Ewen Macpherson of Cluny

This is the completed command base for my Badenoch Royalists - led by Ewen Macpherson of Cluny attended by his piper and a flag bearer. The painted tartans are meant to represent the ancient tartan of clan Macpherson, however it is impossible at this size to paint an exact likeness of the complex tartan, and so I attempted to simply capture the spirit of the clan's white tartan as best as possible.

In the English Civil War the Macphersons played a gallant part on the side of the King. From the register of the provincial synod of Moray it appears that Ewen Macpherson of Cluny had joined with Alastair Macdonald, the Marquess of Huntly, and the Great Marquess of Montrose in their daring military enterprise; that he had been present at the battles of Tibbermuir and Aberdeen, in which he had been in command of all the loyal forces of Badenoch.

My family on my mother's side are the Archibalds of Scotland, a sept of the great Clan Macpherson - so this history has some very personal meaning to me.

ECW Flag: Scottish Royalist Thistle

With my Carthaginian project well under way and on schedule to have enough units completed for a game next month, I've decided to turn some of my attentions back to my beloved English Civil War project. I have started painting the command stand for the Badenoch Royalists and their commander Ewen Macpherson of Cluny - and what is a commander without an ensign nearby waving a large and gorgeous flag proclaiming their loyalties? And so I fired up the Photoshop machine.

I designed this flag based on the traditional Scottish symbol of the thistle with the Latin slogan "PRO REGE, ET PATRIA (For king and country).

This flag was created using Adobe Photoshop at a suitable resolution for printing (300 ppi) and when printed the final flag measures approximately 40mm x 40mm.

Please, if you like this flag, feel free to download the large version and use it in your own ECW Scottish Royalist regiments.

Scottish Royalist ECW flag. Click for printable version.

Thistle in white. Click for printable version.

Highlander Pikes WIP No.2

I wasn't able to get all eight pikes painted and based this weekend like I had hoped, but I did manage to get seven painted to my liking. I'll finish the last pikeman this week and then get back to the lads carrying the muskets.

Highlander Pikes WIP No.1

My goal for this weekend was to paint and base eight Scottish Highlander pikemen. Well, I am off to a decent start - despite being distracted by other things, I nearly completed four figures yesterday (I still need to paint a tartan on the bald man's plaid and do some touch-ups and highlighting to the others) . After a week away it was very enjoyable to spend some time at my work table.

I really like the model of the bald pikeman from Eureka. He is completely wrapped in his plaid and has discarded his bonnet. Unlike the other figures, he doesn't hold the pike in one hand, but instead holds it close to his body, almost using it for support, as if it were a staff or walking stick instead of a weapon. He seems to be a wise veteran, perhaps just returned from fighting in the Thirty Years' War.

Today should see some more progress as there is a baseball game this afternoon and I like to paint while listening to a ball game.

Time in the Mountains and Goals for the Weekend

I've spent the greater part of this week on vacation in Breckenridge, Colorado with my son and wife. We enjoyed the mountains, hiking, the pool and the cooler weather - but all of that recreation didn't result in any progress on my ECW project, but that is probably a good thing as I am excited to spend some time on painting this weekend.

My goal for this weekend is to get two bases (8 figures) of pike fully painted and based. That might be a lofty goal as I am sure there are some errands around the house I need to attend to, but I'm going to try nevertheless.

I did put another order into Eureka USA for some additional figures for the Highland warband unit I am planning on adding to the Badenoch Royalist Battalia (that is Pike & Shotte speak - I guess groups of units are called Battalia in those rules).

Speaking of rules, I do plan on playing some games with all these little army men I am painting. But, it looks more than likely that I will need to provide both sides of the conflict to have any playing partners - so I will be alternating finishing regiments for the Royalists and Covenanters for awhile, which means I need to start thinking of the Covenanter regiment that I want to work on next.

Badenoch Regiment WIP Photos

The Badenoch regiment is coming along great and I am having a lot of fun with the painting. Last night I was able to get the models completed for the base that would be carrying the regiment's second flag - the Banner of the King of Scots.

I also took some time this morning to take some photos of the entire regiment as it currently stands: 3 bases of shotte and 2 bases of banners and pike. So, to complete at least the pike & shotte portion of the regiment I still need to finish three more musket bases (12 models) and 2 bases of pike (8 models). 

I have decided to add a small highland warband to the regiment which will be fun - and of course I still need to paint and base the commander of this brave lot, Ewen Macpherson of Cluny and his piper.

The Banner of the King of Scots and ensign.

Out on morning drill while waiting for the rest of the lads to arrive.

ECW Flag: Banner of the King of Scots

I needed a second flag to be carried by my Royalist Badenoch regiment - so what could possibly be better or more suited for the battlefield than the Banner of the King of Scots (Bratach rìoghail na h-Alba)?

I created this flag using Adobe Photoshop at a suitable resolution for printing (300 ppi) and when printed the final flag measures approximately 40mm x 36mm.

Please, if you like this flag, feel free to download the large version and use it in your own ECW Scottish Royalist regiments.

Banner of the King of Scots. Click for printable version.

On the Highland Trews

"... the trews was undoubtedly the ancient dress of people of condition or of any respectability both in the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland; it was more especially worn by persons on horseback often without boots; it was commonly made of a kind of chequered stuff called Tartan though sometimes of stuff of one colour only. It completely supplied the place of breeches and stockings covering the feet the legs and the thighs. As a winter dress, particularly in time of snow, it was reckoned infinitely preferable to the kilt. When the trews were worn upon a journey, the plaid was carried over the left shoulder and drawn under the right arm."

On the Highland Dress

Sir John Sinclair
October, 1796

A highland warrior I am painting wearing his finest tartan trews.

The Macpherson Banner Raised!

I was able to spend a quite day at home yesterday getting a lot of painting done and completing something that I have been looking forward to doing since I began this project: raising the Macpherson banner.

This is a flag that I designed myself and it is based on the Macpherson coat of arms. It is printed on standard paper and the folded around the flagpole. The two sides of the flag are glued together with standard white glue and then shaped into a somewhat realistic flag-ish shape while the glue dries. This is my first attempt at doing this and I think it turned out rather well.

I had some difficulty getting the pikes to stay in the pikemen's hands properly, but then realized that a little superglue at the butt of the pike where it touches the ground solves the problem. This gives a second contact point that will prevent the pikes from becoming twisted and coming free.

My models are finally starting to look like a proper ECW regiment!

The Macpherson banner is raised for the Royalists.

Touch Not the Cat But a Glove!

Scots with Traditional Highland Weapons

With one sleeve of the regiment's shotte complete, I have decided to move on to painting a few Scottish highlanders carrying traditional clan weapons such as the basket claymore, targe, dirk, and Lochaber axe. These charging highlanders will be at the front lines of the unit's "pike block" and will represent the varied types of weapons typically found in these Royalist highland levies of the ECW.

This is a couple of photos of the work-in-progress of the first such figure I am painting - a ferocious highlander in his feileadh mhòr (great kilt) and carrying his basket claymore in one hand while in the other is a dirk. I will be affixing a targe to the arm carrying the dirk.

AM BRATACH UAINE (The Green Banner)

In a thread over at The Miniature Page (TMP) forums about a Macpherson flag that I recently designed for my current ECW project, Neil J pointed me to an absolutely fantastic example of a Macpherson banner that I had been previously unaware of - the Am Bratach Uaine (The Green Banner).

This banner is said to have been carried during the 1745 Rising. This is much later that the English Civil War period, but we can still learn a great many things from this banner when thinking about what may have been carried by the ensigns of the ECW.

Firstly, I am very surprised by the amount of detail on this flag. Typically banners and standards carried into battle are to signify a unit's identity and their allegiance. This was easily done at the time with large fields of color and simple, basic iconography. I do not know the dimensions of the Am Bratach Uaine, but this Macpherson flag is by far the most detailed and complex example of this period I have seen in my admittedly short experience. There is a lot going on in the design of this flag.

Secondly, I was unsure until now if the clan motto "Touch Not the Cat But a Glove" was actually used on banners carried into battle. I'm happy to have a primary source answer to that question and will plan on adding the motto to the Macpherson flags I will be working on in the near future.

And lastly, Another motto or slogan, this one in latin, makes its appearance along the bottom of the banner. PRO REGE, ET PATRIA (For king and country). Again, this is something that I can include in some of my own ECW flag design now that I have a good source.

This is a beautiful flag and I look forward to seeing it in person when I make a trip to the Clan Macpherson museum in Scotland next year.

Some Royalist Scottish Muskets Based

Last night I was able to get eight of my completed Scottish muskets based. I am using 40mm square bases and the figures ended up looking pretty good four to a base - there is that sweet spot between too much room and too cramped that I think looks about right for wargaming. My process for basing these is as follows:

1. Find a reasonable mix of four models that work well together and arrange them on the base, playing with angles and depths until they look "right".
2. With a pencil, mark the location and angle of each model.
3. Using a gel superglue, I then attach each of the four models to an unpainted base.
4. Take an old brush and coat the exposed base in white terrain glue while avoiding feet.
5. Dip the base in the scenic ground layer of choice, making certain that all the glue is covered. For this project I am using Woodland Scenics Fine Ballast in brown. This product has a nice dirt/mud feel that I will later cover with grass, flowers and stones.
6. Once the glue has dried, shake off any excess sand.
7. Spray with a matte clear-coat finish. This will protect the figures during handling and will also seal the basing material so it doesn't come off all over the table.

I was having a blast all the way up until step 7, when the clear-coat I am using currently (GW Purity Seal) decided to leave a "light dusting" on all of my models. I was absolutely furious. I had taken all the proper steps to prevent such a thing from happening (because I know it does), but it did it anyway.

So, in the end I have two bases done and ready for some scenery detail while some of my hard work was tainted. My hope is that when combined with the rest of the army this mishap will go unnoticed and will be forgotten - but I am still pissed.

Royalist Scottish Musketeers awaiting the arrival of their regiment.

ECW Royalist Scottish Muskets: WIP No.3

More work complete on the lads carrying the muskets for my Scottish ECW regiment. The painting of these sometimes goes slowly - as you can see, I am painting a tartan or two on the plaids slung over their shoulders. I enjoy the models that include a bow (either carried on the back with a musket in hand or shooting a bow with the musket discarded on the ground). These are all Eureka models.

I am nearly complete with the first 'sleeve' of shotte and will post some photos of them all posing together in a few days hopefully.

More Tartan Painting: an Improvement

I put some work in on painting another tartan today and I like the way it turned out quite a lot actually. I gave a lighter colored tartan a try and it looks fantastic at a bit of a distance on the table. Things get exciting when you can see some progress being made.

In Which I Discover that Painting Tartans is Really, Really Hard

I had my first go at painting tartans on my Royalist Scots - I am not completely happy with how they turned out, but I am also not completely disappointed either. I think they look rather good on the table and I'm sure I can improve as I get more practice. It is certainly a trial of patience to get them right.

Not all of the models in the regiment will be wearing tartans, but there will be enough of them on the bases to give it a good feel I think.

James Todd, Laird of Dunbar

We typically play wargames at a level that is abstracted from the individual soldiers and leadership (with the exception of some of the larger-than-life characters of history such as Napoleon, Cromwell or Hannibal); however, it is the stories, struggles and histories of the regular man during these conflicts that can lend some character, context and depth to the games we play. Plus, we can learn a lot about history from the bottom-up.

A descendant of James Todd

As an example, James Todd, born in Scotland in 1639,  is a distant relative to my wife's family and has a very interesting story. James Todd was the Laird of Dunbar and he, unlike my own Macpherson heritage, found himself fighting on the side of the Covenanters during the English Civil War. James Todd fought in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679, and like so many other Covenanter soldiers that day, was captured, forced marched to Edinburgh and held as prisoner in an open pen deep into the harsh winter. It is here that the story takes a dramatic turn. The Royalists contracted with a merchant named Patterson to transport 250 of these rebel prisoners to the West Indies where they were to be sold as slaves. James Todd was aboard this ship, The Crown, when it sank in a storm just off the Orkney Islands. James Todd could not escape the ship as he had been locked in a hold at the time.

I was completely unaware of the practice of shipping prisoners of the English Civil War to the New World as slaves, and I'm glad I learned about this practice during my reading and research.

John Todd, the son of James, fled from the persecutions of Claverhouse, in Scotland, to find refuge in the north of Ireland. Two of his grandsons, Andrew and Robert Todd, came with their families to America in 1737.

I've included a photo in this post that I found of a descendant of James Todd, Laird of Dunbar. I do not know when or where this photo was taken (probably in Edinburgh), but it is fantastic because it shows the style of dress and accessories of the time.

ECW Royalist Scottish Muskets: WIP No.2

I've made some nice progress over the past couple of days, painting several Scottish Royalist musketeers for my Badenoch regiment. These are from the Eureka 17th century Scots models and I am very pleased with them. I am working towards a uniform color palette, but all models will not be painted in the exact same manner - there will be subtle differences and shades that I am hoping will give the regiment some depth and character.

 

Macpherson Royalist Regiment: WIP No.1

A beautifully lazy Sunday has me working on my ECW project and listening to Sigur Rós. All of the models for this regiment are cleaned, mounted on temporary plastic bases and base-coated in black (I use Games Workshop's Chaos Black spray).

I have begun applying paint to a couple test models to start playing with color palettes. Lots of shades of grays, tans, browns and yellows with splashes of blues and reds. I am using both Games Workshop and Vallejo paints. Of course, these are highlanders and so some tartans are going to be required eventually - but honestly, painting those is a scary prospect.

With each new project, I tell myself that I will paint in a more assembly-line manner, maybe 4 models at a time, to speed up the process and become a more efficient painter. However, there is something about the way my brain is wired that really pushes me towards painting each figure individually, painstakingly one at a time, giving each of them a unique touch, before moving to the next. That is a great and satisfying approach until you have a pile of lead to work through. I'm certainly in no rush, I enjoy the process nearly as much as the result, but I do want to get some models on the gaming table!

The Work Begins, Eureka Models Arrive

And so, after too much waiting and frustrations with the postal service, my models from Eureka Miniatures USA have finally arrived. I very big thank you again to Robert at Eureka, who tried to help track down the lost package and then went ahead and shipped me a full replacement order without charging me even though I offered to make a second payment (it wasn't Eureka's fault my mailman delivered the package to the wrong door). That is superb customer service and I would recommend Eureka to anybody.

I have spent much of today going through the models, trimming and filing where needed, washing them and then mounting them to temporary bases for painting (I use caps saved from drink bottles). The sculpts themselves look fabulous and I am very anxious to get to work applying some paint.

The models were all packaged very well from Eureka and were sorted nicely into small bags. After speaking to Robert at Eureka on the telephone, I know he hand picks each miniature to ensure that a customer gets as many of the different poses as possible. That was a nice touch and very appreciated. I did notice that the Eureka models seem to be made of a very soft metal compared to others I have worked with... I may need to be a bit careful handling them as much of my time today was spent making bendy things back into straight things. Overall I am very impressed with the detail of the Eureka models, which I decided to buy after seeing many great examples of them at Project Auldearn 1645.

The Eureka miniatures bagged and sorted

Trimming and filing

Miniatures mounted to temporary painting bases

The Size of Things

I am having issue with the relative sizes of two things: the size of the pikes included by Eureka with their pikemen models and the size of the miniatures relative to other models from different manufacturers. The first issue is something that Eureka can perhaps look at fixing, the second is a problem with the current hobby as a whole that we shouldn't have to deal with honestly.

The pikes that were shipped with my Eureka pikemen are far too short and I would also say too thick a diameter for the scale. Pikes of the English Civil War era were generally about sixteen feet, which would translate to approximately 80mm-90mm in length for these figures. As you can see in the photo below, the Eureka pikes are much shorter than that, measuring about 52mm in length. I could perhaps use them as short-pikes, but again, I feel the diameter is wrong. For comparison, the photo also shows a Northstar pike trimmed to 85mm. This is what I plan on using for my ECW armies as I think that will look much better on the game table and be a little more historically accurate.

Pike comparison. Northstar cut to 85mm (left) and the Eureka pike (right).

The second sizing issue I have has nothing to do with Eureka themselves but rather the differences in the absolute size of the models from the various manufacturers of miniatures. I ordered an ensign model from Warlord Games to carry the flag of my highland regiment, only to discover that there is no way the model will fit in with my new Eureka models. Both models are sold as "28mm" but the Warlord figure is much taller and the overall scale is much greater (look at the size of the head and feet) than the Eureka figure. It is extremely frustrating as a hobbyist to not have access to all of the wonderful ranges that are out there due to the size variations - I want to mix-and-match. Enough of this nonsense - it is time for standardization!

Eureka model on the left, Warlord model on the right. Not cool.

ECW Flag: Macpherson of Cluny Badenoch Forces

I love the spectacle of the flags carried by the various English Civil War forces. The many different colors, designs, slogans and iconography makes for a splendid battlefield and gaming table. In addition, the flags of the time had significant meaning to the regiments and were protected at all costs.

This is my first attempt at creating a flag to be used with my first ECW regiment - the Badenoch forces under Montrose that were led by Ewen Macpherson of Cluny. These forces were present at the Battle of Tippermuir and the Battle of Aberdeen.

There is no historical record of the banners that may have been proudly carried for Macpherson and his forces (at least that I have been able to locate), and so I have taken some liberty in designing a flag for wargaming that may be suitable. The flag is based on the Macpherson of Cluny coat of arms. The file was created using Adobe Photoshop at a suitable resolution for printing (300 ppi) and when printed each flag measures approximately 40mm x 40mm.

Please, if you like this flag, feel free to download the large version and use it in your own ECW royalist highland levies.

Macpherson of Cluny ECW flag. Click for printable version.