Portable Thirty Years War?

On looking at the assembled figures for my ECW portable project I appear to have figures that would serve well in a TYW setting. This would be be a way of  having some of my ECW characters serving abroad in the continental wars prior to the ECW. I wonder what additions/changes (to the Portable ECW rules) I would need to have ? Light cavalry is the first to come to mind. Secondly some way of representing different combat styles in the cavalry particularly charging Swedes and caracoling Imperialists. As ever all suggestions welcomed.

The Knick

I have been interested in history for as long as I can remember. I lapped up Ladybird books as a child. As a teacher one of my most memorable times was a week's placement at the Surgeon's Hall museum in Edinburgh. For me it was a fascinating time - from meeting surgeons to thumbing through medieval books in the library and much more beside. It fed my interest in the history of medicine and surgery,something which I continue to enjoy reading about.
With this background can I recommend a dvd box set that I am really enjoying-

It is excellent storytelling and has me hooked. Well worth a watch...

Who are you?

I wonder if you could help me identify these recent acquisitions? I believe them to be Minifigs dragoons. How old are they and what range? I am particularly intrigued by the unpainted chaps with flag/lance with pennon.

Revisiting

I have been thinking of a wee side project for the coming dark evenings, something not too taxing in terms of  numbers of figures and also  rules. Something accessible and fun. My influences are "By the sword divided" the Sealed Knot and the below-

 I really like George Gush's book and especially the chapter on wargaming the ECW- with photographs of Minifigs and Airfix cottages. I also really enjoyed the Portable Wargame English Civil War rules. So I thought that might revisit the ECW ( I first visited it in my teens with Minifigs armies ,sadly long since gone) and here is the first step on the way-

I intend to use Minifigs 25mm figures for the project being a nod to my first armies in this period and use the Portable Wargame ECW rules by Steven Page, based on Bob Cordery and Joe Morschouser for a quick ,fun game.

Industry etc

Saturday saw great industry in the Duchy-

A cake had been baked and iced and the above picture shows Dolly Mixtures being flattened,rolled,shaped and cut.In the end they were put on the cake to form the decoration-

The finished cake was for Jan's mother's birthday.The cake was a thing of beauty indeed!
Today I finished off and based some adventurers-

A cleric,a barbarian,three fighters, a porter and-

a lad who has found a sword (almost too heavy for him to lift) mail ( almost too heavy for him to wear) and used a cooking pot in place of a helmet!
Does anyone know who makes/made this figure-I  found him in a sale box at a wargames show?
They are off in search of a cooperative wizard to join them...

Base fellows ?

I based this little band of adventurers yesterday-

Some pig faced orcs up to no good as usual and below their chums-

An ogre with his pet dragon and a troll proud of his new red jacket -removed from his last meal I fear.

Home for half term. Jan's absence from the house is almost tangible yet I am surrounded by her everywhere I look. Two days ago I got a dayrider ticket in Edinburgh and travelled around by bus and tram going to such exotica as Balerno where I had not been for maybe 30 years.It was a good day.
I flit from project to project having little enthusiasm but needing some distraction given by the hobby.I have decided not to worry too much about this and do as and when I feel like it. I feel like I am in a  Kafkaesque nightmare as I phone to contract business and queue for hours on hold only to be given another number. One cannot hardly contact a bank directly at all! What an age of wonders ?
Enough of this. This morning I thought I would see what the 40mm chaps looked like in terms of space. Firstly the field of mars-

Secondly arrayed for battle-

The large units have a wide frontage but a pleasing feel.Next time I will open the table out and extend it.
Now manouvering-

Infantry need to move in column two bases wide rather than one but again I like the look it gives.
Finally an aerial shot-

Maybe a game soon to try things out...

Valhalla

The other week I had an enjoyable dark age skirmish using the below rules-

Phil had Anglo Saxons and I had my Welsh-

My Welsh are all lightly armoured and the majority sport javellins or bows. In the game ( to capture some wagons) I ran rings round my opponent throwing and firing. All went well well until he closed to combat when his armour and weaponry won the day for him.
Valhalla is a simple but fun rules set. One can upload pics of figures to the website and it will generate statistics and produce cards which can printed out and used in games. Pop over to
http://valhalla.eaststreetgames.com/WhatsIncluded.aspx and have a look...
I have some Norse on the paint table currently.

Update

I have returned to work and all is proceeding well but I am a tad tired on it.

I have enjoyed harvesting and eating produce from the garden.The photo above shows some of what my daughters took back to university with them.

I am working towards using Wargames Holiday Centre Malburian rules in my mid 18th century games. I have always had a soft spot for the rules,felt they gave an enjoyable game and have had this copy for around twenty years

I am sorting out my semi flats for some late 19th century/early 20th century games.

Newish recruits

I finally got round to basing these chaps-

40mm semi-flats again and already painted. I find I cannot bring myself to paint over another's work and delight in the charming efforts of their previous owner.The toy soldier look appeals greatly to  me in this project in particular and so the spirit of R L Stevenson and H G Wells lives on upon my dining room table or maybe even sittingroom rug.
Underneath the non grenidier figures I found this-

Each figure has a wee piece of paper glued to the underside of the base thus where their regiment was hand written.I have based them with minimum glue to preserve the paper where possible,again out of respect for whoever painted/named the figures.
Finally a request. Does anyone have the following mould?

I wonder if you would be willing to cast me six figures for which I would be more than happy to pay for them plus postage too.