Tudor Drummer

I'm starting to get some confidence with green stuff and thought I'd display the latest workbench project.

I had previously used very fine Milliput which has the advantage that it dries rock hard and can be filed and cut without anything falling away but it is comparatively difficult to use. Over the weekend I invested in some GW greenstuff which I have found to be an entirely different beast, very much easier, or perhaps 'different' to work with (as I still think that Milliput could have its uses on occasion).

An earlier post this summer announced the completion of a small unit of 'hagbutters', these were a complement and a nod to the fact that Henry invested in some home grown arquebus armed infantry. Given that these troops were small and expensive in numbe I wanted their appearence to be that of the best equipped foot in the army. There is one more base of these to do and I have slowly been working on them over the last month or so.

As with units of shot of the continent, particularly those of the Almains to which English armies of this period were perhaps more aware / experienced, I wanted to have a drummer with a side drum in the European style. There is some historical evidence to these drums being around in England at this time; they first appear on record in 1492 being decribed as 'Swech' or Swiss drums, one can surmise that their military use may have followed not long after.

I didn't relish the idea of making a drum from scratch so I eventually settled upon using a plastic drum from the Perry ACW Zouave command sprue.

So there we are, beard, cap feather and slashed hose - I think i'm hooked on green stuff !