The Campaign - Opening Moves - Another Story.

The next instalment of the Civil War Campaign.

Opening Moves.

19^th March 1642

No longer safe in London, Charles I had moved North and set up his court in York. His intention was to enter the Town of Hull and secure the arsenal there for his gathering forces. Parliament had already secured the town by appointing Sir John Hotham as governor the previous month, with strict instructions not to let the Town and its citadel containing large quantities of ordnance, fall into Royalist hands.

York Guildhall

The Earl of Newcastle lit his clay pipe and settled back in his chair blowing a cloud of tobacco smoke into the air. He turned to the other person in the room, Bartholomew Walsh, the Governor of York, sat on an identical chair, trying to hide his distaste as the smoke wafted in his direction.

 'Does my tobacco smoke bother you Mister Walsh? Asked the Earl, sucking in another lung full of smoke.

 'Oh no sir,' Bartholomew lied. 'I personally take snuff, as I find smoking a pipe too harsh a taste and to be frank it makes me cough.' He could already feel a tickle at the back of his throat. The Earl had arrived in York that morning with the King, since which time Bartholomew had barely sat down, with so much to organise and oversee. Quarters for the Royal Family and Courtiers, billeting areas for the troops who had accompanied the royal party. York was now the de facto capital of the country, well the Royalist half of the country.

 'We are going to need a great many men for the inevitable war to come,' said the earl, looking up at the many portraits of former city dignitaries, that lined the upper walls of the room. 'How is recruitment going here? Another cloud of smoke went billowing lazily up toward the ceiling.

'Recruitment is gathering pace sir, the city has raised two regiments of foot, with more to come', replied Bartholomew, trying to control the urge to cough whilst at the same time using a silk handkerchief to dab his watering eyes, the damn smoke was affecting him quite badly and he had the urge to cross the room, throw open the window and breathe in fresh air.

'The surrounding areas? The earl was now looking at Bartholomew. 'What are they contributing to the King's cause?'

Bartholomew squirmed in his chair, the bloody parliamentarians in and around Hull were raising men faster than he could, and there was little he could do about it. ' We have some regiments forming sir, but as you know, the area between York and Hull will be hotly contested. We control the county down to Driffield, but Beverley has sided with the rebels.'

His pipe having finally burned down, the earl tapped it out into the hearth. Praise the lord for small mercies, thought Bartholomew. The earl stood and walked to the window, he gazed out at the hustle and bustle, soldiers mixed with the civilian population, a flock of sheep being driven through the street, the drover having a hard time controlling them. He turned to face Bartholomew. 'The king intends to travel to Hull at the head of the army, once there he will demand entrance and the handing over of the military stores held in the arsenal. That traitorous dog, Hotham will agree or the town will be placed under siege.'

Bartholomew was clearly shocked by this news, 'But that would be the first act of war!' he almost shouted the words before the tickle in his throat finally reduced him to a fit of coughing.

The earl was once more looking out of the window, the drover had somehow managed to bring his flock back under control, despite the throng of people. 'Then so be it,' he said in what sounded to Bartholomew to be a very unconcerned tone.

 

We move closer to war and the county along with the rest of the country is busy raising regiments for the upcoming struggle. In London, Parliament has a new commander of the navy in place and so ensuring command of the British coastline.

Work begins on the houses.

Have begun painting the four resin houses that have sat in a cupboard for the past year or two. I have already painted up about half a dozen buildings, including a blacksmith's and a timber yard/cooperage.

A single storey house, this could be used in my Saga Dark Age battles as well as the Civil War.

 Dark grey wattle and daub walls with a weathered lighter grey roof.

 Two-Storey wattle and daub with a terracotta roof.

 Note the buildings have wattle and daub on the front only of the upper floors, the sides and rear being wooden boards.

 This is the only house with a glass window, in the upper floor only.

 Once again the upper floor is made of timber boards.

 Two storey thatched house. The thatch was given a water coat of Flat Earth, followed by a watered down Green/Yellow. Still needs some darker Brown/Black and a sepia wash.

Having access to a few buildings does enhance your table top and help bring it to life. They are also a pleasure to paint. The temptation is to go for numerous colours but in reality the colours used would have been very limited. The beams being mostly covered in a tar like substance to prevent rotting. If an owner was a little more wealthy, then a brighter colour may have been used.

The roof and upper floors are separate pieces and could if required be lifted off to place soldiers inside, as if occupying the building.

Baggage Train completed.

The baggage train build progressed more quickly that I thought it would. The excellent laser cut MDF wagons, helped greatly of course. Once assembled they needed very little work to complete and so left me more time to concentrate on the Shire Horses and the horse walkers.

Some of the wagons will be used in a table top battle when our Royalist friend Sir Royston wishes to move the family valuables and plate from Twiston Hall to a much safer location in York. Possibly right into a Parliamentary ambush involving no other than Septimus, who would greatly appreciate adding the loot to the governments cause.

The next project will be to paint up four resin houses to add to my collection of buildings. I will then have enough to represent a village or even part of a town. Sometime in the future I would like to construct part of a town walls and gateway, the pieces being able to fitted together in a number of ways. This would allow for siege battles to be fought.

 All four wagons and the mule train.

 The four wheeled cart loaded up with sacks, barrels and crates and pulled by a two horse team.

 I created the bases from Plasticard, sprinkled with some small grey gravel, finally I added a verge of green flock.

 I think it gives a pleasing representation of a baggage train.

 Small cart with single horse.

 Black Powder or Strongbox cart.

 The mule train was especially enjoyable to paint up.

 The four wheeled wagon is more from the Boer/Zulu War period but will do for this project.

 

All in all a very enjoyable build and paint. A baggage train is of course an integral part of every army on campaign. It also provides a nice, juicy target for the enemy to attempt to capture.

Wagon completed and some resin houses.

The baggage train project is going so well, I have decided to add some resin houses suitable for the period into this month's build. I do have four or five already completed and these are the last of my stock. It will be more than enough for a village or small town when placed on the table top.

As of yet I don't have any civilians to people the village with, I must look into that.

 The four wheeled wagon with a load of barrels, sacks and crates, all suitably weathered.

This has been a very pleasurable build, something I have not tackled before.

 

 

 A two-storey wattle and daub house with a tiled roof.

Single storey building, could double as a Saxon Hall for my SAGA warriors if required. 

 Another wattle and daub but this time with a thatched roof.

 

This one is half wattle and daub and half timber again with a tiled roof.

 

Well that little lot should keep me busy for a while. A complete rest from building and painting regiments of troops too.



More work on the baggage train

Slapping some paint on the baggage train.

 

Have managed to do a little work on the baggage train over the last couple of days. It is progressing very nicely and in fact I will probably finish far earlier than the 24th December. With that in mind, I have decided that as this month is set aside for the challenge, I shall complete some of the bits and pieces that have been sat in my 'To Do' pile for a very long time. I dug out four pieces of resin fencing and have begun to paint them and I will also dig out a couple more period houses that also need painting up.

 

A few photos of the baggage train build now.

 

 The horses have now had two coats and also a sepia wash followed by a little dry brushing

 The mules have also received two coats and a dry brushing. As I had some browns on the go, I don't like to waste paint, I also started doing the base colours on the mules and the horse walkers.

 Just very basic colours added, they will probably need a second coat before washing.

 

All six horses together.

 

Well that will do for today. I shall include photographs of the fence sections and show the resin houses in my next entry.



Supplying the Army.

 

So far I have only shown the sexy part of the armies, the Foot, Horse and Artillery. Of course none of the former would function without supplies of food, gunpowder, fodder and ordnance. The more mundane is often not shown on the miniature battlefield. I shall attempt to put that right.

 

 

During the month of December, I am taking part in an Advent Challenge. This basically is a stress buster in the days leading up to Christmas Day, where we can escape from the hustle, bustle and stress that is the over commercialised and overpriced time of the year. Nice to escape to whatever little corner that serves as your work space and do a little painting. I did not have a baggage train so decided that my entry for the challenge would be some horses, carts, horse walkers, mule train and some items of baggage to place on them.

 

 Six cart horses made by Trent Miniatures.

 Two horse riders, sadly they will not fit on the horses without twisting their legs into an impossible position. Not to worry, they will go in the bits box, for a future project.

 Warlord Games excellent mule train.

 Four horse walkers to lead each of the wagons.

 Some resin barrels, crates and sacks to load onto the carts.

 One of the utility carts, this comes in kit form and is laser cut MDF, looks very real and will only need a small amount of work to finish it off.

 

On the second day of the challenge I did a little more work.

 

 The mules received a coat of grey.

 The cart horses received a very rough first coat of either grey, brown or chestnut.

 A four wheeled cart in front of a black powder cart. Again all laser cut MDF.

The powder cart.

 

 

So the baggage train is starting to take shape and will be used on the war games table when it is all complete. It will make an ideal target for one side and cause the other side to defend it vigorously.

 

I have always used Tamiya acrylic paints but recently discovered via other users on You Tube, Vallejo acrylic paints. I have bought a few bottles to try out, so far I am very impressed, an added bonus is that they produce a far larger range of colours.

 

 



Dark Age Britain

 

Another period in history that interests me is Dark Age Britain, the period after the Romans left until the arrival of the Normans in 1066. It is also a period I have not modelled in 1/72nd scale. A company named 'Gripping Beast' have brought out three plastic box sets, each contain approximately 40 figures for £18. Currently they have released: Saxon Thegns, Viking Hirdmen and Dark Age Warriors. The figures are excellent sculpts and can be arranged in various poses.

 

 

 

Saxon Thegns box set.

 

 

I bought some shield transfers separately and am very pleased with how they look.

 

 A variety of shield transfers.

 The Warlord wearing a red cloak.

 A mixture of swordsmen, axemen and spearmen.

 

 

The figures look great even with my mediocre painting, for the first time I used an acrylic wash on the miniatures and was pleased with the result.

 

The 120 or so figures in the three boxes I purchased are more than enough to fight small skirmish battles on a small table measuring 3 x 3 (feet) using an excellent set of rules known as Saga.

 

The book contains the very simple rules, and four battle boards that are used in conjuction with die rolls. Battles are fought with less than 30 figures per side, an excellent way to start miniature wargaming.