More Pulp and a custom work

Been some time since I reported from my work table.

The many Bob Murch Pulp Figures and some '70's Ral Partha pulpy miniatures that Jeff had left to me, which he had started painting on before going into hospice, are now coming to an end.

some just seemed to team up on their own

others came as a league ready for details

then there were the other city folks

I then used 'green stuff' in a special custom conversion for a fantasy miniature request.

This was my first full-on conversion in many years and I am happy with the outcome and may be doing more in the future.

Finally with the green stuff used in many projects there are always small amounts left over, in the past I have used the 'extra' to build the improvised defenses for 16-19th century earthworks:

now I have started on doing some new works for the pulp genre, in a sci-fi or high-tech environment:

Some other bits were assembled into some early 'tech' objective markers:

Autumn is coming to an end in western Canada, certainly snow is already flying across the prairies.  Meaning more indoor activity focus.

For now the coming game will be ECW and the workbench is loaded up with replacement chess sets and there have been some sales this year.

Game on!

ECW Formations, a question of scale

Finding that I had yet no one image of my Royalist forces, and that there were enough of them to do a force size comparison with 1:1 (where one man equals one miniature) I thought to lay them out today and get the images recorded for future discussion.

I drew my unit sized from Stuart Reid and his "All The Kings Armies" and went with a smaller size than the ordinances called for as this is closer to what would be actually fielded when battles took place.

First the Foote:

the force takes up a frontage of 36 inches with everyone packed in close order

 Normally these would comprise of 10 companies of pike and shot with 30 men in each, I used the 2:1 shot to pike ratio, so this works out to 100 pike and 200 shot.

As you can see from the image I have gone with a fairly tight formation and even so, with 6 ranks deep of shot (with 99 in each wing actually) you can see that the shot sections almost match up with the pike section for depth.

the Foote shown in oblique to give a better view of the depth and flags as this is 95% of the Royalist force that I have

 Such a force, taking up 36 inches or three feet on a wargames table would be impossible to continuously simulate (needing 300 minis just for the one unit!), while visually stunning, for tabletop game purposes its just not workable.

behind the foote at 1:1 is a more common Pike & Shot unit of three stands and only 6" wide

So we make the compromise, for instance swapping 5 pike for the 100 (20:1) and 6 shot for the 198 (33:1) we get the more commonly seen unit on the games table of three stands, one Pike and two Shot, with a total frontage of 6 inches.  Which from the 36 inches of the 1:1 unit translates into a 1/6 scale.

wargames table unit of only 11 minis and 6 inch frontage

Then the Horse

Again they are described as 6 troop units of about 30 men each.  The ordinances calling for 100 in each troop, on campaign with losses and desertions along with recruitment, they tended to be around 30 men in each troop, according to Stuart Reid.

The horse in six 'troop' formation with a couple of horse widths between troops

When laid out at 1:1 this gives us 180 horses and men, allowing for a spacing between troop units, this again comes out to a frontage of 36 inches.

Once again placing a three foot horse unit on a wargames table will take up almost all available space, though truly look impressive!

1:1 unit (180 minis)  in front and 1:15 unit (12 minis) in behind

So the compromise of a 1:15 scale is made, giving a 1/6 frontage difference from 36" down to 6" (the same frontage as the foot unit essentially).

the compromise unit of 12 horse in the same six troop pattern

Thus we have something of a scaling at between 1:15 to 1:33 (with an average sitting around 1:20) in men to miniatures ratio.

I'm hoping this little comparison will help folks in visualizing things that happen on the wargames table better.

Understanding a little more about the 30 years war

I have been using some of these videos to better understand more about what was going on in Europe, while the "Bishops Wars" were going on in England, prior to the English Civil War.

They are also good to run in the background while cleaning miniatures, sculpting and painting.

What do you use to keep informed or have as background in your painting time?

Royalist Forces Completed, the Oxford Horse

In my progress of this English Civil War armies, I have started with the Parliament and then transitioned into the Royalists.

overview shot of the whole force with the King

This has been an example in painting progress and skill increase, wherein my Parliament troops are really quite simple in their painting, some done very quickly.  Now with the three different 'forces' Cornish, Welsh and now Oxford in my Royalist army I have done more details, and due to my decision to have the white band field sign on the Royalists, the time used on the models was increased.

again the horse speed painting technique was used, then the work went into the riders

fully flocked and waiting for the flags

Then a parade with the King:

this troop is using a Prince Rupert type of flag

the troop is flying something of a royal banner

this one is inspired by the white coat with buff leather that I painted them in

here are all four troops (one does not have a 'color' and will be also used as dragoon stand in)

So now at long last (5 years!), my base English Civil War forces are all done.

Sigh, yet now the Scots, Irish and conjectural French forces are looming on the horizon ... thankfully I have already been collecting some of the Scots/Irish and a recent trade has brought a bunch of 30 years war troops into my possession which could be used to make the French.

Ultimately I have plans to have a brigade of New Model Army pike and shot to be finished along with the gifted Cuirassier lobsters from Jeff.

Up next will be a Black Powder game organized by Rob, then we will start our campaign game in ECW.