If it’s one thing I hate it’s basing miniatures. You decide on a colour and half way through a project you find that you have grown to dislike it , or the rules change, or the next lot of minis are too large to fit on. My ECW figures do not hold the record for rebasing, that is held by my Fanatic Moors ( see next week’s blogs for that heart- melting story of MDF and cat litter!). When it came to basing my Royalists, I entered a whole world of indecision. The Pike and Shotte rule book contains many superb illustrations but when I based my troops similarly, the look failed to inspire me. I tried the usual 40mm x 40mm bases but that meant sixteen pikemen.  That was after I had tried command figures within the block and on separate circular bases. I think the staff of the local B and Q thought I was a cowboy plasterer in my spare time. Enough was enough when those annoying grass tufts were bankrupting me. There must be an article yet to be written on the revolution in grass tuft horticulture, turning figure bases into mobile allotments. I had to cutback on the purchase of such tufts when their cost outweighed the actual cost of 15mm Vietnamese figures on another project that Chris T is writing at this very moment. What I had in mind for the ECW is shown below;

Help came in the form of Quindia studios and the Renegade miniatures gallery( thanks be to the good Lord , Renegade are now back producing!) Clarence Henderson has turned his bases into works of art and have to be seen to be believed! He uses 60mm x 60mm bases and must spend hours on their composition. This ties in with the general movement in wargaming to larger bases where the figure count is less important. It also means of course that one can ‘economise’ ( sorry to use that word in the company of gentlemen!). On a sixty mm. square one can place between five and nine figures. I use one such base to represent commanded shot.

Two such bases equal a standard foot base or three bases a large unit such as fire-locks (ouch).

For the main stike force of the horse, I use just two minis per base with four bases per standard unit.

All I have to do now is wait for my wife to leave the house, for her spot-welding class, and I can order the remaining one hundred or so minis! Keep reading next week for an interview with that old cavalier himself, Richard Bodley Scott, plus photos from the superb collection of veteran gamer, Mr Mike Lane.