Keep Your Powder Dry

I've been pretty quiet of late: in the unlikely event that you have been waiting for the latest thrilling instalment I apologise. Salute, turned into a bit of a fiasco, only really managing to pick up preorders. Which was a real shame as there were a number of ECW games I wanted to view, and a number of vendors I wanted to visit. Alas, it was not to be (one of my boys was rather poorly). Straight after Salute I had shoulder surgery, so that put a bit of a dampener on my new found painting enthusiasm. Thankfully all looks to have gone well so time to ease myself back in gently. And so to the Matchlock range, they have much more meat on their bones than my usual figures, although heightwise they are surprisingly close. Which is why I have only really used figures from their 'characters' section to bolster my civilians or baggage train. The main focus has revolved around putting Essex's coffin on the battlefield. Inspired by an Easter showing of 'Cromwell' ...

I find that it is all too easy to become jaded and lose focus when trying to paint 'uniqueness' into a painting block of 30+ infantry figures. Napoleonics are easy, especially if you go for the box fresh parade ground look (which, let's be honest, is the big appeal of Napoleonics) as everybody is exactly the same. Random trouser colours, and shades of red coats? All too easy to slip into formulaic convenience for speed. The English Civil War in Colour Photographs by Honeywell and Spear is a gem of a book. It really helps give inspiration for the 'variations on a theme' notion of colours. Plus it is a pretty good starting point when picking out colours for your palette: what colour for the funny little bottle on a musketeer's bandolier, for example. For those just starting out with an ECW project, the eye candy inspiration is second to none. The authors have followed Sealed Knot and ECWS reenactors at various events, taking pictures to tell a story abou...