ECW - my back yard.

So, if you follow the Palladian Guard at all you'll have seen Col Scipio's Royalist Infantry.  And a number of comments about the fact that the ECW is not covered at all in school.  I started school in 1975 and from then until 1986, it wasn't mentioned.

The Aylesbury Vale District Council's badge/emblem is a silhouette of the statue of Oliver Cromwell which subtly dominates (it's not much bigger then lifesize, but it has presence) the town'd market square.  He would have ridden through there often enough during the mid 1640s.  This is about twenty minutes east of here.

Oxford, which was Charles 1st capital during the war, is about twenty minutes south of here. Whilst a magnificent seat of learning, and architecturally imposing, it wasn't London.  He didn't stay in London because it was naturally Parliamentarian in outlook.  Oxford was mostly loyal to the king at the outset.  The city still floods now.  It used to flood then as well. And it wasn't London and they soon ran out of money and the King had to resort increasingly to coercion to maintain his capitol.

Moving west from here, 10 minutes up the M40 is Junction 10; this is the approximate position of the Parliamentarian camp before Edgehill.

A few miles north of there is Edgehill (Oct 1642); the first meeting engagement of the English bit of the wars.  There are places oop norf and in the west country which have interesting claims to the first shots fired; the first actions per se; but Edgehill is the first time the two armies meet in the field.  The Royalist Army is led by Sir Jacob Astley; he was, by inclination and conviction, a parliamentarian.  However, he was the General of the king's armies and felt that he could not betray that confidence and so spent the war leading the side he felt he should have been opposing.  Tough gig.

Sir Jacob Astley

A lot of the war was armies manoeuvring through the countryside, dancing around each other for advantage and using up the goodwill of the population in pretty short order.  A few more miles west of Edgehill is Cropredy Bridge (Jun 1644), these days more famous for it's music festival.  But it was once the scene of a running battle when the armies did actually run into each other.

Half an hour south west again is Stow on Wold (Mar 1646); the last meeting engagement of the war.  Here the last remnants of the Royalist Army finally succumbed to the New Model Army.  The last battered remnants of the Royalist Army, despite having the high ground at the outset of the battle (I've stood on the NWA's startline, it's not ground anyone would choose for any sort of battle; but they had to strike or the Roaylists would have escaped).  The NMA repeatedly assaulted uphill until they routed the Royalists into the town. Here Sir Jacob Astley finally broke his sword.  The roundhead commanders respectfully brought up their drum for the aging and tired man to sit on.

Half an hour south of there is Burford; scene of running battles through the town (including through one of the inns, still open as a pub) and a post war rebellion by Soldiers who had not been paid for months. (if you follow the link, the 1649 bit is about half way down the page).

The ECW is usually studied in isolation as king vs parliament.  I think this is a gross over simplification, Walsingham, working for Elizabeth I, spent a lot of his professional life foiling Catholic plots to assassinate the Queen after she failed to wed the King of Spain.  So the reformation has to be seen against the backdrop of the times; there was a time that if you were flagrantly Catholic then trying to just walk into London would find your head on a pike on the gates to the city.

Post Elizabeth and Walsingham, we have what are generally known as the Bishop's Wars which are often viewed as being confined to Scotland.  But the fact that they abated without seriously threatening to unseat Charles I gave him enormous confidence.  This led directly to the clash with Parliament and the bit we think of as the ECW.

During the commonwealth, the Lord Protector then turned his attention to Ireland, perceived as a threat due to it's Catholic allegiance and feared due to (not being being understood because of its unfathomable) non-English culture.  This was never going to go well.  The Puritanical elements of the New Model Army saw invasion of Catholic Ireland as the continuation of God's Work.  Just to contextualise, contemporaneously, Matthew Hopkins is busy drowning cat ladies in the home counties to the accompaniment of loud popular acclaim.

So the ECW is an act in three parts; preceded by the Elizabethan era of cold war type tension and deniable black ops, it kicks off with the Bishop's Wars, and goes through the civil war in England and on to Cromwell's Irish campaigns without missing a stride.  It's a big slew of history with obvious roots in the reign of Henry VIII and troubles that are arguably still with us today.

Heavy Weapon Progress. Curious Constructs Cannon Carriages

So then, it's the middle of last year and some of those other heavy weapons from the Cadian Heavy Weapons set still need homes.  Oh look, Col Gravis is having a kick starter !

And the very first option is the carriage without a weapon.  That's handy, one thinks to one's self, there's a potential home for the weapons.  One quick backing later and I've got me carriages. Now the weapon shield does not allow one to fit a GW weapon to the CC weapon carriage.  So rather than hack it about, these are going to be done naked.

So this them glued up.  I'm thinking that the las cannon battery can be mounted on the axle at the front and then perhaps connected up with a bit of pretty heavy gauge brass wire.

In case you're wondering, there is an autocannon propped up on that las-cannon.  So, then, a week and a bit later and we're here:

Undercoated, base coated, monumentally heavy pin oil wash and then a few details like the cartridges in the auto cannon drums, auto cannon cocking handles and las-cannon barrels.

When you click on the fots, you should be able to see that muzzle shroud on the las-cannon and the muzzle brakes on the auto cannon are suspiciously green; I was holding them by the muzzle as I worked on them, figuring that this would be an area that got extra work later.

I know one of them is pointing at the ground.  But hey, in the Grim Darkness of the far future, even the dirt is probably worth shootin' at.  More tarting up to go on these, but as I write this the 60mm base las-cannons are done.

And in other news, I remembered to get Mrs Zzzzz a valentine card before the day this year.  So ratcheting up the brownie points for Col Winterbourne's extravaganza.  As long it doesn't clash with anything else.  I've been dreaming up justification for his battle, but that can wait.

More Black Templar Action

So, I attacked the figure case where all the termites live with scissors in order to make a little bit more space for the three new guys.  But whilst I had them out of the garage and in the warmth, I thought I would just show the whole package off.

Now, I know that this is all a little bit predicable; none of it is my work, not the gluing or the painting.  And that these guys have all been featured fairly recently.  But I'm showing anyone who is interested what a Land Raider Crusader full of termites looks like.

And I'm messing about with the camera and trying to get to the best set up with the most reliable results.

Despite the fact that I've zoomed out so far that I'm showing off around the background sheet, I like this picture; it shows a land raider crusader, five guys with TH/SS, two with Lightening Clowns and one with furious charge and no helmet (good combo, brother bullet magnet...)  Just the very thing to exemplify the Black Templar modus operandi. These guys will only ever make their points back if anyone is daft enough to let them reach their back quarter.  But if they get there, if they get there, brothers, then the Alien, the Heretic and the Traitor, they are all just the Emperor's mincemeat.

And as promised, Brother Moon.  Here he is facing down a nurgly melee servitor, possibly under control of 'The Cleaved' warp smiths.  Who obviously are not anywhere near here...

The combat swirls as the teasing Brother Moon tries to lure the hulking great collection of stims, auto senses, powerfists and nurgly FNP into stepping in front of the handily placed Hurricane Bolter.  Brother Moon is all for honourable challenges, but not with oozing, pus filled servitors.

Look out Brother Moon, he's behind you !  The canny Brother Moon disengages and moves away.  Finally the servitor advances to it's doom.

Without even one of the witty quips for which he is known, Brother Moon wipes the goo off his shoes and climbs back into the Land Raider.

Thunderhawk Progress.

 OK, so this is strictly WIP.  I did notice that when I mentioned 'thunderhawk' in my  list of outstanding things, no-one even mentioned it.  Well, just I case you thought I'd forsaken the Guard and gone over to the power-armoured side.  I present, for the time being, my thunderhawk !

From this angle the big feature is the cockpit canopy.  Which on a one piece resin floor tile will need a bit of work.  And/or balancing amount of skill.  Neither of which are abundant around here, but I'll give it a go.  S'only spaze muhreen terrain, after all.

So that's two layers of (midnight and then royal) blue and then blue ink.  So there'll be another glaze of ink (or two) and then a layer of 'ardcoat and I'll see what that looks like.  The airframe was undercoated black, then sprayed a nice deep red (just a shade deeper than red gore). Then hairspray and sand and then the German Grey.  So I'm quite pleased with the weathering effect but you'll have noticed that the German Grey is perfect camouflage for the terrain.  Ho hum, time to rethink the landscape,

I figured that the Grey T-hork could pass for a Black Templar one that had been out in the sun a lot, or some sort of codex grey replacement airframe or Inquisition vehicle.  Or perhaps belong to a Chapter that really does have grey a colour scheme.

So carried on with the further weathering; mostly rust.  Now my  blazing orange had almost had it, but responded very well to resurrection.  So after a bit of paintomancy, I sloshed some on.  It looks very vivid, but that's the light/camera/refractive index etc.  It's dulled down with a black/brown oil wash.  a bit.

Another few thin washes with the black and brown in differing quantities should improve things a bit.  One problem I have with this is self restraint; to apply a thin wash in the first place and then to let it dry enough before doing the next thing.  What I find is that the wash always ends up heavy and that a blast from Mrs Zzzzz's hair drier would improve things.  Ho hum, I'll try and concentrate next time.

I plan on just carrying on with the weathering that I've already done and carrying on until the orange is a little less in-yer-face.  And of course, eventually changing the landscape to something a little more beige.  I'm allowed beige, because I'm old enough.  You have to call it brown.  But I figure that the tile is big enough to handle a bit of beige around the crashed bus and fade to grey at the edges.

Ummmmmmmmm, Ultravox.  I'm sure that used to be a piece of wargear.

The last three Black Templar Terminators

These three gents when to Golem a long time before Christmas and only recently made it back.  There's a heavily converted one and two AoBR termies with Lightening Clause from the standard Termie set.

This guy was re-posed by someone I work with (we're in the same directorate and oh, it's just complicated and not really interesting) who does freelance sculpting.  He did this man's face as well.  It used to be green.  He has a sense of movement that I'm not sure the original designers of the mini intended.  He might be the only furious charging termie in Oxfordshire.

Heretics eye view.

This guy was supplied to Golem with the damage already done.

The man hug position.  Come and get it.  I havn't forgotten that I promised Mordian 7th a decent picture of Brother Moon (the Emperor's Champion).  I'll have to line that up at some point...

Anyway. the thing here is that this takes the number of Black Templar Termites to a grand and wholly appropriate total of eight.  Too many for a normal Land Raider, but I'm sure I don't have to remind you, just snug in a LR Crusader (how appropriate).

Heavy weapon progress - Las cannon this time.

But before the heavy weapons, a few quick thank you's.  Sometime ago I did a liaison team exercise with a few people out there; flufftastically pulling bits of other people's IG armies into the Devos IV war.  I have what amounts to a slack handful of command squads, built and painted by other people for nothing more than the glory of almost certain martyrdom on a backwater agri-world.  And each of them has also let me write their regiment into my narrative, which is possibly almost more generous, dealing as it does with faith, attitude and other intangibles which I have projected onto their pride and joy.

One current project, painstakingly researched and faultlessly executed by PVP, is a collection of ne'erdowells and chinless wonders who might be found in Leviathan.  Once again, a quick email out to the interested parties has elicited help and encouragement (Oooh Mordian 7th, you are a bad man, setting the hares coursing like that), from what I have come to value as (to use modern management speak) the Devos IV campaign virtual team.  Thanks guys.   

Back to the pretend weapons for toy soldiers:

So here are six las cannon bases.  Using up all but one of my surplus tripods.  Which leaves me a number of heavy bolters that need some form of support.  I'm thinking lego bricks.  Maaybe.  Or piles of Cadian heads.  Maybe not.  Curious Constructs, can you whup summat suitable to stand a Hvy Bolter on ?  Probably a question worth asking....

Due to the vagaries of the phenomenally slap dash way I threw these together (for obvious reasons, I stuck the holes for the little men down and then the tripods, leaving the battery pack/power coupling to just go sort of together as 'best fit'). the power couplings are a bit hit and miss. (if it's a battery in the Megathule range I imagine it'll arc far enough)  But I'm hoping that someone facing six las cannon is going to be more concerned with keeping his head down.

These are base colours and a black oil paint wash so far; I plan putting rings of brown and blue ink on the steely barrels and black.brown scorching on the muzzle shroud.  And the pointy end, I usually do that black and havn't yet (poor quality control there, Zzzzz, get your act together next time)  But aside from that, this batch are OK for the table.

The next heavy weapon progress will be some Curious Construct weapon carriages.

Humm. As F1 stuff is to family cars, so SF kit is to line infantry.

New kit will help soldiers see more clearly

17 January 2014

British troops are to benefit from up to £53m of new equipment to help them identify targets more clearly.
The MOD has invested in new night vision and laser equipment that will enable soldiers to spot potential threats earlier and better protect themselves against the enemy during day and night operations.

A state of the art laser light that can illuminate targets from up to 800m away will be provided to all infantry soldiers. Weighing just 244 grams, it fits onto the SA80 rifle to give more accurate firing in low light conditions.

More than 15,000 new lightweight, ergonomic binoculars have been ordered to be used alongside the upgraded laser lights. Designed to be easier to hold, the new models are 50 percent lighter but still offer excellent magnification to give better situational awareness.

"Tested virtually to destruction"

Lance Corporal Herbline Biscette tested the equipment. He said: "This new kit will help us to stay accurate and heighten awareness in difficult, low-light conditions. Being able to mark our targets from so far away means that we can prepare for the situations ahead and do the job with confidence.

"This kit also gets tested virtually to destruction – they get dropped from height, submerged, blasted with sand, left out in minus 20 degrees – all conditions that we might have to face when using it, so we know that it won’t let us down.”

The MOD has also invested in more than 4,000 additional Head Mounted Night Vision Systems specifically for the Army Reserve. They allow soldiers to operate in poor light or in dark tunnels and buildings and better identify both threats and other personnel.

Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne visited the Infantry Trials Development Unit in Warminster, Wiltshire, to see the new kit being put through its paces. He said: "The ability to see further and in more detail will allow British troops to stay one step ahead of danger.

"The multi-million pound investment makes clear the MOD’s commitment to equipping our Armed Forces, including Reservists, with world-class battle-winning technology. These binoculars, laser aimers and night vision goggles will improve situational awareness and reduce collateral damage across the Battlefield."