Running hard ....

a small number of royalist troops are in the fields to the south of PokeSay not far from Wallingborough (in northern Wiltshire)....

The petard team, ran hard across the open field, with the officer bellowing 'Move it' ...

 they got to the barn and set the petard up against the door; then moved off a bit and fell to the ground to catch their breath. Good work my lads said the officer, have a rest.  They'd been practising for about half an hour and this was the first time the petard had stayed up against the door.

Sir William de Willoughby and his brother check the petard setup...

Sir William is pleased, he turns to the men and tell them that will be enough for the day.  Sir William and his brother walked back through the town to Pokesay castle. On arrival he checked for news of a scouting party sent east towards Basing house - still not back, maybe tomorrow ......

ECW Campaign restarts ....

I've got a timeline for 1644 roughed out and some scenarios sorted; so with my ECW modelling and conversion surge finished - the campaign restarts .....

Working on some clubmen...

I have been working on some clubmen (brief historical overview here and some modelled in 1/72 here ; some nice ones in 28mm here). Using up the last of my spare figures I have eight so far, I'm aiming to have about 15-20 altogether.

Will need to get some more suitable figures and make up some pitchforks and short pikes before I can do the next batch.

fiddling with artillery ....

I decided I needed some more variety in the cannon used for my ECW games; preferably a couple of lighter guns. So I embarked on a little bit of conversion work.

Raw materials, a 40mm saker (at the back) and a 28mm cannon at the front with a spare gun barrel.

I removed the barrel from the 40mm saker, and replaced it with the one from the 28mm cannon; the spare barrel I then put on the 28mm cannon. Both cannon received new wheels using some small plastic lego ones. Below another saker and the two converted guns...

 Converted guns painted and shown in use in a mixed battery....

petard team - conversions/modelling work done

After a couple of good sessions at the modelling desk the petard team conversions/modelling work is now done.

The deployed petard and a chap getting ready to set it off ...

Petard team starts to take shape ...

The two chaps carrying the petard,

the arms need filling out, rest of the team is coming along nicely. Have to make up the petard as well.

Preparations for next phase of campaign....

I've been trying to sort out some sort of linked scenario set, including some historical events, to finish off the 1644 year. This is still  a work in progress but I have made a start.

I've obtained a copy of 'Sieges of the Great Civil War' by Young and Emberton,

Nice little book with a good summary of some of the major sieges in the civil war.

For new additions to the forces of both sides I've been sorting through my remaining spare figures; have made up two units of commanded shot,

I also put to one side items to go towards conversions for clubmen, including 3 figures to represent the more well armed of them

Having a few pikemen leftover and some spare heads and other parts, I was looking for something to do with them. Warlord Games make a 28mm petard assault team,

so I'm going to try to replicate this in 40mm; will post some piccies of this modelling exercise as it progresses.