I didn’t think that choosing a single favourite model would be all that difficult, but then took far too much time getting down to about a dozen potentials.
As Pike & Shotte is my game of choice (being a little biased here) and English Civil War armies are the mainstay of my collection it seemed sensible that I should start here.
When I first heard that we were to do a Prince Rupert figure I was very excited, as he is one of the more iconic characters of his time. I was therefore hugely impressed when the initial sculpt was revealed and it surpassed my expectations. The dynamism of both the figure and the horse is terrific, ideal even if you wanted to use it to represent any dashing cavalry commander, but it just captures the essence of Rupert himself.
As a bonus, you also get his pet Hunting Poodle, Boye. Hunting Poodles in the 17th century were a far cry from the cuddly pets we think of today. Boye was widely rumoured by Parliamentarian propaganda to be a ferocious agent of the devil, and much was made of his death at the Battle of Marston Moor.
Certainly any Royalist army of the period is improved by the addition of Prince Rupert, and the figure would look just as good in most Thirty Years War forces.
