Today I received 2 further units of Horse, beautifully painted by Lee. I've based them and presented them with flags, and this completes my Phase I OOB for my British army. I also have (potentially) another unit of dragoons which I may refurb for this phase, or I might leave them until later.
Lumley's Horse in front, Cadogan's to the rear - thanks again, Lee
I'd like to thank Lee and Goya and everyone who has helped me to get this far - I'm really very pleased. Unlike most of my Bavarian and Imperialist Phase I troops, the British are not from the Eric Knowles collection - some have been refurbed from bought-in painted drafts I obtained from Soldiers of Rye, from Albannach and other sources, and a lot of them are painted from scratch using virgin castings. I believe that Eric had made some progress towards replacing his Les Higgins armies with Minifigs and Hinchliffe, and the British seem to be one of the armies which had crossed over.
The next big push will be the French - I have a lot of ex-Eric figures for them, which should scrub up satisfactorily - to balance the sides up a bit and avoid my Brits having to spend the rest of their days fighting the Bavarians.
I still have to work on the command for the Brits, so this group photo is a little premature, but it seemed a suitable project milestone to commemorate!
One British figure I did find in the ex-Eric boxes was this little mounted drummer. A conversion from assorted bits of Higgins castings, I think. He is battle-worn, but should paint up nicely. The logical thing to do with him would be to attach him to a regiment of British dragoons, of course, but this would simply draw attention to the fact that the rest of my dragoons have trumpeters (!), so I shall base him up with a general, as some Big-Wig's personal drummer.
Lovely figures and yes, the drummer deserves to be displayed with the other most important men on the field.
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt - I've tried to strike a delicate balance between making the soldiers into what I want them to be while still being respectful to Eric's original work - three slight snags with this are (1) Eric made quite a few mistakes with the uniforms - presumably because the available sources were not what we have now, (2) the soldiers have done a lot of fighting over the years, and a lot of the original varnish has yellowed and (3) Eric seems to have gradually fudged his armies to be some kind of generic 18th Century collection that could fight everything uo to the SYW.
DeleteExcellent fun - this period is all new to me, so I've enjoyed the research as much as getting teh figures ready!
If that drummer's attached to a general I suspect his drum is actually a cunningly disguised drinks cabinet.
ReplyDeleteI like it - very shrewd. Maybe the badge on the drum should be a trademark for a traditional brand of Port?
DeleteWarre's?
DeleteExcellent choice - I see they were founded in 1670, which is just right! This reminds me that somewhere in my Napoleonic painting queue there are some Portuguese staff figures, including Beresford, and I had planned to make Wm Warre his ADC.
DeleteExcellent work! The troops look brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray - I'm pleased with them, and it's come together very quickly. Now a deep breath and let's get stuck into the French!
DeleteThat British army has come together very quickly and looks the business Tony, the command stand with the drummer will be the icing on the cake.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thanks for your help, Lee. I'm keen to get a solo game going soon, so they'll be off to fight the Bavarois any minute now - as soon as the generals turn up!
DeleteBloody good effort that! When you do your generals, will we see a coach for the Duke? You know so Monsieur de Tallard can be offered a seat at the end of the day.
ReplyDeleteI have the same problem with JBM’s comments being treated as spam.
In fact that's a good idea - I have a coach (S-Range, I think) which Clive Smithers gave me a few years ago, for use with my ECW soldiers. It needs rebasing, and also I need to replace the honking great 4 horse team of square-ass modern Minifigs with some smaller (Alberken) draught horses - if I get on with that it will probably serve for both ECW and WSS periods - I just need to get some sensible drivers set up - I'm sure Irregular must do some...
DeleteTechnology - I rebooted my computer this afternoon, and I can now put comments and replies on my own blog, so maybe it is me after all...
ReplyDeleteNormally my desk-top machine just sleeps at night, though it definitely was off during the aftermath of Storm Arwen!
You are amassing a fine looking collection of toys Tony…
ReplyDeleteThe British are splendid looking fellows indeed…
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly - they are gratifyingly BRIGHT, aren't they? Especially in shiny form. Never done proper toy soldiers before - I like them.
DeleteLovely stuff, can't beat redcoats for putting on a bit of a show. That drummer is brilliant too.
ReplyDeleteI fear their grey-white clad opponents are going to look very dull in comparison.
Hi Chris - I got distracted into doing the British out of sequence - I was about to set about doing the grey-white French after the I'd finished the grey-white Austrians, but I did one British regiment, just for a change, and the British army jumped the queue.
DeleteI'm going to enjoy the French, I think, because I've got better uniform sources for the French, and their flags are fun too. I'm excited by red cannons, as well, but that's down the road a piece.
More great looking cavalry Tony. I love the way that people show a unit here and there and then *bam* an army appears 'all of a sudden' (as it seems from afar).
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Hi James.
DeleteBam!