Upcycling

Sort of like recycling, but making things better too!

I have a growing late 17th century collection covering the battles of Sedgemoor and Killiecrankie. As if the campaigns surrounding those battles weren’t enough, many of the regiments can be repurposed for the fighting in Ireland (which has become increasingly popular of late) with new flags. My friend Roger has a fabulous Great Northern War collection so can also repurpose some units for Ireland. What we realised was that our forces for Ireland would be predominantly redcoats on both sides. Visually not very exciting...

What I did have were some French/Spanish types from my pirates collection. They weren’t based on any real regiments. I had just wanted some regulars to face off against my pirates. And they’ve seen many an engagement. I had just painted them as I pleased. I was such a simple creature back then! It feels so recent, yet the pirate games I’m thinking of are over 20 years ago!

I could certainly repurpose some as Irish Jacobites. Under advice I put the grey coated figures back in with the pirates; their tricorn hats were far too modern for the 1690s. So that left me with sufficient musketeers to drop into some regiment or other. I didn’t want to repaint the figures...

Fortunately uniform details for many of the Irish Jacobite regiments are sketchy. The Earl of Clanrickarde’s regiment may have had red facings... in truth they probably had grey coats... ah close enough!

I filled out the unit with secondhand officers and pikemen from ‘Uncle’ Bills and hey presto the musketeers from my pirate collection are upcycled into a smart looking Jacobite regiment. Not in red coats. Job done!

Ok the fancy pants officers are wearing scarlet. It’s still a white-coated regiment. Flags from Flags of War. The original musketeers are still available from Wargames Foundry. The bargain purchases from ‘Uncle’ Bills are Warfare Miniatures.

The finished regiment. 

Cheers 

Chris