From IainW: Essex ECW/War of Three Kingdoms shotte - The last of the Blax Bequest! (35 Points)

About three years ago I was visiting the blog of a fellow AHPC alumni SimonM aka Blax aka 'The Nuln Oil Kid' and there was some star trek figures on his blog, I mentioned I had some 25mm citadel star trek miniatures from about 1980 knocking around in my loft if he wanted them, it took me some years to mine them from  my lead mountain and together with some citadel spacefarers and 15mm citadel Traveller figures and some other 15mm scifi figures from about 1980 I finally sent them off this summer. In response he suggested I have his second hand collection of painted 28mm oop Front Rank ECW figures that there were sitting in his loft,but there were so many of them he'd have to drop them off. I  have cleaned up and rebased 4 units of cavalry, 2 units of dragoons, a number of command stands and with the addition of these 7 1980s Essex shot figures I can field a 6th pike and shot regiment from his figures.  So thanks Simon!

This gives me a regiment of the London trained bands (hence the buff coats)for the battle of Cropredy, so I wanted a bit of variety with them, it also meant I could dump various left over figures in too, to make the numbers up! Apostles in green to match the  existing shot, I haven't copied the original style but I think they do. As you can see I have moved over to six /seven figures on a stick to speed up production, ammunition quality painting but not too bad for an evenings work. 

This is a photo of the unit together with all the figures I have from the Blax trade (a Jacobite cannon and crew have skedadled across the Atlantic)

So 7 x 5 28mm figures is 35 to start me off, I'm not planning on doing planets (I've still got a half built dockyard from a few years ago!)  so even though they came via Vulcan (in a convoluted manner to be sure!) I'll stick with that, obviously not Napoleonic which I hope to stick to with laser accuracy this year, oh well!

All the best, Iain 

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Fabulous first entry for you this year, Iain! Welcome back to the Challenge, mate.

These harquebusiers for your pike & shotte unit look terrific - I especially enjoy your high-contrast style. I like that they still have their 'swinefeathers', showing them to be from the first battles of the war. (I suspect that, by the later years, these were probably being used more to roast sausages and dry laundry than to keep firearms propped up.) 

It warms my heart to know that two Challengers got together and exchanged figures to be enjoyed again - how wonderful! I've been the happy beneficiary of your hobby kindness in the past, being a proud recipient of a Sisters of Battle force - keep an eye out for some more of those this year.

Great work Iain. I look forward to your upcoming Napoleonics. 

- Curt