Redcoats

The first of hopefully a range of units from the armies at Culloden at a rough scale of 1 to 20. This is supposed to be Munro's (or Dejeans) 37th foot although it could probably stand in for any yellow facing regiment of the time. Figures are from the Crann Tara Miniatures range.

Orange

This lot are the first stand of the Orange Auxiliaries for my ECW collection. The more observant will note that apart from the very odd piece there is nothing orange about them. When I put up some recent pictures of my Blue Auxiliaries dressed in a variety of blue uniforms I received some very helpful feedback starting 'Very nice, but....'. In short a number of visitors said that the only thing blue or red or orange about these Regiments was their standards. The soldiers simply turned up in what they could find in the wardrobe so hence I decided to do this Regiment in a collection of drab colours. It also took away the vivid option of orange which frankly would be a little too much. I mean, Brookes Regiment in purple is bad enough.

So I get the historical accuracy thing but would a Regiment with a colour in its title really not have at least a handful of men turning up in that same colour? Imagine saying to your Mum 'I'm in the orange regiment' and trying to stop her going down the plague ridden shops the very next day trying to find at least something orange to wear. I'm willing to bet a good proportion of men had a token marker.

Equally dreary Pikemen coming next.

Dolomites

The Foresight family have just spent the week in the Dolomites on the border of Austria and Italy. Specifically the village of San Cassiano which is probably better known these days for its skiing and Michelin starred restaurants. 100 years ago it was near the front lines of the Austrian and Italian armies in the Falzarego region following the Italian offensive in 1915. As with everywhere else in that year things did not go too well for the Allies.

Being British its easy to see the war solely through the prism of the western front and the occasional sideshow such as Gallipoli. However a short hike in the mountains will soon convince you that others had it just as bad. Before you even get to the fighting there is the terrain and weather to deal with. Peaks two to three thousand feet high accessible only by goat tracks and not a stitch of Goretex. Both sides tunnelled extensively and everywhere you look you can see cave openings which housed observation posts and alert machine gunners. 

I've put some pictures below but they give little sense of the scale of the place. Apparently it took the efforts of 900 men to sustain just 100 in the line. Well, so what, I hear you ask. Apart from the fact that its a fascinating place to visit it will give you a new appreciation of what the Italian infantryman had to put up with. It's the sort of place where if you as B Company Commander are given a task then your immediate reaction would be to ask if it was not one better suited to A Company.


In his book White War (highly recommended) Mark Thompson refers to one line of attack that was similar to climbing a cathedral roof. A brilliant line and the Italians did it.

Munro's

Finally, some opposition to the charging highlanders. First Company of Munro's regiment complete

Brigades

I wish I could say these were a weeks work...2 ECW Brigades

Auxiliaries

Latest recruits to the Parliamentary Army

Paint

As I sit at my desk I gaze across roughly 125 pots of various paints. The vast majority are Vallejo with an honourable second for Games Workshop. 3 lonely bottles of Foundry Spearshaft triad sit quietly at the back somehow outshone by the vibrant purple of the single candidate from Cotes d'Arms. The industrial presence of Humbrol varnish and black undercoat complete the set. It's an impressive array but I found myself wondering how many I actually use?


I found myself base layering some ECW trousers with VMC brown violet yesterday.It's not what the name implies and has a sort dirty green finish to it. I looked around for a main colour and picked up the Panzer Aces dark mud which looked like it too had a dirty green finish to it.Now, it wasn't an exact match but close enough to make no difference. I guess that a purist would have seen the variation but I couldn't. I then looked across the 10 or so variations of yellow ochre that I have of which I only really use yellow ochre. I don't have a bottle of Deck Tan which seems to be the latest ochre of choice but if I get it I'm willing to bet its not a million miles away from something in the first 10.


Take a look at chocolate brown, burnt ochre and leather brown. All suspiciously similar. Yet I can remember working myself into a frenzy when I didn't have a bottle of off white because white apparently wsn't quite right. Black red. That's burnt cadmium red isn't it? Or shadow flesh. The only truly independent colour I could find was gunmetal blue which is unusable for anything in this universe anyway.


So how many colours do you actually need? Presumably black, white, red, yellow, blue and silver would be sufficient for the true minimalist but the mixing would be a pain, wouldn't it? But 125? I think not.


Flames of War have just brought out their new range of colours and have helpfully prduced a chart which tells what old colours they are equivalent to. It seems strange - is my old pot of german cam orange ochre so wrong that I should buy some Panzer yellow or whatever they are calling it? Especially when it comes in a bottle that looks, well, unusual...


Am I being marketed to here?