The Jacobite '45

It's amazing what can inspire one to take up that paint brush and begin a new journey down a road you never thought you would.

It began a few months ago. My family and I are of Scottish decent, 5th generation as a matter of fact, and anything to do with the Scottish culture is always of great interest to us. My Sister discovered the book series of "Outlander", and when it became a TV series she was all over it. She had an advantage in that she knew what it was about already and tried to convince me to watch it, which I didn't until just a few months ago. I thought it was one of those romance, bla, bla, bla series and wasn't overly excited but she couldn't really tell me about it without spoiling it. So I ignored her sage advice and did nothing about it thinking she was crackers. A few months ago Itunes had the 1st season on sale and with Game of Thrones over and a few other series I like to watch done, I had nothing to lose so I downloaded it.

Man was I a turd for not listening to her. I was blown away. Mind you I almost turned off the very first episode after it was about half over with all the mushy stuff going on, and then it happened. The Heroine finally touched the bloody stone..... okay I won't spoil it for you either, but I have to tell you that they nailed it when it came to customs, costumes, and script (other than the mushy stuff;))!!! When the redcoats where chasing Highlanders through the woods I was suddenly sitting upright on the edge of my seat.

Okay it was all I needed to dive back into the world of the Jacobite '45. Suddenly I had ordered a few history books, scoured the internet for 28mm Jacobite figures, found color plates for reference etc. I was hooked!

The Jacobite '45 has through the centuries held a romantic feel to it and it has not changed to this day. New information has been coming forward from archaeology digs and this has pushed several authors to reconsider the period in question. An exciting time to learn for the first time or re discover new facts about an interesting time in history.

Some how I was able to talk a very good friend into joining me in this project and he has agreed to paint the English. We discussed a bit about what each company that makes 28mm for the period and what they brought to the table. My friend agreed to follow me in selecting a company called "Crann Tara" because I like the more anatomically correct looking features.

I received my first order a few day ago and have already mounted, primed, and put the beginning basic coats on. So far I am pleased with the fact that they aren't to busy which will be a relief as I figure out how to paint what will feel like a ba-zillon tartans.

My approach to painting all these tartans will be to give an artistic impression that you are looking at tartans, meaning I am not going to try and paint all those bloody lines, which will also have the added benefit of speeding up painting. Hopefully my approach will work. I have also discovered that during this period there was not a family/Clan tartan, that the tartans where regionally made and it didn't really indicate a clan as much as the region they came from. Also looking at paintings of battles and other references I see I am going to have to mix them up a bit. I've decided to mix the units by picking three basic colors and paint a third of each unit so.

Well that's enough talk for now and I'll leave you with a few pictures of the project start.

Cheers
Kevin