CAVERN CRAWL

I've  been looking covetously at Dwarven Forge cavern systems recently, and come to the conclusion there is no way I can afford them, so will probably have to make my own (although I might treat myself to a stalagmite set). Back when I used to play D + D on a regular basis, I always used to enjoy mapping out cavern systems for players to explore, with fiendish monsters lurking in pools or behind rock formations, but it wasn't until I actually started caving for real that I realised just  how unrealistic role-playing caves are.

About 20 years ago I used to go caving once a week in the Mendip Hills, not far from where I live and poked about in a number of different caves, all of which would present some challenges to an armoured adventuring party

Birthday Squeeze in Swildon's Hole . Note the caver has had to remove the one piece of equipment he is carrying (his lamp battery) so he can get through to the next part of the cave.

(Image from Dudley Caving Club's blog)

The traverse at Eastwater Cavern, a smooth surface, but at a 40' angle ready to slide you down into a crevice

(Image from WAYA blog)

The Drainpipe in Goatchurch Cavern (wiggly)

(image from Pinterest)

Swildon's Hole sump 1. A short underwater passage, adventurers would need to hold their breath for 30 seconds

(pic from Carbis Bay Crew blog)

These are some of the more extreme passages (not the most extreme, it has to be said), and there are areas where one can walk upright, and indeed large and wonderful caverns

The Throne Room in Stoke Lane Slocker (I never did this challenging cave!)

(Image from Dudley Caving Club's blog again)

 but they are all connected by tortuous narrow passageways involving crawling or wriggling, with no level floors and plenty of piles of boulders to clamber over.... which would make for an exciting (and literal) Dungeon/Cavern crawl.

The point of this rambling is that I am getting a real itch to get back underground. I chucked my kneepads and helmet away when we moved house  6 years ago, but I am getting a whispering in my head to lure me back down below...............

Entrance to Swildon's Hole 

one of the fascinating things for me is that an innocuous little hole like this can lead to over 9000 metres of cave passageway, 167 metres deep.... but could you get down with plate armour and a 10' pole?

CANALETTO

Not much going on here at present, but I have posted a bit on my Fantasy blog. My 18c cage bars were rattled today when I decided to dap into a Bath museum to see the exhibition on Canaletto which has been there a while and finishes this week. There was some lovely detail in the paintings which gave food for thought for Imagi-nation scenarios, and some lovely little vignettes, such as servants beating carpets outside their masters house, and drunken rakes peeing up against the walls of Horse Guards. Well worth a look if you are in Bath over the next few days.

BEAST OF GORGOROTH

I was asked by my oldest lad to help out this weekend. He is building a small force of  Lord of the Rings orcs based on a force from Minas Morgul and fancied getting one of these for his army

A beast of Gorgoroth from Games Workshop.

Sadly they retail at £44, not a demented price (some 1/72 kits are a similar price) until you realise the model is cast in crappy brittle resin and is likely to fall apart at the merest touch. 

A trip to that highly useful budget shop The Works produced a £1.50  plastic Rhinoceros and after an hour with the milliput and balsa wood we had this

I believe it's being painted as I type. Not an exact copy but good enough. Now we need to source some crew at the next wargames show.

AT LAST.....FINISHED (well almost).

I've been painting these for well over a year and have now finished all the essentials to re-enact the Battle of Lansdown in 54mm, toy soldier old school style (I just need a 12' x 8' table).  Just finished the movement trays at work today (during lunch break I hasten to add), so this is the second complete project I've  finished in my wargaming career, about 400 54mm figures in all. It's easy to carry on ad infinitum, and I have a few more command figures to do, some casualties, and the famous exploding powder wagon which wounded Hopton the day after the battle, but I'm going to give 54mm a break for a while. When oldest boy starts his Lansdown project at school in the new year he should be able to use these chaps to good effect.

Royalists on the right, Parliamentarians on the left, and the wall will be behind the Roundheads for them to withdraw behind as the Cavaliers storm the hill.

Thanks for your encouraging comments chaps, over the last few months...much appreciated.

PARLIAMENTARIAN HORSE COMPLETED

Here are the Roundhead cavalry in all their glory. Haselrigg's in the foreground, Waller's in the centre and the Bristol and Devon horse in the distance. 

Sir Arthur Hazelrig's regiment of horse. The famous 'lobsters' so called because "they are couvered in bright iron shell." 17c cuirassiers are my favourite troop type in history.

Sir Arthur himself, sporting a rather nice savoyard helm held in his hand. Figure by Langley models, he is considerably larger than his 54mm troopers, but I'm not too fussy about scale.

Hazelrigg's cornet

The Bristol horse, Major Hercules Langrish's regiment. I painted these chaps up to look like the roundheads in Witchfinder general.

Langrish's cornet 

Sir William Waller's own regiment

Waller's cornet (Fructus virtutis- The fruits of virtue )

Captain William Carr's troop (Carr served with Colonel Robert Burghill and led the second wave of cavalry down the slopes of Lansdown at the Royalist army, putting the cavalry to flight. Richard Atkyns a Royalist cavalryman who recorded the battle in his memoirs said

"...this was the boldest thing I ever saw,for a party of less than 1000 to charge an army of 6000 horse, foot and cannon in their own ground at least a mile and a half from their body."

Carrs'cornet (Pour la verite- For truth)

Captain George Thompson's troop of the Devon horse

Thompson's cornet (Veritas erit victrix- Truth will be the victor)

There seem to be a lot of Parliamentarian cornets recorded for Waller's army and I had a surfeit to choose from, whereas the Royalist list was a bit thin. Hopefully next posts will be showing the completed armies en masse.

(Not so) BOLD CAVALIEROS

To a lot of bloggers I follow who happen to be teachers, the summer holidays mean oodles of free time and jollification, but to lesser mortals like me they mean even less time to do toy related stuff. Although I finished the Royalist cavalry a few weeks ago I haven't been able to get them photographed and to be honest this was a bit of a rushed job this morning, so apologies for any fuzzy photos.

The entire Royalist horse, including 2 units I painted a while back. Below are the ones that haven't appeared on the blog yet).

Colonel Thomas Morgan's Regiment

Morgan's cornet showing Saint Michael slaying a dragon.

Sir George Vaughan's regiment (Sir George was wounded at Lansdown)

Vaughan's cornet (Experto crede-Trust the Experienced )

Lord Digby's Regiment of horse

Digby's cornet (Illuc omnes-Thither everyone the centre of the circle representing the king)

Lord Crawford's regiment (I could only find information on cornets for 3 Royalist horse regiments, so had to invent the others). 

Crawford is using Horatio Carey's cornet. Carey's regiment was at Lansdown but fighting for Parliament. Carey himself had changed sides and adopted this flag.....the motto is mocking the Earl of Essex, a fine commander but whose wife was notoriously promiscuous).

Most of the Royalist cavalry took to their heels halfway through the battle of Lansdown, and they were outnumbered in the first place.

I have finished all the rank and file for both sides now. I just need to get the Parliamentarian cavalry photographed and then both armies together....almost there!!

AFFECTIONATE FRIENDS, HONOURABLE ENEMIES

Every wargamer (and hopefully every right minded person)  would agree war is a pretty beastly affair to be avoided at all costs, Civil War even more so, but friendship and honour can be maintained throughout conflict as this letter (probably the most famous missive of the Civil War) testifies.

Sent by Sir William Waller, Commander of the Parliamentarian Army

 to his friend of many years, Sir Ralph Hopton, Royalist general.

To my noble friend, Sir Ralph Hopton at Wells

Sir

the experience I have had of your worth and the happiness I have enjoyed in your friendship are wounding considerations, when I look upon this present distance between us. Certainly my affection to you is so unchangeable that hostility itself cannot violate my friendship in your person. But I must be true to the cause wherein I serve...
...That great God, which is the searcher of my heart, knows with what a sad sense I go upon this service, and with what a perfect hatred I detest this war without an enemy; but I look upon it as the work of the Lord, which is enough to silence all passion in me. The God of peace in his good time send us peace, and in the meantime fit us to receive it. We are both upon this stage and must act those parts that are assigned to us in this tragedy. Let us do it in a way of honour and without personal animosities. Whatsoever the issue be, I shall never willingly relinquish the dear title of...

your affectionate friend and faithful servant
William Waller 

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Lansdown where the friends faced each other in combat after fighting together for the Protestant Cause in the Thirty Years War.

Sir William Waller in 54mm. Figure by Del Prado

Sir Ralph Hopton is a Peipp Miniaturen figure.