The “Don’t Tell Him Pikes” – The first of the Bluecoats or Trained Band reinforcements for the Elizabethan Muster (Militia or Arma-Dad’s Army Home Guard) to see off the Spanish Armadas land invasion threat.
“They don’t like it up ’em!” “Show em the cold steel!” Says Mister Jones ye Butcher.
Also available for the English Civil War 50 years later … and for The Napoleon of Notting Hill 1904/ 1984.
Crossposted by Mark Man of TIN from my Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog:
The final four drawers from my Blue Box of drawers are hereby explored, a veritable time capsule of my 1980s games figures containing 15mm Peter Laing and other 15mm figures.
If you missed Part 1 and the background to these posts:
Peter Laing 15mm ECW range The ‘White Company’ – Musketeers
I spent a busy lockdown sunny day sorting through these final four drawers, finally basing Peter Laing and other 15mm figures that I painted mid 1980s and never got around to basing or using in games. Probably a shortage of plastic card pennies at the time.
These white coated musketeers and pikemen need their flag painted, pikes finally fixed and their officer finished. An ECW unit only thirty five years in the making.
There were several other units that I haven’t quite finished since starting them 35 odd years ago including these purple coated musketeers and pikemen. Well worth finishing off.
Purple Parliamentary Regiment Musketeers and Pikemen, some artillery men.Pikemen helmet repel cavalry F502 , F518 charge yr pike, hat standing F506, helmet standing F508
Fixing or refixing these Peter Laing supplied pin pikes will be a fiddly blast from the past.
A collection or muster of old Peter Laing pikes and useful pins.
Finally based after 35 years, 15mm Peter Laing pikemen (mostly F506) await the issuing of pikesAnother unit or two of musketeers with helmets firing (F517), hats (F501) and loading (F507)
Marlburian Peter Laing figures are even more slender and shorter than the later Peter Laing figures – they were Peter’s first figure range c. 1972 and probably the first 15mm figures designed in this new scale. The artillery and wagons are useful for several periods from English Civil War through to Napoleonic and 19th Century.
Peter Laing 15mm Marlburian cavalry, the Duke leading the way.
Marlburian artillery pieces
I featured some of my rebased Marlburians and ECW Peter Laing figures in 2016 here:
Peter Laing Marlburian odds and ends to paint, joining others slowly moving up the painting table.
I chose Peter Laing figures because they offered me figures that Airfix didn’t do. That’s probably why I didn’t collect his Ancients, Napoleonics, 19th Century, ACW and WW1/WW2 as I already had small Airfix forces of these. Esci plastic Colonials and Zulus also appeared at this time.
I think it might have been the colourful uniforms and especially the ECW flags that won me over after years of plastic khaki grunge.
As well as Peter Laing’s ECW figures and a few Marlburians, I really liked the Scots ECW extension range to do the 1715 / 1745 period.
Amongst some unfinished lowlanders in trews, which I will finish in hunting Rifle Green for another project, I picked up a year or two ago this vibrantly prepainted colourful handful of Lowlanders and Scots, with bashed muskets.
These overlapping ranges – English Civil War with Scots that did for 1715/1745 if you added some Marlburian troops which could share the baggage train helped to double up on figures and save money and paint.
I wonder now why I never went the next step to do the Featherstone ‘Close Wars’ type of French Indian Wars forest skirmishes with my Marlburian tricorne figures and some Laing Indian figures. Probably because I had this covered by Airfix Indians and AWI Washington’s Army tricorne plastic OO/HO figures.
A few odd Peter Laing 15mm Ancients and Pikemen. I have no idea why they aren’t with the rest of their units in Really Useful Boxes. That is the nature of the Blue Box and its drawers, a sanctuary or safe place for odds and ends.
Random Peter Laing 15mm Ancients and ECW PikemenPrince Rupert, King Charles, Cromwell and preacher on horseback 15mm figures – all old Minifigs?
15mm ECW cavalry and personality figures – old Minifigs? – but too chunky and large to match my slender Peter Laing ECW figures. These lances will need repair. Maybe they can join some of my ImagiNations “Cordery’s composite cavalry” type forces.
Random 15mm Napoleonics and Mike’s Models 15mm ECW samples. Hmmm …
There are a few odd 15mm figures that were probably “S.A.E for list and samples” including these D&D like dwarfish 15mm English Civil War figures from Mikes Models. Having seen these versus the 15mm Peter Laing English Civil Wars samples, I chose the more slender Laings. Each to his own.
Finally based, a few British Colonial Infantry c. Zulu Wars 1879 – Minifigs. I painted these c. 1985.
Now many of these figures are finally based up, they don’t all fit back into the Blue Box of drawers and will graduate to a Really Useful Box, keeping this Blue Box for its odds and ends role.
Final oddments found in these last four drawers of the fifteen in the Blue Box include a single game chit, a severed head and a prestigious military decoration:
The only surviving chit from Squad Leader, a teenage birthday gift, I never understood the rules.The first and ‘long lost’ head of my Man of TIN Guardsman photo profileHighly esteemed decoration for heroism in my ImagiNations, the Brontean Order of the Man of TIN?
Full circle back to Laing Marlburians and Stuart Asquith’s box of drawers that inspired these Blue Box unboxing three blog posts.
The Blue Box finally unboxed.
Which were your favourite finds out of all three ‘unboxing’ blog posts?
F510 Scots Musketeer firing – painted in the 1980s but never based until now.
In my recent posting of rebased and reflocked 15mm Peter Laing 17th and 18th Century figures, there were a few Scots figures missing from the first line up.
Here are the missing Scots figures, found and freshly rebased:
F1008 Highlander advancingF1002 Highland Chieftain? and F1003 Highland PiperF1008 Highlander Advancing and F1009 Highlander Firing.Another View of Highlander Firing and Advancing figures.F1010 Lowland Musketeer Firing, painted and unpainted
The unpainted Lowland troops are mine, ones that I never finished in the 1980s, possibly because I couldn’t find or decide on a suitable colour scheme. The painted ones are a motley and colourful bunch I recently found on EBay and rebased.
F1007 Lowland Musketeer on guard
For the other Highland and ECW figures, check our previous blogposts
F1006 Highlanders Charging with ClaymoresF1008 Highlanders advancing
Peter Laing 15mm Highlanders with Lochaber Axes F1001 and Highland drummer standard bearers and command figures. My Matt enamel 1983 painting.
Peter Laing Catalogue section for some of the above Scots figures.
Still more painting and basing work to do on the remaining unpainted, unbased Scots Musketeers, Highlanders and Lowland troops – a job for the winter months.
Posted by Mark, Mr MIN, Man of TIN blog, 4 November 2016.
A busy rainy day rebasing Peter Laing 15mm figures.
A few of my Peter Laing 15mm as based and roughly painted in 1983 …My original 1980s Plastic Card bases for Peter Laing musketeers and highlanders.
A rainy day today, so after a short while rebasing some recently acquired Peter Laing Ancient Greeks, I had the bulk of my time well spent rebasing and flocking some of my 1980s Peter Laing English Civil War and 17th/18th Century Scots. These were the first Peter Laing figures I ever bought, so greatly treasured.
Plastic Card had a slight tendency to warp a bit on my original larger bases. Peter Laing F517 Musketeers in helmet firing, F505 Standing Drummer in Hat, F504 Standard Bearer with original flock or ballast bases.
For the last thirty odd years they have waded through knee-high thick dark green flock grass or over gravel ballast, scrounged from the family model railway scrap box when my pocket money ran out.
To suit the Peter Laing / John Mitchell ECW rules they were originally based in groups of 6, 4, 3, 2 0r 1 to make up small regiments of 20 or 30 infantry, which could have casualties removed in various combinations.
Whilst these strips of figures looked good to my childish eye, for my current skirmish Close Little Wars games, I need figures on individual bases.
Just a few of my Peter Laing F503 Musketeer in hat marching, now individually rebased. Lots more to rebase this winter.
I have rebased the figures in my own ‘blend’, a mix of different coloured Woodland Scenics flocks, play pit fine sand, very fine local beach pebbles and some of the original 1980s ballast recycled. A little shadow of the original gravel or dark green flock remains around the figure bases, for old time’s sake to remember my childhood efforts.
My favourites F515 Dismounted dragoon firing, now individually based for skirmishes.
In most cases I had based my strips of figures on bases roughly similar in size to the individual bases I use today, roughly 15mm by 15mm.
In some cases I could easily score and cut the original plastic card then simply remove old flock or ballast then reflock. The occasional figure that needed a new base has one made from scrap art mounting board card.
The Scots Highland troops from Peter Laing’s “suitable items from other ranges for use with the ECW (500) range” remain great great favourites.
They were designed not only to oppose Peter Laing’s original Marlburian range “to extend the range to cover the ’15 and ’45 risings “ but also “to provide suitable Scots figures for Montrose’s army.”
Peter Laing F1001 Highlanders with lochaber axes, F1005 Highland standard bearer and F1004 Highland drummer with M1001 Mounted Highland officer, now individually rebased. My 1983 matt enamel paint job. Peter Laing F1008 Highlanders advancing along with Highland command group, now individually rebased. My 1983 paint job needs updating and detailing. Peter Laing F1006 Highland clansmen with claymores. Chaaarge!
Sometimes there is quite a lot of facial detail on Peter Laing figures, something to look at when I repaint these again from their 1983 original painting.
I still have lots of Peter Laing musketeers, pikemen and cavalry to rebase this winter as well as finding the Highland Piper and Officer.
Recently I have been painting or repainting my Peter Laing figures as needed using gloss acrylic rather than the original matt enamel Humbrol / Airfix paints easily available or scrounged in the 1980s. I really enjoyed as a child painting the bright colours of English Civil War regiments and banners, so the colourful gloss acrylics should add to this when repainting is due.
I did get around to painting my Peter Laing Lowland Regiments in the mid 1980s but never finished them off with flock or basing, as I probably ran out of expensive Plastic Card. The pocket money ‘war budget’ kept running out, as I usually (over)spent it on figures rather than basing materials.
I have recently acquired on EBay a few more bashed Peter Laing Highlanders and Lowlanders that need repainting, along with a few more Marlburian infantry to paint and base. These were recently obtained from Alec Green, swapped for an strange excess of Marlburian drummers and gunners.
Hopefully soon my recent Peter Laing Marlburian swaps will look as splendid Alec Green’s neatly painted and based Marlburian infantry. Photo: Alec Green.
I think that there will be a few Close Little Wars skirmishes and ambushes in the suitably “cluttered terrain” of the Glens this coming spring, once the Highland snow has melted of course!
Send no money or stamps, Peter Laing has retired and moved. Sadly the whereabouts of the moulds is currently (October 2016) not known. Military Modelling advert c.1982/83, 7p a foot figure!
You can read more about John Mitchell’s English Civil War starter rules and the Peter Laing ECW range here:
The blog title? Borrowed from Meghan Trainor’s song All about the Bass – watch the retro version by the talented Kate Davies and Postmodern Jukebox and other ensemble / tour versions on the Postmodern Jukebox channel on YouTube and ITunes.
Hope you enjoyed some of the fruits of my rainy day at the kitchen table spent “flocking“, as it’s known in my household.
Blog posted by Mark, Mr MIN Man of TIN blog, October 2016. All photos unless stated by Man of TIN blog.
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