A productive weekend...

Life has once again proven hectic so I thought I'd take 10 minutes to get a blog entry done. The first chilled weekend I've had in a month gave me some time to finish off a few projects that have populated my model trays for a little while.

The horsemen are the last of my English Civil War units - a Royalist Cavalry squadron and a Parliamentarian Reiters squadron. The colours are kept simple - red Cavaliers and muted yellow Roundheads.

Hopefully I can try out the One Hour Wargames rules with these lads in the coming months. 

The vehicles are a couple of M1 Abrams for my US Team Yankee forces - one of them is from an earlier post but the one on the right is a new repaint. I managed to get 4 Revell M1s, already assembled, off of ebay at a reasonable price, and one of these now stands ready to stem the Soviet tide.

The middle tank is a M10 Tank Destroyer which will be part of my future US 1944 wargaming army. I followed a painting tutorial I found on YouTube and I'm really happy with the end result. It's certainly worthy of a separate blog post when I get the time!

What's next? I've got another T-55 assembled, and I'm considering painting some Soviet infantry to accompany it onto the battlefield. Onwards, to victory!

Trialling a different painting technique - block painting on ECW Cavalry

Whilst I've still got plenty to do on my Team Yankee / modern forces, I'm also very eager to finish my English Civil War units so I can test out the One Hour Wargames rules. On paper this looks to be one of the more dynamic rulesets and will probably require the least tweaking... provided I can set up the battlefield properly!

To finish my English Civil War armies, I have to finish painting a few mounted units  and these can be a challenge if you're not in the right frame of mind. The horses aren't just two colours for the coat and the hair - you need to achieve some disciplined detailed work on the saddle  furniture and especially those blasted reins! Sorry cavalrymen, I love you really!

I thought I would try a new painting technique on a couple of units to see how it went. I chose my Parliamentarian general (a 1/72 attempt at Cromwell, accompanied by a standard bearer) and second unit of cavalry. To start with, I did an undercoat of GW Ushabti Bone which was then covered in a diluted soak of GW Seraphim Sepia. This provided a glimpse of the detailed areas requiring specific colours. I then tackled each colour for every figure one at a time, applying the paint only to the area that needed it. This meant there was no main coat followed by successive "layers" of detail. However, this technique soon lost its appeal as colours inevitably encroached on one another. Nonetheless I have managed to sort them out and get them ready for the tabletop. The lads are ready for basing as I write this, so photos of the finished units will follow in due course. Below are some photos of the technique in progress. I may well try the technique again with my larger and more detailed Zvezda figures and see if it creates a better result.

Recent ECW units finished

I finished these guys a while ago but just hadn't got round to updating the blog. Here are some Artillery units (Parliamentarian mortar and Royalist cannon) a Royalist unit of Reiters (heavily armoured cuirassiers) and the final unit of Roundhead infantry (greencoats).

I've made a start on the final Royalist Infantry unit, fittingly wearing red coats, representing the King's Life Guard of Foote. As always, all of my English Civil War figures are from Revell's Thirty Years War range except for the artillery and crews, who are produced by A Call to Arms, set 59.

English Civil War armies so far

These are some quick snapshots my English Civil War armies for One Hour Wargames so far.

The Roundheads have 3 infantry units, 1 artillery unit, 1 Cavalry unit and 1 unit of Reiters.

The Royalists have 2 infantry units, 1 artillery unit, 1 Cavalry unit and 1 unit of Dragoons (same rules as Reiters). They also have a commander - Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

ECW Parliamentarian Reiters - Cromwell's Ironsides

These are my first unit of Parliamentarian Reiters. I've given them a classic sandy yellow uniform and partial plate armour. As seen in the photos they are armed primarily with pistols, which they would use to fire blistering,  short range volleys at their adversaries. 

Unlike the galloping, death or glory Royalist Horse, Parliamentarian cavalry had a bad reputation in the first half of the English Civil War. Only with dedicated new training and tactics did Oliver Cromwell manage to create steady but reliable cavalry - his troopers soon gained the intimidating nickname Ironsides. 

The Cavaliers had a tendency towards scattering the enemy in their immediate front and then pursuing their quarry far from the battlefield, stopping only to loot local settlements or the enemy baggage train. So whilst the Royalists boasted cavalry units of superficially high quality, they were only of limited usefulness on the day of battle. What made Cromwell such an effective commander of mounted units was the discipline and organisation of his troopers. They would advance at a more sedate pace, and use multiple pistol volleys to wear down the enemy before a comparatively modest, but nonetheless brutal, charge. However, Cromwell's horse were crucially able to reign themselves in after the adrenaline kick of  initial contact, so they remained a decisive battlefield asset. This would enable them to reform and exploit the damage they caused to the vulnerable flanks of their adversaries. 

ECW Parliamentarian Cavalry

Continuing with the theme of the English Civil War, here is my first unit of Parliamentarian Horse.

A couple of Revell Thirty Years War Swedish Cavalry sets furnished enough heavily armoured horsemen for two units of Roundhead cavalry using the One Hour Wargames rules.

These cavalry units are brutally simple to use - big men with big swords on big horses!

To highlight their Parliamentarian allegiance I gave them distinctive orange crossbelts.

ECW Parliamentarian Infantry

After a long summer break from the blog (unable to fit in the model hobby amongst all the holiday breaks and social engagements) I'm getting back in the writing saddle.

These are my first two units of Roundhead infantry - they're Revell Imperial infantry, repainted to resemble Parliamentary footsloggers. Each unit comprises of eight musketeers, two to four pikemen and attached officers. The first unit was painted yellow, the second a bright blue with white crossbelts, in order to differentiate them from Rupert's Royalist bluecoats. I'm quite happy with the blue unit's paper flag which was printed, bent to shape and spattered with dark brown.

Using the One Hour Wargames rules, these two make up half of the Roundhead infantry. The rules make infantry quite dynamic - their pikes deter cavalry, but their muskets can run out of ammunition with a bad roll of the dice! It's certainly an interesting way of portraying unpredictable expenditures of musket fire in the heat of battle. It'll be fascinating to find out how these Roundheads fare on the tabletop. For God and Parliament!

For King or Parliament? Creating English Civil War armies for One Hour Wargames

Once I've got my German infantry and my one remaining British Anti tank gun sorted, I'm moving on to my English Civil War armies for One Hour Wargames.

What units are required?

Each army needs a total of 10 units.

4 of these will be Infantry, wielding pikes and muskets. The ratio of each arm changed over the course of the war from a 1/2 and 1/2 to 2/3 muskets and 1/3 pikes. In OHW they can move and shoot, partially absorb frontal cavalry charge damage, but can run out of ammunition after every musket volley!

2 will be classic Cavalry, armed with swords or similarly brutal close combat weapons. They relied on heavy horses and collective mass to break up enemy units, and are naturally the fastest units on the battlefield.

2 will be Artillery - replacing the Swordsmen in the OHW book, as the vast majority of infantry in the Civil War had small swords (sometimes called tucks). The author states swordsmen were common on the Iberian peninsula and other theatres, but I'm happy to substitute them for cannons for this conflict. After all, artillery were gradually becoming a more common sight on the battlefield at this time.

The final 2 units are known as Reiters in the rulebook, and represent a different type of cavalry. Reiters use pistols and carbines at close range to disrupt enemy formations and once out of ammunition, maintain discipline and close with swords.

What models am I using?

The bulk of my units will consist of the Revell Thirty Years War range - Imperial Infantry, Swedish Infantry and Swedish Cavalry sets. The heavily armoured Imperials make great Roundheads and the Swedes look as dashing as any Cavalier. Of particular note is the sheer variety of uniforms and poses in the cavalry set - three of these furnished me with all of the Cavalry, the majority of my Reiters and some command figures as well. Infantry ranks were padded out by Revell Conquistador pikemen, and this same set gave me a couple of dogs to accompany the Royalist commander figure (Prince Rupert perhaps).

The artillery guns and crews will be from the Waterloo 1815 set of Royalist Artillery. 4 guns with 16 crew in one box gives me the necessary cannon for both sides!

ECW cavalry for One Hour Wargames

I sorted out a few sets of Revell Thirty Years War Swedish Cavalry that I got off eBay a while ago into the units I wanted for my English Civil War armies. The armies will be organised along the lines of the Pike and Shot rules of Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames book. I may tweak the rules a little more, but the major change is to replace the unit "Swordsmen" with Artillery. This represents the fact that artillery was becoming more common during the 1600s, and ECW forces rarely employed men armed exclusively with sword and shield; close combat was conducted by push of pike, small swords called tucks, and the butt of a heavy Musket, used like a club.

The photos posted below show the respective cavalry units I intend to create. They, like all of my cavalry units, are being fielded in groups of 5 figures on a 10cm by 5cm base for uniformity purposes.

The sword wielding men are standard cavalry, lacking ranged attacks, but getting good bonuses for charging in and hacking down their opponents. The cavalry armed with pistols, or those dismounted using carbines form the second unit type, Reiters. These were slower, more disciplined horsemen who used multiple pistol volleys to damage enemy infantry, and then charge home in a controlled manner.

 One of these Reiters will be represented by dismounted Dragoons, a type of mounted infantryman that became more important as the Civil War progressed. Their carbine fire could severely disrupt a cavalry charge, especially if they fired from behind hedgerows or other forms of cover.

Colour scheme wise, I am going to use red, brown and white for Royalist horse, and green and yellow for Parliamentarian cavalry. Red and yellow/orange sashes, and different helmets/hats will further distinguish the two sides.

The other units will be mounted on circular bases depicting Commanders; Prince Rupert and Oliver Cromwell respectively. These will form nice display pieces, but may be used in wargaming if I put a leadership / morale feature in the One Hour Wargames rules. All of the figures used are Revell. Prince Rupert's dogs, whilst not an accurate reflection of the breed he had, are purely representative, and are found in the Revell Conquistadors set.

Once these are all finished, I can see many bitterly contested cavalry actions on a tabletop in the near future! Huzzah!