Wild Irish

It has been a lot longer between Irish regiments than I originally planned, almost 4 years in fact! In the meantime I have been living and working in India with my family. Apart from a little work on this unit the Royalist half of Project Auldearn has essentially been in mothballs while I was in India. I returned to Texas about 6 months ago, and finding a house, moving and unpacking took me through to January. I then spent some time setting up a gaming room, built a couple of gaming tables (but that's for another post) and eventually got around to setting up my painting table. After working on some terrain and a War of the Ring Army for my son, I finally sat down earlier this year, and finished up this second regiment of Fightin' Irish.

Shot Sleeve led by (Perry) Seargent

Looking along the line

There were three Irish regiments in Montrose's Irish Brigade; (1) Lt. General Alexander McDonnell's Regt, commanded by Major Thomas Laghtman as McDonnell had pulled a sickie and stayed at home, (2) Colonel Manus O'Cahan's Regt, and (3) Colonel James MacDonnell's Regt. The brigade was led by Major General Alisdair MacColla "The Devastator". As a result of severe attrition (desertion, sickness and battle casualties) the Irish Brigade is thought to have mustered only around 800 men at Auldearn. Of this a detachment of 140 was under direct command of MacColla, serving as his lifeguard (more on this unit soon).

Montrose leads his Irish to victory again

Both regiments together with Montrose

My latest regiment represents MacDonnell's Regiment. At 1:10 figure to man ration, it is over-strength for Auldearn, but I have painted larger units than I need to facilitate gaming the other earlier battles, as well as fictional scenarios.

Unfortunate covenanter infantryman is run down by the Irish

Left Shot Sleeve

Pike and Command

Right Shot Sleeve

The figures are mostly Eureka Irish, for the most part selected from various 'charging' poses. As with the first Irish regiment, I have added the occasional scots bunnit using greenstuff, and the highland targes (shields) are from the Old Glory ECW range. Casualty figures and Sergant are from Perry. Selecting good command models was difficult for this unit as Eureka do not make 'charging' Irish Command figures, only 'standing' command. Fortunately I was able to use Perry ECW command models from their English Command Advancing pack.

The colours

More on the flags soon

Pikes are 8cm steel pins from Foundry. I was tempted to equip this unit with 'half-pikes' as suggested by Reid in his various books on the subject, however they just didn't look right so i reverted to the full length pikes. I may still equip the third and final Irish regt with half-pikes.

CHARGE!

Another close up of the colours

The unit is based on Litko 3mm plywood bases with self-adhesive flexible steel bottoms. The bases are textured with wood-filler, sand & gravel, primed black and then painted GW Scorched Brown. They are then dry-brushed 3 times; (1) GW Graveyard Earth, (2) GW Kommando Khaki, (3) GW Bleached Bone. The painted bases are finally decorated with Static Grass, adhesive tufts, and finally clump foliage (occasionally topped with purple flock to look like heather).

Hold the line!

The Eureka 'charging' pike models are superb

Flags are prepared in photoshop by hand and printed on good quality paper. The are then hand-painted over, cut and glued onto a 6cm steel pin (Foundry) using super glue and a Pritt Stick. The flag is folded when the paper glue is still wet and when dry, final highlights are applied. The flags were then attached to the ensign models, and the flag staff was painted. Careful placement of the ensign and pike models was required on the bases to avoid the flags and pikes from interfering with each other.

The Irish were painted using mostly Foundry paints, with some Games Workshop and Coat d'Arms colours. Colours used were mostly drabs, greys, browns and other muted colours. I can provide the exact palettes used on request.

NEXT UP for the Royalists - MacColla's Lifeguard.

Story so far

Here's the covenanters in all their glory.  Project on hold until Royalists catch up!

Northern Levies

Although the Colonel of this regiment was Hugh, 7^th Lord Lovat, the main driving force for the Covenant was Sir James Fraser of Brea, who was the Laird’s tutor and regiments Lieutenant Colonel.  In 1644, the clan could see that action was imminent and set to building defenses around it’s lands, aided no doubt, by the experience of Major Hugh Fraser, who had served with the Swedish Army.  The regiment formed with Argyll’s army that winter but did not travel south, missing Inverlochy, as it served as the primary garrison around Inverness.

 

The Frasers fought at Auldearn, were the regiment lost 87 married men (unmarried men were of no consequence as they had no wives to petition the laird!).  After the battle Clan Fraser retreated into their defenses, whilst Montrose (with the help of Seaforth) scoured their lands.  With Middleton’s arrival in the north in 1646, Fraser’s troops left their defenses and took their revenge on Mackenzies lands.  As the highlands returned to the rhythm of petty inter-clan warfare in 1646/47 eventually some of the Frasers gains were lost, most likely as the Mackenzies were pardoned and the heavy hand of government support (and jurisdiction) was lifted from the Fraser’s.

Given that this isn't the "deep" highlands, I've chosen to depict them without kilts, as they probably had more in common with the common population of Scotland rather than the "wild" clans.  However, given that they were probably levied rapidly, its unlikely they would have been given more than a bunnet, and so would be wearing their own clothes.  Thus I've pained them with some grey, but also a variety of natural tones.  The officers are a bit more snappily attired, reflecting their landed qualifications - continental fashions having reached even these parts!  The standard colour's (red and white) reflect those of  regular regiments raised locally to Nairn, the colonels standard includes the stag's head crest of the Fraser's.

Again the photo's are not the best, it was over 100 outside and the figures were almost to hot to handle!  will do a full army shoot in the autumn.  Next regiment on the list is the earl of Findlater's, but don't think it'll be done till late October.  Mind you I've now passed the half-way mark on my contribution!!

Northern Levies - Complete

Been busy painting these guys over the last month - will do the bases in the next week and get some better photos plus a write up of the unit and the rationale behind the flags.

Not the best photos - flash or no flash that is the question....

Auldearn The Movie

360 from the summit of Garlic Hill.

Auldearn Battlefield

Auldearn has got to be one of the smallest battlefields I've ever been on.  This means that the butchers bill must have been pretty high where the action was (though a good lot of the covenanter casualties must have occurred during the rout.

Walking the terrain was good for although the hills are not that big the main three (Garlic, Castle and hill of the town) controlled not only what could be seen from any given point but also the nature of the drainage.

On either side of Garlic hill the ground is still marshy today (even with modern drainage).  This would have helped funnel the government troops along the axis of the hill, pushing MaColla and the Irish back towards the town.

However, the curve of the hill veers towards the present high street where most of the oldest houses of the village are situated. Here the land rises up again into both the town and towards the Castle hill.

From the summit of Garlic hill it is impossible to see anything other than the town and it's hills.  so the strength and position of the royalist army would have been hidden.  However, from the top of the Castle Hill, the royalist command would have been able to see most of the Covenanters and would have noticed how the regiments where stacked on top of each other, unable to bring their superior numbers to bear on the assault occurring in the village.

Garlic Hill from Castle Hill

The Doocoot on top of Castle Hill - this is a 18th century structure replacing the one which stood here during the battle

The view down the main road of Auldearn towards the front of the village - the fighting would have been down at the bottom end.

View towards Auldearn from the summit of Garlic Hill.  The Royalists would have been able to assemble their forces behind the village without the Hurry seeing how many where there and where they would be deployed. Main road into Auldearn is on the left.

Castle Hill with the doocoot on the summit.  The field below and to the other side of the road is still marshy.  The royalist cavalry swung round behind this emerging to the left to flank the government troops.

Public Information

Visited the battlefield during my holiday and the weather was even nice!  Was surprised to see signposts announcing the battlefield on the main road and even more surprised to see the two signs below.  The first was at the bus-stop, just outside the Covenanters Inn (where we stayed).  The second was on top of Eren's hill, the old motte of the medieval castle upon which a doocoot stood.  This had a bit more detail and some illustrations from Stuart Reids Osprey campaign book!