Massey's Foote

Now for the next ECW regiment, Massey's. Edward Massey was governor of Gloucester and at the beginning of the war he was the second in command of the Earl of Stamfords regiment, so I have assumed that his "regiment" is the same one just renamed.

There are some details on Stamford's on a US reenactment site and I have used the same flag with the unicorn. (link)

So the army is now beginning to grow

The packet of cuirassiers bought at Britcon will of course be Haselrigg's Lobsters

DAK Panzers

When I started sorting out the WW2 stash of incomplete kits I came across a collection of Matchbox Panzer IIIs that I have acquired over a period of time intending to build a suitable force for desert combat. All were assembled, and some were painted, but I thought here's a quick job that will reduce the size of the stash. Of course I then added a couple of unassembled Airfix Panzer IV to the mix. Of course they took longer than expected, but they made a break from the ECW figures when required.

All I now need to complete a Rapid Fire Panzer Regiment are a Befehlswagen and four Panzer IIs

The latest ECW foot regiment is now fully painted and just needs a wash and then based up.

Britcon 2010

Well, we had a great couple of days gaming with Mongols v's Poles at Britcon. Unfortunately my daughter nicked my camera, so I don't have any pictures of the wonderful figures from Curteys used for the game. Luckily? I've been sent a team photo, just missing Michael Curtey who umpired the game and was busy selling figures at the time.

I'm on the left, but I'll let the others remain anonymous.

We fought the game twice over the two days and on both occasions the result could have swung either way. Days 1 was historical deployment and day 2 as wished. Of course on day 2 we applied our learnings from day 1 but had swapped sides.

Otherwise, I failed to sell my old Minifigs ECW figures, acquired the Warlord Cuirassiers and failed to keep an eye on the Field of Glory (napoleonic) game on a nearby table, which was of interest.

Popham's Foote

At last my first regiment of foot has been finished. I finally worked out how I could base the figures and as mentioned earlier I have added an extra ensign to the regiment.

Everything is based on 40mm squares so there are two sleeves of 12 muskets and a pike block of 16 figures.

The flags are speculative, I used a yellow stags head on a red field as that was part of Alexander Popham's coat of arms. The coats are blue as was common for west country foot and for consistency I gave them a red lining.

The next regiment is already being painted and a third is now off the sprues.
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In answer to the questions.

The next regiment will be Massey's, which given it is probably the same regiment as Earl of Stamford's where he was Lt Colonel when it was raised in 1642. They had blue coats with possibly white lining.

The other foot regiment will be William Waller's, which had yellow coats, lining unknown, but no surprise that I will use red.

Progress report

Well things are progressing on the painting front and I have decided on my basing for my ECW foot, they will all be on 40 x 40 bases containing 4 figures. However I also decided to add a second colour bearer to each regiment so I have been sorting out the best way to achieve it.

The sergeant figure was the solution I found that there was sufficient officer arms that with some careful arrangement I could create three standing colour bearers, who would look fine in with the vertical pikes. I just added a sash to each one.


Fiddling with the rest of the arms I had lying around I managed to create a few more variations. from L to R: basic figure; arms from free WI firelock; cavalryman sword arm; fifer and drummer and finally the three new colour bearers. The last of these is all I have to paint to complete my first foot regiment.

On the Workbench - August 2010

A month, perhaps a longer for some concentrated work, I'm going to crack on with the ECW project and try to finish all the figures I have, this will mean:

• Complete Alexander Pophams Foot
• Edward Massey's Foot (the governor of Gloucester) - another blue cloat unit
• North Somerset Horse (anything I like really)
• Wallers Foot Regiment - some yellow coats to provide contrast.

In completing all of this I wish to thank Meic for providing me with a lots of headgear

I'll also continue work on reducing the stash of WW2 vehicles acquired at Crewe.

High point of the month will be refighting the battle of Liegnitz with the Lance & Longbow at Britcon in Manchester.