Hello Modellers

The Russian company of Altores continue in their march forward to attack our wallets by releasing another figure in their range that covers many periods ...this time we have a new time in history .......

The release was announced here:

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/altores-studio.106146/

Background on the ECW

The English Civil War ...a time of extreme change in the history and growth of the the country , a war where families were divided , brother fought brother , and a king lost his head in 1649 .

Religion and money were both major causes of the English Civil War. It was part of a Europe wide conflict between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

Religion

n 1639 King Charles sent an army to try and enforce the new Prayer Book in Scotland. King Charles already distrusted by some as having leanings towards Catholicism was now declaring war on his loyal, Protestant subjects.

The English army was easily defeated in what was later known as the First Bishops’ War. In 1640 King Charles was defeated in the Second Bishops’ War. He was forced to sign the Treaty of Ripon in October 1640, which stipulated that the Covenanter (Scottish) troops were to be paid £850 a day in maintenance while they still occupied northern England.

Money/Taxation

A key factor which led to the outbreak of the Civil War was King Charles and his lack of money.

The cost of running the Royal household of Charles I was very expensive. King Charles was a patron of the arts and spent vast sums of money on musicians to entertain his Court and in buying works of art.

King Charles needed to call Parliament to ask for money. In June 1625 Parliament had only granted the King tonnage and poundage (income from customs duties) for a single year, rather than for life as was customary. This meant that Charles would be forced to call Parliament again to grant further taxes.

This abuse of Parliamentary privileges by King Charles lost him political support. Some of the MPs already believed that the King could not be trusted and were worried that he might try and re-instate his ‘Personal Rule’. Bringing armed soldiers into Parliament only made these fears worse. When riots broke out in London King Charles fled to Hampton Court. The rift between Parliament and the King had become more obvious and people were being forced to take sides.

The London Trained Bands were brought out to guard Parliament with the consent of both Houses. Crowds gathered in London to have their opinions heard and voice their concerns. In February King Charles sent Queen Henrietta Maria to the Netherlands for her own safety and to raise foreign support for the war.

King Charles headed for York. His supporters among the Lords and the gentry began to rally to him. Some supported the Royalist cause as they disagreed with the Puritans demands for radical reforms and did not like the influence they had in Parliament. Others came out of loyalty to the Crown even if they did not necessarily agree with the King’s actions.

In June 1642 Parliament presented the Nineteen Propositions to King Charles at York in an attempt to prevent the “…imminent dangers and calamities…”. It proposed that Parliament would control all military resources. Parliament would approve all ministers and officials chosen by the King. Parliament would decide how the Church was to be reformed. Laws against Catholics were to be strictly enforced. Parliament would have a say in the education and marriage arrangements of the King’s children.

King Charles rejected the propositions.

Royalist and Parliamentarian forces seized military strongholds and raided stores for arms and munitions.

On 12 July Parliament voted to raise an army under the command of the Earl of Essex, for the “… preserving of the true religion, the laws, liberty and peace of the kingdom.”

On 22 August 1642 King Charles I raised his Royal standard at Nottingham. Civil War had been openly declared......

...the war had begun between Cromwell's Roundheads and Charles's Cavaliers...not just in England but also in Scotland, Ireland and indeed Wales .

Naturally books are available here are some from my shelves



The research of the colours and flags is also a fascinating thing to do :



Continued in next post

Nap

Lets have some references now for you

General comments

• This is the first 90 mm figure release from Altores
• The figure is a Roundhead cavalry trooper , dismounted
• The figure could easily be a soldier from the 30 years War period ( 1618-1648 )

Continued in next post

Nap

Onto opening the box....

What do we find inside....

Title: Ironside , 17th century English Civil War

Reference: F-90-048

Scale: 1/18th , 90 mm

Material: Gray resin

No of parts: 15

Sculptor: Alexander Deryabin

Box Art: N/A

As with all of Altores releases the box is sturdy , with the yellow text and a unpainted version ( in this case) of the figure inside,
Parts were packed in clear bags and sandwiched between foam layers .

Parts consist of Main figure with legs , head, 2 arms , right ( sword ) hand, weapon , the powder container , sword blade , scabbard , sword guard x 2 pieces , Face guard ( 2 pieces ) 2 spurs and a base



As normal the figure has been well engineered resulting in minimal prep:

Main Figure...Nothing

Head...Cut away small excess resin from lower edge of neck and fit ...no filler needed

Arms...Remove small casting plugs on fitment posts and then put to figure ...no filler needed here .

Sword Hand...Remove casting posts and fit to right arm

Remaining pieces...Cut away from small casting posts , remove flashing as appropriate and fit

Base....Remove casting block from under lower side

I suggest you fit the sword guard pieces after first fitting the hand allowing something to hold!!

That's it ...all very quick and easy to do and well withing the capabilities al all modellers


In this part I will look at the largest of the pieces ....

The Main Figure

The pose is an action one , lags braced apart , steady both in attack and defence , our soldier is clothed in the buf leather jacket . wearing high boots in leather with armour plate both back and front of the upper body ...crossing his chest are the belts and strap for weapon , scabbard , powder horn .

At the rear we have both locating 2 pins for the weapon and the holes for the horn , the scabbard fits into a cut out ...all are easy to fit into place

The trooper is well attired all equipment belts have good undercuts and the details on these particularly the ends and the buckles are really very good indeed .

Of particular note are the boots , square toed and with excellent details for the spur straps

The resin itself holds all the details well and is of a high quality being smooth and showing no blemishes or air holes after casting .

Continued in next post

Nap

On now to the remaining pieces

Head

This is a very detailed piece of sculpting from the cheek pieces individual sections , together with the neck plates , all very sharply worked , the angled peak is really good with 3 holes underneath for the face guard ...a very nice sculpted representation of the period helmet .

The face itself is a triumph ...moustached and with a small chin beard , the hair quite long , finely worked , the features of the eyes and nose are spot on , no blemishes and easy to get to despite the helmet .

Fit is accurate into the cutout in the neck area of the main figure.

It goes without saying paint the face first then add and paint the actual guard pieces







Arms

Both are well sculpted and the clothing looks good nice folds accurate and not over sculpted , the right arm is minus the gloved hand but has the gauntlet part sculpted on .

The left is the reins arm with the lower arm and hand protection being worn , this piece of armour was vital to stop the reins from being cut as well as offering protection to the rider , the individual sections of the finger plates are good , the movement allowed wearing this was as we have seen in full armour much better than we can imagine,

Fit of both is easy and presents no issues.



Right Hand

Fitting nicely into the open end of the gauntlet this has the hand gripping the actual sword handle . , nice glove definition on the seams with a hole to fit the guard



Firearm Weapon

This is another piece that shows good research the original design is based on an actual item in a private collection...I think oour trooper is fairly well off !!! ..the work on the trigger guard and the mechanism is excellent , the dogs leg not being cocked back ..a wise choice !!

Again fit is no problem the sit on the figure is really good particularly where it meets the belt and the support on it


Powder horn

Not so much a horn rather a container a simple shaped item holding the valuable powder , dry and safe and ready to put to the firearm.

Fit is again easy by matching th holes to he small pins of resin



Sword/Scabbard/Sword Guard

Both a good shape , fit is quick , the scabbard goes nicely into the sword belt area .

Nice to see the sword being a good size and not delicate , the cutting edges are on it as well

The guard consists of 2 pieces both small one fitting over the sword top with a shaped bar over the front of the fingers ...a little fiddly but well worth the patience .




Helmet Guard/Spurs

Again 2 small and delicate pieces ...fitting simply into preformed holes under the peak ....just remember to paint the face first !!!

The spurs are certainly a target for that carpet monster so be careful ..they are small , I would suggest you drill small holes to fit fully to the boot ....in place the look excellent.


Note: In the 2nd picture the shaped part on the larger resin block is the 2nd sword guard piece

Base

A large oval shaped and textured piece of resin , with stones and uneve ground , suitable to use for the figure or incorporate in a larger base .



Final Thoughts

The scale is ideal for this subject which continues to show Altores Studio to be a company that insists on QUALITY and that is what we have here both in the sculpting and the casting , well thought out , minmal prep ....fun to build ...what more can you ask for.

A really good figure and it cry's out for a enemy perhaps a Cavalier or musketeer using his weapon as a club ...we shall see .

Highly recommended

Finally lets have some pictures of the built figure ...

ENJOY



For details on this and more from them :

E-mail: altoress@mail.ru

Website: www.altores.com

They are also a member of FaceBook and the forum here on PF

Thanks to for the review piece

And to you all for looking in

Happy Modelling

Nap

Hi Guys

Thanks for the comments

Steve ..nothing wrong with not being able to resist !

Chris...appreciate your posting and comments ...enticing as you say..lol

Mortier...Thanks as you say typical Altores ..a QUALITY release

Thanks for looking in

Nap

Thanks Bob glad you enjoyed it .....be great to see a royslist standard bearer perhaps on the ground infront

Thanks for posting

Nap