Another Themed Post

So, as threatened, my next "themed" figure posting is based on the song "A Scottish Soldier", which, I was surprised to discover, is not traditional at all, but was only written in 1961 by the Scottish traditional ballad singer, Andy Stewart. Apparently, it was in the top 10 of its time, reaching number one in both Canada and New Zealand, and staying in the US charts for 36 weeks - who knew!

Anyway, it provides a perfect excuse for me to drag out and photograph all my Scottish troops - and I was surprised to find how many I have. Even in what might be assumed to be "British" collections, I am somewhat taken aback to find a large dose of nationalist prejudice has seeped into my unit selection EG a large number of my non Highland regiments are still Scottish.

After spending a couple of hours pulling boxes from various cupboards in the garage, I was staggered to realise that I had taken 45 photos - so rather than inflict that many images on you all at once, I decided to break it down. The song suggesting the theme of this post coincidentally has three verses, so that makes a nice even split of 15 images per verse - so here we go.

I decided to present the collections in chronological order, so we commence with medieval and work forwards from there.

Firstly though, the opening verse of the song:

THERE WAS A SOLDIER…..

Verse One

There was a soldier, a Scottish soldier
Who wandered far away and soldiered far away
There was none bolder, with good broad shoulders
He fought in many a fray and fought and won
He's seen the glory, he's told the story
Of battles glorious and deeds victorious
But now he's sighing, his heart is crying
To leave these green hills of Tyrol

Chorus

Because these green hills are not Highland hills
Or the Island's hills, they're not my land's hills
As fair as these green foreign hills may be
They are not the hills of home

First up are a few examples of my 25mm medieval Scots army, which has refought Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn more than once. Above are Robert Bruce, his brother Edward. the "Black" Douglas and another I cant recall now

Edward Bruce's levy (in his heraldic colours) plus archers

One of several units of schiltrons that are part of this army

How could I not - the Earl of Ross and his mounted contingent - albeit that in fact, he actually captured Robert Bruce's wife and hung her in a cage from his castle walls for quite a considerable period of time - they did make up later on though!

We jump forward a few hundred years to some representatives of my Covenanter army, part of a larger ECW collection. The figures above are a mixture of Front Rank and Dixon

This group are all Renegade I think

Renegade command and I think Bicorne pikemen

Wargames Foundry pikemen

Foundry command and unknown pikemen

Warlord Games Scots Lancers (plastic kit)

Dixon lancers with a Foundry officer

Three Foundry figures combined as a command base...

Another hundred years or so forward in time, and its the French and Indian War, or SYW in N America

The 78th (Frasers) Highlanders to the left, and the 42nd (Black Watch) to the right - all Front Rank from the Jacobite Rebellion range, as I thought this was close enough in time scale to make the uniform reasonably accurate

The 1st Regiment of Foot (The Royal Scots) - again, Front Rank miniatures

I think that is only 14 images but its a suitable place to break, as the next picture I have is the first of several depicting Scots units from my AWI collection