The White Regiment of Foot of The London Trained Bands
After what seems like a very long break from painting I return to my last, currently planned*, Regiment of Foot.
So without further ado, let me introduce the White Regiment of Foot of the London Trained Bands. The second most senior regiment in the LTB, they were recruited from north of the City: Cornhill, Lombard Street, Fenchurch Street, and upper Gracechurch Street. An area of London populated by goldsmiths, financiers and wealthy merchants.
Their colonel, Alderman Isaac Penington had been elected as a sheriff of London in 1638, and would be appointed Lord Mayor when Parliament removed the Royalist Sir Richard Gurney from office in August 1642. In 1649 Penington would be made a commissioner of the High Court of Justice and attended the King's trial: he did not sign Charles's death warrant. He would surrender at the Restoration, hoping for leniency as he hadn't been a signatory of the death warrant. His lands were confiscated and he would spend the rest of his life incarcerated in the Tower, where he died in December 1661.
The Regiment were most probably present at Turnham Green; fought at Cheriton; fought at the siege of Bishop’s Waltham; they then returned to London never to venture out again in 'anger', they did line the processional route of Essex's funeral.
Penington relinquished colonelcy in 1646 to Thomas Player. Player relinquished it to Thomas Allen in 1658, who relinquished it to John Lawrence in 1659.
A number of headswaps with this regiment, mostly with the command figure. I was given one of the collectible General Coaker figures, who was given a head with a secret fashioned from a Monmouth cap. Flag as always from Maverick Models.
These are also the last of the figures that went astray, so it is good to have them finished.
* regular readers (hello both of you) will have heard this phrase a few times before, and, will take it with a pinch of proverbial salt
Very nice. I'd be interested in your thinking on the clothing colours for this unit, especially given the area from which it was formed. I note greys, blues and greens in there. I've thought about Trained Band units but looked to possibly use a picture like The Nights Watch or Van Der Helst's Banquet of the Amsterdam Civil Guard as a palette. Given the trade links to the Netherlands this seemed logical to me. And those generally provide a core of black and buff clothing.
ReplyDeleteI tend to steer clear of black altogether. I do use it, but very sparingly. And when I do I use RailMatch weathered black - a grey/brown colour that looks black and shades quite well with Nuln Oil. There's a halberdier in black in there. Plenty of buff on officers, and 'trained band buff' for the pikemen. Apart from that I usually pick out four, maybe five coat colours - in this case green (an expensive colour), red, there's a couple of shades of blues, and grey. I try not to go too ostentatious with my colour choices.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that these men are upwardly mobile, they still work for a living. I imagine that the very rich have sent servants as substitutes (we know that this happened, I would imagine that they would have more frugal attire). See my Trained Band coat colours post for references.
All colours that we think that they had (see my post what colours to use), thanks to the work of textile historians and the many passionate re-enactors who populate the living history camps at the larger SK/ECWS battles.
I do tend to have a formula for random clothing colours: as already mentioned a number of coat colours for rank and file, three or four trouser colours, and usually three hat colours per style of hat. Officers I do go to town on, so are exempt from the above colour choices (usually).
And thanks!
DeleteThank you for indulging me. I see the sense of your approach.
DeleteAlright mate.
ReplyDeleteAn awsome looking regiment .ate and some great history adjoining them aswell.
Just out of curiosity, what is the scale and manufacturer of these figure.
I have a large 28mm eastern association force, but have recently been trying out 15mm and these look brilliant.
Thanks for your kind words. They are 15mm Peter Pig figures. Have a search for my 'which figures?' post to give the latest position on 15mm figures availability and ranges. There's sort of three camps: PP & Steelfist are small; Essex, Minifigs, medium; Blue Moon, Museum etc big. Three groups don't really mix.
DeleteThank you mate. I have done some of 15mm from steel fist and thought they were really good. But I they are a bit expensive. I did look at the blue moon ones however aswell but if your saying they don't mix well then maybe I will avoid.
DeleteWould they work well in individual unit of the same ranges but obviously not mixed in the same units?
There is the very valid argument about different heights of people, but different sized equipment gives it away.
DeleteSome of the larger figures are nearer 20mm, so a noticeable difference. If you have some Steelfist (which I agree are beautiful sculpts) you might be best to pad out the bulk of your foot with PP. I'd stick to Steelfist for cavalry who offer a vast selection (I agree with you, they are a little pricey). Then there are some other bits - Museum for limbers (ditch the man though), Matchlock for characters, and a careful selection of Freikorps, Magister Militum and Naismith for the odd figure here and there.
PP are probably the best, most cost efficient solution for big numbers of foot (and don't forget headswap potential). Their cavalry aren't so strong now, in my opinion. The switch to one piece casting has reduced the number of variants and the figures are much flatter.
If I was starting with a clear slate, I might be tempted by Blue Moon. I like the completeness of their range - they have all the odd stuff that I like.