About eleven years ago I bought two Civil war armies from Dixon. The Infantry are pretty bad but I have to say the cavalry figures are really quite good and have amazing detail on their armour.The Renegade figures may be cheap but none of them have the classic lobster pot helmets of the Civil war, so I thought I'd enlist some of my old forgotten figures back into service. The Dixon horses were replaced with ECW Foundry ones to improve the look of the unit slightly. I am still waiting for my Renegade army to arrive and couldn't wait to get painting and so had to start.
The Sealed Knot (Britain's foremost re-enactment society for ECW) dress there Cavaliers in blue doublets, buff coats and red sashes so who am I to argue with those who live the life 24/7, mine will follow the same rules. I have also found lots of Ref for Royalist cavalry wearing blue sashes as well as red, after a little research I have concluded that these must belong to Prince Rupert's cavalry forces. I would be interested If anyone out there could help with this matter.
Thanks to films and Victorian paintings our views of the two armies can be split into dashing, fuss and feathers Cavaliers and staunch, bible bashing Round heads, in fact the two armies were pretty much the same in all but the sashes they wore around their waist.
10 comments:
Huzzah for ECW!
Nicely done; you seem to be more slightly faster at horses than me. ;)
Dixon isn't my cup of tea, but admittedly with Foundry horses they look quite well.
Keep 'em coming, I need inspiration!
Cheers
Wait 'til you see the size of the Renegade horses! They are vast...
I was a little shocked at the state of the white horse under the Macro lense. I nearly always go back and retouch figures after I have seen them on the Blog in close up.
I have finally been brought around to trying the Kevin Dillamore three colour techqiue. I have always shaded but after looking through his book again, I have gone for the Foundry painting system. After using the Flesh A shade on my British Platoon I was amazed with the results (it was a lot better than my usual brown ink wash) So now I will use it for all my flesh painting. I don't tend to use the highlight colour just the dark and mid tones.
There's me getting carried away with the Civil War and I still have to paint up the support weapons for my Brits.
The Platoon is almost done and I'll post it up as soon as I can.
Have you tried using a Linseed oil and oil paint wash on the horses? I started using this around a year back and wouldn't do horses any other way, now.
It give a lovely glossy coat and handy shading; a bit like the army painter wash, but better.
Does take weeks to dry properly, though...
We do indeed depict Rupert's Cavalry in blue coats. Officers have red sashes, as do all Royalist officers. Parliament officers wear orange sashes, and indeed, sometimes it is the only way to tell from which army any particular unit comes from.
Historical evidence suggests that troops were not uniformed until the creation of the New Model Army.
Hope this helps. TT, a member of the Sealed Knot.
I was always told that blue sashes showed people who had fought on the continent in the 30 years war.
Also an SK member.
G
Thanks guys this is really helpful. The Internet is a marvelous thing when it comes to research. Thanks again.
Hi There, The sash colour was the way to indicate which side the unit was on, as units on both sides (infantry and cavalry) looked pretty identical, so you're technically committing the unit to one side or the other when you paint the sash (unless you want to have two models, identical except for the sash colour).
Red depicted Royalist officers. Parliament used Tawny orange. However for armies commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax (the real commander of the New Model Army) then the officers tended to wear blue, which was taken from the Fairfax heraldry. On uniforms, again both sides were drawing on the same resources to equip and clothe their troops so again looked pretty similar. The King always had a cash problem, so his forces tended (unless raised by a rich patron) to be worse equipped than Parliament. You CAN field red (blue, green, brown, undyed etc.) coated Regiments on both sides. Some Regts were supplied with full kit, hose; breeches; coat & hat, others (like mine) just had the coat. The NMA regiments had red coats, with the Regiment distinguished by the cuffs and turnbacks, though it's possible that veterans included in the ranks still wore their old uniforms, as Parliament did not want to spend money on replacing useable stuff. On the "lobster pot" helmet question, it was used by both sides, if they could afford it. Brilliant figures BTW. Cheers, Moddy (Sir Gilbert Hoghton's Companie of Foote)
Thanks Moddy, this is great stuff. I'm sure there are other readers out there that will find this information useful as well as just me.
I have a feeling that the word 'horse' on this post may have attracted some unwanted Parliamentarian spies to the blog! Don't fall for their crafty ways.
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