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Monday, September 10, 2012

Montrose Irish Brigade


This is part of a project I've started with a friend based around the Scottish campaigns in the English Civil War. I've decided to build the forces of that wily commander Montrose and my friend is building the Covenanter's.

My Montrose(ish) army isn't an attempt to exactly replicate what the forces of Montrose looked like, but rather a melding of Scottish and English together so I can use it as both a Scottish Royalist army and a Northern English Royalist army. I like the history of Montrose and Rupert so I'd like to use it for both. Basically it will be my own impression with quite a few liberties taken. Hopefully the end result will still be convincing enough to not totally offend the purists out there.

I'm starting off with a regiment from the rock hard Irish brigade in which I mixed Bicorne's Irish and English together which gives them a mixed and slightly ragged appearance (except the officers) which I feel they probably looked something like that. The Irish were noted for using a half pike, but I prefer the full pike and so went with that. They also wore a greyish top and white leggings(many did any ways) of which I included in the mix, but I changed the top to mostly green for two reasons. The first is I'll have plenty of grey to do when I do the regular Scot units and well......they are Irish and green just darn well belongs!:-)

The figures are from Bicorne and the English figures are simply superb(best ECW around IMHO) and the Irish figures are pretty good too if not quite as good as the English figures. I painted them using AP with highlights added. The Flag is from Flags of War and while it looks wonderful it's a little small for me, however I heard he's now making them bigger and so I probably replace it with a bigger one. Once again I was painting in comfort zone of earth colours so I had a lot of fun painting the figures and they are large and the detail raised just added to the fun.

I also found out it's pretty difficult photographing such a wide regiment . They are mounted on 3 bases 80mm x 60mm each giving a total of 240mm wide. I hope I succeeded in getting a clear enough view. Click on the pics for larger photo's.

I'll probably do my second Irish regiment next if I don't get distracted first. The rules we have in mind are Black Powder's Pike and Shotte.

Yet another time for me to complain about the new and improved worthless photobucket. Why did they try to fix something that wasn't broke!!

God save the king!
Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company-Bicorne Miniatures

52 comments:

  1. The Bicorne Miniatures are lovely fig's. Really wonderful painting and basing Christopher.

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    1. Thank you! Yes indeed Bicorne sure are nice miniatures both to paint and look at.

      Christopher

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  2. Nice looking regiment, they were so mixed anyway you can take plenty of liberties

    Ian

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  3. Fine brush work, an excellent looking unit.

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  4. Fantastic looking unit. I like your idea of keeping the army adaptable for both Scots and English Royalist.

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    1. Thanks! Yes, painting two ECW armies for the same side is not possible so they will need to do some double duty.

      Christopher

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  5. These look hot - the command figures especially. There was a WGI not to far back that did a focus article on Montrose - have you seen it?

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    1. Thank you and no I have not. I really should pick up a copy! Thanks for the tip!

      Christopher

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  6. Great stuff, I'll be following eagerly. I'm looking at doing a similar project for fog:r in the near future.

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    1. Thank you! Looking forward to seeing it although I must admit FOG isn't my cup of tea, but hey if it works for you then great!:-)

      Christopher

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  7. great looking unit! You are painting quite a few periods right now!

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    1. Thanks Cory and yes indeed I'm a notorious wargaming butterfly with the attention span of a gnat! I really admire wargamers that can see their projects to a serious conclusion before starting another one. Sadly that's impossible for me!:-(

      Christopher

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  8. Fantastic looking unit, especially like the pike block - they look very effective.

    Regards,
    Matt

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    1. Thanks Matt I hoped I had enough to pull it off.

      Christopher

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  9. They are absolutely gorgeous; stunning work Sir.

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  10. Lovely work Chris on your ECW collection. I too like the North of England and Newcastle Whitecoats where you can have some bonnets in witht he unit.

    Cheers,

    Helen

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    1. Thanks Helen and when I do the Scottish units I'll have the mix of English and Scots with bonnets.

      Christopher

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  11. Great looking unit Chris, I like the 'busy' look to the stands which give a great feel to the finished unit. Nice.

    Looking forward to see some Scots!

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    1. Thank you and after I finish another Irish regiment I'll do a Scottish one.

      Christopher

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  12. I think they look great. I also like the idea of making the unit so that it can be multi-purposed for different army builds. Looking forward to seeing more.

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  13. You're the first person to get this right. Our men were a raggedy bunch as we had no food and the only clothing we had was one step away from being in tatters. This is a nice piece of work and I say Thank You.

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  14. Lovely work as ever Chris! Have an Montrose army myself.

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  15. That is a gorgeous regiment. Beautiful paintwork and composition. I particularly like the dynamic poses of the pikemen.

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  16. They look brilliant Christopher. The figures mix together wonderfully well, and the AP painting is terrific. Montrose and Rupert are such interesting commanders, I just know you're going to have a wonderful time with this period.

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    1. Thank you kindly Sidney. Indeed Bicorne figures are really nice and just the right amount of animation. Montrose and Rupert are fascinating figures of the period and I'm looking forward to reading more and the battles ahead.

      Christopher

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  17. Very nice Christopher, very nice indeed.......look forward to seeing more post of this project.

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    1. Thank you and hopefully I'll soon have more to add!

      Christopher

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  18. Hi Christopher,
    again a very, very beautiful painted unit. I like the close structure of the figures. It represents the close ranks of that time very good.
    Cheers
    Mike

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    1. Thank you very much Mike! Yes, Dave Imrie(Saxon Dog)inspired me to add depth to the units and keep the Pike and Shotte at the same ranks even which gives the effect of a solid formation. Now you need to start your own!(hint,hint)

      Christopher

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  19. Awesome unit ...... a nice mix of ragged but tied together with colour really well !

    Q

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  20. Lovely unit Christopher !!! Very impressive !

    best regards Michael

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  21. Amazing units, absolutly wonderful!

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  22. A very beautiful looking unit. I really love that green. Best, Dean

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  23. Lovely looking unit! Great painting, lovely lay out for the bases (love the close order) and the Bicorne models are sweet! Got any more of Montrose's chaps in the pipeline?

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  24. Thank you! As you know I've been following your wonderful and more accurate Montrose army as well.
    Yes I have more Montrose coming as I'm a bit over half way finished with my second regiment.

    Cheers
    Christopher

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