Back To The English Civil War

I always liked the Movie “Cromwell” with Alec Guiness and Richard Harris. I first saw it on late night tv as a kid. Yeah, once the battles were done I usually fell asleep, but those battles were pretty cool.
I especially liked the “cowboy hats” they wore as I used my Giant cowboys and Airfix Civil War Confederares in pell mell battles on the floor, pretending they were the soldiers on tv. Lacking the internet in those days, I had to rely on black and white reproductions of paintings like “Cromwell at Dunbar” in encyclopedias to get any sense of what these guys looked like for real.

As an ironic twist, now as an old man I find myself using these same figures in conversions of English Civil War armies.

Back to the movie for a moment.
I especially liked the cannons.
They were big, imposing pieces, belching fire on command.
Today, most of the 1/72 cannon available are pretty small by comparison.
It is only with the company Mars that there have been an appearance of big guns.
Here’s a recent purchase from the Ukraine:

You get 4 guns and crew per bag, but the price is getting sharp. Just check eBay.

The crew look good and the gun is beefy:

Here’s some of my cannon:

These next guns are home made, popcycle stick gun carriage and dowel barrel. 

The little ammunition cart is an idea I pinched from the movie.

What follows is a photo shoot of most of the ECW/Thirty Years War soldiers I’ve painted since I last posted. COVID was instrumental in my having sat down long enough to coat them all with Future floor wax.

This next set is cavalry made from those cowboys I bought from a Thai toy dealer a few years back.

So I’ll close out with a couple more shots from “Cromwell”.

A Dollar Store Too Far

Last year was the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, and I started reading up on the battle.
I did the Cornelius Ryan book and watched the movie, listened to some podcasts, caught some interviews with Antony Beevor and watched a YouTube interview he did:

WWII and Lessons from the Past - 'Arnhem: The Battle of the Bridges'

27,472 views

Pretty fascinating.

He concluded that the plan never had a chance, and it was Monty's folly.

Sadly it cost over 10,000 lives.

I also picked up several DVD's about this period of the war.

So I decided to start up making a 1/72nd Airborne force and started with the British first.

But on the cheap.

Model jeeps, whether plastic, resin or metal are pretty dear.

So I scrounged in my pile of toys and painted up a small force.

I also did the "toy soldier" look, given that my figures were a mish mash of makers.

(And try finding any piats)

Cherry red berets in place of the maroon, and high gloss finishes.
Definitely TOY soldiers....

So here we go...

Dollar Store Jeeps (of a kind) with torsos of soldiers added.

The heavies, dropped by glider to be sure. Atlantic anti tank gun, mortars and heavy Mg's. A mix of figures. The pack 75 is nice but a terrible kit to assemble.

Commanders trying to get the radio working. Local help from a pensioner.

The soldiers. A real mix of makers.

A bit of a close up. I have to admit, I had fun painting this lot up, but like everything else, "it's a work in progress".

Ain't It The Way....

After a long haitus I dug out my camera and boxes of painted toys only to find my camera doesn't work anymore.....
So I made an attempt with my android, and here's some "results".

Comic Book Toy Lucky Revolutionary War Artillery.

They look better with wheels pinched from Eagle Games Civil War figures.

Lucky Toys Cavalry as American Militia

American Regulars

The Command Base. One thing you get a lot of in these figures are drummers and musicians.

Some Converted Renaissance Swiss Pikemen

More Conversions. Emhar Rowing Vikings are now becoming Gothic Horse. Hopefully to be at Chalons some day to face my Hun's.

Mars Thirty Years War Artillery. Mars is really going all out with their TYW ranges. I read a couple of Brigadier Peter Young's books on the English Civil War and Edgehill, and guns in this battle were a real mixed lot and rather small in caliber. Not at all like the fire spewing behemoths seen in the movie Cromwell.

So that's some of my figures, the pictures aren't so nice, so I am waiting on a new digital camera.

A Mixed Bag

Here's a few other units, A Lucky Toys Prussian Grenadier unit, a Giant French and Indian War unit, and some commercial figures. First is an almost Charles Grant unit of Scots Greys made of Strelets Crimean War Heavy Brigade figures, and 4 units of Mars Polish Haiduks.

Wagons And Limbers

I use a lot of cheap Made in China stuff. Here's a Giant Limber, painted field grey. With the addition of a gun shield and a converted barrel, it would make a decent WW1 type gun. Also I put a picture of a 25mm limber made from the Airfix World War 1 British Horse Artillery and a Giant brand gun. The horses and men are Napoleonic Prussian Dragoon Officers from Warrior Miniatures. I used a plastic gun as the lead ones cost a few bucks, and I have a bucket of these around(well, maybe a big coffee can anyway).
(http://www.warrioronline.demon.co.uk/).

Easy Terrain And Comic Book Soldiers

Over the years I have amassed near 2000 of those old comic book soldiers sold as "204 Revolutionary War Soldier Set" by Lucky Toys. I took some and painted them up as American Revolutionary soldiers with Warflag printed paper flags.






I also reworked those French Horse Grenadiers and finished a unit of Dragoons.






I also picked up a Woodlands Scenics set of 6 large trees. I mounted them on carved blue board insulation. I glued sand onto the base then painted it.
I have some nice home made rivers and streams done in the GW style, but I also wanted to make some easy rivers for various wargames. I bought some coloured foam from Michaels and made these two sections. I had a Dollar Store plastic bridge so I made the river sections to fit.

Everyone Loves A Parade, A Petite Review

I got out more of my fictional 18th century army. Whilst my original intent was to make large 48 man units like Charles Grant's "The Wargame" had, I long ago decided to do a dual sort of system. I do make large units, but I also make extra command stands so that the large units can be broken down into 4 stands of 3 men and by adding a command stand with officers and flags and such, I can make 4 small units that are more suitable to a smaller table and in a sense, larger battles, ie., more units. One pic shows that my Grand Review drew onlookers in the way of Tabatha, a polite cat who doesn't sit on my soldiers or spirit them away at all.....

Purists will note that the flags in no way represent the units carrying them. I long ago gave up on doing it historically correct and decided on doing my own fictional units, so that explains that. Their opposition is decidedly more Prussian, and I will get to putting up some of them and their Austrian and Russian neighbors as well. Currently I have a number of Bavarianeque units on the way. Here's a close up of their commander, and one of their flags - made from hobby foam sheet and painted.

The next photo shows my HaT Industrie Horse Grenadiers. They still need some sword paint and PVA finish. These are very dark, painted black then drybrushed colours. I think it's a technique called "speedpainting". I'm not all that enthused.

The next couple of photos are of Revell's Austrian Dragoons and some converted Esci Cuirassier. The telephone pole guidon is a bit unfortunate, but I've had some problems with flag poles and durability.

Florist wire is a bit too thin, Plasticstruct rod is perfect, but it breaks, especially when you take the figures out of the box or off the shelf. They don't stand up to felines either. The cocktail stix are a temporary solution that has seemed to stay. I also bought a shop broom at a hardware store and then cut off the bristles. These are good. I used them for my Swiss style converted Germans and for my Bavarian 18th century units.