15mm ECW Parliament's Boys

Yes you read that right 15mm! 19 of the 20 figures are Museum Miniatures but included to make up the numbers is a Matchlock Miniatures bod. He looks a little slight amongst all the Museum but he is a much better figure in my mind. 

Sorry the pics are not that great. Matt want's to base these himself to fit in with the rest of his army so they do not lend themselves to being photographed on my desk.

I just painted them up in red jackets with mostly grey trousers with the odd brown pair thrown in. They could be any one of many regiments and indeed if the orange sash is repainted red or blue they become royalist. Either way the musket rest pegs them as early war.

I have just the one regiment left to paint for Matt but next up will be his 6mm Zulu's who I have a hunch will get based up first  ;-) Mind you Matt bought the rules for FOG:R so once we have a game of that it may be that he will jump back into getting all his units rebased and back into play. That is something I really look forward to as the first ever proper army was my Essex 15mm NMA which I still have and have already rebased for FOG:R but if they do not do it for us I would be happy to have a crack at making my own rules (anything has got to be better than rebasing for a THIRD time!

I do have one regiment of my own that remains unpainted so it's not impossible that I will get this painted up as well. If so it's a nip over to Caliver Books as I really like the look of a Matchlock figure. I know I really need to get cavalry as under FOG:R I just don't have enough.

Whatever I decide I know I will start fitting in the odd 15mm regiment for various periods and the odd 28mm WWII figure for the Sniper Reminders. Not so much as I am tiring of the 6mm Napoleonic's, far from it but it's becoming the single track I am going down which must become thin for the rest of you.

15mm ECW Guns and Crews

Matt supplied the guns part painted but I took them all the way back and stated again as I would not be able to colour match his wood look.

One of the crews ramrod was cut short by a poor run of the lead at casting so I checked my box of bits and found a barrel to rest it on so it did not look too bad. Again these are Museum Miniatures and again have a mix of plus and negative points running along the same lines as the infantry.

However I really like the guns. Lots of detail and easy to paint. I painted up one gun as iron and the other as brass and am rather pleased with the result. Just hope Matt will like them. So all in all Matt is building up quite a collection of stuff to base up. Hopefully he will supply finished shots for me to show at a later date.

Well apart from varnishing and flagging I now have three battalions of Prussians finished and four guns and crews. The cavalry have been brought to the front of the desk and should be possibly started today. I plan to get the three reserve infantry battalions cleaned up as well fairly soon so I can get them primed and started. 

Triples is less than two weeks away so I should be picking up lots and lots of 6mm Napoleonic's for both Prussian and French. Not 100% sure what else will be added to my list between then and now but I weakened last night and ordered yet more Leven Miniatures buildings even though I have not yet painted up all the last lot, oh well they are really nice.

Duke Of York's Regiment of Foote in 15mm

Here we have Matt's figures painted up as the same regiment. The figures are Museum Miniatures and have a few nice touches such as the detail on the muskets were you can see the serpentine that would hold the match. Shame no match though is present! The figures are a nice size and have quite a bit of detail throughout such as the faces but at the same time some of the detail is either unclear or plain wrong. The bandaliers are not well sculpted making them a real pain to paint. One figure clearly had a turnback on one sleeve but not the other and other such issues.

Overall they are not bad figures to work with but I think their are a few better choices before I would turn to these for increasing my own force.

At least the figures have character and whilst they are not my first choice they are reasonably fun to paint and did not take a major clean up before painting.

Only one figure has the Lobster Pot in this lot but none of the pike have the Morion which you would expect. Good job the musket are only wearing soft hats. I would certainly prefer Matchlock Miniatures for the better mix and look of the regiments you can put together.

Yesterdays pictures and these above are the first ones using the photo table we have at work. Overall I think it works rather well. Let's see what I try next.

Sir Thomas Aston's Regiment of Horse

Born 29th September 1600 in Shropshire died 24th March 1645 from a fever complicated by a head wound  gained whilst trying to escape captivity in Stafford. Sat in the Commons in the Short Parliament.

Sir Thomas Aston was active from the beginning of the 1st Civil War recruiting his regiment of horse from September 1642 by the time of the battle of Edgehill (23rd Oct 1642) it numbered at least three troops (number involved in the battle). 1643 saw a number of known actions the biggest being 1st Newbury 20th September 1643. But prior to this he was in command at two minor battles Middlewhich 13th March losing to Waller who also captured two cannon. The other battle was near Macclesfield this time against Brerton  and it's possible this was in late December but the information is confused as a Colonel Ashton was involved at this battle and was fighting for Parliament. What ever the date and actual location this was another defeat for Aston (unlike the battle involving Ashton).

Aston was captured in a skirmish in Staffordshire (date and even YEAR unknown) I suspect 1644 as by 1645 the north was already lost to the King with most of the action being in the South. This is also backed up by the fact that his regiment of horse was active at the 1st Battle of Newbury as mentioned above. I doubt it would have been sent back north given the Kings need of experienced cavalry at that point. He tried to escape from prison in Stafford but a soldier caught him and struck him on the head bringing n the fever. It seems he must have been a brave man as from the information given he was already weakened from several wounds from previous combat.

His regiment can be used in battles in the North up to mid 1643  but post then should be part of the Oxford Army and it's quite likely it was part of the Cropredy campaign but being away from it's recruiting ground it's likely that it's strength would be diminished unless it was strengthened with independent troops of horse.

These are Matt's 15mm Museum Miniatures that he will be basing for FoG:R I went with blue coats as they were at Oxford during the equipping period prior to Newbury. I used an old Revo cornet but had to free hand it on the trumpeters banner which I was pleased with the result. I quite liked the figures, mostly accurate though I would have liked a mix of headdress to reflect reality.

Here we have the same regiment but in 6mm, the cornet this time is in green, I blame it on the fact that on painting this one I had not picked out an old flag.

And from above. This now gives me two regiments of cavalry three of foot, two mounted and three dismounted dragoons and a pair of guns. Some way off what will be needed to play a game but they are coming on. I have three regiments of foote to do for Matt so I will at least get three more infantry painted up.

Sir Robert Howard's Dragoons

Sir Robert Howard's Dragoons was never a large regiment consisting of just two troops one commanded by Captain Richard Catesby from Warwickshire and a possible relative to the Gunpowder Plotter whilst the other troop was commanded by Captain Lewknor. The only known recorded engagement for this regiment was the storming of Bristol in 1643 when they were attached to Washington's Regiment but it's a fair bet that they were also involved in the Cropredy. Most Royalist Dragoon Regiments were lacking in men and or mounts so it is not really an issue to base a regiment for the wargames table on such a small regiment as most were just as bad with some even worse!

Over the next month or so I will be painting up a number of Royalist Oxford Army Regiments and I will start here with those poor old boys the Dragoons.

Here we have the mounted 15mm figures, only four as these are for FoG:R and most of the figures will be dismounted. so four bases will have a single mounted figure to show they are indeed Dragoons. However I don't have that problem in 6mm

Here we have one of the two bases of my dismounted dragoons, I got carried away. This is not really a problem as I can change the turnbacks colour on one base and I have yet another dragoon regiment.

Here we have the 15mm dismounted boys in felt hats. Of course in reality very few felt hats were in England at the time and these were rather expensive. However I do feel that some version of brimmed hat would have been worn, possibly leather? To many contemporary images show a brimmed hat exen on some common soldiers. 

Here are the even more historically inaccurate Lobster Pot  helmets. Yes they were worn but they would not have been worn by 50% of a dragoon regiment, only by some of the officers, cornets and maybe the odd rich volunteer though these normally were in the cavalry and a few fought in the infantry. The 15mm are Museum Miniatures and are larger than the typical MM figure which in the case of the mounted is a bit of a shame as the horses are just too large for Dragoons to have a hope of keeping them. They would be mounted on nags IF they were lucky enough to get any at all.

 The flags are pure conjecture as is the green facing. Howard's Dragoons were thought to have worn red which is a good guess given they are part of the Oxford army where red and blue were the main uniform colours throughout the late campaigns.  These are also the first troops I have based up by using Lee's basing system (nothing new as many do it this way) but new to me.