begins his series on how to paint a 15mm DBA army well, in a reasonable time frame.
We are very proud to introduce our English Civil War range of 28mm figures, sculpted by the talented Tony Boustead.
These figures have been sponsored by one of our customers – Ian Bailey. For this, we thank you, and hope that you like what we have done!
The design of the range has been based upon the latest research on costumes and equipment. Initially covering troops from around 1630 to 1644, we have detailed plans to eventually move into 1645 and beyond, thus covering later period types such as the New Model Army.
The look of the figures is based on extensive research from over the last 20 years, as well as long talks with notable experts of the period. We have followed our usual Empress craving for historic evidence on which to base our figures. The finished product may therefore look slightly different to the common view of what an ECW soldier looked like, with clothing having a significantly earlier style to it, and the commonest headwear being knitted wool Monmouths and English bonnets. The wide-brimmed felt hat was far from as common as many would have us believe and, due to its expense, usually worn by the wealthy such as the officers. Coats were replacing shaped and tabbed doublets, and this transition would continue throughout the period.
Current evidence suggests that the common soldier would have looked pretty un-soldierly, especially at the beginning of the war when clothing issue was very rare and usually limited to a coat at best. Certainly the troops at Edgehill would have looked rather uncoordinated to our modern eye. Evidence suggests that this situation did not improve much as the war progressed, and certainly both armies would retain a very civilian look.
There were, however, specific groups that did manage a distinctive appearance. It is with this in that we do not have separate rooms for both sides. Instead, you can comfortably purchase packs knowing they fit into either army. If, however, a pack specifically relates to one of the armies, we will note this in the description. For example, the King's Oxford Army was issued significant numbers of uniforms, and also the very distinctive Montero cap. Future releases will reflect this difference. One very important observation is that there was no real difference in appearance between the Royalist and Parliament armies, other than the Parliament armies were possibly better equipped. Certainly evidence suggests that armor was more readily available to Parliament.
As the initial releases are early war, we have obviously designed our musketeers with musket rests. There seems a popular myth that these items disappeared rapidly, but there is no evidence to suggest this, and contemporary paperwork relating to the planned creation of a third level of auxiliary London Trayned Bande units in 1646 included the issue of rests.
The first releases are infantry, both pike and musket, plus the first artillery piece, a Saker. These releases will be immediately followed by many others, including another Saker and crew, as well as lots and lots of cavalry. In the middle of all this will be personality groups. The list is, quite honestly, endless.
Having painted a few of these figures recently, we can testify that they need very little effort to look incredible, so we hope that you like what you see.