Sir James Lumsdaine's regiment of Scots, inherited from Sir James Spens, in Swedish Service in Gustavus' German Campaign.
This is pretty close to the root of it all for me. When I moved to England in 1970, my primary school (St Maries RC, Rugby) had a library that many today would find astonishing (having a school library may now be considered astonishing in itself). In an extensive history section, there was an history of Scotland whose title and author are long-forgotten, but the commentary on my namesake, James Spens, and his activities on behalf of Gustavus Adolphus imprinted itself permanently. Further research on Gustavus revealed that he was the greatest military leader since Hannibal and before Napoleon. I can't remember who expressed this, challengeable, assertion, but that stuck too. The final piece of the jigsaw was the hobbies section that contained Donald Featherstone's 'Battles with Model Soldiers'.
Here, now, is the ultimate result: Spens regiment, now commanded by Lumsdaine, in 28mm for my ongoing Breitenfeld project. TMP often has inquiries along the lines of 'will models from range x look OK alongside models from range y?' It might amuse you to try to identify the different manufacturers represented in this unit, if the poor painting style hasn't obliterated all identifying features!. Whether they blend together successfully is, of course, in the eye of the beholder.
I always need some narrative context before I can paint an identifiable unit. In this case, there are a couple of companies of veterans who served in Poland and are more or less military in appearance: red and brown predominate in various stages of raggedy-arsedness. There are a couple of companies of more recent recruits, who have been clothed in an almost Confederate grey from Swedish QM stores. Finally, there are a couple of intransigent teuchters, recently arrived from Stettin, perhaps, who refuse all attempts to dress them in more appropriate garb. 'His majestie is very kind, but please to inform him that Donnie MacLeod of the Isle of Skye, being recently descended therefrom, weareth not the breeches, nor the pantalons, nor the trunkhose'.
Flags are frustrating. In the absence of hard evidence, I've co-opted a device attributed to a James Lumsdaine from 1670-odd and invented a red-field, saltire-quadrant abomination with a form of the Spens badge on the field. Should anyone have evidence to the contrary, I'm all ears.
Finally, wargaming context. This is a regiment, which is not a fighting formation in the Swedish army of the time. Parts will be assigned to brigades on the field and some or all of the musketeers could be out-commanded to support cavalry. In the case of the Breitenfeld project, these will be brigaded with Hepburn's Green Regiment of Prussians, who are currently on the painting table, and Mackays regiment of Scots, the painting of whom is currently residing in the corner of my mind marked 'dread'.
Regards,
Steve
looks at a multi-period building.
