A Different Scale, a Different Era

 

All the figures I have painted before this year have been 20mm scale.  These have either been from Classical times - Achaemenid Persia to the end of the Hellenistic Monarchies - or for the Napoleonic era.  On a springtime whim I decided to branch out to start a 10mm scale project for armies of the Thirty Years War or English Civil War.

An army pack from Newline's ECW range gave me a core to build on.  To this I have added figures from Pendraken's Thirty Years War and ECW ranges, some Lancer miniatures (shown in the picture above) and some Irregular Miniatures.  Flags have come from Maverick Models and Pendraken.

Progress so far is two balanced forces, each of 4 infantry Regiments/Tercios, 2 Cavalry Regiments, a couple of light guns and a General.  

One army has three infantry Regiments with variations on blue coats and one with black.  The Cavalry are a blue coated Regiment of horse in hats, the other of helmeted men in a mix of coats.

 

The other side has Regiments with mainly red coats.  The cavalry comprises one Regiment of Gallopers and one of pistol wielding cuirassiers.

 

To give flexibility to cope with all the different sizes of Regiment or Tercio that one might encounter in the period, all figures have been based in small blocks that can be grouped onto larger formation bases as required - using magnetic material on the base of the figure blocks and steel paper on the formation trays to hold everything together.  Cavalry are in standard blocks of 4 figures.  The infantry are more varied - 

 The picture above gives the components for a Regiment or Tercio of about 1,200 to 1,400 men - the sort of size that Tilly was using in the early part of the Thirty Years War.  This has 3 eight figure blocks (2 of muskets, 1 of pikes), 2 long strips of 4 pikes and 4 square blocks of muskets.  There are also two command strips.  When used as a Tercio, all except the second command strip are placed on a single formation base, as in the picture at the top of the article.

Alternatively, the parts can be grouped into 2 battalia of about 500-600 men, each with a block of pikes flanked by a block of muskets and a command strip in front or rear.  Three of these battalia can operate together as a Swedish Brigade for Gustavus Adolphus' battles. Each is suitable for an ECW Regiment. 

A third variation is to have all the pikes with just the two large blocks of muskets, while the 4 man musket blocks are used to mix as Commanded Shot with Cavalry formations. 

 I may need some other sizes of pike bases when I come to make up the larger Spanish or Catholic League tercios for the Thirty Years War.

The flags can be removed from the poles on the command strips so that the same figures can be reflagged for different wars and factions.  Interestingly, the Pendraken ECW flags seem to be a better match for the slightly larger Newline and Lancer figures, while the Maverick Models flags - for which one can select the size - are a better fit for the beautifully moulded but slimmer style Pendraken figures seen below carrying Pendraken ECW flags, the slightly smaller Maverick Models flags lying in front.