Category Archives: Miniatures
Book Four Collected and thanks
At the end of a volume once again, and here is the collected edition. Please Click the image to open.
This is a low resolution .pdf (3mb)
This volume has also marked the publishing of the 100th page of this comic (about 4 pages ago). Yay!
Historical note:
The events of the Storming of Leeds followed a fairly similar pattern to those depicted in this story, Fairfax did split his force, Sending a Sergeant Major Forbes south towards the river, while his forces attacked along the trenches at the western end of Headrow and William Fairfax’s Musketeers made their way north to attack round by St John’s church.
Some apologies should go to a Major Forbes, who’s role in the battle I have replaced with Hawksby. After a fierce (but in reality relatively bloodless) musket duel a group of musketeers did indeed make it round to the river bank and distract the cannon, allowing Major Forbes and his men (singing Psalm 68) to storm the earth works (though they had to wade the rivers edge, a task that I spared Hawksby and co.).
For more on the real story of this battle and the Civil War in Yorkshire I heartily recommend David Cooke’s one volume account of that part of the conflict:
The Civil War in Yorkshire: Fairfax Versus Newcastle
Thanks
Again a really big thank you for those who read, comment and like this blog and these stories. These are really encouraging to me and help spur me on to get on with it. Drawing my own comic has been a life-long ambition, and your encouragement has helped me get further than ever before!
What’s next…
Book 5. Which will be the conclusion of this story will start in a week or two.
I still have the book review to do for Warlord Games superb Thirty Years War Pike and Shotte book and will be working on bolstering Hawksby’s Regiment in miniature at some point over the next few months. Also still planning to re-fight the Storming of Leeds Hawksby style, so AAR and Scenarios when that happens.
Thanks all for now, once again thanks for reading.
Mike
Saker Cannon
A second artillery peice for Hawksby’s Foot. This one is a smaller gun, a Saker cannon. This peice was bought by Hawksby from John Grice a gunsmith in Handsworth. (Birmingham)
it is crewed by gunner Knowles, and three artillery men, Jim Hampstead, Job Lowe and Esau Morran.
Two musketeers are attached to the gun to ward off any attacks on the artillery as they reload.
The miniatures are all from the great Warlord Games Pike and Shotte range.
Book 3 Thanks.
Here again at the end of this book, this also marks the 80th page in the story.
Three months, over 2000 views and 150 likes. Many thanks again to everyone who read, commented or liked this book. The comments and likes are a massive encouragement!
Special thanks to the fabulous Little Monster Girl. Thank you for the shout out in your Internet Buffet 13/3. A great blog and a hilarious comic, check it out here
And thank you to Warlord Games for their highlight article and their great Pike and Shotte minis!
What’s next?
Strange things can happen when you write, and especially published in a blog, a very serialised way, so whilst I have a rough issue plan I am normally only writing a few pages at a time. As a result I found that the storytelling in book three has taken longer to get though than I expected. Simply put I expected to be further along with the story by the end of book 3 (of a planned 4 books) by page 26 I realised I had a choice… make book 3 even longer (it is already two pages longer than the previous books) or add in another book.
I opted for the latter and now the story will be in 5 books (or issues if you like). I brought book three to a suitable close and we will have to wait for book 4 for Hawksby’s troops to finally make it to Leeds and for Rook to begin to piece together Whitestone’s plot.
On the hobby side of the blogI have the rest of the club men miniatures to post up about and I am going to do a first on this blog, a mini review of Warlord Game’s Pike and Shotte TYW Supplement.
But I have pages written and illustrated so right back to the story with book 4 page one… watch this space.
Here is the first full issue collected as a PDF (5 mb) download.
Click the image to download.
Here is the second full issue collected as a PDF (4.1 mb) download.
Click the image to download.
Local Troops (2)
Here are the next batch of ‘Clubmen’ musketeers for the Storming of Leeds. Again I have given these a mix of kit and clothing to help with the impression of an organised rabble rather than troops.
Here is a WIP shot and parts list (L to R):
Advancing musketeer:
Body Warlord Games Pike and Shotte Infantry
Head from Northstar Frostgrave Soldiers set
Arms from Perry Miniature ACW Infantry
Shooting musketeer:
Body, hat & arms Warlord GamesPike and Shotte Infantry
Head from Northstar Frostgrave Soldiers set
Standing musketeer
Body, hat and musket from Warlord Games Pike and Shotte Infantry
Face from Warlord Games Bolt Action British Infantry
Arms from Warlord Games Bolt Action German Grenadiers
Local Troops (1)
For the storming of Leeds Fairfax took with him a large number of ‘Clubmen’. These appear to have been local towns folk from the surrounding area. I wanted to represent these in a couple of units for Pike and Shotte. To do this I decided to give these a less uniform appearance and more of a mix of kit, without them being full ‘farmers with pitchforks’ Clubmen. Here are the first three done.
Here is a WIP shot and parts list:
Advancing musketeer:
Body, hat and musket from Warlord Games Pike and Shotte Infantry
Head and rope from Frostgrave Soldiers set
Arms from Warlord Games Bolt Action Soviet Infantry
Kneeling musketeer:
Body from Warlord Games AZW British Infantry
Head from Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warriors
Arms and hat from Warlord Games Pike and Shotte Infantry
Firing musketeer
Body, helmet and musket from Warlord Games Pike and Shotte Infantry
Arms from Warlord Games Bolt Action German Grenadiers
Farmer and Matchman
Daniel Warren is a farmer, who has lived and worked on his family farm near Weatherby his whole life. Marrying later in life his wife, he and his wife June just have one daughter. Warren is neutral in the civil war, but is not one to turn away a stranger in need, or to betray a trust.
Daniel was made from a Warlord Games plastic ECW infantry miniature (from the plastic pike and shotte spruces), the additional features added using green stuff. His arms are also from the Pike and Shotte infantry sprue. His head is a Gripping Beast plastic Dark Ages Warrior head.
I also decided to make a simple conversion to represent the guy with the torch who is going to burn the barn.
Again a Warlord Pike and Shotte body was used, this time a musketeers body. I simply added a Gripping Beast Dark Ages spear arm, with the spear cut down and some packaging fluff glued on the top. The left arm is from a Perry Miniatures ACW set.
Scenario: Battle of the barn
Or rather skirmish of the barn.
This is a simple scenario for a quick ECW game. I use the Witchfinder General Days of Revelation rules for ECW skirmish, but this should work for any system that uses one model as one man. The scenario is untried as yet, so I may adjust it after I give it a few plays.
The Scenario
Matthew Rook and two of his veteran musketeers are trapped in a barn surrounded by a band of Royalist soldiers. Help is on the way however, in the form of a band of local club-men. Can Rook and his comrades hold out long enough for help to arrive, and then make their escape…
The Forces
Parliamentarian:
Matthew Rook, Armed with two pistols and a sword. Pickering and Drake, armed with flintlock or matchlock muskets and a sword each.
Royalist:
The royalist forces are six musketeers and one officer.
The Farm
There is a suggested map layout of the farm on a 4’x4’ table, on the previous page, but any layout with plenty of walls, houses and trees will do. It is essential that there is a building to represent the barn and a building to represent the farm house.
You can also have miniatures on the board to represent the farmer and his family. These are non-combatants.
The Barn counts as sturdy cover and only figures at the doors or windows of the barn are in sight.
Victory conditions
Parliament win a total victory if all Rook, Pickering and Drake make it off the board alive.
If only one or two of the Parliamentarian forces get off the board then it is a draw.
Royalists win if Rook and both of his men are killed or captured.
If one or two of the Parliamentarian forces are killed or captured it is a is a draw
Special Rules
Clubmen to the rescue! After turn 2 (from the start of turn 3) there is a chance that some local club men arrive to help Rook and his men. At the start of each turn the Parliamentarian player must roll 1 D6 on a roll of 4,5,6 club men arrive. If they do arrive, roll the D6 again, then half the score (rounding up) to calculate the number of club men that arrive. Do this each turn. The maximum number of clubmen allowed to join the game is 6.
Fire, fire! After turn 32 (from the start of turn 4) the Royalist player can attempt to burn the barn. (See the burn the barn rule section)
The game is advised for gloomy conditions, see page 86 in the main WFG rule book.
Download this scenario, with full stats for WFG here (4mb) .pdf
Barn by Renedra Ltd, miniatures by Warlord Games.
Clubmen
During the Civil Wars in The Three Kingdoms there was widespread destruction and looting, to help prevent this, in some areas, groups of locals clubbed together to form an armed resistance to whichever army came their way. These bands of armed civilians became known as Clubmen. This term became common for any local civilian militias, whith a number of Clubmen joining the Parlamentarian side at the battle of Leeds.
“I marched from Bradford with six troops of horse, and three companies of dragons… and near one thousand musketeers and two thousand clubmen, under the command of Sir William Fairfax” General Fairfax
Warlord games do a superb characterful range of metal Clubmen in their Pike and Shotte range, are among my favourites in their range, however I decided I needed a few more to bolster my collection. These four are plastic clubmen, ready to aid or hinder Hawksby’s forces depending as they see fit! These are all converted from Warlord plastics, with parts from other plastic kits with scratch scythe and pitch fork tools. The bodies are from the Warlord Plastic Infantry Sprue some of the heads and the axe arm are from the Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warriors sets and the hammer arms are from the Perry miniatures English Army 1415-1429 set.
WIP shots:
Olde England Grown New 