6mm ECW Infantry, Painting Both Sides

Back to 6mm and my own painting, though not all my figures. Baccus will be releasing a much expanded and by the looks excellent new ECW and TYW range. Shame then both Lee and me have four starter armies between us! Indeed we have rather too many for the real thing but that is not going to stop us. Flags are also from Baccus, all told from three flag sheets, hopefully they will bring out more ECW ones. They will be doing some for the TYW.

I am very slowly building up both armies so getting another eight regiments of infantry off the table is a big plus. I intend to use this years challenge to get to a point where we can get a few games under our belts. Only issue is that I am not that far into writing a set of rules for this. I really want to use rules that capture the feel of the ECW so it's not something I want to rush.

Parliaments four regiments. I am building a mix of Essex's armies that fought at Edgehill and the Newbury campaign. This will allow us to play games set between 1642-44 and sets me up nicely then to paint up the New Model Army and the Kings Naseby army. Well that's the plan, much time will pass before that comes to pass but for now I am happy with recent progress.

The London Trained Bands played a big part of Essex's and Wallers early campaigns but their use was tempered by their lack of enthusiasm for long term use or their use far from home. A problem the King could relate to with some of his forces. Here we have the red regiment.

The other three regiments were all part of Colonel James Holbournes Brigade at Newbury. Col. George Langham's regiment had a blue standard with yellow tapers. I had to paint the white tapers of this flag yellow (tapers being the wavy lines designating the company number streaming from the George). The green coats are pure conjecture.

Col James Holbourne's own regiment are believed to have had red coats and yellow standards. I purposely chose a different red to the Trained Bands to add more variety. Some of the red regiments will of course be used as a base for the NMA, why do twice the work?

Col. Francis Thompson's are lacking in any detail I could find but I had to paint them up as this is my Grandfathers name! I chose blue coats and a white standard simply as they went together. In fairness it's pointless to get too hung up on uniform colours and standards as most sources fail to supply detail or it's contradicted from one source to the next. Add the fact that uniform coats were supplied in different colours at different points in time and often supply was none existent forcing troops to source their own meaning many a regiment had a real mix of colours towards the end of a campaign.

So those sad sacks are now part of Lee's army, all wrapped up with their mates. Meanwhile the King has yet to put his troops in quarters, too busy trying to get a submission ready for Friday I guess ;-)

Lord Percy brought his regiment down from the north to join the Kings Oxford army. The regiment is said to have had white coats as a fair few of the northern regiments were clothed in such manner. The blue standard is even more of a shrug at history but again I liked the look. It is assumed that the regiment was at Cropredy Bridge but certainly was part of the Oxford army a short time after.

To speed up the painting I painted a regiment of Royalists in blue coats allowing me to paint two up at the same time, these are Lord Loughborough's regiment and was raised in the West Midlands and joined the Oxford army around the same time as Percy's.

Lord Inchiquin brought his regiment over from Ireland. It was not Irish, rather it was a English regiment but it's very likely to have had a fair few troops who were Irish as it would have tried to replace it's loses by any means. It first fought as part of Hoptons army in the south west before joining the Kings army. Again it's thought it was part of the Cropredy campaign. The red standard is a guess. Often coat colours and standard colours are linked but this is not born out with a great deal of evidence. I am happy to have a few the same colour but do not use it as a rule.

Sir John Blackwells regiment was part of the Oxford army and believed to have worn black coats but I am quite sceptical as black coats must have both been rather expensive and probably grey within a few months hard campaigning. However I like the look so went for it. Standard, well your guess is as good as mine.

Painting has slowed down quite a bit this last week as I have found flying is not my strong point and I now know EXACTLY how many steps we have on our stairs. Painting, blogging standing and sleeping have all proved to be rather difficult since. But nothing broken so I should be grateful. Now I am suitably loaded with painkillers so it's off to bed for a night of tossing and turning.