Sir Marmaduke Langdale

Here's Sir Marmaduke Langdale, commander of the élite Royalist Northern Horse in the English Civil War. He was a tough commander and needed be, as the Northern Horse were well aware of their own value and could be very undisciplined.

He commands my own For King and Parliament Northern Horse. I have three regiments of these, a mighty 54 men, but I realise that I've never taken a proper photo of them! I'll put that right, soon. But you can just make out some of them on the right in this link. They are hard men; they took out the Ironsides (left) in this battle.

If you are at a loose end, tonight at 8PM UK time I’ll be joining the Pile of Shame Broadcast on Youtube. 

I’ll  be talking about what I’ve been writing and modelling recently, and what I have planned. You can join us at the below link, hope to see you there!

 

https://youtube.com/channel/UCS7347mT9uSFHblr9f6xGcA

Proletarians, To Horse!

Here is the second unit for my Roundway Down game at Partizan. This is the fourth of four regiments of Parliamentarian horse, each consisting of three troops of nine men. The London Lobsters, the subject of a future post, will have four troops, so there will be 144 riders in all. You can click for a close-up.

These are mostly Bicorne miniatures, although a Warlord rider has somehow managed to join them (front right). I always use static horse poses for the "Dutch" style units, which, being a megalomaniac,  I draw up in three ranks (completely unnecessary but looks good). In For King and Parliament "Dutch" units usually stand to receive a charge from their feistier Royalist "Swedish" peers. They bristle with pistols and carbines.

All of these were beautifully painted by Shaun McTague last year- I highlighted and varnished. Chum Ian flocked the bases and I tufted. The flags are Flags of War- I have taken to snipping the edges into a fringe, and painting them gold for extra bling. A shout out to David Imrie who gave me some great advice on how to get the best out of my camera!

Now I'm working on the command stands for the battle, including Waller and Wilmot, images to follow in a week or so.

To Horse, you Gallant Princes!

It has been far to long since I posted on this blog! With preparations underway for a big Roundway Down game at Partizan in May, I find I need to base more generals, more guns but, most of all, more ECW cavalry. Here's the first of three new new units. This is a Royalist regiment- I like them to be a little more dynamic than their sober Puritan peers, also they carry Royalist cornets. You can click on the image for a closeup.

These are what Andrew and I describe as "Swedish" horse in our For King and Parliament rules- more aggressive than their adversaries who often fought in defensive "Dutch" formations, at least in the first year or so of the war. Most of these miniatures are the excellent Bicornes, intermixed with a few Renegades. Many came from an eBay purchase but others were beautifully painted by Shaun McTague. By the end of May I will have 18 regiments of horse and some independent troops- I only need 14 for Roundway, so I can leave out recognisable units that weren't present at the battle.