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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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Houses of Interest: Rutland

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It is only right and proper that the ECW travelogue turns it's attention to England's smallest County, and the home of 'England's smallest man', Captain Jeffrey Hudson. Purposefully, slightly wonky picture so I know who keeps nicking my pictures and not crediting me Jeffrey was variously known as the 'Queen's Dwarf', or 'Lord Minimus'; he was gifted, at age 7 to Queen Henrietta Maria via the medium of a large pie, from whence he leapt, dressed in full cuirassier armour, at a banquet at Burley-on-the-Hill.  Jeffrey's life was the stuff of a blockbuster movie script. Unfortunately much of what we do know about his life has been clouded by Sir Walter Scott's embellishments (bloody Victorians!). If anyone's life story did not need embellishing, it is Jeffrey's. He killed a man and was exiled to France; was kidnapped by Barbary pirates; enslaved in North Africa; and, imprisoned on his return to England in the 1670s for being a Catholic...
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Yet More Royalist Command

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 Two more PP characters are re-appropriated to be somebody else.  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 a drawer 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 base. I needed to trim down the bases. Thinner bases would help blend the personalities into the rest of my armies. Henry Bard, 1st Viscount Bellomont ( This is the Charles I figure. PP missed a trick by not sculpting the figure wearing his Order of the  Garter riband. Thankfully, by not having a garter riband it makes it much easier to change who the figure is.) Henry has graced these pages before with his Regiment of Foot . Bard had travelled considerably, having visited Paris, and journeyed on foot through France, Italy, Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt. It is alleged tha...
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Livestock

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Every agrarian society needs livestock, even in 15mm land. So I thought I'd better provide some. My inner model railway modeller/ reader of glossy rule books with idyllic 'scenes' voice told me I needed more, yes more, battlefield clutter. First up are some piggies. These are from Hovels, and were extras from my    'Pig Sty' 18D5 (from their ancients range). Next up are some chickens. There should probably be lots more of these, but can I face painting beaks and combs on such tiny things? Yes, I can. So no doubt there will be more of these at some point, when I next place an order with Pendraken. Considering England's wealth was based upon the wool trade I thought I should have lots of sheep. Is forty sheep a lot? Enough to make a landowner fat and wealthy from the profits. Probably not. More will arrive from Pendraken at some point I'm sure. Pendraken have a very useful range of animals in a plethora of figure sizes, one of their cats is located on a Parli...
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Celtic Soul Brothers

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Peter Pig Character Packs

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Today's post takes a look at the latest expansion to the Peter Pig ECW range. One of the more regular requests, on the PP/RfCM forum, has been for ECW personalities - and they are finally here. Fourteen personalities, the first wave of eight are featured here. Each figure is packaged with a cornet, of which there are three different poses. The website states that each cornet pose has variants, and I have noticed the same pose with a floppy hat and also with a helmet. Each pack of two, one piece mounted figures currently retails for £3, so £1.50 a figure. Shame that Rupert didn't come with a dog. Expensive, but nowhere near the £2.40 a figure that Warlord charges for their resin character figures. l-r: Cromwell, Fairfax, Ireton, Essex I totally understand why character figures are more expensive than rank and file, you may buy hundreds of the rank and file figure, but you are probably only likely to buy one character figure. Figure manufacturers will take a lot longer to recoup ...
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Edinburgh - Covenanter Capital

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The ECW travelogue packed a toothbrush, passport, a jumper, and a big coat and headed north to Edinburgh, home of the Covenanters. Whilst driving north, the inappropriateness of calling the travelogue the ECW travelogue became rather prescient. But it is too late to start calling it the Wofthe3Ktravelogue now! The Covenant If you can tear yourself away from the pipers, tartan shops, and traditional Scottish shortbread, there are a wealth of places and artefacts connected to the Covenanters for you to see. Greyfriars Kirk First stop has to be Greyfriars Kirk , which once you get past all the Greyfriar's Bobby razzmatazz is bursting with Covenanter related history. In the 1638 the Covenant was signed in the kirkyard.  There are believed to be about 50 copies of the Covenant: there are six copies held in Edinburgh, one is on display inside the kirk's small museum.  The Covenanter memorial Whilst in the church yard, there is a large memorial to the...
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Baggage

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Bit of a buy one, get two more free post today, kickstarting a new year. Regular readers (hello all twenty of you) familiar with my Cannons for The Catholic Confederacy post will know a little about the state of Ireland's C17th roads. (TL;DR they were a bit pants). As a result of the rubbish roads, it is sort of inevitable that the Irish baggage train would be light carts and pack horses. But, as we know that they did haul demi-culverin around they would have been able to move heavier carts around too. So here's my fledgling Irish baggage train: a heavy cart from Museum Minatures. Additional drum from Peter Pig, a Peter Pig dragoon horseholder (with a headswap) as a drover, a SteelFist drummer rounding the base off. I will be adding some light carts to my two Scottish armies and my Irish army at some point. With Magister Militum shutting up shop, I have managed to pick up the last three packs of pack horses in stock, and some Scots horseholders; hopefully, a buyer will be found...
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Good Day for a Hanging

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The Last Valley (1971)

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The 1971 film The Last Valley is set during the Thirty Years War, so why does it appear in a KeepYourPowderDry post? Well, there's only so many times that you can watch Cromwell and By The Sword Divided, so I have cast my net on the other side of the Channel for inspiration. The film stars Michael Caine and Omar Sharif; a young Brian Blessed co-stars as a short-lived, shouty man who meets his end in a midden. "You're only supposed to blow ze bloody doors off" The film starts with Omar Sharif's character, Vogel, in search of food and lodging, but his journey takes him through a landscape similar to Bruegel's painting "Triumph Of Death". After much wandering he stumbles into an idyllic valley which appears to have escaped a visit from the four horseman of the apocalypse. Cue, Michael Caine's band of mercenaries arriving in the valley. Caine plays 'Captain' a German soldier - you can tell he is German as his helmet looks like the illegitimat...
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Alatriste (2006)

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