All hail to Goya, who has very kindly painted some more figures for me. Very nice too - if it wasn't for him, there would be no painting at all going on here this last couple of weeks.
Here we have The Earl of Angus's Regt of Foot*, also known as Ferguson's Regt by 1704, also known (unofficially?) as the Cameronians. The figures are Les Higgins/PMD 20mm, as usual, while the mounted officer (though not his horse) is from Irregular. Photos give a choice of with or without flash, since I couldn't make my mind up. These are not refurbed figures - all fresh castings.
Very pleased to add these chaps to the boxes - at last I have a "Dutch school" unit to join in the games!
Thanks again, Goya. Lovely job.
* Historical Clap-trap: The Earl of Angus in question was James Douglas, son of the 2nd Marquess of Douglas. He raised the regiment in 1689, when he was 18, and died at its head at the Battle of Steenkerque, in 1692, when he was 21. He was, of course, one of the "Red" Douglases, a family I take an interest in since they owned Tantallon Castle, which is next door to where I live. By the 1690s, however, after George Monck had wrecked Tantallon in 1651, following the Battle if Dunbar, the Red Douglas lot were living in their other castle, at - well, Castle Douglas...
Bloody hell Tony you must have gallons of that green paint for the bases. Did you buy a job lot? The figures look lovely by the way.
ReplyDeleteThank you JBM. Back in the 1970s, I chanced upon a shade of green - it was recommended to me by a chap who knew about colours and design - which was light enough to avoid darkening the room and which made the uniforms pop out. It was Robbialac's "Tapestry Green", which, of course, has now been OOP for decades. When I came back to wargaming after the turn of the century, I got my local hardware store to match the old Robbialac colour from the (then) current Dulux colour-mixing charts. The colour was called "Crested Moss #1", and I've used gallons of it since then, for baseboards, unit stands, scenery plates etc etc. I buy it in 250ml "test pots". For years I threw more away than I got to use, since the little tins rusted and messed up the paint. Since then I have discovered cheap 250ml acrylic jars, which keep the paint safe and do not rust(!). The Dulux paint is itself now OOP, but I know the shade codes, and my local hardware store will still mix it for me. So yes - gallons of the stuff. In a world without flock, the paint itself is important. I still like the colour, which is just as well, since after a certain time one is committed to it.
DeleteVery smart looking regiment! All Hail, Goya!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon - All Hail!
DeleteAnd they fought at the Schellenberg too. I already started painting them to fight my Bavarians:-)
ReplyDeleteGreat paintjob!
Hi Uwe - so it is a small world after all!
DeleteNice. Are the sentinels at the back the same as the figures in the War Game chapter on Blenheim?
ReplyDeleteChris - I had a look for this. My copy of the War Game (assuming you mean Charles Grant's book) makes a brief reference to the WSS, but I couldn't find any pictures. I'll have a look in CS Grant's companion volumes. The pictures in the Charles Grant book are almost all 30mm Spencer Smith's - mostly plastic, I think - wile my soldiers are a lot smaller - te Les Higgins 20mm Malburians are 21mm to the eye, which is WW2-style 20mm, or about 1/76 scale. I'll look further into this.
DeleteAh, no. I meant the one edited by Peter Young with 10 famous battles.
DeleteOK - I know of this book, come to think of it, but have never seen it. If the figures in the pics are Young's, then they will almost certainly be Spencer Smiths too, but if they are someone else' I have no idea. Higgins figures tend not to appear in classic wargame photos - partly because they appeared too late, and had too short a period of availability. Also the ECW and Marlborough figures were a funny size, compared with everyone else. I'd be interested to see the pic(s) in the Young book if you have it handy. The particular MP11 "at attention" figure you refer to in my photo (confusingly described as "march attack", though he is clearly not going anywhere) is distinctive because the scabbard for his sword/hangar is an important part of the structure, serving as it does to strengthen the casting - these little chaps are sufficiently petite to have weak ankles (less fashionable than bone spurs?). This is a concept which must be completely alien to collectors of current Minifigs, or Front Rank.
DeleteThat is a super book and still sits proudly on my shelf. You're right, they do look like they might be the same. Looking at that photo of the British troops surrounding Blenheim towards the end of the day still sends shivers down my spine, I remember looking at it the first time all those years ago and thinking, wow, what would I give for an army like that!
DeleteChris sent me some scans of the Blenheim pics, and I'm currently trying to work out what the figures are. Tricky - there are a couple of very Charles Grant-looking buildings in the photos, but they are not Grant's toy soldiers. There was a never a big selection of manufacturers of figures for this period, so this should be easy - it probably is, in fact!
DeleteVery nice indeed. I love that figure with the partisan closest to the camera - bags of swank.
ReplyDeleteHe's a beauty, isn't he? Higgins' original figures were very fine, but after he died and the masters were changed to have a PMD logo on the base, Tim Richards improved some of the figures a little - notably the officers and drummers. That figure with the partisan is a PMD one. I've got some interesting bits and pieces on the evolution of these figures, including a plasticene-and-beeswax-tweaked master for a different officer. I'll try to post some pictures of the before, after and "during"!
DeleteNice to see a real army starting to come togetherš
ReplyDeleteI’ve always admired these figures and had my mate Lee still been with us then I know we’d be knee deep in these figures by now.
A lot of my Higgins figures are refurbed from the original Knowles collection, and they are fine, but it's nice to be branching out into paint jobs from scratch now!
DeleteThey do look great. You want to be careful though. There is some evidence that once you start letting some Brits in they tend to flood the place if they like it.
ReplyDeletebtw I like the 1st picture best, it has a sort of warm glow to it.
Thanks Ross - I think my first-cut "target" OOB for the English/British has only about 8 regiments of foot, but I'll add some Dutch and Hessians, I think.
DeleteLovely toys Tony...
ReplyDeleteA very nice addition to your collection indeed.
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly - red and shiny and new!
DeleteGreat to see some Brits creeping in Tony, a nice splash of colour. Well done to Goya, I'm familiar with those castings as I have - and still do - paint a lot of them for John. They have a unique charm about them compared to the dwarf like offerings of today.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention dwarf-like castings - I've recently been looking at a well-known rule book I have here, and the gratuitous illustrations of painted 28mm figures (all grotesque,with matching buck teeth) are beautifully done, but the impression is of a super-sized Punch & Judy show. Everyone to their own, but I find that distracting (and, of course, I can't paint like that anyway...).
DeleteMore Brits and some French in the queue - just need the painting room in the attic to warm up a bit!
They do look great. All hail Goya!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Yea, verily - all hail!
DeleteSpiffing looking figures Sir!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ray - greetings to you!
DeleteA very handsome unit of redcoats!
ReplyDelete