Preparing for Aughrim

I have both a Jacobite and Williamite Army, and a copy of BLB War of Three Kings and I’m nearly ready for a table top Aughrim style encounter.  I say Aughrim style because the numbers involved in that battle were considerable and I can’t quite match them in terms of toys.  That said it will have a distinct flavour of that fatal encounter. I needed some odds and sods for the game.

Hedges were required, quite a few of them.  Happily, and not for the first time, Peter Pig came to the rescue.  I bought about one foot in length of these.  The Irregular Miniatures 15mm Dutch gun and crew give an idea of the scale of the hedges.

More challenging, I needed a ruined castle, not a spacious, ruinous pile like Dunstanburgh, more the remains of a sturdy, compact affair. There’s not much on offer that will do.  So, I decided to make one out of Fimo, a modelling clay that you bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Fimo is great stuff and I’ll be using it again.  Anyhow, here’s the result.

I should say, I have no idea what the actual ruins of Aughrim castle looked like in 1691 and my model is purely functional for the game. 

I’m very pleased with it and think it will get a lot of use.  The boys defending it in the photo are from The Lord Grand Prior’s Regiment.  In reality it was a company of Fusiliers from Burke’s Regiment.  The 15mm toys here are mainly Irregular with the Grenadiers and drummer from Dixon.  The Flags are from Ray at https://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/search/label/NYW%20flags

I also wanted some simple farmsteads, nothing elaborate or, in a battle of this scale particularly of defensive value.  I decided to have another go with the Fimo.  As you can see I’ve gone for the Scots Highland Black House style.  Suitable for the stone rich West of Ireland too.

Lastly, I wanted some boggy ground, quite a bit of it.  I bought some big bases from ERM Miniatures (first rate service) and set to with model railway ballast, flock and PVA.  

The result is a serviceable and hardy terrain piece once again scale is indicated by same Dutch gun crew shown above.