Collecting a Wargames Army 106
I have finally returned to my ECW project after a six month break! That's another secret to building a massive, world conquering horde... take breaks. All of my collections have been built up over time. Forces which hang around too long, without inspiring me to return to them, wind up sold or given away. With my Parliamentarian foot five regiments strong, I decided to turn my attention to the horse. Still following my model of William Waller's force at Cropredy Bridge, I picked out the four regiments of horse that were at the fore of the fighting. They included William Waller's own regiment, as well as Heselrigge's famous Lobsters, Norton's regiment of red coats, and Vandruske's Wolves (nicknamed by me - I couldn't find references of Vandruske's standard so I chose a rampart wolf). I also got around to finishing Waller's Dragoons. There were other regiments present, but they to have been still on the march/in reserve/etc. and don't seem to have taken part in the fighting. I organized all of my regiments into squadrons of 5-6 models. Waller's regiment was by far the largest in the army so I painted three squadrons for his force. The others each have two squadrons. |
As with the infantry, I designed the flags to be easily removable. ECW horse is even more generic than the foot and these squadrons will easily allow me to field many different units with a simple flag swap. They could also represent Royalist cavalry if one pays no attention to the sashes (orange for Essex and Gold for Waller). I did use a few tricks to try and tie them together visually so they don't appear like a rabble. Waller's regiment is mounted on primarily black horses. For Norton's Horse, I painted them as though they wore sleeveless buff coats and gave them red coats that are mentioned in one account of the Battle of Cropredy Bridge. Heselrigge's regiment are cuirassiers so the difference is obvious with them. All of the regiments were painted with the same color saddle cloths to further help identify them: Yellow for Waller, blue for Hesellrigge, red for Norton, and grey for Vandruske. None of these touches are necessarily historical accurate, but they look good on the tabletop! It's nearly time to start on the Royalist army! I have some artillery to finish and a few vingettes and maybe a baggage wagon or two, but I hope to complete all of this in December and start fresh in 2006.
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