Saturday, July 5, 2025

 

English Civil War - Part Two!



Well here I am, some (almost) 5 weeks after the arrival of (the majority of) the Eric Kemp English Civil War collection. I have retouched minor damage, reorganised units and repainted some figures accordingly. I have added the odd figure necessary to make up a complete unit and I have fixed every figure to a painted and varnished mdf base to add stability. My painting desk currently has three dismounted cavalry and one mounted Dragoon figures awaiting paint and I shall then be able to plan new units, characters etc at my leisure. 

I just couldn't wait for the final abovementioned figures, to set everything up and admire the two armies as they now stand, in all their glory!

Initial observations are as follows:

1) Eric made a bloody good job of these figures some 20 years ago!

2) I am chuffed pink to own them and their potential for toy soldier fun in the future!

3) I need a larger wargames table! 

As soon as I set them out, I realised that 36 figure Battalia have a large footprint in 54mm! Having said that they look fantastic and my pictures do not do them justice! Anyway I will just dump a load of photos of the armies as they now are for you to see. The next time you see any of these figures it will be as part of a battle report. I am looking at 'Pikeman's Lament' for 50 figure a side battles, or ' Trial By Battle' medieval rules as expanded for the ECW for larger forces.


Royalist cavalry led by Prince Rupert


A view of the battle field, Royalist forces to the left, New Model Army to the right


NMA dismounted cavalry skirmishing 


NMA dismounted Dragoons skirmishing


NMA Ironsides charging!


Villagers and unaligned military types look on!


Royalist 'blue' regiment of foote and artillery


Royalist 'blue' regiment of foote


Royalist left wing cavalry regiment charging!


Left over odds and sods become a forlorn hope!


Prince Rupert's poodle leads the charge of the Royalist right wing cavalry regiment


Royalist 'white' regiment of foote


Royalist 'blue' regiment of foote


Parliamentarian decision makers!


NMA regiment of foote


Second NMA regiment of foote


Parliamentarian right wing


Parliamentarian regiments of foote


Fire!


NMA cavalry skirmishing on foote


NMA artillery piece


NMA left flank Ironside cavalry charge!


NMA Dragoon skirmish line


Prince Rupert!


Charge!


Royalist 'white' regiment of foote


Royalist 'Maroon' regiment of foote


Royalist 'blue' regiment of foote


Onlookers!


Catholic and Protestant onlookers


NMA right wing


Charge!


Charge part two!


The Royalist deployment

I hope you will forgive my indulgence with this post but I wanted to record this for posterity and I just like looking at photos of toy soldiers and I suspect you do too!

Tara a bit!

10 comments:

  1. Super post, so many great picture of a really wonderful collection. No wonder you are chuffed with them, quite superb.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Donnie. A period I've long wanted to try is now possible.😊

      Delete
  2. Thank you Graham, for such beautiful photos of a very impressive collection indeed! I can't wait to see them in action on your excellent tabletop!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed the photos Brad. You won’t have to wait long for a battle report.

      Delete
  3. A lovely collection, Graham. My only concern with the ECW is that it is one of those wargame periods in which you could spend a lifetime fully appreciating the conflict, a bit like Napoleonics. I would have ended up choosing a more obscure renaissance conflict.... to hide in, lol. However, you now have a chance to recreate and engage in local and national ECW actions, as army numbers were typically fairly small. Beautiful stuff! Thanks for the view.
    Michael

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean Michael, but unfortunately Renaissance armies are hard to create in 54mm ,which is my much preferred scale now. I have however been looking at the 30 years war where I could use the basic ecw figures and maybe add more exotic figures with some minor converting etc. Cuirassiers have always appealed and those are quite easy, but not in great use by the time of the ecw. I have to say though, the small conflicts that littered the civil wars and were fought quite locally to me, do have a strong attraction. The larger battles don't really interest me as much. In fact my first game with some of these figures is likely to be a fairly small action.

      Delete
  4. Lots of pictures of toy soldiers are ALWAYS welcome Graham

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lovely scenery and buildings, they compliment the figures perfectly, I seem to be spending wayyyyyyyyy too much time looking at this collection!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Brian. Those cheap houses I picked up from the works, do sort of look ok , perhaps slightly European, but thirty years war is on the cards anyway! Glad you are enjoying the pictures. The re are so many great conversions hidden amongst the units but especially in the cavalry.

      Delete