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Unfortunately I have had to temporarily disable comments and the contact form.

Why? It appears that my pictures of the Warlord Epic cavalry sprue have upset a number of members of the 'Epic community' who have taken it upon themselves to bombard the blog with foul mouthed spam.

All I'll say in response is: you do know that these are just toy soldiers?

To all my regular readers, normal service will resume at some point.



 

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Villagers: Part Two

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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 .
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Yet More Irish Confederate Command

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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...
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Where It All Began...

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It all began in a car park in Macclesfield about 40 years ago. A Saturday shopping trip to Treacle Town started a fascination with events 350 years (or so) ago that has lasted a lifetime. So it's all the Sealed Knot's fault. Or the ECWS. One of the two. Under my dad's Vauxhall Viva windscreen wiper was a flyer for a battle reenactment at Lyme Park. Much to my father's chagrin (he hated anyone fiddling with his car, and believe me putting anything under his wiper blade was very much in the 'fiddling' category) a 9 year old me was fixated with the imagery used, which led to "mum, dad, can we go please?" Needless to say we did go to the reenactment, and I loved every minute of it. The imagery used was the Battle of Naseby engraving (Streeter's Plan), the representation of the troops was right up a 9 year old's street, and has stayed with me ever since. A brief dalliance with 1/300th Heroics and Ros ECW figures (very badly painted) in the ...
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Irish Command: Part Two

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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, ...
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Coat Colours Part 2: Royalist Regiments of Foot

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Coat Colours Part 1: Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot

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Cromwell (1970)

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Never Mind The Matchlocks

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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...
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Radio 4 Real Dictators

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