Entry 14, Part 1 - Vth annual Analogue Painting Challenge - Pike & Shotte

The first entry for this week is an ECW Pike and Shotte regiment.  These are 36 28mm plastic models from Warlord Games.

The blue coat regiment

I want my ECW regiments to have a block of 12 pike plus command, flanked by eight shotte on each side.  This left me with a problem, based on the Warlord kit.  There are not enough vertical pikes and I don't like the horizontal ones since they are always getting in the way.  There are also too many shotte.

One sleeve of shotte.

I painted up all of the shotte but left off the horizontal and all but two of the angled pikes.  This means I'm four pikes short of a full regiment, which is not an analogy for my mental state.

Command and pikes.

This is the first regiment I've ever done on multi bases.  Prior to this all of my models have been one per base.  The ground work is much easier on single based models.

The other sleeve of shotte.

The Warlord models are very nice, other than the unfortunate sprue contents.  The faces have a one of character.  The details look good and they go together well, with lots of options.

Rear Shot.

I didn't enjoy painting these.  It's a couple of things, neither of which is the fault of the models, really.  First off, I went for the whole bunch in one go.  That's 36 models in a week.  For me that is a record.  The result was that I felt rushed to get them done.

Another rear shotte.  (see what I did there?)

As I was painting I'd think, "only one more bit to do and I'm done".  Then I'd finish that bit and see two more unpainted parts.  "Where did that come from?  I don't even know what that is.  How am I supposed to paint it?"  I'd head off to the references and, as often as not, find nothing.  I muddled through it all, but it was frustrating.

The flag that came with the set.

I was feeling that way right until I washed them.  All of a sudden they came alive and I was enchanted.  The character and detail that were painful to paint looked great.  I wish I had a use for them.  I bought them when I was going to play some ECW with one of the guys at the club.  He then dropped off the face of the earth and these sat on the shelf for a year.

A stand of shotte.

While I was painting I calculated what I would need to get a minimum playable army.  Another box of these plastics, some standing pike (metal) and a few command models, plus one box of cav and one cannon.  It's a little insane really.  All of that for an army I have no intention of playing any time soon.  More of a "just in case" army.

The green shotte.

I even have 25% of a second regiment ready to go.  Happily a moment of sanity prevailed and I'll not be adding to this army until I have a likely opponent, or the ECW bug bites a lot harder than it has so far.

Side shot.

For now these lads will find a home on a shelf.  It's sad but those are the breaks when you're a model.

The other flag from the box.