English Civil War - Garrisons in the West Midlands

I have mentioned in previous posts about the highly complex political nature of the West Midlands during the English Civil War. The following list of local combatants (which can be easily found through any internet search) helps illustrate this point.

These commanders were all based within roughly a 10 mile radius of each other. If you are familiar with the places mentioned below, you will quickly realise just how complicated the region’s politics must have been, not just in terms of military but also personal allegiance. Even these garrisons were never really secure, for instance Rushall Hall was taken and subsequently lost by the Royalists whilst under the command of Prince Rupert.

The above map is actually to scale, the green box being approx 14miles sq.

The following list is by no means exhaustive.

Royalists:
Sir Thomas Leveson at Dudley Castle.

Colonel Lane at Bentley Hall, Walsall. 0.5 mile north west of Junction10 M6. Lane helped Charles II in his escape after the battle of Worcester.

George Hawe at Caldmore, Walsall. Caldmore is pronounced locally as 'karma'. Why? I have no idea.

William Hopkins at Oakeswell Hall, Wednesbury – the Hall was later the home of Jacob Epstein’s wife/muse Kathleen Garman.

Sir Thomas Holte at Aston Hall. North Birmingham. Located yards away from Aston Villa F.C.'s ground, Villa Park

Parliamentarians:
Sir Richard Leigh at Rushall Hall (1.5 miles north of Walsall).

Edward Dudley at the Greenhouse, Tipton (site of the Battle of Tipton Green, 12th June 1644). The house has long gone but its location was in the region of Mad O'Rourkes Pie Factory pub on Hurst Lane.

Simon Montford at Bescot Hall, Walsall (Junction 9 M6, opposite IKEA furniture store)

Thomas Parkes at Willingsworth Hall (half a mile to the west of Wednesbury)

Colonel John "Tinker" Fox (from Walsall but he commanded the garrison at Edgbaston House, Birmingham). Fox was such an irritant to the Royalists that he became their bogyman. It was later rumoured that he had even been the executioner of Charles I.

Warlord Games ECW Cavalry Modifications - Part 6 of 6

Whenever a figure is shown wielding a sword obviously they would not have another sword still in their scabbard (at least I don’t think they carried spares). On some of the model types the hilt is cleverly hidden by the sash. Where this is not the case you need to carefully cut away the sword hilt from the side of the model. I mention this because once I had finished all painting the figures I noticed I had made this very same mistake (twice!) and naturally they were both in the most inaccessible place possible. After removing the offending articles I could finally say that I had completed the regiment.

Troopers Albert and Ernest

In a similar manner where a figure is shown holding a pistol I removed the pistol grip that protrudes from the top of holster and hollowed out the plastic with a hand drill to improve the overall look. And just to show off I also hollowed out the mouth of the trumpet.

Trumpeter Horatio Horn

Last, and definitely least, by far the easiest addition is to simply glue a feather taken from the infantry box set onto the hat of a rider. This very quickly adds just a little bit more variety to the figures.

Captain Thomas Plume

Captain Thomas Plume

Warlord Games ECW Cavalry Modifications - Part 5 of 6

Major Harvey Cummerbund

For the figure shown above Greenstuff was again used to create a sash. It proved to be pretty easy to make. Normally I quickly mock up any modeling using Bluetack, then I can divide it into two in order to give me a good idea how much of the separate blue and yellow component parts of Greenstuff I’ll actually need. I’ve found this method helps prevent me from wasting too much of the modelling material as I usually wildly overestimate how much to use, a little really does go a long way.

The folds and creases were made with a sculpting tool and a metal scribing tool (or a good old fashioned wooden toothpick will do). If it does go wrong (and I can guarantee it will go wrong if I’m doing it) you can quickly pull the stuff away and start again.

The other figure on the base was one of two models that I initially forgot to remove the sword hilt from.

Warlord Games ECW Cavalry Modifications - Part 4 of 6

Cornet Marmaduke Hood

Perhaps the most iconic and easily recognised object associated with the ECW is the lobsterpot helmet. Often linked with the Parliamentarian Ironsides, or Roundheads, this style of helmet would have been worn by both sides.

As there are plenty of spare helmet parts in the Warlord Games box I thought I could depict a couple of troopers with their visor/faceguard raised. This was easier said than done. Taking two helmet components from the sprue, with the first I removed the visor and on the second I carefully cut away the main body leaving just the visor. This proved to be the trickiest operation as the vertical plastic bars are quite fragile. It was then just a matter of gluing the two parts together at an appropriate open angle.

Warlord Games ECW Cavalry Modifications - Part 3 of 6

Major Maxwell Silver

As the Warlord Games box set provides a warhammer on each figure sprue I used one to help depict one figure carrying a proper side arm. This involved removing the sword and filing away the hilt detail. A small hole was then drilled through the cleaned up hand. The warhammer staff was cut into two and the points sharpened so that they could be located and fixed back into the hole on the right hand. I used exactly the same method to make the one armed command figure even more distinctive.

This next alteration on the same figure is so cunningly subtle I’d forgotten I’d made it until it came to write this post. Supplied in the box set is an older style continental type helmet with a single nasal bar (also called a Zischagge or 'Dutch' pot). I simply cut the bar from in front of the face and glued it on top the helmet to give the impression that the user had adjusted the bar by pushing it upwards. It actually proved quite tricky to achieve and, unlike the other faceguard mentioned previously, I honestly don’t think it was worth the effort.

Warlord Games ECW Cavalry Modifications - Part 2 of 6

Captain Lieutenant Herman De Munster

This foolhardy figure is the result of another request but this time it was for a bare headed figure. Greenstuff was used to initially build up the correct shape of the head. Once this part had cured the hair was added ensuring that it covered the lower part of the moulded helmet and blended into the rest of the hairline. I think he looks a bit like the main lead from the 60’s TV show ‘The Munsters’.

Herman De Munster

Herman De Munster

Note the removal of the pistol handle from the holster. The hole was created using a hand drill and a scalpel.

Warlord Games ECW Cavalry Modifications - Part 1 of 6

Or "The joy of plastic in six easy installments!".

With these next few short posts I thought I would describe in more detail the various modifications and alternations made to the recently completed Warlord Games plastic ECW cavalry figures.

As I’ve stated previously the possibilities of tweaking and modifying plastic figures is almost endless. If you have the time and inclination with the various combinations of headwear and weapons I’m quite sure you could make every individual miniature unique.

The majority of these changes were made at the request of my brother who kept on coming up with numerous ‘useful’ suggestions such as “Why don’t you try to make one that looks like he’s been injured.” and “Could you make another one without a hat?” etc.

Lieutenant-Colonel Eduard Van Verloren Wapen

First up is the one-armed figure inspired by another fascinating character from the period, Sir Henry Bard 1st Viscount Bellomont and a former Governor of Worcester. At the Battle of Cheriton Down, March 1644, Bard lost an arm (or more precisely lost the use of one unspecified arm). He recovered from this serious injury and went on to fight alongside Colonel Leveson and Colonel Bagot at the Battle of Naseby, June 1645.

After initial reservations about the realism of this approach I realised that mounted archers throughout the ages had been able to ride hands free and still managed to loose off arrows on the hoof. A friend (a horsey type) confirmed it is possible for an experienced rider to control a horse using a combination of just your legs, voice and body weight. I reasoned to myself that removing the right sword arm would have left the figure looking distinctly passive. Therefore I decided to make things awkward for myself and remove the figure’s left arm along with the hand meant to be holding the reins, leaving the right arm to carry a weapon. The left arm was cut away above the elbow and the upturned sleeve was remodeled with Greenstuff.

Lieutenant-Colonel Eduard Van Verloren Wapen

Note also the raised faceguard on the lobsterpot helmet; I’ll go into more detail about this in a following post.