Keep Your Powder Dry

Realising that my finished* Irish Confederate Catholics were lacking in the command stakes, I decided to utilise the Peter Pig characters that were sat in my spares box. The character packs are heroically sized in comparison to the rest of the PP ECW range, I had thought long and hard as to whether I would actually use these figures, the ensigns quickly made their way onto fleabay, the personalities have sat in my spares box for a very long time awaiting their fate.  Each figure has a much thicker base than the normal PP figures, which accentuates the size difference. Figures also have their name in raised detail on the bases. Thinner bases would help blend the personalities into the rest of my armies. The base trimmings from just three figures Next I had to decide who they were going to become... So here are my latest Irish Catholic command figures. Sir Ruaidhrí Ó Mórdha ( This is the Essex figure from the character range.) Sir Ruaidhrí Ó Mórdha, sometimes Sir Rory O'Moore, or eve...

Way back in the mists of time I painted some Freikorps 15 'camp followers'; as I decided I had far too few civilians I turned my attention back to this pack.  Partly inspired by a recent trip to Amsterdam, and swooning at the sight of the Vermeers in The Rijksmuseum, here's my latest batch of civilians. The colour palette for the clothing has been lifted straight from Vermeer's works. Mostly from the aforementioned Freikorps 15 pack, there's also a few figures from the Minifigs Hussite Wars camp followers pack 214X. Freikorps camp followers a single casting women with buckets women looking stern women with babies Minifigs Hussite camp followers I particularly like the woman with the firewood bundle If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider  supporting  the blog.  Thanks .

The original Irish Command post focused solely upon the spiritual leadership of my Connfederate Army. Although I really should have an Archbishop GianBattista Rinuccini figure, mounted on a donkey or on a litter. This post features the military leadership. Figures are gleaned from the Peter Pig Scots generals pack, number 40. General Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill  was a talented soldier who learned his soldiering in Spanish service on the continent. His personality, and distrust by his contemporaries meant the seemingly natural commander of the Confederate Army was often sidelined. For a fuller biography see here . Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill Eoghan's personal standard is the Irish harp on a green background, which was reported as being used by Eoghan in 1642. Prior to this the traditional background had been blue. As always, flag created for me by Stuart at Maverick Models. The ensign figure has been given  a PP Irish hat head. Sir Phelim macShane Ó Néill Sir Phelim macShane Ó Néill Phelim, ...

It appears that it is becoming tradition that successful 'medieval' wargaming rules have a follow up pike and shot version. And so it is with the very popular Nevermind the Billhooks, which has spawned numerous variants, and now gives us the pike and shot version Nevermind the Matchlocks. Just as Billhooks was given away with Wargames Illustrated, so it was with Matchlocks, which came 'free' with the November 2024 issue. Currently available to buy from WI as the ruleset (£5.99), or the mag and rules (also £5.99). Running at 32 pages, the rules are in a magazine format; pretty pictures courtesy of Richard from Bloody Miniatures, and just 5 simple tables to consult (6 if you include the quick reference sheet). Units described These are a seemingly easy to pick up ruleset, but I fear a hard set to master. Designed for small battles/big skirmishes of about 150 figures a side, lasting up to two hours. The game utilises six-side dice, and game specific tokens and cards. The r...

Be still my beating heart. A book on the supply of clothing and equipment that relies heavily, and quotes, contemporary documents.  Somehow, this book really ticks my boxes. Who'd have thunk it? What do you want to be when you grow up? Someone who gets excited at the mention of the Tangye Collection manuscripts, and any hint of SP28 (Commonwealth Exchequer Papers) has those close by reaching for the smelling salts. That last sentence wouldn't have been on the shortlist, or even the longlist. Authors writing about the New Model Army supply chain tend to limit their attention to what are known as the Mungeam Contracts, a 'sample' of the London Museum's* Tangye Collection which were transcribed and are easily accessible. As Dr Abram points out in his introduction, there is so much more source material. But enough of my peccadilloes... Dr Abram's latest tome homes in on the supply of the Army, Newly Modelled. Not just clothing, armour, weaponry, horses, horse furni...

Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer spent seven years in Tibet, nice work if you can get it; his story was turned into a film, and Harrer was portrayed by Brad Pitt. In years to come who will portray me in the film version of this blog? When I started writing this blog it was a receptacle for bits of paper that didn't really have a 'home', so I gave them one; but the 'home' has grown and developed a life of its own. Almost.  Regular readers will be surprised to hear that the Saturday boy did not attend this year's KYPD staff mid-winter party - management's bluff of compulsory playing of 'Mould-my-Cockle-Bread'* obviously scared him off  I genuinely never expected anyone to read my ramblings, but read them you do.  Every year, sometime about October I do start to wonder what the viewing figures for the year will be: will it be 50k?, will it be 100k?, this year I started wondering if it would break the 250k figure. It passed that with ease in November...

Firenze/Florence? Well known exile location or has the ECWtravelogue decided to embark upon the grand tour? And what exactly has the birthplace of the renaissance got to do with the Wars of the Three Kingdoms? In all fairness, your immediate reaction of 'well that's got nothing to do with the Wars of the Three Kingdoms' would be correct. What Firenze did have was a ridiculously wealthy Edwardian Anglo-Italian gentleman, called Frederick Stibbert. An English pot Museo Stibbert.  Stibbert's family was incredibly wealthy, his grandfather making a fortune from his role as General Commander of the East India Company, and governor of Bengal.  You can get very close to many of the exhibits, possibly too close; but this brilliant to be able to see details that we normally see through a glass display cabinet  Stibbert's father would be a colonel in the Coldstream Guards; and, through a series of deaths in the family, Frederick would inherit the entire vast fortune. On the hi...

  Bit of an eye candy post today; where I finally get around to painting the Royalist harquebusiers on foot (they've only been sat in the 'to do' pile for nine months or so). For those of you new to KeepYourPowderDry, or the Civil Wars in general, you might be wondering why anyone would want dismounted cavalry. In a nutshell regiments of horse joined in the besieging of houses, but as horses weren't particularly useful when attacking a house, their riders dismounted to fight. They were often in the first wave of assault troops as their buff coats and armour afforded them considerable protection (in comparison to infantry). Plus it also gave them a share of any spoils if the assault was successful. For more information about the role of harquebusiers in sieges, and a look at my existing assault parties see  here . These are Steel Fist figures from pack ECWF 09, but as I have zero faith in Steel Fist swords (they are much too slender to be practical) I have replaced th...

Somehow, despite the best efforts of real life trying to hinder my painting of little men, I've managed to make some more progress on my Catholic Confederation army. Here's the second of two units of cavalry. Philip MacHugh O'Reilly was the son of Hugh O'Reilly of Ballynacargy, County Cavan, and Katherine MacMahon. The family were deemed to be one of the ‘deserving’ native Irish families whose land was not taken during the Ulster plantation. Not to be confused with Hugh O'Reilly, the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh. Contemporary sources refer to him as a lawyer, but there's no existing evidence of him having attended Inns of Court in England. He may well have received legal training on the Continent, prior to accepting a command in the French army.  Philip inherited the family estate on his return to Ireland. He would play an active role in local politics, holding a number of important roles, before being elected as MP for County Cavan in the 1640 parliament. As M...

Who? You might be more familiar if I write Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill as Owen Roe O'Neill. But I won't because he was Irish, not English. Although there is some confusion if he was Eoghan Rua or Eoghan Ruadh. I'll stick with Eoghan Ruadh. Now please bear with me, as there's rather a lot of Ó Néills running around Ireland in the 1640s. Eoghan Ruadh had at least eight brothers and four sisters; and was connected through marriage to many of the leading native Irish families of Ulster. His nephews included Daniel  Ó Néill and Hugh Dubh  Ó Néill  both of whom were important figures in 1640s Ireland, as well as Conor, Lord Maguire, one of the original plotters of the 1641 rebellion, and his brother Ruari , who commanded a regiment in the Ulster army during the 1640s. In Spanish service, 1605–41 Eoghan Ruadh was accompanied by three of his brothers: Phelim, Art Óg, and Cormac. He secured himself a position as captain in the regiment of Henry Ó Néill , son of the Ea...