Tuesday, 25 January 2022

Royal Dragoons



Here is the first detachment of my Royal Dragoons ca.1685, which I originally intended to use for Sedgemoor. Now I find myself wondering whether I might be able to use them as the English 1st Dragoons in French Service in the 1670s, but haven't as yet discovered any uniform/flag details, they may not exist. Red seems possible, although they might have been in grey like the English foot in French service. I could potentially swap out the nice Flags of War guidons and use them later with my (projected) Front Rank 1685 dragoon unit.

I bought some of these 1672 minis, painted, a few years back, and chum Steve Spence painted a bunch more. Shaun McT is painting even more for me, and the foot versions, too. Ian kindly flocked the bases, I tufted and matt varnished. It's a big, deep unit- I found it challenging to photograph.

I really hate dragoons as one has to paint them mounted, dismounted and the standing horses as well- three times the work!


In other news, I'm planning to run a big Roundway Down game at Partizan near Newark-on-Trent on May 22nd. I'm scouting around for players- I need three or four players each for the AM and PM sessions (around 90 mins each), so if you are going and interested, please drop me an email (above left) and I will book you in.  I am also desperately keen to find someone local to help me set up the day before - 4pm-ish for around an hour or 90 mins - I need help setting up a huge hill. If you are relatively local and free please mail me, there might even be beer or a curry in it, after. :-)

Monday, 17 January 2022

Adrian von Bubenberg

Adrian von Bubenberg was a Bernese knight, general and politician. He is chiefly famous from the battle of Murten, where his valiant defence of the town bought time for the Swiss army to assemble. This then went on to crush the Burgundians. Von Bubenberg sallied forth to join the ensuing massacre.

The models were beautifully painted by chum Andrés Amián Fernández, and are respectively Perry, Wargames Foundry and Grenadier miniatures. The flag is from Iain at Flags of War. Von Bubenberg probably didn't have a beard, but I love that model! You can't see it clearly in the photo, but he has blingy gold-plated armour.

He'll be one of the commanders for my Swiss army, which has been in storage for around a year but which I hope to get back onto, shortly, when I return from my holiday in 1672.

Today I'm working on the latest version of the TtS! Ancient Army List eBook, which I will publish on or about 31/1/22 (I'll send everyone who has bought it an updated version). I hope to include four new lists and a fair amount of extra background material on several of the existing lists.

Thursday, 13 January 2022

Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard


Here's the third finished unit for my 1672 armies and the first French unit, Régiment de Douglas (also known as Hepburn's and Dumbarton's regiment at different times). Founded in 1633, the regiment later became the Royal Scots, the oldest regiment in the British Army, nicknamed "Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard."

I might later do an alternative command stand with British flags- I also intend to do the same unit in Front Rank minis for Sedgemoor. All of the minis but two were beautifully painted by Richard O'Connor. The lovely French colours are Flags of War. I assembled everything, basing on my FK&P06's, Ian Notter flocked and then I tufted. I've recently taken to matt varnishing the flock, it gives a pleasing finish.


In other news... I'm currently working on the end of January update of the Ancient Army lists. I just received a restock of the Deep-Cut mats and terrain strips, and currently have all the bases, in fact happily I have pretty much everything in the BigRedBatShop in stock.

Saturday, 1 January 2022

A Happy New Year to All!

Here in the BigRedBatCave we've had a busy Christmas and I've only managed a little modelling. However in the days before Christmas I finally managed to paint the walls and floor of my cellar storage space, which I hope you'll agree is looking pretty tidy. I only have around 5' 9" of headspace, but it will enable me to store a lot of minis, once I've fitted racking and sorted out the humidity.


Below is the "before".

My resolutions for 2022 - 

  • Finish and publish Renaissance
  • Finish and publish the playtest game, Ceresole 1544 and a secret associated project
  • Finish the Swiss army that has been in hibernation for a year.
  • Put on some banging games at shows
  • Catch up with everyone who I've missed in the last year or so!
I hope everyone is safe and well. I feel very optimistic about 2022. I feel the prospects for life and gaming are likely to be much better, for us, this year- let's hope than none of our cards are Aces! 

Thursday, 16 December 2021

The Tangier Regiment- twice


Here's the second regiment of my 1672 force- the Tangier Regiment, AKA Kirke's Lambs. This regiment cut it's teeth defending the British outpost in Tangiers and later fought at Sedgemoor. 

Most of the minis are by an unknown painter but chum Dave Millward filled out the ranks of musketeers, I highlighted and mounted the Flags of War flags- the billows came out particularly well on these. Ian Notter flocked the FK&P6 bases, and I tufted.


This is my second take on this iconic unit, I've also raised it (below) using Front Rank Miniatures. The original unit had a bigger frontage (25cm as opposed to 19cm) - it is rather less practicable, for that reason, but looks magnificent. Armed with snaphance muskets, it's better suited for the 1680s than my current 1670's obsession, and I'll probably use it for Sedgemoor. You can read about my other battalion here. I think I can live with the new, smaller unit size (above) - it'll be much easier to fight large battles with this size of unit, and rather less painting per unit, which means 50% more units. Of course, there would be even less painting if I'd gone for 2 ranks, but then one must suffer for one's art.


In other news, I've finally bitten the bullet and am in the process of painting the actual BigRedBatCave, photos next week, hopefully. Until then, stay safe everyone!

Friday, 10 December 2021

1st Foot Guards finished

Here are my first battalion for my 1670's project, the 1st Foot Guards ca. 1683. Strictly, they are outside the 1667-1672 period that I'm concentrating on but I had them mostly painted and couldn't resist finishing them off. The minis are North Star 1672. Unfortunately they have been in my "reserves" boxes for so long I can't recall who the original painter was, but chum Dave Millett very painted up a few more to match and I detailed and finished them. The flags are from Flags of War. The bases are my FK&P06's and they were beautifully flocked by my chum Ian (I tufted).

This will be my personal standard for the period, 28 foot on three stands 19cm wide, a practical size for gaming. The third rank is largely superfluous but helps to make the unit look a little more like the period engravings. I hope to eventually raise 30-40 battalions, and as many cavalry regiments/batteries, primarily Dutch and French (including Swiss and Walloons) but also Spanish, English and Scots. Eventually I'll need to write a set of rules or perhaps an add-on to the For King and Parliament set.

If anyone has any spare 1672 minis, painted or unpainted, I'd be keen to buy up or swap for them to swell the ranks, you can email me at the address on the left.

In other news, I've recently had a couple of big restocks in the BigRedBatShop and now have pretty much everything in stock, particularly bases and the splendid coloured activation chits

I have quite a few units underway and hope to be able to post one a week for the next month or so.

Monday, 6 December 2021

Régiment Pfyffer WIP


Here's my fifth 1672 infantry battalion, the Swiss Pfyffer regiment in French service. I love this regiment's jaunty yellow tunics! I picked up some mostly-painted minis for this unit on eBay, painted some more myself and the remaining minis were painted by Richard O'Connor. 

They are on bases but not yet grouted (I find it best to mount the flags before grouting, and the flags that chum Ian is making aren't quite ready yet).


I really like the North Star Swiss minis- they have bags of character. Most of my infantry units will have the same basic structure as this one, which has six pike, two sergeants, 16 musketeers and four officers. They are in three ranks on three of my FK&P6 bases so around 19cm wide. I'll take proper photos when they are finished.