The 16th century was a turbulent time for Scotland, and while that could equally be said of many European states, Scotland perhaps fared worse than most for several reasons. A major factor was the unfortunate series of monarchs that sat upon the Scottish throne. When James IV died in 1513, his successor was his son, James V, who at the time was 17 months old. When James V died in 1542, he left the throne to his daughter, Mary I, who had reached the tender age of just six days, and when she was forced to abdicate in 1567, her successor was her son, James VI, who was 13 months of age. All these child monarchs left a power vacuum and required regencies, and so prompted battles, sometimes political and sometimes military, for power and control in the absence of an effective monarch. In addition, there were many big and small inter-clan wars between powerful Lairds, conflicts over religion, cross-border raiding to the south and, of course, the many clashes with the old enemy, England, often at the behest of France as part of the ‘Auld Alliance’. All this brought conflict and misery to Scotland, but meant many Scots found themselves armed and attired for war, and for the first time such men are depicted with this set.

The box speaks of these men as being for the mid-16th century, so roughly during the reign of Mary, and in some ways any western European army of the period would have resembled that of any other, but there were certainly features that help to mark out Scottish troops, and a major one was the weaponry. The first three poses pictured are using a polearm with a large axe blade and a hook, which was called a Lochaber axe. This two-handed weapon was almost unique to Scotland, and widely used in the 16th century, because it was relatively cheap and so accessible to large numbers of people, without requiring more than an ordinary blacksmith to fashion. So it is good to see it here, but we were not keen on the poses. First of all, two of them have their left hand uppermost on the shaft, when the reverse would be normal for a right-handed man, and only the man holding it over his head is using the conventional hold. However by holding it directly over the middle of his head, he could not deliver any sort of a blow, so is a flat and not convincing pose, especially with his hands so far apart. Also, the very first figure is charging with axe lowered, as if it were a stabbing weapon, which it is not, so not a sensible pose.

The last man in the top row and the second in the one below both hold a shorter stave with a rondel to protect the hand and a very long and thin curved blade; these are Jedwart staves. Again fairly common in Scottish armies of the period, such a polearm is rarely found elsewhere, so they help to give this set its Scottish flavour. Since we presume this was used much like other axe-type weapons, the pose in the top row is not really appropriate for the same reasons as already outlined, though the man just holding his upright is fine of course. Between them is a man with a large two-handed sword – probably the famous claymore. This example has a blade length of 16 mm (115 cm) and a total length of 22.5 mm (162 cm), and looks to be held reasonably well, given the limitations of the manufacturing process.

In the mid 16th century there were still many archers in Scottish armies, the majority of whom were from the Highlands. Neither of the bowmen in this set look much like Highlanders to us, but that is not a problem, and both are conventional but perfectly reasonable poses. As the century wore on, so the use of handguns increased in all armies, and there are four such men here. There are small differences in the design of these matchlocks, principally in their length, but they all look authentic for the period. A couple of these men wear a bandolier with several prepared cartridges hanging from them, which was quite new at this time but would become the norm in the following decades. Two are simply being carried while moving forward, one man is loading while another fires, so all the basics are covered here.

Finally we come to the command figures in our final row. First we have a piper, whose instrument has two drones, the second of which was a new innovation in the mid 16th century, so fine here. Next is a man holding a banner and with sword drawn, and finally what must be an officer, given his expensive armour. He holds an ordinary sword but is in the process of firing a wheellock pistol, a weapon which was relatively new in the middle of the century, and very expensive, so probably quite rare on the battlefield. The sword however was very common, and most of the figures here carry one, but only six of the poses have a visible knife, though doubtless every man has one about him somewhere.

By this period there was relatively little plate armour on the battlefield as it could not protect against gunpowder weapons, and so was seen as not worth the cost and inconvenience. Instead, the ordinary soldier might wear a jack, which was a jerkin or similar that was fabric, but usually padded and with numerous small metal plates sown into the body to offer some protection without being too heavy or cumbersome. The stitching of these might make them seem quilted, or indeed some men may have just worn quilted items, and on these figures we find several examples of either, which look good. Others are wearing a simpler jacket or doublet, and all are wearing hose on their legs, with one also wearing breeches. Some have longer tunics, or full-length robes, and we see one man with a padded outer robe, and another with a full-length mail shirt reaching almost to the knees. A couple are fortunate enough to have a mail coif or aventail, and one has mail on his arms, suggesting a mail shirt under his jacket. There are some caps and bonnets on show here, but also a good number of helmets of various styles including the burgonet and the old basinet style. This mix of clothing and helmet styles is great to see, and means some of the figures can be particularly used for specific types such as Highlanders, though we must remember that no one group were uniformly dressed or equipped. We really liked all the costume and armour on show here, noting that several have a cross of St Andrew badge on them, and while there is very little equipment other than weapons being carried, this too looks good, so the sporran worn by a couple of the men is well done.

The command figures also met with our approval. The piper wears the long tunic, bonnet and hose of any ordinary individual, but the other two wear half-armour suits which by this date were more about showing wealth and rank than anything else. Both the helmets are particularly splendid, and the officer wears very long boots as further protection. The banner is 15 mm square (108 cm) and not engraved with any design. There was no conformity in such things in terms of size or design, so this is pretty good, and also easy to paint, or replace with a paper banner of your choice should you wish.

The sculpting of these figures is very good, with plenty of fine detail and even a decent attempt at depicting the mail. The faces are pretty good, and there is a lot of long hair (particularly on the Highlanders) and several beards, all of which are well done. Generally the equipment and weapons are nicely detailed too, although the arrows of the two archers are just ugly uneven strips of plastic with no head at all. In a few places there is what looks like slight damage to the figure, which may have been in the sculpting or mould-making process, but the main issue with the quality of production concerns the flash. This is extensive and noticeable on all seams, with some being quite significant, though this is hard to see on our images. The choice of poses means there is no excess plastic in unreachable places, though this is achieved at the cost of some rather awkward postures like the axe men in the top row.

In essence this is a great bunch of figures accurately done in terms of costume and weaponry, and with a pleasing mix of styles to produce a general set that reflects the look of Scottish troops of the mid 16th century well. The majority of Scottish infantry were pikemen, so as the title of this set tells us, this one supplies the ‘others’, the men who were to soften up an enemy before the pikemen went forward, and who were to finish off a defeated foe. The poses of the axemen are not so great, but such weapons are notoriously difficult to depict properly using a traditional two-piece mould, and the rest of the poses presented no problems for us. There is some trimming required here, which is particularly challenging where the flash passes down the centre of the face, but once that is done the set delivers some very pleasing figures to place alongside the pike formations, and models some interesting troops that might have seen service in innumerable actions in Britain as well as many in the service of others on the continent.