Last of the Free

Even though the summer has been dominated with lots of adventures I have managed to finish these.

All I have to do now is paint the horses, so even though there are quite a few, for me, Project Auldearn is almost over.

No more hodden grey!

That being said, its been a great journey but I doubt I would be here if it wasn't for the encouragement of all the guys who follow this blog.  Thanks for your support.

All the best

Roy

Stop Press - Literally

We have submitted two articles to WSS at the invite of the editor Guy Bowers.  First one is a generic history of Montrose's campaign with some simple campaign rules.  The second is the refight in detail of Auldearn.

Looks like the first will be published soon as Guy wanted some photos asap.  So with that in mind, and knowing that both of us were heading to the hills for the next month and a bit, we had an impromptu photo shoot yesterday.

Its the first time we have had all the stuff on the table so the collection has grown quite a lot.

So here's a photo to wet everyones appetite….

Covenanter Gun Line

The Covenanter field army was well equipped with artillery.  The army in England had an extensive artillery park which was employed successfully against the Royalist forces in the north.  In Scotland, the mobile nature of the warfare precluded the serious use of heavier pieces, with only the ubiquitous frame-guns probably being deployed, outside of siege operations (i.e. Inverness).

Covenanter gun carriages were painted with pine-tar to help them stand up to the elements.  Though not as colorful as some other guns of the period, this gives a fair contrast to the hidden grey of the infantry.  

To get the effect I painted the carriages foundry ochre shade, then GW desert yellow (my middle shade had dried up), and highlighted with ochre highlight.  The guns and metal fittings were gun metal on black.  I liberally painted the whole thing with Army Painter medium shade which gave them a "creosote" look and the metal a rusty feel.  However, the iron guns looked naff (and turned out to be ahistorical) so I worked up a bronze effect.

The two small guns are Covenanter Falconets, so the crew were fine.  The larger gun was a generic Saker, so some green stuff bunnet's were fashioned.  I couldn't really mix and match the crews as the ramrods etc were right sized to the guns.  The crew were painted a broad mix of grey and drab with the odd flash of color on some tartan.

Bases are standard size 6 x 8cm gun bases from Litko, with Silflour tufts and static grass.

Final couple of shots show them deployed for action with the infantry.

All the best

Roy

The Horrors of War

" …it was a brutal time when brother butchered brother, and men hacked bits off other men…."

" and soldiers with dirty great swords disemboweled soldiers with swords that 

wurnae quit as long…."

"…it was a time when rivers ran wi blood, and oozed entrails stained the heather…."

"… they grabbed his hair and severed it, and then ripped out his tongue, it wriggled like a jellied eel on the grund were it was flung….."

"….they beat his brain tae a throbbing mush and slashed his guts asunder…."

"…and cut his heart out wi a dirk and he died, nae bloody wonder…"

from the traditional highland lament " The Splattered Blood of Oor Slaughtered Sons"  collected by The Curries

Folks songs of countries often serve up an oral history of the effect of historic events on ordinary people.  Scotland has a rich selection, the above giving a feel for the horror of war in such dire times.

Pike and Shotte requires markers to record the effect of combat on a unit and many manufacturers have specific figures to represent these unfortunate peons.  Walter choose to base his on round bases, but stealing shamelessly from the great Barry Hilton & Dave Imrie, I choose to go with hex bases.

These can be scattered or joined nicely together to produce mini-vignettes of the horrors of war.  Hopefully the Rev. I. M. Jolly would not disapprove.

Flags for the Strathbogie Regiment

"...he caused make some ensigns where upon ilk side was drawn a red rampant lion..."

Spalding 

I am playing catch-up with this post. I realised while updating the blog this week that I had forgotten to share the flags for the Strathbogie Regiment, a unit which I completed some time ago and which can be seen here. The great thing about the flags for this unit is that we actually have some contemporary details on their appearance thanks to my favorite 17th century blogger, John Spalding.


Spalding, an Aberdonian Lawyer (but lets not judge him too harshly for that) and part-time soldier in the Aberdeen City Militia was a prolific contemporary observer of current events, recording copious news and gossip of his time in his hand-written blog, "The History of the Troubles..." [click here for free online eBook]. Spalding was a Royalist, but is generally quite balanced in his writing compared to several of his contemporary historians, biographers and bloggers. Be warned though, he writes in old scots english, a dialect similar to the Doric and Buchan dialects that can still be heard in parts of Northeast of Scotland.

Spalding's writings are such a treasure of information because he would often record details which his contemporaries may have thought too trivial or so obvious as to be uninteresting (and to be honest much of it is). However, almost 500 years later some of his observations provide us with wonderful insights. One such treasure for wargamers, re-enactors and vexillologists is his description of a set of flags ordered by the Marquis of Huntly for his forces in early 1644...

"Upon Monday the 15th of April he [Huntley] returned about six hours at even to Aberdeen he caused make some ensigns where upon ilk side was drawn a red rampant lion having a crown of gold above his head a 'CR' for Charles Rex having the motto 'For God the king and against all traitors' and beneath 'God save the king'. There were diverse others made for the barons. The marquis and his followers wore a black taffeta about their craig whilk was a sign to fight to the death but it proved otherwise"

An excerpt from "THE HISTORY OF THE TROUBLES AND MEMORABLE TRANSACTIONS IN SCOTLAND DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES I" By JOHN SPALDING, COMMISSARY CLERK ABERDEEN

There is one curious line in this quote; "There were diverse other made for the barons". Spalding could be saying here that a range of different flags were made for "the barons" (which I assume refers to all the nobles that fought under Huntly) . However I have interpreted this to mean that a number of similar sheets were provided to all Gordon regiments of 1644. This would include the Strathbogie Regt and Monaltrie's Regt, which later split into Inverey's Regt and Monymore's Regt in early 1645.

For the Strathbogie flags I have faithfully reproduced the text and device is described by Spalding but concede that the exact layout is speculative. Unfortunately Spalding neglects to mention the field colour of these flags and we are left frustrated, wondering how Spalding could take the trouble to let us know that the regiment wore black neckscarves, but could neglect to mention the colour of the flags! 

I have chosen to make one of the flags Yellow, as this seems a good match for a red rampant lion in Scotland, and I have made the other white, for no other reason than it makes the red lion really stand out on the table top. But if you think it through there are not many other likely field colours. 

As with all my flags, they are prepared in photoshop, printed on good quality paper and then re-painted. The finished article can be seen on the Strathbogie Regiment in the photos included and in the full post on the Strathbogie Regiment.

Lord Balfour of Burleigh's Regiment - Covenanters WIP

I am currently working on a Covenanter foot regiment, the last of my half-finished infantry. Some of you may be aware that Burleigh was not present at Auldearn, so let me explain...

This regiment was bought for use as Buchanan's Regiment at Auldearn, but Roy being the more disciplined painter, has long since completed that unit (which does double duty as dismounted dragoons). So this next unit will be finished as Balfour of Burleigh's Regiment, garrisoned in Aberdeen in 1644, and destroyed by Montrose at Justice Mills in October 1644. 

I needed to give this unit an identity and there is no particular reason for this choice of regiment except that I have always liked it's history. The Colonel was a bit of a buffoon, outclassed by Montrose as a commander, but seemed like a brave and honourable chap who tried his best. This regiment performed well against terrible odds as part of an army that was mostly militia and levies. At Justice Mills, they were retiring in good order, after the Covenanter line broke, when they attracted the attention of Laghtnan's Irish veterans. The Irish gave chase and cut them down before they could cross the Dee to safety. Another plus is that there is a description of Burleigh's colours from Dunbar in 1651 which I have assumed would be similar to the colours he carried 1644.

It's always handy to have another hodden grey regiment so not worried about them getting no use. By swapping out command, these guys could also be used as Sutherland's Levies with the hodden grey uniforms which Sutherland claimed for as an expense from the government in 1646.  Regardless, they have been half finished for a while now as the pike and command were completed well over a year ago. I actually bought the command and some of the pike partially painted from a very talented chap in Spain, who had gotten bored with painting them. So I will take a little time to finish the shot and get them based and into the cabinet before I get cracking with the royalist cavalry.

Flags for the Earl of Sutherland's Regiment

All of the covenanter regiments that have been completed to date, with the exception of Sutherland's, have been done by Roy, and Roy hand-paints his flags on tin foil to terrific effect. Roy's method for flags was shared in a couple of earlier posts including a great tutorial on painting covenanter flags and a later 'gallery' of Covenanter Standards .

Anyone who has followed the Royalist progress knows that I prefer to prepare the flags on photoshop, print on paper and then fully re-paint the design and that is the same way I have approached Sutherland's flags.  They were both made in photoshop and can be printed for use in your own armies. 

The white sheet above is a Colonel's colour with the Sutherland coat of arms in the centre. There is no surviving description of Sutherland's Civil War colours, so this design is purely speculative. The Sutherland arms with there golden stars on a red field is actually an earlier version of the arms which predates the civil wars by over 100 years.

Prior to 1530 the Sutherland family went by the rather grand ancestral name of 'de Moravia', a Norman french rendering of Moray or Murray. Throughout this time, the arms of Sutherland was the 3 golden stars on a red field. 

In 1530 Elizabeth de Moravia, 10th Countess of Sutherland and only surviving heir, married Adam Gordon, son of George Gordon, the 2nd Earl of Huntly and ancestor of Royalist rabble rouser George Gordon, the 2nd Marquis of Huntly, Montrose's reluctant ally. By right of marriage the title of Earl of Sutherland passed to Adam Gordon, who became the 10th Earl of Sutherland. 

From 1530 until the 1800's the Sutherland Arms were actually quartered with Gordon of Huntly Arms. The Gordon Arms can be seen on the blog post for Gordon of Monymore's Regiment. However, given that I was going to place a small coat of arms in the centre of each sheet, I stuck to the simplicity of the original Sutherland Arms. Anyway, the Gordon's have had plenty of attention already, and are set to get a whole lot more when I get to the horse.

Copyright held by www.europeanheraldry.org

Anyone interested in seeing how the Sutherland Arms evolved over the years can see pictures of them at European Heraldry, an excellent online resource for flag designs.

The Earls of Sutherland were Gordons in name down to 1733, when William Gordon, the 17th Earl of Sutherland changed his surname to Sutherland to distance himself from the Gordon's of Huntly who were incurable Jacobites, and attracting a lot of unwanted attention from the government security apparatus for anyone thought to be associated with them.

The second flag is a traditional Scots Government company colour with blue field and white saltire. The absence of any contemporary record means this is also entirely speculative. Scots company colours of the time almost exclusively used the Scots Saltire, either full size or in the canton, however they were not always the traditional white cross on a blue field. 

Given the absence of information and the strong covenanting tendencies of the 13th Earl, I decided to use the traditional national flag colours. I have used an archaic text for the covenanter script which predates the standardisation of the text inscription in 1650. 

I have also added a Sutherland crest in the centre of the saltire. It was common at that time for nobles on both sides of the conflict to include an element of their family heraldry on their flags, and this flag, although speculative, follows contemporary design conventions.

More photos and information about this regiment can be found in the blog post on Sutherland's Regiment.