Warlord Games ECW Pike & Shotte Regiments

Finished three more foot regiments. Lord Brooke's in purple coats, Talbot's in yellow, and Essex's in orange.

There are now 9 foot regiments, and I hope to someday add 3 more for a total of 12 - which should make for a good 4 to 6 player game, with cavalry and artillery.

The pikemen and command are on metal washers to help ease their placement on movement trays - the pikemen with levelled pikes take some consideration of where to place them. Also, the flag bearer can be swapped out for different units, if needed.

For the record, this is the look I tried to achieve with the blocks of shotte - from period illustrations below.

Plan to start on the artillery set soon, however, it'll have to wait until next week since my son will be stopping by later this week from his Army assignment in Italy. He's actually coming to his friend's wedding, but will be staying with us while coming and going. Until next time, hope you all are doing well!

Warlord Games ECW Musketeers

Finished the shotte for three new regiments, pikemen and command to follow. Essex's orange coats, Brooke's in purple, and Talbot's in yellow.

They're in my preferred basing for shotte - 3x2 ranks on 60x40mm rectangles. I like the look of the shotte being more of a block formation when flanking the pikemen.

I only gave them a little highlighting after the Minwax staining as they're in close, rank and file formation.

Thanks for checking out the blog, and wishing you all the best. Oh, and I think I'm getting over my slight cold - abstained from alcohol and had a lot of chicken noodle soup.

Warlord Games ECW Musketeers - WIP

Nursing a cold I may have picked up on the flight back home last week, started work on some musketeers for several new foot regiments to take my mind off of a cough and slight body aches. Block painted the clothing and leather parts. Although, some of these regiments may never have faced each other on the historical battlefield, I couldn't resist the coat colors. The yellow coats are Sir Gilbert Talbot's regiment, the purple coats are Lord Brooke's, and the orange/tawny coats the Earl of Essex's.

Back in Hawaii there is some good news, my mom started having a care giver show up for several hours a few times a week, and she gets on well with her. She said her old toy dog who I was also taking care of is always looking for me to return. Anyway, I plan to go back for a visit in the fall - when it is cooler. Thanks again for stopping by, and wishing you all the best.

Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Cuirassiers

Although the Royalist were not known to have many fully armored cavalry units, went ahead and gave them a conjectural Royalist flag. Hope to get a box of Scots Lancers to oppose them someday.

They painted up fairly quickly being mostly armored, except for the musician. 

In keeping with the rest of the Royalist cavalry, their saddle cloth are painted blue with white trim. This simplifies identification of units on the table.

I've been using a brown spray paint to basecoat the horses, and then brush on varying browns over it. This really speeds up painting cavalry. I vary horse tails and manes with black and buff.

Building back up my ECW collection is a longterm project, which I am not in any rush to finish. It's enjoyable, and a sort of hobby within a hobby.

Thank you for your visits and kind comments as always. Best regards to you all.

Back From Hawaii

Just got back from visiting my family in Hawaii early (1:30am-ish) Wednesday morning. I spent the two weeks there nursing both my 94 year old mom, and her elderly and ill little dog. My older brother, who lives with her, called me several weeks ago thinking my mom was on her last leg. She hadn't been eating much, and staying in bed almost all day. I made her breakfast every morning and she was eating all of her meals. By the time I was leaving, she had improved dramatically, both physically and mentally. We also started in home care service for her a few times a week - starting today (my brother just called, and he said it went very well). Anyway, I spent most of my days at home, which is only about 10 minutes walking distance to Waikiki. I found souvenir tiki keychains like the ones I bought off of ebay - at a very inexpensive price, in one of the numerous ABC stores along Waikiki.

The lighting gave them a washed out look in the photo - they're a little darker in person.

As you can see, the two new tikis and the .49 cents ABC store shopping bag were less than $10 total.

Green Stuff for the tikis' foundation base, and prior to drybrushing; the earlier two tikis are above them.

According to Ancient Hawaiian religion, there were four main gods - Kāne (the god of creation and the sky), Kū (the god of war), Lono (the god of peace and fertility), and Kanaloa (the god of the ocean). These four tikis can represent them guarding a sacred area, which can be a victory condition for an attacker to reach, and take some sacred item there.

In addition to the tikis, I based and primed the Warlord Games Pike & Shotte Cuirassiers and several mounted commanders.

All in all, I was happy to help get my mom back in good health, but it was very hot and humid the whole time there - and they don't have central air at the house. Also, I was a bit worried about my flight back to Washington as a downgraded hurricane with heavy winds and rain blew in a few days before I was to leave. On the gaming front, I'm scheduled to host an Imjin War naval game next month at Fort Steilcoom's Fix Bayonets game day. I was supposed to host this game last week at the Veterans Memorial Museum, but had to cancel due to my unexpected trip to Hawaii. Thanks again for stopping by, and wishing you all the best.

ECW Pike & Shotte Project Update

The project is up to 6 units each of pike & shotte and cavalry, thanks in no small part to my buddy kindly gifting me back two units each of those - including my dear Scots! I had kept my King Charles vignette and Prince Rupert and Boye command stand. My buddy is into Thirty Years War, specifically the Swedish phase, and not into the ECW, anyway.

In addition to these painted figures, I just received a couple more  boxes of foot from ebay, as well as a big order (for me) from Noble Knight Games. The Noble Knight order includes the Ordanance battery, cuirassiers, another box of foot, a saker gun, and several mounted commanders. I will have to hold off on painting them for a few weeks, as I'm heading to Hawaii in a couple of days to visit my family. 

I may update the blog while in Hawaii if I stumble into any hobby-related stuff, but I'm actually going to help out my brother whose been taking care of our 94 year old mom by himself. Until next time, wising you all the best.