Monday 2 March 2009

Sedgemoor 1685



Reading through some of the old Military Modellings I picked up at Cavalier the other weekend I have come across loads more Richard Scollins artwork especially ECW but also he illustrated with pencil drawings Stewart Asquiths article in December 1981 in the series 'Battles for Wargamers'The Battle of Sedgemoor. this of course is the speciality of Ralphs blog which specialises in this period and is a great read especially for a Somerset exile like me.

The 3 page article gives a good overview and starts with a short preamble from the Duke's landing at Lyme Regis to the assault on Bristol and the action at Philips Norton. The battle itself takes up 2 pages and includes a 'set up ' map with suggested numbers of wargames figs (1:25) representing the units involved, these are notated on the units shown on the set up below.





In 1981 Stuart suggested Warrior Metal figures as an ideal range to use but gives no scale 15mm or 25mm I cannot see any suitable figs on the current Warrior miniatures site or was it a different company?? Ralph suggests Irregular as a good source of figures with their League of Augsburg 1685 - 1700 15mm figures. Does anyone else know of a good range in 15/25 or 28mm??

Finally having my grand clear up of books references etc I came across some old postcards from holidays or that I had picked up from museums, and in amongst them was this one of the Sedgemoor Diorama displayed in the Admiral Blake Museum!! I havn't been there for years so will go hopefully this summer, visit friends, walk Sedgemoor,visit the Admiral Blake Museum and return via the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton probably one of the best aviation museums in the country or perhaps enjoy some Cricket at Taunton...perhaps Somerset CC will win the County Championship for the first time ever this year!!!!.

7 comments:

Scott Robertson said...

Great blog, I too miss the illustrations of Mr Scollins, his illustrations had a gritty feel to them. I love the painting he did depicting the battle of Flodden and the one on Guilford Court house. There was a book published using his paintings to show the last 2000 years of military history, it is still one of my favourites. Cheers Scott
http://wab-ramblings.blogspot.com/

Fraxinus said...

Why didn't I do a Google search/Amazon search?! Many thanks Scott I've just ordered a second hand copy from Amazon, I have always enjoyed great Aviation and military art & Richard brought history to life in a most realistic way with pictures depicting troops on campaign & not the parade ground. The book is 'The Soldier' by Humble & Scollins & I cant wait to get the ordered copy!!! Thank you again!!

Ralphus said...

Love it! Not seen it before - the article that is.. I got one of each of all of Donnington miniatures range of figs in 15mm for the wars of louis xiv/late 17thc ostensibly to photograph for my blog but I cant get in there close enough with the camera I have. I would be happy to send them to you for a butchers - they're pretty damn good

Scott Robertson said...

No worries, the book has many paintings I had not seen in any of the magazines of the period (sounds really old). I really like his rendition of Arthurian knights on pages 46 and 47 even though I had seen these in Military Modelling. Cheers Scott

Fire at Will said...

From memory, the origianl warrior figures were smaller/thinner 25mm, certainly that's how I remember their ECW figures compared to the Minifigs S range.

Will

johnpreece said...

Yes they were a Warrior range. Small 25mm and similar in style to Hinton Hunt. Tey are not in the current catalogue because the moulds are very time consuming due to the high number of miscasts on theold moulds.

However I know they did cast some up for a couple of customers last year, so if you are keen on that type of figure it may be worth asking at least.

Essex have a few figures in 25 and so I think do Parkfield miniatures.

John

Fraxinus said...

Thanks for the comments a great help I am leaning towards following the Asquith article as a project and collecting enough figures for both sides. Now do I go all 'old school' & commission Warrior to supply some as John suggests and be true to the article ......tempting or go with current availability? something to ponder but I am erring towards forming a collection of late 17th Century figures anyway in various scales (have ordered some 15mm Donningtons & Irregular, thanks Ralph)in addition to WW1 and WSS (which must get beyond buying figures stage!) Plus of course an interest in every period of past history going!! What a hobby!!