Osprey Men-at-Arms (some kilt errors)

[OC Richard]

I'm a fan of the Men-at-Arms series by Osprey Publishing.

Especially nice are the illustrations by Mike Chappell, which are artistically pleasing and accurate. The one inaccuracy, and one which occurs consistently, is his misunderstanding of how diced hosetops are made, and worn. (The diamonds aren't random, as Chappell shows, but quite regular, and are precisely worn by the kilted regiments.)

Here are the titles I have to hand which have the lovely Chappell illustrations (I've mentioned the kilted figures in parentheses)

British Battle Insignia 1939-45 (Seaforth Highlander)

Scottish Units In The World Wars (9th RS, BW Piper, 6th HLI, KOSB Piper, 8th BW, Argylls, 8th BW, 4th Gordons, 4th Camerons, 6th HLI, RSF Piper, Gordons Piper, BW Brigadier) (BTW the pages of illustrations contain numerous typographical errors such as the consistent misuse of apostrophes Argyll's, Gordon's, Seaforth's, Cameronian's; in addition a Cameron Highlander is listed as being in the "Cameronian's".)

British Battledress 1937-61 (2nd Seaforths)

British Territorial Units 1914-18 (Liverpool Scottish, 6th HLI, London Scottish)

The Canadian Army At War (73rd Battalion CEF, 15th Battalion CEF)

Also nice are the illustrations in

Wellington's Highlanders (illustrated by Bryan Fosten).

The British Army 1965-80 (illustrated by Angus McBride) : These illustrations are quite clear and accurate. The one kilted figure, a Gordon Highlander, has the dicing on his hose-tops incorrectly shown.

Once we leave these books we encounter far more errors:

Queen Victoria's Highlanders (illustrated by Gerry Embleton) : These illustrations are somewhat crude and aren't clear and contain various inaccuracies. Like Chappell he doesn't understand how diced hose-tops are made and worn. Also he sometimes shows dicing on headdress incorrectly. He consistently shows spats being far too tall.

Taking one plate (F) in detail, the cuffs on the BW officer's doublet are completely wrong, with the positions of the piping and lace reversed, and the sporran is wrong regarding both the cantle and tassels. The piper's sporran is wrong and he's shown wearing a Royal Stewart plaid with a Black Watch kilt! The hardware on the waistbelt and crossbelt are both incorrect. On plate G the Seaforth Highlanders' sporran is wrong, the tassels having brass cones (!) and the cantle missing its badge.

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (illustrations by Michael Roffe) : His illustrations are often so crude and sketchy-looking that it's hard to tell if they're accurate or not. However his illustrations are fairly accurate as regards the 1960s uniforms. He comes close to getting the hose-tops right. His illustrations have a consistent issue: the six tassels so often seen on the sporrans of the Argylls are shown splaying outward in defiance of gravity! Seems that he's never actually seen a sporran in person, and doesn't realize that the tassels hang down and obey the law of gravity.

On Plate F he suddenly forgot how to draw the red & white dicing as it appears on the Argylls' headdress, and he depicts the doublet flaps wrongly on Figure 1. Plate C has more bad dicing, the piper's doublet missing piping on the cuffs, and it's one of the worst attempts at depicting the Highland Bagpipe I've ever seen.

The Black Watch (illustrated by Michael Youens) : His illustrations are fairly clear. He depicts the spats far too tall. He doesn't understand how Feather Bonnets are made. The diced hose-tops are often fairly close to being right. He often shows the BW ORs' sporrans as having a metal rim and/or metal cones to the tassels (actually all leather) and shows the BW Officers' sporrans with incorrectly-shaped cantles and as having metal cones to the tassels.

Numerous flaws can be seen on two facing pages, plates F and G. The two pipers' and one officers' sporrans should all be the same, but are shown with three different cantle shapes, none of them quite right. The piper's sporran is shown with the tassels having white metal cones, the Pipe Major's sporran is shown with only two tassels! The piper is shown wearing what appears to be a Scots Guards pipers' cap badge, and his pipes have a Royal Stewart cover (should be Black Watch). The Pipe Major's doublet is entirely wrong, being shown red! I think I know where this error came from: there's a widely available c1910 postcard showing a BW Pipe Major; the black & white photo has been retouched with incorrect colours (quite common) and his Archer Green doublet has been painted over with red. On the other hand the Pipe Major's waistbelt and crossbelt hardware was been shown accurately.

Here is the incorrectly coloured vintage postcard from which Michael Youens must have got his wrong ideas about what a Black Watch Pipe Major looks like. Not only is the jacket painted red (it's actually Archer Green) but the kilt and plaid have been painted two different tartans (actually both should be Royal Stewart), the hose dicing is a mess, and why is the top of the kilt green?