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Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Yuletide Treasures #2: New Figures - a Great Lot of Scotts!

 

This year, there was a very, very heavy box under the tree, filled with Old Glory goodness (courtesy of the Army Card Renewal, as well as the Empress). 60 Lowland Pikes, 60 Lowland Musketeers, 20 Lowland Command, 30 Highlanders w/ Muskets, 20 Highland Command, 10 Mounted Dragoons, 30 Dismounted Dragoons, 10 Border Lancers, 10 Scottish Cavalry, 6 Scottish personalities, and the free Army Card pack was the Scottish Artillerymen. 


That should be enough to allow me to field 8 Battalia of Foote, 3 units of Dragoons, 4 units of Highlanders, 2 units of Scottish cavalry, and 2 units of Border Lancers, and far more batteries than they will ever need, plus command figures/"gallant\ Gentlemen" for the Scotts.... 250+ figures in all. I doubt that I will even come close to completing all that this year, but I have the figures all prepped and pa=rimed for the first 3 units of Foote. Part of the Scottish motivation is the appearance of a Scottish force in the scenario Book for "For King and Country", which we should resume playing the end of January. 

From every thing I've read, the Scotts were a drab lot for the most part - light grey clothes, blue bonnet. I'm thinking of using the early "tartan" on their cloaks as a distinguishing color (red cross hatching for one, then yellow, green , white, etc). I may reflect that in the color of the flags for some; not everyone carried the standard "auld blue blanket" Cross of St Andrew design, although it seems most flags were variations on that theme at most. Any help with the dress of the Scotts of this era would be great!



I also bought 2 packs of Old Glory 2nd edition British in the later Belgic shakos. These are the first Old Glory 2nd edition figures I have purchased. They never really took off. From my stabdpoint, that wass because they seemed nearly identical to the Sash and Saber French, Austrians and Russians, which I already had enough of. However, S&S didn't do British or Prussians, while the Old Glory 2nd edition includes them. Well, the Line Infantry, anyway; they pretty much stopped developing the 2nd edition range after that.


I actually plan to use these as Portuguese; those new Peninsular QWar scenario books by Michael Hopper have lots of Portuguese troops in it. Now I just need to find a manufacturer that does 25/28 figures more suitable for Cacadores, that mix with old Glory/Foundry sized figures!

20 comments:

  1. Nice! You have much work to do.

    Say, do you have any more news or changes for the TTS! Renaissance draft QRS from what you sent me earlier? I would like to get my Italian Wars stuff back onto the table.

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    1. I don't believe theer has been any significant further developments in the Renaissance modifications. There will be in the future; Simon has been painting Swiss by the hundreds!

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  2. That is quite a Christmas haul of miniatures to keep you busy in the New Year.

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    1. The first goal is to complete the three regiments of Scotts by the end of February, and then probably additional units as needed for the scenarios over time. I certainly don't expect to paint them all in 2022!

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  3. That is quite a hail and should keep you busy

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    1. Indeed, but they will have competition from other projects - my ancient Indian army expansion, some WotR figures, and of course there are always more Napoleonics to do!

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  4. That is a nice amount of figures there and look forward to seeing them progress through the paint queue. I have an Osprey book on the Jacobites of the '45 and will see if I can glean any useful uniform info.

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    1. Thanks, Steve. I anticipate finishing perhaps half of the by the end of 2022 but you never know!

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  5. Plenty to keep you busy there 👍. For the Scots I have two book suggestions, both Ospreys:
    Men-At-Arms Series 331 Scots Armies of the English Civil War
    Warrior Series 21 Highland Clansman 1689-1746 (despite the date in the title it covers the ECW period very nicely).
    I tend to think hodden grey is brownish rather than slate grey, but it is a colour based on mixing ‘black’ fleeces with the standard ’white’, so you don’t have to be precise, or consistent! 😀

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    1. Thanks, it sounds like those will be useful.
      I figured that all manner of shades of gray and light brown/tan would probably be appropriate. In my usual fashion I will probably go with relative uniformity within units and heterogeneity between units.

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  6. What a great haul! I have not had an OG Army Card for a number of years, but they certainly are a very worthwhile investment if you are planning a major collection and are happy using their figures. The Second Edition are very nice ifigures, far superior to the original Napoleonic Brits, which are some of their least impressive figures in my opinion. If you want some inspiration for ECW Scots, look at the Auldearn1645 blog....it's stunning!

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  8. Just had a play around on the auldearn1645 blog...use the archive to go back to around 2014/15....that's where most of the painted units are. He also has lots of info on flags etc

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    1. Thanks for the excellent suggestion re: Auldear1645 Blog!

      I have actually painted quite a lot of the old glory first edition British. I agree, definitely not their finest work, but they still look quite decent painted up anyway.

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    2. I bought quite a few fifteen or twenty years ago as they were a cheap option to augment my small Front Rank collection. I was a bit disappointed in them when they turned up to be honest but I painted them all up. I have a load of Colonial Brits .....NW Frontier, Zulu War and Boer War by OG, and the sculpting on them is fine....I guess they had several different sculptors and some just had a style I was not that keen on, while others I like very well indeed!

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    3. I'd agree that, as a whole, their Napoleonic line is not one of their better ones, although there are exceptions, such as their Grenz figures and the early French in Bicornes, among others.

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    4. Very true - I actually have their Grenzers in my Austrian collection, and most of my Austrian cavalry is OG too, and they are very nice if a bit "slim" when compared with the Sash and Saber who comprise the bulk of gthe collection

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    5. They mix pretty weel with S&S; it's a pity they stopped expanding their range. Their Austrians probably had the broadest coverage with infantry in helmets, shakos, bearskins, Artillery, and the Chevau-Leger/Dragoons. I have them all, except those Austrian cavalry. Hmm...

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  9. That's a big mass of Scots,certainly a heavy package under the tree!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain; I think we can safely call that an Army... at least once it gets painted! :-)

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