SIR BEVIL GRENVILLE'S REGIMENT

Grenville's Cornish regiment, which gained fame at the Battle of Lansdown

Sir Bevil Grenvile's stand of pikes, which certainly preserved our army from a total rout with the loss of his most precious life:they stood as upon the eaves of a house for steepness, but as unmoveable as a rock."  wrote Richard Atkyns.

Firing Musketeers by Replicants,  others and pike by A Call to Arms.

The flag shows the Grenville arms of 3 clarions. Ensign from ebay and drummer ACTA with a Maros Models head.

Sir Bevil leading his bold regiment up the slopes of Lansdown into the teeth of the Parliamentarian battery and several hundred Cuirassiers. He was killed by a blow to the head with a poleaxe, presumably wielded by one of the armoured cavalrymen. Accompanying him is his bodyguard, Anthony Payne, so called "the last of the Cornish Giants" who stood over seven feet tall. Legend has it as his master fell, he hoisted Grenville's 13 year old son into the saddle so the regiment would still have a Grenville at it's head. Sir Bevil is a Del Prado figure, and Payne a massive 54mm Peipp Miniaturen model.

Her is Anthony Payne in later life depicted in a painting at The Tree Inn at Stratton , a pub where I have spent many bibulous hours.

A monument was erected on the battlefield to the memory of Sir Bevil in 1720,

picture from Wikipedia as I have mislaid all my battlefield shots.

ROYALIST DRAGOONS

I'm not sure if Maurice's dragoons were present at Lansdown, but as the prince himself was it seems feasible. Coat colours are unknown as far as I am aware so I plumped for a rich royal blue. The Royalist dragoons were severely outnumbered at the battle

The cornet is by Irregular Miniatures and was in of a box of ECW figures Alan at Tradgardland sent me. His legs had broken off but a pin repair job has him back on his feet. Thanks Alan!!

This gaudy popinjay was also missing a leg so a milliput limb was whipped up. I'm not very good at sculpting, but it will suffice.

BIRTHDAY BAKING

It was Arthur's birthday last week, so we fired up the bread oven and all made pizzas on site with a few friends who came along.

Mrs. Atticus dispenses chocolate cake for afters.

a fun time is had by all (that's me with the shiny head).

SIR WILLIAM WALLER'S REGIMENT OF (DISMOUNTED) DRAGOONS

Finished these chaps which I had ready for painting as shown here. Waller's Dragoons had a strong Scottish influence with many professional officers serving in the ranks.

Here we have commanding officer James Strachan who was killed at Lansdown. His brother Archbald took over command.

A mix of figures, this chap is my favourite from Maros Models (sadly oop). I really like the cabasset helmet and detail on the flintlock firing mechanism.

I painted them with red coats as I hope to use them for later skirmishes around Bath when dragoons of the New Model Army successfully attacked the South gate.

CAVALIER CAVALRY READY TO ROLL

Converted and primed the remaining Royalist cavalry over the weekend, an extra 4 units of 6 figures. The lobster pots and carbines on the ACTA figures were snipped off and the heads were replaced with various noddles from Ensign Miniatures. The carbine strap was covered with a milliput sash.

After doing this lot I had a hellishly painful left shoulder which I fear is some form of RSI caused by a combination of painting and modelling and holding the hose/watering lance at work for hours on end in this damnably warm weather (I much prefer rainy days). I had better be careful.

CANNONS FROM CADW

We visited Raglan Castle on Saturday to celebrate Arthur's forthcoming birthday and had a jolly time. Rooting among the little gift area of the shop I came across these useful cannon pencil sharpeners. They look mid to late 19c to me...perfect in fact for Little Wars (other than they sharpen pencils rather than fire matchsticks). They were £2.60 each, but I also had a 10% discount as we are CADW (Welsh Heritage) members (cheaper and better value than English Heritage I'm afraid).

Has anyone any idea if they represent historical guns...perhaps Parrotts apart from the funny extra arms on the breach knob?

here is one of the guns (I bought 2 for myself) with some of the newly arrived soon to be Danish 1/32 ACW figures. Any info on Danish guns of 1864 would be useful. I have ordered a book from Helion on the Danish army but it has yet to arrive.

WILLIAM GODOLPHIN'S REGIMENT

A Cornish regiment, so probably un-uniformed, but as these are pretty toy soldiers they need matching coats to look smart. As I am having to paint far more Royalist infantry than Parliamentarian for the Lansdown campaign , a couple of Cavalier units have to be able to double as Roundheads for future more evenly matched games, so these chaps have no identifying insignia to mark them as lisping cavaliers. In fact they look suspiciously like Lord Brooke's regiment who fought for Parliament at Edgehill.

ACTA rank and file and musician

Random ebay finds officer and ensign.

Back in my re-enacting days, Godolphin's regiment were secretly referred to as 'Godawful's' due to the flakiness of their kit. Hopefully these chaps are better dressed. 

1864 DANISH TINKERING

Spurred on by a post today by Tradgardmastare , who is a fan of all things Danish, I grabbed a handy volunteer from a growing pile of 54mm ACW figures. I have no reference of Danish uniforms for the Second Schleswig War other than browsing the internet but the main differences seem to be the lower flatter cap and the double breasted coat. I trimmed the kepi down, and built the rear of it up with Vallejo putty, carved off the buttons and added a new coat opening and 2 rows of buttons and a set of muttonchops

I daresay the blanket roll and straps are incorrect, but as yet I have no book to refer to with Danish uniforms in (are there any available?)

Some re-enactors below

 On the subject of 54mm ACW, a hearty thanks to the Duc de Gobin, who recently sent me a very nice pile of figures he no longer needed, including some nicely painted chaps and some rare Timpo figures in there as well. Many thanks Darren. The generosity of fellow gamers is a thing to wonder at.  I have to admit I find it hard to part with any soldiers, I love 'em so much, so other peoples kindness is all the more marvellous to me. These chaps may find themselves pressed into service as Danes.

COLONEL WILLIAM STRODE'S REGIMENT

Cracking on with the Parliamentarian infantry, this is the final regiment of Roundhead foot that needed completing. William Strode was MP for Ilchester and Street in Somerset (he's not the William Strode who was one of the 5 members Charles Stuart tried to arrest). Uniforms and colours are unknown so I opted for tawny so I can use them as Essex's regiment if I ever refight Edgehill..

Replicants firing musketeers with A call to Arms heads. The loading pose is unconverted. I quite like the Elizabethan look the morion gives these chaps. Buttons are unpainted btw as they are made of matching cloth.

Sturdy pikemen from ACTA. 

The command group.

Drummer ACTA with Ensign Miniatures head

Officer an ebay find

Ensign from Alexander's Toy Soldiers

Most of the ACTA figures are based on pictures from Haythornthwaite's The English Civil War, an Illustrated Military History but so is this ATS figure, the original plate is below. A company called Corvus made a very nice 25mm version back in the 1980's.

One of my favourite figures representing the wonderfully named Captain Shemington Farewell, an officer in Strode's Regiment, reading an uplifting psalm to his men. The bible has a crucifix moulded onto it which seems a bit odd as this chap is no doubt meant to represent a staunch Puritan, so I left it unpainted.