I Still Don't Know What These Are Called

The 1:1 pike:musket ratio is just about accurate for some units early in the early Civil War.

 

I have seen this assembly of troops referred to by many names: regiment, battalia, brigade, tercio even. The only thing I'm certain of is that "regiment" is more of an administrative term and that in battle, regiments were split up/combined to make formations of approximately equal size. The Seventeenth Century was often frustratingly vague in its use of technical language.

I have more artistic notes about my choice of basic infantry unit size and composition, but those can wait until the end.

Perry Cuirassiers, lovely models as you'd expect.

I had a long painting hiatus in Spring, so my initial hopes that I could get it all done by Christmas (where have we heard that one before...) have faded. I reckon that "by the end of 2026" is a more reasonable target to aim for.

 

Another batch of Harquebusiers. The observant will note that none of them have harquebuses. This is fairly typical of Civil War nomenclature.

 I'm now at the point where I would say I'm about a third of the way through the initial batch of models. I've been dallying on the artillery, I'm torn between actually painting the one gun I've got undercoated or pressing on and doing all of the regular horse at once.

I remain extremely chuffed with my paintjob on the Redoubt officer. Such a characterful sculpt too.

 Got my first command base finished, and this means I can talk about the brilliant idea I had for the flags. Despite the popular imagination dividing the sides into foppish Cavaliers and dour, puritain Roundheads, I understand that, especially in the early period, the two sides were essentially indistinguishable. 

 

First command stand. A bit crowded, but very colourful.

 Part of my solution to this is interchangable flags. Admittedly, the only foot unit with a really distinct flag is Prince Rupert's abstract continental triangles, but I like options. Mechanically, I have achieved this by using a thin bit of wire in the Ensign (flag-holder)'s hand, and sticking the flags around a length of brass rod. Flags not mine, they are the printed ones that come with the Warlord Battalia plastic boxed set.

Flag de-mounted from it's perch.

 Bearing in mind what I've read online about uniform procurement and amalgamating units in battle, balanced with the desire to make aesthetically pleasing units, I'm assigning each unit element ("division") it's own colour. The majority of the models will have coats in this colour, with shade variations to account for dye batches and weathering effects. The rest (~40%) will be in all manner of other colours. My use of the phrase "yellow unit" or "blue unit" should NOT be confused with the London Trained Bands, whose colour names referred to the flag colour ONLY.

Close-up of the front line pikes, plus an extra chap who missed out on January's blog entry.

The same models, from behind

 As the asortment of painted figures is starting to get too big to be shoved in random drawers. To resolve this, I'm hoping to get some Really Useful Boxes soon. Lead Adventure Forum have been very useful in suggesting sizes. Hopefully will be able to let you know how good they are.

Pike division from behind. Giving the rear-rank models some attention.

Having got some experience of modelling, I now have some THOUGHTS on representing history in 28 mm on the tabletop. The first of these relates to the positioning of the command group. Apparently, the officers, drummers and ensigns (standard bearers) would stand near the front of the pike block in a sort of line, while the sergeants took the place of less honour keeping the musketeers in line. As you can see, I've gone with the more traditional wargaming approach of putting everyone together in a command group. Given that I will (hopefully) be using these figures for all manner of games requiring different basing conventions, I feel like sticking with the "safe" option is justified as I do not have the money or time to have different forces for Kings of War, Pikeman's Lament, Never Mind the Matchlocks, Regiment of Foot, Clouds of Smoke...

"Grey" division of musketeers. Warlord plastics, very good unit fillers. 

 The other issue of accuracy is the arrangement of pike and shot in the units of uncertain name. From period illustrations of battles and possibly diagrams in drill books (not seen these so not certain) we can be sure that the pike went in the middle, with two wings/sleeves/divisions of musketeers on the flanks. The ratio of pike:shot was ideally 1:2 at the start of the period but, as pike were only really useful in big open field battles, as the war progressed the ratio tended to progress in favour of more muskets. Finally, based on period art and numbers of ranks claimed online, I believe that both pike and shot would have been in 4-10 ranks, each element in the same depth. Unless you're being led by Gustav Adolphus, but that's another war.

Run out of things to say about this lot so no more captions.

So, why have I gone with this poorly ratioed differently-deeped abomination? Many reasons, mostly aesthetic. While shot can look good even with just 4 figures in a 2x2 sleeve, pike tend to need greater numbers to look good on the tabletop, requiring a certain minimum formation bredth and depth. Next, and I think this is very important, I find that armoured pike are much nicer to look at and more fun to paint than the musketeers. No point in starting a project you can't finish. Finally, the army as purchased is for Kings of War, whose army lists pose certain restrictions on what can be put on the table and I've chosen to use smaller shot units to have more points to spend on essentials such as cavalry, dragoons and guns. Once I've finished this "phase" I will be adding more shot.

After many years thinking, painting and playing the hobby and interacting with art in all its forms, I have come round to the idea that intentionally bending the historical facts is no sin, provided that "important details" like exactly what happened to the Irish and how morally correct it was to chop the tyrant king's head off are preserved, and also being quick to explain the pedantic details when required. No idea when the next update will be. Painting seems to be in fits and spurts so probably won't be able to show you update-worthy progress until Christmas. Cherrio until then, then!