Fresh back from my break and it is time to review where I am at with painting the forces involved in the ECW Battle of Glastonbury.
Before I began my holiday, painting had ground to a halt for several days with the real world intruding. Unfortunately I have a few more days of the latter before I can really concentrate on painting and playing Day 2 of 'Seven Pines'.
The above represents all the cavalry I shall need for Parliament. There are 4 regiments in total with the 2 ready for priming being pretty much the maximum number of cavalry I like to paint in one batch. There are 54 here and I normally aim for 30 - 50. Infantry can be anything from 50 to 90. You often see on Facebook professional figure painters in particular, painting in batches of several hundred. I simply do not have the stamina! I can see the logic in that painting in such large numbers on a production line basis speeds output and I envy those capable of such a work rate. Personally I tend to find this becomes more of a chore and I have never been a good speed painter. Additionally, if you have a spare half hour it is more of an incentive to paint, say flesh, knowing that they can be completed in that time.
On another subject - during my holiday I took the opportunity of reading 'Hunter's Rage', the third book of 6 in the Civil War Chronicles series by Michael Arnold. The first book starts with the battle of Edgehill and the book I have just finished reading concludes with the battle of Stratton. The story revolves around 'Stryker', a hard-bitten veteran of the 30 Years War who fights for the Royalist cause. He writes very much in the Bernard Cornwell and Simon Scarrow styles and fans of those authors I am sure would find these equally as good. I thought the third book was the best of the 3 I have read to date and was utterly absorbing. Arnold interweaves fictional and real-life characters with skirmishes and historical events in the same vein as Cornwell and Scarrow. I heartily recommend these books even if the ECW is not your period. They certainly provide for wargaming inspiration with the potential for numerous scenarios including many smaller actions.
The books look interesting, Jon. I cannot ever remember reading a novel set in the ECW and apart from the film Cromwell the only dramatisation I've watched was the 1980s series By The Sword Divided. I think I mentioned to you that I built up a couple of large ECW armies in 10mm but could never find a ruleset I liked and sold the lot on ebay - something I now regret.
ReplyDeleteThere is another series I started by Nicholas Carter called 'Shadow on the Crown'. I got about a third the way through the first book 'Turncoat's Drum' before giving up. It was one of those books where nothing happens! Nor did like the writing style. That said I probably should have persevered as the the subsequent books are receiving more favourable reviews on Amazon. Another excellent series (I seem to recall just 2 books) was by Nigel Tranter which I read in the 1970's. It is based on the Marquis of Montrose an another excellent read. As you say though there are not many books written in the period which is a shame as it lends itself to all manner of gripping stories.
DeleteThanks for the book recommendation which i'll check out. I loved reading 'Moon in Scorpio' many, many years ago which was set in around the time of the Civil War IIRC. I agree about the speed painting; these days I try and work on just one unit at a time, so with a fair wind I can get a unit done over a couple of evenings. This way at least I can see progress, rather than loads of figures hald done as it were.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point I neglected to mention regarding the completion of units that much quicker. It is satisfying when the final coat of matt varnish is applied and the inventory is updated.
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