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

Off Topic Posting

Taking an example from Jonathon over at the Palouse Wargaming blog, following are a few images of bush walks my wife and I did back in February - a distant memory now as we are not allowed to traipse all over the country at the moment - in fact, my wife thinks I cant even drive a couple of km to take the dog to a local bush walk...I am not sure the restrictions are intended to be quite that severe but for the purpose of domestic harmony, I am just sticking to her interpretation!

I do hope there are not TOO many here - I did edit them - honest!

Walk one - 15 Feb 2020 - as the sign says, Pirongia Forest Park, approximately two hour drive south west of our home town.

I crawled into his 10m long cave/tunnel - it was literally pitch black in there - I just aimed the phone in the general direction and took a couple of pictures!

Walk Two - 23 Feb - about two hours drive south east this time.

The walk to the Kauri trees involved crossing the same small river eight times

My wife Ruth at the fourth or fifth river crossing

Kauri trees grow very tall and very straight - thousands were cut down in the late 19th century for use as masts in ship building

Our dog Sam waiting for his lock down lunchtime walk I do each day whilst "working from home", followed by four views of our usual route around the neighbourhood - the roads are not normally this quiet!

Finally below, contrasting the weather - virtually same view of our back yard/garden/section on 11 April...

....and today, Sat 18 April (although now it looks more like the first picture again

More toy soldiers next time - promise!

A Parade of Grenadiers

Is "parade" the collective noun for a group of Grenadiers, like a flock of sheep or a herd of cows? I don't know, but I believe that it should be!

Following on from my recent post of Grenadiers, British, 18th to 21st centuries, I now present Grenadiers, other European Nations, 18th and 19th centuries. At the conclusion of this parade, all my grenadiers will have made an appearance, and I will either have to think of another theme, or paint some new figures to post here!

So, without further ado, Grenadiers, by the left Quuiiiick Maaaarrch!

First up are the grenadier companies of three of my Dutch WSS  units - I didnt bother taking note of all the names

Three Danish WSS grenadier companies

And lastly, a further three Dutch grenadier units

Four Hessian Grenadier companies from the AWI collection

Now we move onto French Napoleonic, three Grenadier companies plus one of Carabiniers from a Legere battalion (second from left)

Two more grenadier companies plus carabiniers

The two battalions of Grenadiers a Pied of La Garde Imperial, cheered on by the boss!

Four carabinier companies from different light infantry battalions

The last five line infantry grenadier companies

Thats a total sixteen line battalions plus two guard - plus the two battalions of Chasseurs of the Guard who were not invited to this party because..well..they are CHASSEURS, not Grenadiers!

Same era, different empire. As most may know, the Austrians continued the anachronistic practice (by 1800) of combining their grenadier companies into separate battalions. To represent this, I painted up 6 bases of centre company line infantry for each German or Hungarian battalion, then did two bases of grenadiers with the same facing colour. Above is the first combined battalion of Hungarian grenadiers (light blue trousers)

Second combined Hungarian Grenadier battalion

And the third...

Now we move on to the German battalions, who wore white trousers - here is the first combined battalion

The second combined battalion

And finally, the third combined battalion. 

So yes, I have 18 battalions of Austrian line infantry, plus these six battalions of grenadiers, then some Jaegers, Grenzers and Landwehr. It is possibly my largest army and has seen action on about five or six occasions since I painted it about 8 years ago.

That concludes the Grenadiers parade - I have completely exhausted my supply of grenadiers and will have to think of what I can post next time!