Plastics lead the way

So, I have been pottering with my TYW Warlord plastics - but first some more history.

I think I was 11 when I bought my first Minifigs - 3 from the Mythical Earth range, from a stamp shop in Cowes, IoW. My mum sent for the catalogue shortly after; then in a Model Shop in what seemed to be a front room of a house in Pontypridd, I bought a couple of Landsknechts, TYW halberdiers and Roundead foot with swords. Then I found some Renaissance Spanish in a model shop in Torquay. I identified them from the catalogue and thats where it all went wrong, because I got confused over the Renaissance period; my only reference was that France & Spain were at war then and I got that from....er, the Flashing Blade. So, the French wore floppy hats (yes, very English Civil War) and the Spanish wore Morions. Now, those Minifig Spanish - they wore Morions! So, although they were really C16th Spanish, I didnt know any better. I just presumed the Spanish wore padded hose and breastplate, that Landsknechts wore slashed multi coloured shirts and the Cavaliers, floppy hats and that this all happened more or less at the same time.....some 35 years on and that idea has had a massive hangover, every time I look at say 1620's Spanish, I expect them to look a bit more 1580's.

This means my default was to think "Renaissance" not "TYW" or "ECW" and to visualise Landsknechts bashing the heck out of say Royalists. I'm over that now but it means that for nostalgia purposes, my historical references are all over the place.

Now onto Warlord. All my WL plastics have been bought from Jet Models in Caerphilly - a small local shop and the kind of place that is a joy to find, not a big discounted player but a local guy selling models to wargamers, train modellers and Airfix fans who live around the area. Apart from single figures or heads I am ordering from WL through Jet. Why? Because we use or lose shops like this; WL get their price anyway, its a question of who gets the markup. The guy in Jet or a player who gets a cut of Malifaux, Warmachine, FOW etc etc?

A bit of a push has led to a big increase in my figs - about a dozen spanish and similar french. I now have figures who look like the spanish infantry in Flashing Blade - morions and advancing musket at hip. Take a marching musketeer from the main TYW/ECW sprue and add a musket arm piece from the FIRELOCK box, add morion and OLE! A Spanish musketeer! I didnt add a musket rest as no one in FB uses them - heck, no one even reloads, they just recock the musket!

As to numbers, I have not a clue how these will work out in the end - though I'm aiming for Spanish Actions by Perfect Captain, so big volumes are not needed. And so, On Tp Casale!