MacColla's Lifeguard WIP 2

Finished a grey plaid this evening and pretty happy with the result. Base is Foundry Granite 31 ABC. Stripes are watered-down Foundry Slate Grey 32A. GW Chaos Black on the cross points of the stripes to complete. Just started working on a reddish tartan on the chap to the left.

Again figure is by Eureka from the ECW Highlanders. This model is a regular highland musketeer loading matchlock. He is wearing the sleeveless highland long coat as seen in the "Stettin Print" of 1631 (see article posted above), which shows highland mercenaries in Germany during the Thirty Years War.

"The Flag" - a short film about Irish Confederates

Stumbled across this film (link at bottom of post) by accident on the Facebook page of an Irish historical re-enactment group called Claíomh (Irish for sword) Living History. The group, based in Ireland, re-create many different periods from the Middle Ages through to Early Modern. Photographs of this group portraying troops of the Irish Catholic Confederacy were featured in the excellent Osprey book, "Ireland 1649-52: Cromwell's Protestant Crusade" (Campaign 213).

Irish Confederate Ensign with colours, as portrayed by Claiomh

This short film is set in the aftermath of Cromwell's sack of Drogheda, shows 3 surviving Irish Confederacy soldiers, including an Ensign with his Confederacy colours, considering the course of action. The flag is based on the same descriptions for those of the Marquis of Antrim's Irish Brigade sent to the Scottish mainland to intervene in the war on behalf of the King. Antrim (see side bar) was himself on the council of the Irish Catholic Confederacy during 1644, and was Lt General of all confederate forces (although he resigned this commission before sending the Irish Brigade to Scotland).

"The Flag"

Anyway, I love the look these guys have achieved for the Confederates, it is very close to how I imagined them to look, so I reckon this is a great little short for all fans of the Irish soldier during the ECW! They have also added a second film on the Irish galloglas. And have a look at their Facebook page for more great photos like the one above.

Click here to watch film "The Flag" on You Tube

Click here to visit Claíomh on Facebook

Click here to visit the Claíomh blog

MacColla's Lifeguard WIP

Been spending Sunday afternoon trying out some different color schemes and practicing painting tartan for MacColla's Lifeguard. This excellent Hebridean chap is from the Eureka ECW Higlanders range that I commissioned via the 100 Club a few years back. He is wearing the highland long coat (as opposed to the belted plaid).

Shirt is painted a drab yellow ochre using a mix of GW Tausept Ochre and Coat d'Arms Negro for the Base. GW Tausept Ochre (and a pinch of CdA Negro) for mid and GW Tausept Ochre plus GW Bleached Bone to highlight.

The plaid coat is painted using GW Charadon Granite (mixed with a little black) for the base. The stripes are GW Gnarloc Green. Where the stripes cross is a square of GW Gnarloc Green mixed with GW Bleached Bone. The final thin red stripe is watered down GW Scab Red with. Dot of GW Blood Red plus GW Macharius Solar Orange where the lines cross.

All my Scots Bonnets are painted as follows; (Base) GW Necron Abyss (Blue) mixed mixed with a little Black, (Mid) GW Shadow Grey mixed with a little of the Base, and (Highlight) GW Shadow Grey mixed with Foundry Sky Blue 21C.

This is also my first attempt to blog from my iPhone so fingers crossed.

Flags for the Irish Brigade II

Below are the flags I created in Photoshop for my latest Irish Regt. They are another 2 of the 12 flags listed by Reid in "Scots Armies of the C17th. III: The Royalist Armies, 1639-46" (Partizan Press). Descriptions of all 12 of the Irish colours, including the latin motto with translation are also included in "The English Emblematic Tradition (3): Emblematic Flag Devices of the English Civil Wars, 1642-1660" by Alan R. Young (Ed.). This excellent tome can also be previewed online at Google Books. I was lucky enough to pick up a good copy of this book a few years back and if you can get it for a decent price, it is a must for all civil war flag-o-philes.

Most of the 12 colours described, including these two, have overt catholic imagery, and latin religious mottos, both features that would have horrified the zealous presbyterian Scottish citizenry of the time. All of the colours are thought to have featured a red saltire on a yellow field in the canton, and the Royal Crown and cypher (CR), together with the latin motto "Vivat Carolus Rex", or "long-live King Charles".

The first colour is a blue sheet with "the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus in her arms, and with her heels trampling on a serpent's head". The motto on this sheet is "CUNCTAS HARESES INTEREMIST", which translates as "Thou hast overcome all heresies".

The second is a white sheet, with "an armed man setting fire to John Calvin's book Institutes". The book is inscribed "Calv:Instit". The motto on this sheet is "SIC PEREUNT HARESES", which translates as "Thus Heresies Perish". The motto is incorrect in Reid's book, but I had made the flags before I discovered about the error, so my flag reads "SIO PEREUNT HARESES". Easily fixed with a dab of white paint or pixels.

I did not intentionally select the two flags containing latin tirades against heresies, but it's safe to say, this unit does not like heretics.

Both flags were made in photoshop, and printed on good quality paper. They were subsequently entirely re-painted, to give them the hand-painted look. They were cut out, folded and glued to a 6 cm steel pin using superglue. The paper fold was then glued together using a glue stick. The flag was then cut to give a torn and ragged campaign look, and folded by rolling gently around a paint brush handle while the glue is still wet.

I have more Irish Flags ready for MacColla's Lifegaurd and will share these once the unit is ready. The two flags for my first Irish unit can be found here.

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!!