18mm ECW Scottish Covenanter Regiments Completed

I spent most of December and the Christmas/New Year break working on six regiments of Scottish Covenanter foote, and completed the last of the basing over the weekend:

The six regiments are comprised of Ker's regiment:

The Duke of Hamilton's regiment of foote:

Sir John Haldane of Gleneagles's regiment:

Barclay's regiment:

Home's regiment:

and Lovat's regiment of foot:

Of course this meant using a lot of grey, although I did mix in a few different coat colours to provide some variation:

The pikemen offered a little more variety, and I also mixed in a sprinkling of armoured figures:

I equipped two of the regiments with pikemen in the 'pike forward' position. Not my favourite pose as they are not easy to pick up and become quite easily entangled with the rank directly in front, but at least they look as though they mean business:

The flags are again from Wargames Designs. I am very pleased with them and the size fits these larger 18mm figures well:

Including 6 spare musketeer figures which will find their way on to some forthcoming command bases, that is 294 figures completed in total:

Next up, the artillery. I have sixteen pieces to be painted, with the Scots to receive four and the Royalist and Parliamentarians six each. I have made a start on them and hope to have them all completed by the end of January, so I can then get stuck into the cavalry in February.

Last Four Parliamentarian Regiments of Foot Completed

I put on a bit of a push over the last couple of weeks and have completed the last four Parliamentarian Regiments, to make eight in total. The first of these is Thomas Fairfax's regiment of Foot, which I beefed up with an additional four elements of pike to represent a 'pike heavy' regiment if required:

The flag is again from Wargames Designs, and I used a mixture of armoured and unarmoured pikemen to provide some variety:

Two more red-coated regiments in Onslow's and Birch's regiments respectively:

And the blue-coated Aldrich's regiment complete the quartet:

Aldrich's regiment has three lions on its flag, which is a nice change from the usual simple white circles:

I also added a few more elements to the King's Lifeguard regiment, to provide a similar 'pike heavy' unit for the Royalists:

And added an additional command element and flag to this regiment as well, to lend it a little more gravitas:

Here are the four completed Parliamentarian regiments assembled together:

That is now sixteen regiments completed, eight each for the Royalists and Parliamentarians, with six Scottish Covenanter regiments left to go. 

18mm ECW Parliamentarian London Trained Bands

Next off the production line are two Parliamentarian London trained bands, the Blue and Tower Hamlets Regiments with the former (unsurprisingly carrying a blue flag) in front:

Although some sources said the trained bands were of a uniform appearance in red coats, this was apparently an incorrect inference drawn from the fact that a Major Mainwairing was in charge of three regiments at the same time, including one which had been issued with red coats alongside his two London Trained Bands. More contemporary opinion seems to be that as the trained bands were drawn from householders who often sent their servants in place of themselves, they were more likely to be wearing civilian clothes:

The flags are again from Wargame Designs:

With the Tower Hamlets flag being red:

I went with the pike forward option for these two regiments. I must say I prefer the standing pose with upright pikes as they are easier to pick up and don't become entangled with the rank in front, but it was nice to mix in a bit of variety:

I also deliberately used less firing figures among the musketeers, to give them a slightly less regular look:

That is four regiments now completed with four to go, with the next two hopefully completed by the end of next week.

18mm ECW Gell's and Brooke's Regiments of Foot

After recently completing the WWII 1/2400th naval project it was good to get stuck back into the English Civil War project. Having already completed eight Royalist regiments of foot earlier in the year it was now time to get started on the same number of Parliamentarian regiments. It took a week to get back into the swing of it but I soon found my pace again and have actually managed to complete the musketeers for all eight regiments, and now just have the pike to go.

The first two fully completed regiments are Sir John Gell's and Lord Brooke's regiments, seen here with Gell's regiment in front:

Gell's regiment apparently wore grey coats, and I found this quite a satisfying colour to paint. I hope the attraction will still be there once I get stuck into half a dozen or so Scottish regiments of foot:

I ended up purchasing some very nice flags from Wargames Designs in the UK. I am much happier with these size-wise, and ended up replacing all my Royalist regimental flags with these as well:

I have mixed in quite a few unarmoured pikemen into the Parliamentarian ranks, to provide a bit of variety and to distinguish them from the Royalist regiments where I have used primarily armoured pikemen:

The musketeers are the same figures, but I am doing them with a lot more grey breeches than I did for the Royalists:

Lord Brooke's regiment was the only purple-coated regiment in the Civil War, so I had to include it as an excuse to break open again my very under-utilised purple paint triad:

English Civil War foot regiment flags are generally fairly uninteresting, but Wargames Designs makes the most of what there is:

Purple-coated pikemen and musketeers, with a few buff and tan leather coats thrown in:

That's the first two Parliamentarian regiments completed with the others to now hopefully follow in quick succession:

I may also have convinced my Tuesday night gaming friend Dale to partake in a few games of For King and Parliament early in the New Year, which will provide me with that extra bit of motivation knowing that these units may actually make the table within the next few months. Next up, a couple of Parliamentarian Trained Bands.