Battleground on YouTube

Ssssshhhhhhh....let's just keep this to ourselves, OK? More episodes to follow in due course.

More of Young's Surens

A couple of 17th C. types this time. The ECW officer is definitely a Suren, presumably the Cardinal is C 16 Cardinal Richelieu...?

It's a shame that Gilder's Hinchliffe ECW are some of his smallest 25mm offerings (at least of those still readily available) otherwise i'd have added Suren's ECW personalities to the collection long ago (then again, if over-sized commanders were good enough for Callan....).

Foremost ECW

The Foremost range was originally advertised as a separate venture by Peter Gilder, though it was always exclusively available from Hinchliffe Models. When Frank Hinchliffe sold out to Skytrex the Foremost range went too, so whatever the commercial arrangement was with Peter Gilder it must have ended there.

PG did some of his best work for the Foremost range - the British Napoleonics come immediately to mind, as do the horses. That said, i prefer the earlier Hinchliffe ECW to their Foremost peers - the 'Prince Rupert's Charge' cavalry were a late addition to the Foremost range and are a tad chunky for my liking. Nevertheless they retain all the elan of classic Gilder cavalry.

These particular examples were painted as Ireton's Horse by John Tilson, and a splendid job he did too. If you've been paying attention then you'll remember that John took part in the Edgehill episode of Battleground. Something that was not noted in the Battle article i posted earlier was that John used his own Parliamentarian army during the game - sadly this army was stolen a short time later.

Win absolutely nothing if you can identify the classic tome that Ireton's are deployed upon.

The Talented Mr Swales

Whilst i'm on the subject of the Hinchliffe Handbook i thought i'd post a couple of pages of Norman Swales illustrations (of which the Handbook must contain a few hundred). Swales' illustrations could also be found in various other Hinchliffe publications, Quarrie's Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature, and Humbrol Authenticards (and no doubt elsewhere too). A fine illustrator and sculptor/designer...don't you just hate multi-talented people....8-)

Whilst Swales' illustrations were a pleasure to look at, and useful as an approximation of the subject figure, i must admit i would have preferred Hinchliffe to have used photographs of the actual models more often (which is one area where Minifigs scored top marks).

I wonder - did PG sculpt based on Swales' illustrations, or did Swales' drawings come afterwards? I have always assumed the latter....?

An Old Chestnut

OK, i know it's a dun, but painting horses is one of those issues that seems to have troubled wargamers since prehistoric times. I'm currently contemplating painting some cavalry next so i had a look through the vintage ranks - looking for inspiration and tips from the 'great masters'. I came across this Hinchliffe ECW officer by Phil Robinson and, although in general i find his horses a bit garish, i do like the effect he's achieved here. The horse has been washed in a tan colour, most of which has been wiped off, and then shadows have been applied in a mid grey. Details have been lined in brown ink (since unfortunately aged to black) in the usual Robinson style.

A funny thing is how my photography just doesn't do the Robinson figures justice - this isn't just down to my ineptitude as usually my own figures actually come out looking better then they really are....very odd...

Where i think i go wrong with horses is in not being bold enough - they benefit from a bit of drama in just the same way as human figures. With that in mind we'll see how i do with the next batch i smear paint onto (ETA Christmas - judging by my current workload).

Garrison ECW

More Phil Robinson creations. These Garrison figures form the pike element of two of the regiments in my ECW collection - the musketeers for which are Hinchliffe, and i think the second photo shows that the two ranges work quite well together (the officer and drummer being Hinchliffe). This particular figure (EW11) is not currently available from Garrison but Rob Young tells me it will be within a couple of months.

I have a couple of Hinchliffe pike blocks sans musketeers and i'm planning to make good on that deficiency via the Garrison range. I could also do with another unit of ECW dragoons... and more Garrison SYW Prussians to serve as Hessians in my AWI armies, and ...

Minifigs ECW

No, really, this time they really are (at least 3 of the crew anyway). After my identification faux pas in the last post i thought i'd post a few genuine Minifigs ECW. As before these were painted by Phil Robinson and feature in Asquith's Naseby Osprey.

With all that red hair i wonder whether they are Scots or Irish.....

'70s Baggage

Nope...i'm not referring to your collection of Hawkwind LPs, i mean this collection of Hinchliffe ECW wagons and limbers painted sometime in the mid 1970s by Phil Robinson (he of the big hair, and even more impressive SYW and WW2 collections that featured in early editions of Miniature Wargames).

Robinson's painting style back then could perhaps be described as 'basecoat, highlight and line'. Lining in was done in brown ink drawn on with a mapping pen (i've read of pens being used to line in before but this is the first time i've actually come across someone who's used the technique successfully) - sadly the last 30 years have not been kind to these chaps and the brown ink has turned black, making the overall effect somewhat less pleasing than originally intended.

Much of my ECW collection was painted by PR, so there's more to come. As with the other ECW pieces i've posted these chaps can be found pictured in all their fresh-faced original splendour in Asquith's Naseby Osprey title.

Now then chaps - spot the Minifig.......?

More Gilder ECW

This dragoon officer is a Peter Gilder conversion. It's skilfully done - the harness and reins, musket sling and powder flask have been particularly finely modelled in wire and lead sheet. The musket sling even sports a hook for attaching the musket. Arguably the modelling was more skilfully carried out than the painting (which is a wee bit sloppy).

These figures also feature in Asquith's 'The Campaign of Naseby 1645' title for the Osprey Wargames series - you'll find them lurking behind Sulby Hedges in plate F. They were a bit shinier 30 years ago, but then weren't we all...

One of the things i've always liked about Hinchliffe is the conversion potential (i'm sure they were deliberately designed to allow the customer to animate and convert them easily - hence the long arms!). Now that Hinchliffe use a rock hard allow (pewter?), much of that potential has gone - which is a real shame.

Return of The KLF

No, not that KLF - this is the King's Lifeguard of Foot. Here we see the Lifeguard preparing to repel a Puritan assault on their display cabinet, whilst Gerrard's (another Gilder unit) lurk in the background. The unit comprises 40 largely standard Hinchliffe castings (the only customisation being the addition of plumes to some hats and helmets) painted by the unknown artist - though the style suggests to me it was PG himself.

One thing that really impressed me about these figures is the quality of the hand painted flags - the brushwork is superb. Whilst the style and quality of figure painting varies the flags are universally excellent.

The Gilder ECW are in serious need of dusting off, sorting out, and some restoration (ouch! sorry..). So until i get my act together the blog will concentrate on the AWI for a while.

Gilder's ECW

One of the stand-out units of Peter Gilder's old ECW collection was the King's Lifeguard of Foot. I remember it featuring in various issues of Mil Mod and Miniature Wargames, and you'll also find it in Stuart Asquith's Naseby book. It's a 40 figure strong regiment, of which here we have the command stand. More Hinchliffe (and Minifigs!) from Gilder's collection in due course...