A blast from the past!

Was it really that long ago since I shouldered my musket to help preserve the Union and fight the Rebel upstarts as a member of the 42nd Pennsylvania 'Bucktails' ? 

 

New sculpts by Andrew Stadden & British Light infantry 1777.

 I'm delighted to report that Mark - who had been out of action for some time due to a hobby related wound - has now been able to resume casting the new sculpts made by Andrew Stadden that will complete the 20mm scale  'Little Big Horn' project commission. As usual the box contains a nice card of the example figures as you see below. I have to say that the sculpts are excellent and full of character. 

So, the final box contains:

• E Troop 7th cavalry (Grey Horse Troop) x 20 mounted.
• Dismounted US cavalry x 60 
• Dismounted US horse holders x 12  plus horses.
• Mounted Indian Scouts x 5
• Dismounted Indian Scouts x 5
• Final additional Indians! x 8.

These will probably be painted in two monthly batches, hopefully October/November as I have a fair bit of work ongoing at the moment. Speaking of which I have just painted and delivered 4 more French Napoleonic Epic infantry battalions over the last two weeks for Stephen, each of 80 figures and am currently back on Union ACW's for Noel having finished his ECW commission.

DBN 1776 or 1777?

For my own project I'm adding more light infantry to both armies. Just painted this base of British Light's as they would have appeared probably around 1777 and the Philadelphia Campaign. By this time the British light infantry would more commonly be wearing short jackets (as opposed to cut down coats) and 'Trowsers' that fitted over the shoe in gaiter fashion. The hats are un-cocked or turned up on the left (firelock) side. I follow an excellent YouTube site called 'Chris The Redcoat' and his video dedicated to this subject is highly recommended. (below),

I also added a second base of 17th Light Dragoons but forgot to paint the bugler in a white coat, blast! Made a casualty marker base to go with them, lots of cutting and filing involved.

On the terrain front I decided to add some fencing around my areas of broken ground (poor going in DBN) and found some excellent plastic fence on eBay for the purpose, just £4.50  for 10 x 200mm lengths! I did trim off the top section to reduce the height slightly as I'm using underscale 10mm buildings, I think it all looks about right now? For game purposes these farms can accommodate two bases. These Continental light infantry are armed with the Long Hunting Rifle thus classed as 'Jagers' and based 6 per base as opposed to 8 for lights and 10 for line. These dastardly chaps had a habit of picking off British Officers at long range, they were very good shots.

The British Light Infantry jacket 1777.

Peter Pig AWI range 5 in action!

Lovely range of figures, I think possibly their best. Had a test run through this morning of my '1776' DBN variant so grabbed a few close ups. 

Continental line infantry with Militia in front.

Grenadiers fire a volley into Militia, 2 hits.

Loyalists - Butlers Rangers & Royal New Yorkers!

Militia with insulting flag!

Redcoat column with Grenadiers leading.

Rifle armed marksmen move into the woods.

British Regulars with Loyalists in support.

Hessian Jager and British 'Light Bobs'.

Small space wargaming.

Hessian Grenadiers facing Militia.

Overview.

The Royal Yorkers being urged on by Loyalist officer.

Painted backscene and another video!

It's all coming together now and fits comfortably into my painting alcove on top of the desk. 750 x 750 for solo DBN to my own '1776' variant. I painted a quick backscene on 5mm foamboard which I hope will improve the aesthetic appeal of the battles. 

With around 250 figures painted I can't go much further with this project but I'm very tempted by the Peter Pig Wars of the Roses range as a follow up.

A few photos taken today of the general set up and the British/Loyalist/Hessian force on the march!

Pleased with the simple backscene..

And the latest short video from 'Gruff Mumbling Productions' shows a general overview of the project 

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Commission work update!

I continue to be busy on the commission front with batches completed for Old John and Noel. 

I finally managed to get the 15mm Steel Fist cavalry based and finished off with tiny hand made/ painted flags (cornets) as I could not find any downloadable ones and had used all of the Epic flag sheets. I think they look fine so these will all be off to Noel before end of the week. This six regiments plus six command bases completes the ECW commission and we are now back to Epic ACW again with another four infantry sprues, additional metal command strips AND a complete set of the elusive METAL Iron Brigade!  I note that Warlord are about to re  release these in resin at long last.

For Old John I have painted the following rather large batch:

• Ukrainian Cossacks, (Redbox, made in Ukraine), Registered Infantry (30) Zaporozihan Infantry (24) and Peasant Infantry (24).
• WSS in Spain, Phillip V Grenadiers (BUM from Spain, Resin and somewhat 'soft' fragile but highly detailed). 1 Mounted Officer, 1 officer on foot, 10 Grenadiers.
• French Gamaches Cavalry ( BUM from Spain, resin riders on metal Les Higgins horses x 6 plus 1 Minifigs standard bearer and one Irregular Miniatures trumpeter on Les Higgins horse.
• Albani Dragoons mounted Drummer.

All in all a nicely varied and enjoyable paint. This week it's back to Epic Napoleonics for Stephen who has sent me an additional 8 battalions of French infantry in 80 figure units which will be broken down over a couple of months. I find two battalions (16 strips) is a comfortable weeks painting and Stephen is doing all the basing himself and adding flags.

British Grenadiers and 'Cocked hat' not Tricorne!

 A base of British Grenadiers added to my growing AWI collection along with a bunch of based up casualty markers. For the artillery I made a couple of 'shaken' markers from Peter Pig guns which I'm rather pleased with too. I'll be adding more including Indian and cavalry markers. 

Setting the scene.

With much of the scenery and terrain ready now I have had a cunning plan regarding the card table battle field. I had been giving a lot of thought as to how to improve lighting quality above the table for photographs and then had an idea! My painting desk sits in an alcove with lamps on both sides, the desk is 60cm deep by 90cm wide so it's possible to place the card table (75cm x 75cm) with legs folded up onto the desk, against the wall and set the lamps back on either side above it, perfect as the solo games can be played from my comfortable office chair. The final touch will be to add a hand painted North American backscene around three sides to create a kind of model railway style 'Cameo' look which I hope will add to the overall aesthetics. I'll be tackling this little project this week and have been researching 'how to' videos on YouTube.

Research, research!

Speaking of YouTube I have been watching/ listening to a lot of AWI related videos so wanted to mention a few here. I have to say that my love of the period started back in the 1980's when I went to watch a re enactment at Audley End House in Essex put on by hundreds of Americans who had travelled to the Uk for the event. All had been supported by the US Air Force who provided logistic support, travel and accommodation at a local base, to say that it was spectacular would be an understatement and somewhere I still have the full colour programme of the weekends event. After the battle we got to speak to lots of the participants  and to ask questions about unfirms and equipment so I was hooked. 

These days I follow the '10th Regiment of Foot' who make excellent videos on all aspects of a British soldiers life during the war. Channel link:  https://www.youtube.com/@HM10thFoot

Another is the excellent 'Woodland Escape' from which I have learned so much about rural life in the 1850's onwards so if you want to understand how to strip down and clean a Brown Bess musket , to hand make a pair of Winter moccasins or an authentic period hunting shirt or even build a long hunting rifle from scratch using period tools then I would recommend this as a great channel when painting.  Link: https://www.youtube.com/@TheWoodlandEscape  

Another I must mention is Brandon F who offers an engaging and very well researched channel on military subjects of the 18th and early 19th centuries. I have long been interested in the development of military headgear, especially the Tricorne and how it turned into the so called Round Hat worn by many British units in the AWI (yes, I'm a bit Geeky like that!) and so this one was right up my street, if you enjoy it and find it entertaining please do let me know what you think?

If  you like it maybe check out more of his videos as painting background, I also recommend his piece on the wearing of White bearskins - is there any contemporary evidence - by some British  Musicians and even Grenadiers in the mid to late 18th Century (I said I was a Military Hat Geek).