"Modelling the new Model Army" Topic

My English Civil War collection is in 28mm (old eyes syndrome).

This coupled with a small gaming space means making compromises. My main interest is the New Model Army so I set about creating a New Model Army with my 28mm figures.

The Historical New Model Army was set up with 12 regiments of Foot each with 1200 men 1/3 being Pike

The Cavalry was 10 regiments of 600 men

A single regiment of Dragoons of 1000 men.

Sucking my pencil and playing with figures I realised if I reduced everything to a third I could do it.

Therefore I have:

4 regiments of Foot (1 regiment representing 3) each containing 12 figures 4 of which are pikes Each figure represents 100 men.

3 regiments of Horse (Each regiment representing 3.3) Each regiment containing 6 figures again each figure is 100 men.

1 regiment of Dragoons formed by 10 figures each representing 100 men.

Each regiment is given the name of an actual commander with flag and musician.

Artillery is one gun model.

Obviously I have worked with the paper strengths and most units were under manned in reality.

The other anomaly is the Dragoons. I am toying with the idea of keeping the one regiment but reducing the man power by a third but this would give the unit only 3 to 4 figures.

Not sure of a good work around for this yet.

I am also modelling all the staff, well most important ones.
including the Chaplin and Surgeon

Don't forget the Firelock Guard to the Train of Artillery. Will only work out to a handful of figures, but tawny orange coats will make a nice change to Venetian red.

I know that 28mm is your preferred size, but if space is such a limiter I really would suggest at least trying some 15mm samples to see if you can get on with them. Don't forget that some of the 15mm ranges are actually closer to 20mm.

I wouldn't normally suggest this change in figure size, as it isn't usually a helpful comment to receive. But I have an inkling that you may be disappointed with how your regiments turn out. 4 pikeman per regiment is going to look quite wishy washy, and not really going to give any sort of impression of a pike block.

If you really are that tied to 28mm, with a table size limitation, then maybe skirmish type Pikeman's Lament might be more appropriate?

Good luck with whichever route you decide to down

And if I may make a suggestion, try and pick up both volumes of Frith's History of the NMA. It may be nearly 80 years old, but there's nothing better been published on the NMA.

Thanks for the suggestions, food for thought there.
I had actually forgotten the Firelock Guards so will look into that.
Also I have been thinking a smaller scale. Perhaps 6mm then I could model all regiments etc.

I use my 28mm for playing "For King and Parliament" which as you probably know uses a grid. My Regiment size fits just right in the grid!

I find 18-figure units in 15mm allow a good representation of the New Model in battle in a manageable space.

Something of a conundrum, I find using bigger figures, you need more of them to get a sense of mass. So whereas 2 ranks looks fairly convincing in 15mm, I think you really need 3 ranks to get the same sense of mass in 28. So my 15mm 3x6 in 2 ranks translates best to 3x12 in 3 ranks for 28s (so 36 figure units for the bigger scale): that's just been my experience over many years.

But good luck, and do share pictures. Happy to be proved wrong …

Phil
ECW Battles
Naseby 1645

Have to agree with Phil, here's one of my Royalist regiments (Apsley's). Wanted my regiments to look like Streeter's representation in his plan of Naseby. (Hence slightly over sized pikes). 15mm, 34 figures fitting on a 120mm x 60mm movement tray.