2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards

In my last post I showed a picture of my first Paperboys tanks, modelled as No 1 Squadron 2 Irish Guards, who along with the Infantry of 3 Irish Guards were the leading element of XXX Corps during the initial Market Garden breakout.  I have now completed the rest of 2 Irish Guards and here is No 2 Squadron. 

Liverpool Blues and additional British Command Figures

There were a number of additional units and commanders at the Second Siege of Carlisle, which I have now modelled.

The first of these is the Liverpool Blues.  My main source regarding them is “The Town of Liverpool in the ‘45” by R C Jarvis, which I found online.  They were a Volunteer Regiment raised by the town of Liverpool,  were raised much more quickly and were much more effective than the Lancashire Militia.  As the Jacobite Rebellion gained momentum the town petitioned the Government to be allowed to raise a volunteer force.  The Secretary of State wrote to the Deputy Mayor on 23^rd September 1745 authorising the town to form troops and companies of inhabitants who were willing to take arms and to grants commissions to suitable persons to command them.

The town raised £1,000 by subscription to pay for this force and the Liverpool Blues was originally proposed to be formed of 1,000 men, however this was later reduced to 800 men organised as 8 companies.  A regular officer, Col Graham of 43^rd Foot was appointed to command them, assisted by Lt Col Gordon and Maj Bendish.  The town appointed “some persons to be Officers in the Companies who had already behaved well in his Majesty’s Service, the others will be chosen out of young Gentlemen of the Town who have sometime payd old Sergeants to instruct them in the Military Exercise”.

The Liverpool Blues received their uniforms and weapons by 15^th November and then marched into Cheshire to help to defend or demolish bridges in that county.  On that same day the Jacobites took Carlisle.  Several Militia Regiments refused to serve outside their counties but the Liverpool Blues had no such inhibitions.  They later joined Oglethorpe’s Brigade at Clifton and marched with them to Carlisle. 

This print of their uniform is a composite one, created by putting together elements of three prints to show the key features of their uniform.

Orders for the uniform of the Liverpool Blues were placed by 5 October. “These goods will be wanted in a fortnight or a very few days”, the order read. There were “52 Doz. of full-sized Men’s felt Halts … 50 doz. of them bound with white Galloon (lace) and white mettle Buttons … the other two Dozen let be of a better kind and come without being bound” (the latter presumable for the officers who would have silver lace added later). Three thousand yards of kersey were ordered for the coats; thirteen shoemakers in the town were directed to set about making 626 pairs of shoes and “50 Doz of strong White Stockings” were ordered from Wales.

It is clear from this uniform purchase that the final proposed strength of the Liverpool Blues was 600 men (plus officers) rather than the higher figures of 1,000 or 800 proposed earlier.

There is no mention of waistcoats or breeches, so presumably the volunteers would have worn their own as shown here.

1st Foot Guards Brigade

My next project is to model all of the troops which took part in the Second Siege of Carlisle, conducted by the Duke of Cumberland from 21st to 30th December 1745. I already had modelled all of the Jacobite defenders and now needed to complete Cumberland’s troops.

Edinburgh Castle

This is the final part of my modelling Edinburgh as it was in 1745. My previous recent posts described modelling the town. This covers modelling the castle itself.

Edinburgh Castle in the mid-18th Century looked like this.

The ground around the castle was more open than it is now and the old city walls came right up to the castle. Many of the buildings on the southern and western sides of the castle had not yet been constructed.

Edinburgh Town – Part 2

In my previous post, Edinburgh Town Part – 1, I described how I used my existing Medieval wall system (plus a few new elements) and PaperTerrain houses from their Village and Town packs to create a model of Edinburgh as it was in 1745.

In this post I am going describe a number of additional model buildings which I have made to represent historical Edinburgh buildings.

The first of these is a simple conversion of a PaperTerrain village house into the famous “World’s End” pub, which was the last building before the Netherbow Port, hence its name which implies that there was nothing worth visiting outside Edinburgh old town. The pub is still there but the Netherbow Port gate was demolished in 1764. I think this “street view” is quite effective.

My model doesn’t look a lot like the pub, I just printed out the modern pub signs and added them to the building.

Improvements to Streets, Walls & Graveyards

Whilst assembling my modular Edinburgh Town, I have realised that some elements could be improved, namely streets, walls and graveyards.

HMS Sheerness – Part 2

I am now continuing my description of how I modelled HMS Sheerness, a 24 gun 6th Rate Frigate, by converting an Airfix 1:87 model of HMS Bounty. In my last post, I finished by completing the hull.

HMS Sheerness – Part 1

I have previously made a couple of Naval vessels to represent those which took part in coastal or river operations during the Jacobite Rebellion. These were a 12 gun Royal Navy brig (two masted ship) and a merchant brig. These could represent HMS Hazard, captured by the Jacobites in Montrose Harbour in November 1745, and the French Armed Transport La Renommée which assisted in this. They could also represent HMS Vulture which unsuccessfully attempted to prevent a Jacobite merchant brig transporting French supplied siege artillery across the River Forth at Alloa in January 1746. Finally, the Royal Navy brig could represent the French ship “le Prince Charles” (the captured HMS Hazard) which was carrying £13,000 in gold for the Jacobites (worth £25 million today) but which was forced ashore in March 1746 in the Kyle of Tongue, by the 24 gun Frigate, HMS Sheerness.

I needed a model for HMS Sheerness, a larger three masted frigate than the other two, and which looked like this.

Jacobite Boats – Part 2

In Part 1, I described the background to my modelling of some Jacobite Boats, as used in their successful amphibious assault at Dornoch Firth on 20th March 1746. The first Jacobite boat I completed was shown in Part 1 and is shown again below.

Jacobite Boats – Part 1

I had previously modelled a pair of Royal Navy boats, which were used by 27th Foot (Inniskillings) and a Naval Landing Party, as part of a joint operation with a pair of small Royal Navy Brigs, in their unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Jacobites ferrying their siege guns across the Forth to help besiege Stirling Castle. These can be seem here and a photo of these boats is below.

However the largest amphibious operation of the ’45 was not British but Jacobite and, unlike the British one, it was entirely successful. I wanted the model the boats for this.