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Airfix 54mm Collector Series - English Pikeman 1642


MisterE

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Because I like to have more than one build ongoing at a time!

 

Another of the excellent old Collector series grabbed from eBay for a relative pittance, Built up pretty much from the kit with a slight conversion.

 

The kit head, morion and collar all assemble into a single piece, and I wanted to have the head bare to show off the face. As such, I had to cut away the cheek pieces from the collar and assemble that as a piece that I could then mount a Historex head to. This gives a slightly slouched, hunched over stance to the miniature, which I quite like. Lead foil for the straps (with a historex buckle) and the morion tied to the haversack, with a tankard from the spares box complete his stores. I decided to leave the plume off the morion, discarding it a popish foppery - this gent will be part of the New Model Army!

 

(obviously, the bottle and tankard will be filled with water, befitting his staunch Puritan beliefs!)

 

Pictured here, heady for a coat of primer. The pike isn't attached for ease of painting...

 

50874233832_5532f8b028_k.jpgPikeman 4 by MisterE, on Flickr

 

50874133026_9a6b0db2db_k.jpgPikeman 2 by MisterE, on Flickr

 

50873425473_48b7c9b0d2_k.jpgPikeman 3 by MisterE, on Flickr

 

50873425398_4deb82e0ca_h.jpgPikeman 1 by MisterE, on Flickr

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1 hour ago, dromia said:

Very neat indeed.

 

I do like these Airfix figures, made quiet a few over the years and keep coming back to them

 

I never knew that Ted Heath used to be in the Sealed Knot.

I KNEW it reminded me of something!!!!

 

And I did consider converting the shoes to a pair of Nikes, putting on some 54mm etched brass shades and modelling it as a Sealed Knot member, just for the laugh!

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As a member, I would say that some Sealed Knot folks can be fairly obsessive about detail. You can get away with a pair of desert wellies with the sides cut away and a ribbon or suchlike as a lace. However these are usually considered startup shoes and you are expected to get a pair of suitable latchets or boots at some stage.  Personally I find it doesn't matter on the battlefield but in living history displays you should be as authentic as possible. And never Nikes 🙂

 

You wouldn't believe the arguments there have been about things like buff coats over the years!

 

Your model is looking very authentic so far. Looking forward to how it comes out. I am a musketeer BTW so not an expert on pike.

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1 hour ago, MisterE said:

I have a musketeer too, so may be hitting you up for guidance on that bandolier

No probs - glad you called it a bandolier and not 'apostles' which is a modern term invented in the 1960s.

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1 hour ago, dromia said:

I enjoy shooting my matchlocks

I have a matchlock and a flintlock. In the heat of battle the flintlock is much more reliable but there is something about a matchlock that takes you back in time. I'm always shocked by the size of the ball and how much damage it must have done to anyone it hit. I suspect it was only the rhythm and discipline of the musket block that stopped people just running off when bits flew off the person next to them.

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1 hour ago, MisterE said:

guidance on that bandolier

Although, if you are doing a companion New Model Army musketeer, chances are they wouldn't have a bandolier as they had moved to cartridge (in a belt pouch) by then. Which must have cheered up everyone, especially the Sergeant/Officer of Muskets who could hear himself give orders again, amidst the rattling of dozens of bandoliers. 

 

You may have to take the musketeer back in time a year or two.

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I like this a lot. Got an itch to do a figure of some sort. I'm a bit of an amateur historian, C.15-16 Italy is my thing, I'm going to cast about to see if there's anything from the Italian Wars, Landsknechts, that sort of thing. Maybe even Ottoman janissaries. I know nothing about this aspect of modelling so I'm going to have to do a bit of research...

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I have a book Renaissance Warfare by George Gush based on a series of articles in the Airfix Magazine back in the day. The articles were written with the wargamer/modeller in mind.

 

Reading the original articles peaked my interest in Renaissance Warfare and was/is my go to source for helping me build such miniatures.

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1 hour ago, Pete F said:

Although, if you are doing a companion New Model Army musketeer, chances are they wouldn't have a bandolier as they had moved to cartridge (in a belt pouch) by then. Which must have cheered up everyone, especially the Sergeant/Officer of Muskets who could hear himself give orders again, amidst the rattling of dozens of bandoliers. 

 

You may have to take the musketeer back in time a year or two.

So...just a belt pouch or over-the-shoulder haversack then?

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1 hour ago, MisterE said:

So...just a belt pouch or over-the-shoulder haversack then?

They would probably have the following:

 

A powder flask (for priming) over their left shoulder. This can have a leather or a cord strap. The cord is less likely to snap in the heat of battle. The flasks were usually wood and of a triangular design. Even with a bandolier you should have a priming flask as it is not good practice to prime from your bandolier.

A snap bag for food, personal possessions etc. This is like a leather duffle bag over either shoulder and usually rests in the small of the back.

A water container - probably leather and quite large. Opposite side to the powder flask. This wasn't just for drinking - it was a part of their musket cleaning equipment.

A sword, probably over the right shoulder. As time went on this was more likely. Initially many Muskets would fight with the butt of the gun but a well trained block would likely be all sword equipped by this period.

 

The belt pouch for cartridges. I would do a bit of research for this. I suspect that there may have been the odd bandolier still in use in the NMA so if you really wanted to include one it would be okay. The big problem with ECW uniforms and equipment is the surprisingly slim amount of real evidence. The general idea is that the New Modelled Army were much better equipped and trained so would have had the latest kit. Cartridges were the current big new tech. An analogy might be the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS although I wouldn't stretch that too much (but there was a similar political angle). Look up the cartridge pouches - they are leather and box like so that the cartridges can be stored in rows of vertical circular holes.

 

If you think this is a lot - it is - but you get used to it and it sort of all fits if you get it in the right order i.e. powder flask last.

 

Don't go for buff coats etc unless the regiment specifically wore them. For the NMA a red coat possibly with regimental colour as facings.

 

Hope this all helps with background. As I said not much is documented so once you get the idea you can go with what you like the look of.

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A good source of information :-  Cromwell’s War Machine: The New Model Army 1645-1660.  Keith Roberts.

 

Goes into the accounts books..

 

Ex SK.  Commanding Officer Cittie of London Brigade.

(Quite ironic as I now live in Dublin).

Edited by Grey Beema
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Some absolutely priceless information here gents, thank you so much! I was not looking forward to modelling that bandolier, so if I can avoid it and be historically accurate, that's a win-win for me!!

 

Struggling to find images of a period cartridge case online, but I'm not at the point of building yet, and I'm guessing they weren't of a uniform design, so I can get away with scratchbuilding something which looks to be in the ballpark.

Edited by MisterE
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Just to add more into the mix. I occasionally see blue bandoliers on Parliament soldiers but fail to get an explanation for them except that they are 'something to do with the NMA'. Needless to say I fight for the King - so the whole thing is probably witchcraft.

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Outstanding!  I was making the mistake of Googling for just the case and getting lots of hits for the Merkin Civil War.

 

So...flintlocks as opposed to matchlocks then?

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4 minutes ago, MisterE said:

So...flintlocks as opposed to matchlocks then?

 

This is a suppler that we use and they have examples of cartridge belly bags and the blocks that are within.

 

http://thetwojs.uk/LeatherBags.htm

 

As to flintlock or matchlock I think you could use either.

 

Flintlocks became more popular as the wars progressed because of the difficulty in sourcing match. It is counter intuitive but although a flintlock is a more expensive and complex weapon to produce, flint is very cheap and easy to make. However match takes some time to make and there were real shortages of it during the war. This caused more soldiers to use flintlocks and I guess they started to see that the flintlock is, overall, a more effective weapon as it can sit in an inert state indefinitely. A matchlock can't do that.

 

However there were so many matchlocks about that I imagine they were still common in the NMA. There isn't much difference in loading time so they wouldn't hold a regiment's rate of fire back (that being the most important thing on the battlefield).

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You, sir, are a very valuable resource.

 

I'm going to stop bothering you now, as we're on the verge of you coming round to my house and building the bloody thing for me! 😁

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MADE AND SPRAYED!!

 

50882121317_8c37d4fff6_k.jpg20210127_183948 by MisterE, on Flickr

 

50882121207_c982e255f9_k.jpg20210127_183938 by MisterE, on Flickr

 

Primed the way I do my Warhammer minis, with a rattlecan spray of Chaos Black all over, then a 45 degree spray of Grey Seer from all sides and then a final, very light, top-down spray of Corax White to give a zenithal shade which gives me a guide for painting light and shade.

 

I rather like this little chap!

Edited by MisterE
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, disastrous paint job on the face...really struggling with the bigger scale here!

 

Ended up scraping the paint away to try again, but need to go onto something else for a bit 😒

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