprayed with a light grey primer. The Montrose Irish are all metal but the Covenanters are just a standard hard plastic infantry pack, with four specific to them, command figures in metal and some bonnets as opposed to hats favoured by the English.

The box set of Montrose Irish.

The four command figures.

'Mac Colla' and his two bodyguards. They are a blister pack and don't come with the box set.

Sixteen musketeers to allow for two sleeves of eight.

Six pike men who will along with the command occupy a centre base between the two sleeves of shot.

As mentioned earlier, the Covenanters are the standard plastic infantry set with a bag of four metal command and bonnets.

The four command figures, include a piper.

So a return to a project that hasn't been touched for a year. Also the pleasure of dealing with metal and hard plastic.

Taking Stock?

As we race along to another Christmas and end of year, thoughts turn to gifts for the loved ones etc. My wife asked me what I wanted this festive season and for the life of me, I couldn't think of anything that I need! Lots of things I would like, but nothing I need.

Since that question, I have been doing a bit of a stock check, I know most of us in this hobby gather a mountain of lead or plastic, or in my case, a mountain of each. So many projects, but how many actually get finished? On my return to the hobby a number of years ago, I simply built up a stock of 1/72nd scale figures, similar to the Airfix troops of my childhood. I have two large boxes full of unpainted troops from various time periods. They all need finishing and there is enough in those boxes to keep me going for months, if not all of next year!

I also have not completed my English Civil War or War of the Three Kingdoms forces, yes I have completed lots of them but I still have a number of regular regiments in plastic to paint up, that have sat in their boxes for close to a year now. I have barely started on my Scottish troops, The Montrose Irish, the Scottish Covenanters and of course the Highlanders photographed below, all remain untouched.

Beautiful sculpts, already primed up and ready to go, once again, enough painting to keep me going for a good two or three months.

I also have the two box sets shown in the following photographs.

Add to that two boxes of Ancient Britons, giving a total of close to 300 figures. I have actually painted up about a dozen of the Roman bog standard legionaries, the remainder sit untouched in the boxes again! There is certainly a good few months work there.

I have completed a box of Anglo-Saxons and half a dozen Dark Age Warriors for SAGA, the rest of the DAW plus a full box of Vikings sit untouched. Add to that a 1/50th scale Viking Longship for use in a SAGA battle, again, pristine in its box.

Next up is the 28mm War of the Roses armies I am currently working on, still quite a lot of plastic figures to paint up as well as all the metal command and a couple of wagons drawn by oxen and horses!

Finally, the 6mm American Civil War armies, granted the lion's share of this huge project is done but I still have some 17 or 18 infantry units for each side to paint up as well as a few more wagons etc.

So do I really need anything! No of course I don't. I have more than enough to last me beyond next Christmas. My N Gauge model railway is scheduled to be resurrected in the New Year also, that is going to be a lot of work and take up lots of time, not to mention war gaming with all the completed figures I already have.

Fortunately, I retire at Christmas so will have more free time from now on to achieve all of these goals, of course retirement means a tightening of the purse strings so I just won't have the cash to spend that I have been used to. Maybe that is a blessing in disguise, as I won't be able to add to my plastic and metal piles quite so easily in the future. All those little guys sat patiently waiting in their boxes might finally get a little love and attention.