'Resistance' by JohnB: Colonel Du Bois Regiment of Covenanter Foot

My third entry in this years AHPC16 is for the theme bonus round of the REBELS (It's actually 'Resistance', John - Editor :) ). Back in the 17th century radical beliefs led to all kinds of activity in the Americas while in the British Isles the three Kingdoms of Ireland, Scotland and England the matters of religion, tax and the extent of power of those who ruled were to the fore. (Plus ca change!).

The Scots had a bit of a ding dong when it came to Charles I so that in 1639 they were rebelling in parts during the Bishops War before eventually siding with Parliament when the civil war proper started in 1642 and by 1644 were alongside Fairfax and Cromwell at Marston Moor near York. Of course it did not end well as by 1650 the Scots were being smashed by Cromwell at Dunbar.

And then of course we have Montrose. The Marquis of Montrose was a favourite of King Charles I on whose behalf he raised his standard in Scotland at the moment the war decisively turned against the King in England. After spectacular successes Montrose was eventually defeated and executed.

The Osprey book has proven quite useful to me. However if you want a romantic and royalist version of Montroses war then you could take this book - readily available on ABE books or World of Books online or in a charity bookshop near you if your lucky. C V Wedgewood has had a bad press as a pro royalist yet her writing makes a great read. Her Thirty Years War book is a classic.

For balance? you could try Restless Republic which explores the diversity of civil war - I particularly liked the "diggers" (proto communists) story.

All in all the Scots come over "all rebellious" at this time even when they were on the winning side!

Back to Scotland and Montrose himself was in Aberdeen back in 1639 raising a flag against the monarchy. And just down the road in Montrose (the place) one of my forebears was no doubt trying to decide which way to jump when they were not simply scraping a living - literally off the ground.

My grandfather David Wood walked and thumbed lifts from his home in Montrose to London to find his sister. From a poverty stricken family of eight there was no work in Montrose just after world war one so David Wood had made his way south. He got a job as a domestic servant. He never went back and lost all contact with his family. The good news for me is he married and had children.

As it happens I have had a longstanding queue of ECW forces waiting for a chance at the painting table. and one is a convenanter army. So I offer the rebel theme the rebellious(some of the time) Covenanter Scots of Colonel de Bois Regiment of Foot. The Colonel has adapted a common scottish standard of a white saltaire on red background and added his own moniker in the centre - a wood. Tumbling Dice mould flags to the figure and on this occasion I decided not to replace it. This was a straightforward paint job.

The figures are from Tumbling Dice cast in Pewter offering some fine casting and at the one and true scale of 1/72 ;) My figures are based on 40mm square bases, four bases to a unit and my favoured ruleset being Field of Battle - Anchor of Faith like quite a few used this approach.

Painting wise the figures are in standard acrylics with vallejo matt varnish finish and my standard base treatment - raw sienna painted budgie grit with dry brush ochre then yellow white highlights. This time I am using JAVIS of STOCKPORT ENGLAND flock to add some grass - note this is the traditional flock(fine dyed sawdust) rather than the more popular static grass or plastic grass granules/grains. I resisted adding tussocky grasses but might be tempted if they make it to the gaming table.

Points wise I am thinking its 1/72 at 4 points each and 20 foot figures so I get 80 points plus the REBELS theme bonus of 50 points = 130 points.

That concludes my three theme entries - the theme has been fun and less distracting than previous years so I hope to get back to some Tuesday terror submissions before the challenge concludes.

'Toy Story' from JohnB - Duke of Berwicks Irish Regiment

My submission for the Toy Story theme is about a book I discovered in a library when I was about twelve or thirteen. In those days I had a childs library ticket and the book in question was an adult book. Fortunately the village librarian on a Saturday was usually my sunday school teacher and she took pity on me. Back in those days kids did not get to take out Adult books - simple as that.

So I came home with a pristine copy of "Charge of How to play Wargames". I had never heard of wargames and although I had airfix figures I usually played these with my model railway just making up stories involving the "hand of god"(my mit) swiping soldiers and vehicles randomly. Then I suddenly had this book that said you needed to measure movement and throw dice to play with your soldiers. Crucially the book was full of narrative and story telling which is what really hooked me. The battles of Blasthof Bridge and Sittangbad have had many admirers over the years.

What also caught my eye was the cover photos - full colour pictures of Soldiers in action. Yet they were unlike anything I had. I did quickly switch to using my airfix ACW soldiers until I eventually bought airfix napoleonics. Strangely I did not use the AWI figures by airfix simply because I did not like them, even though these had the tricornes shown the pictures that I admired.

Several years later I bought Minifigs Seven Years war 25mm figures which in theory were just right for the period the book covered. They were never finished partly because I did not really like the squat nature of minifigs. I moved onto other periods.

Over the years I have often thought about doing something in tricornes. And then in 2008 after I had returned to the hobby after very long break I found Battle Games Magazine - I stumbled on the second edition in a station newsagent shop and of course the magazine was full of references to Imagination Wars, Charles Grant and of course "Charge".

I was still interested in other periods so left the idea to one side before eventually I decided I would use 1/72 plastics as a cheap way to test my interest again. Several units later and the figures were soon on a shelf gathering dust yet again. I had opted for Zvezda Great Northern War figures. They are nice figures but somehow I lost momentum on the period yet again.

Now you might be thinking - The Great Northern Wars? - thats way off the 1759 date reference in the book. However the book has pictures of british napoleonic artillery which don't fit the time line either. In fact the book was at pains to encourage a "fantasy" approach to gaming to head off the button counters! They encouraged gamers to paint whatever units they fancied to build an army or even make up their own uniforms. Finally we get to AHPC16 and the TOY STORY theme chimed with my memory of the book that launched my "toy soldiers become wargames miniatures" moment. Finally I have created some miniatures that I feel do justice to that book - the one that really launched my hobby.

This picture is just to show my Painting Portrait method - a simple background done in acrylics - it was fun to do. When Strelets brought out their Wars of the Spanish Succession range I bought a lot of boxes and promptly stored them away. Crucially I liked the sculpting. This years Toy Story theme sparked a thought - how about I replay that book cover. Now the front cover Pultava Guards have been seen on many an Imagainations wargames table over the years and fine they are too. The back cover though was the picture I always remembered. Redcoated soldiers with tricornes and a very nice large but strange flag.

So this is my theme entry - the Duke of Berwicks Irish Regiment - one of the "wild geese" irish regiments in French service in the 18th Century. The printed flag is by "not by appointment" blog - who offers a stunning selection of flags FREE TO PRINT. David Morfitt runs this blog. As with all my "charge" units they get the billiard table baize green base treatment and it works for me. Happy memories.

So my points calculation is 18 x 1/72 infantry at 4 points each = 72 points and hopefully 50 points bonus for the toy story.