Lord Louth's Regiment

Hello again.

Way back in the heady days of July, 2012, with the London Olympics around and about and dear, old Blighty feeling good about herself for at least a couple of weeks, I posted what was, then, the last pictures and words for my then vogue "1690" project. The post was about a squadron of the "Montpuillan Horse" I had made from the Wargames Factory Cavalry set, the first of my planned Williamite cavalry to feature and, so far, the only squadron of Williamite cavalry I have built!

The project took a back seat for seven, long years, whilst I busied myself with Medieval English and Scots, 16th Century Mediterranean figures, Dark Ages, Swiss, Burgundians and French and Indian Wars stuff for various show games. I kept buying a few figures here and there with the intention of returning to the period, but nothing happened. Until now, that is!

Way back in 2012, I used the Wargames Factory infantry as the basis for an element of pikes, simply adding brass wire to the plastic bodies, and that element was painted as Lord Louth's Regiment, with mostly grey coats and feuille morte/ filamot ("dead leaf") facings. I had every intention of adding the rest of the battalion, but that did not happen, until now that is!

Lord Louth's Regiment of Foot in all its glory.

 After seven years, I finally got around to painting the rest of the battalion. Unlike the pikemen, theses are almost all Copplestone Castings, the exception being the Reiver Castings Officer front and centre. The are several problems with having such a gap in progress on a project and, more specifically, a single regiment.

1. Exactly what colours did you use for the figures painted all those years ago?
2. What style or techniques were you using to paint figures back then?
3. Do the exact colours still exist?
4. If you based the figures, as in texturing those bases, what materials and colours did you use? Can you match the new ones to the old ones?
5. Has research material moved on to show regiments and/or their flags differently to what we used to think?

As is the norm with my regiments of supposedly identical figures, I like to vary things a bit. Hair colour is the main difference, but, with something like a Jacobite force in the field, with fresh recruits mingling with older hands and inadequate supplies, some further variety can come in with breeches, stockings, hats, weaponry and pose if desired. Look closely at the photo above and you will see some variations in coat colour but more in breeches and stockings.

The colours, taken from Michael McNally's book "The Battle Of Aughrim, 1691". The motto is what I would call a typical Irishism - "Festina Lente" translates as "Hasten Slowly"...They are my usual rectangles of calico attached to brass wire and hand painted.

 As I mentioned above, research can and does move on. The flags are taken form McNally's book, mentioned in the above caption, but Mark Allen's work back in "Wargames Illustrated" issue 54 (March 1992) draws on other sources and shows them differently. There is also a query around exactly what feuille morte/ filamot looks like. It simply means "dead leaf" and Allen (see above source) quotes it as "yellowish brown". Out with my dog at this time of year, I am seeing all sorts of dead leaves in all sorts of vaguely brown colours! Mine may be a little too tawny, but I am happy with it. As Lord Bellew's regiment may feature soon, I need to be happy with it as he used the colour of his flags and cuffs too!

Captain and unshaven drummer.

The regiment laid out as it will eventually feature on the table top under the "Beneath the Lily Banners" rules.

So, it remains to be seen whether I get distracted again, especially for seven years, but this project at least has nudged along a smidgen. With so many other desires and potential distractions, it might in truth be a while before it nudges along some more, but, the good news is that I have started texturing the bases for the other 10 regiments I painted back in 2012, along with a couple of light artillery pieces, and have spray undercoated a regiment I believe will become Bellew's in the not too distant future, so I am at least optimistic of some progress very soon!

G