Lobsters!

Here's the one and only regimental-sized force of cuirassiers in the English Civil War, Sir Arthur Hesilrige's famous London Lobsters (please click on the photo for an enlarged view). 

This regiment was built around a core of 12 minis I swapped for with Saxon Dog, with the additional minis painted by Shaun McTague and finished by me. They are on my new ECW Batbases (which I really must get into the shop!).

The lobsters fought in deep formation, relying principally on firepower. At Roundway Down, they were overcome after a stiff fight. Their subsequent rout took them down a precipitous slope and many were killed; they were, later, reformed but probably without the expensive cuirassier armour.

In For King and Parliament, cuirassiers receive a +1 on their save when in melee or shot at (except by artillery!). I should explain that there's no need to use this many minis to represent a unit, it's just my megalomania striking (yet again!). On the table there will be intervals between the three troops.

...and I'm back.

All through the wintertime, I've hid myself away painting and basing for the Salute ECW game, whilst finishing the forthcoming "For King and Parliament!" English Civil War rules, with Andrew Brentnall and others including (but far from limited to) Millsy and Ian Notter.

Here are some lovely Bicorne minis (clickable photo) painted by the highly talented Redzed. Charles I (holding map) and Sir Edward Walker are discussing dispositions for a forthcoming battle, whilst the young Prince of Wales looks on. In attendance are various flunkeys and some dismounted gentleman pensioners. The standard isn't intended to be the Royal Standard; Sir Edmund Verney will carry a larger version of that, on a separate base. The minis (and the colour schemes) are based on a lovely illustration in Philip Haythornthwaite's excellent "The English Civil War, 1642-1651: An Illustrated Military History." There is every chance that they will make the cover of the rules....

The base is one of the new command Batbases with my famous wobbly edge.

...these are small....

Chum Andrew Brentnall has painted and based a regiment of the new Baccus 6mm minis for our coming For King and Parliament rules. The base is one of my irregular Batbases, just over 60mm wide.

'Cos the rules are grid based, units and bases can be any shape or based for any rule system. Below is the Royal standard, very appropriate as we are off to Nottingham tomorrow, where it was first raised.

Mustering the first wave

On the metal basing trays are most of the remaining unfinished regiments of what I am calling the "first wave" which need to be completed by mid-December. When fully based, these will give me nine regiments of foot, one of horse and some combined shot and dragoons. I will then engage in a furious "dash" to finish some more cavalry... Most of the above are red-coated Royalists from the Oxford army, for no particular reason other than they are at the top of the (below) spreadsheet. (Images are clickable).

Phase Two will involve a similar number of infantry regiments and a lot more horse and will be complete by Salute. Phase 3 will involve whatever I have left and commence post-Salute.  I'd like to think I'll end up with at least 30 regiments of foot and 20 of horse.

For interest, below, is a snip of the top part of the spreadsheet which I am using to plan the army. It is surprisingly complex to plan an ECW army when one is using odds and ends of minis from eBay and other sources and not getting them painted one regiment at a time. One needs to match the flags to the uniform colours and the monteros to the Royalists. Above all, I want to have regiments in a similar pose- if the pike are charging, I want the shot to be firing or going in with clubbed muskets, and animated command minis, to give a "vignette" look. I use highlights to track the state of completion of the units. Green is good; but there are not a lot of green units, yet!

Meeples podcast

I recently had a fine chat with the guys at Meeples about forthcoming To the Strongest! developments and the forthcoming TtS! "For King and Parliament" English Civil War rules, which they have kindly made into a Podcast which you can download from here:-

https://meeples.wordpress.com/2017/11/12/meeples-miniatures-episode-234-for-king-and-parliament/

It is always a great pleasure to chat with Neil, Mike and Mike!

In other news.... I now have 9 regiments of ECW foot on on bases (but not flocked), one of horse, some dragoons and some combined shot. It's coming on well! Alas I've had no time to photograph anything.  :-(

Heroes in a half shell

A terrible, quickly snatched (clickable) photo, just for Millsy. Hesilrige's lobsters mustering on my new bases for "horse". They  are in the deeper Dutch formation, relying primarily on firepower.

Sir Allen Apsley's Regiment

 

Here's the latest regiment for my For King and Parliament project; Sir Allen Apsley's regiment from Hopton's Royalist army. All photos are clickable!

Below, the regiment ready for melee, with the command stand behind. The pike stand are in the red coats, trousers and monteros of the Oxford army- later I will swap them out for some more down-at-heel campaigning minis in grey trousers, in attaching poses.

The quality of the painting on these is stunning; the shot, above, were painted either by David Imrie or by Chris Meacham, who painted the command minis, below. I merely did the flags (again, lovely Flags of War) and based on the new Batbases I designed for the ECW (not yet in the BigRedBatShop). Here's a first; I flocked the edges of the bases. Works really well...

Most of the minis are lovely Bicornes, with some Renegades mixed in. I love the look of the pikes massed behind the command (below).

That's it for now; In a couple of weeks I hope too finish the first cavalry regiment!