Redcoats, Royal Artillery, Plains Indians, American Cavalry & Scatter Terrain

The last month to six weeks has seen a complete change in my usual routine, in terms of painting figures for projects, but that was always in the plan, however I am looking forward to getting back to the norm.

With loft clear-outs and wargaming room changes and now a dedicated bout of 28mm terrain building I am really looking forward to getting back to the Romans and Dacians, which hopefully will include a game or two on my new table set up in the not too distant future.

Needless to say the figure painting and blog updating have been affected by this extra activity but to make up for my absence in the 'blogosphere' with regular posts showing newly painted warriors I thought I should give you a double whammy of 'wargamers porn' in the run up to Xmas.

So this post is featuring work I have been doing of figures for my old mate Steve M and his very big FIW collection for Muskets and Tomahawks, Donnybrook or Sharp Practice II with some British General Officers, a 60th Foot Colour Party and some Royal Artillery gunners complete with a couple of six pounders.

In addition we have our annual big end of year game at the Devon Wargames Group this weekend in honour of a former member, Gus Murchie in which we will be riding out west with the 7th cavalry and dealing with injuns and so I have put together some figures for that game that I suspect might be going to a new home afterwards.

Steve's British Seven Years War figures are a follow up to the 60th Foot I painted for him a while back in July last year and you can see them in the link below and other units I have done for Steve's collection in the label 'Muskets and Tomahawks' in the right hand column.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-60th-royal-american-regiment-of.html

The figures are in this case a mix of Wargames Foundry and Galloping Major (Colour Party) which seem to compliment each other really well.

http://www.gallopingmajorwargames.com/

The colours are of course the excellent range from Graham at GMB Flags and I have no hesitation in recommending them to really finish off a project having used them here and on nearly all my own 18mm Napoleonic miniatures. The really nice finials and chords are from Front Rank and just complete the look perfectly.

In the background to these pictures can be seen the latest addition to my growing 28mm terrain collection being put together specifically for my Romano-Dacian project but standing in equally well for giving a hint of North America in this case.

I have had a lot of fun messing about with tree bark, stones from the garden and more scatter material than you could possibly shake a stick at.

Simply put it is like basing figures but on a much bigger scale and those rocky outcrops and tree bases are off to get sealed with my 50:50 PVA:Water spray as soon as I have finished this post, so that shows you how new they are.

The British General Officers are from the Foundry Seven Years War range and will work perfectly for Steve's FIW collection looking very pugnacious and determined.

To complete the Seven Years War section of this post we have a regiment always close to my heart as nearly all my close relatives have served in the last century as part of the Royal Artillery and here they are in their original blues and buff of the early period of the regiment.

I particularly liked the officer and loader with ball in hand again looking very determined and ready for battle.

I hope you like them Steve, happy Xmas and see you on the weekend.

Next up are the other figures I have been working on in between the other activities and ready for the fray this weekend at club.

These ten US cavalry figures have been sat undercoated in my loft for about the last twenty years alongside the seven Plains Indians I did paint up for a game I have completely forgotten about at the club.

Don't ask me what make of figures they are, possibly Old Glory, but I don't really know as I bought them years ago and dug them out to get ready for this particular club game coming up.

This theme is not really my bag and I can see these figures going as I say to a new home after the game as I am unlikely to add to them, but I had a lot of fun researching them to get them ready for this weekend.

They certainly are full of character and I have painted them very much in a Hollywood filmic style rather than the more likely bedraggled scruffy campaign look that manikins from various American museums and the period photos from the time would suggest.

The Indians as I say were painted a long time ago when my technique was still very much developing and so make an interesting contrast between how I painted then and now. That said I decided to just 'tart up' the bases a bit with a wash and dry brush and leave them as seen for tomorrows game.

Anyway its back to the terrain building and the next set of figures to go on the paint stick should be some Sarmatians, so that should be fun.

Perry Miniatures Plastic Continentals - 12th Massachusetts & Riflemen

For the last few years now it has become a bit of a tradition at the Devon Wargames Group to run our December meeting as one game in which the whole club are invited to get involved.

The chosen theme is usually based on a core of collections held within the club and any extras are generally added to by those happy to get some required figures put together.

Given the festive month the game is usually accompanied by suitable beverages and rations to keep the army going when most other forces are tucked up in winter quarters.

This year's theme is the American War of Independence or American Revolution, depending on your side of the pond with a scenario loosely based on the Battle of Oriskany fought in 1777 during the Saratoga campaign, using Muskets & Tomahawks as they always give a good game when there are lots of players involved.

I don't have an AWI collection since I sold my 15mm stuff to Steve M, but I have a plan to return to this favourite period using 28mm Perry plastics built around Sam Mustafa's 'Maurice'.

My original plan was to supply terrain as my contribution to this year's game, but two things determined my mind to do some figures as well; firstly that the club needs as many American infantry it can get for the game and secondly this year's game is the first renamed in honour of an old wargaming mate no longer with us, hence the Gus Murchie Memorial game which will now be our traditional year end big game.

Gus doing what he loved, deep in conversation about the finer points of Grand Manner,
during another 'big game' in JJ's cave

Those who read my post about Warfare this November will have seen that I picked up a box of the Perry plastics and, keeping a battalion sized group aside for my Maurice plans, I practised painting these chaps as my small contribution for next weekend's game.

The Continental squad led by their sergeant are based on the 12th Massachusetts Regiment or 18th Continentals.

The regiment was raised in 1775 by Colonel Edmund Phinney near Boston, Massachusetts, seeing action at Bunker Hill, Valcour Island, Saratoga and Monmouth, disbanding at West Point, New York in 1781, so make a worthy unit to field for our game.

I have never worked with these figures before but found them great fun to put together and paint and with a bigger unit of twenty-four figures including a command group and a few hunting shirts mixed in would make a very attractive Maurice unit.

The box also comes with sprue and head options to put together American riflemen of the period and Muskets &Tomahawks allows units of just four of these chaps, so I thought I would add them in to complete my little force.

These made a nice little diversion from the Dark Ages but with my Viking Hirdmen glowering at me from the paint desk I am back to getting that collection done whilst making plans for future ones - don't you just love this hobby?

Lots of stuff to come with another Over the Hills play-test report, another book review and more from Holland 2017.

The 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot - French Indian War

Well things have been happening here at 'Chez JJ' with most of the decorating pretty much done I have got my painting desk back, and to make up for all the time away from the brush Carolyn let me invest in a new daylight angle poise strip light and a new paint rack to go with it.

So to christen the new table and to get my eye in to working in 28mm for the foreseeable, I got down to getting these Galloping Major figures that I have been promising Steve M. I would do for him once the Talavera stuff was completed and the desk was back up and running.

Steve and I like to dabble in the odd game of Sharp Practice II, or even Muskets and Tomahawks as we did at Wargames Foundry a few weeks ago, and you will have seen his collection of French Indian Wars figures and terrain growing over time and so these chaps representing a very famous British and American regiment, the 60th Foot should add to our games going forward.

I was under very strict instructions to base these figures so that they could as required form up into neat British platoon groups ready to pour on that volley fire to anyone unlucky enough to find themselves in front of them at the time.

I have a feeling Steve is working on a 'Plains of Abraham' scenario so if I am playing French I must try and make sure I fire first.

I have mentioned it before when painting Galloping Major figures for Steve, which includes some Rangers and Virginia Militia that these chaps are a large 'heroic' 28mm style of figure with bag loads of character and detail just asking to be painted and highlighted.

Virginia Regiment - French Indian War
Muskets and Tomahawks
Rogers Rangers

The 'platoon volley' group

You have to work out the level of detail on each figure with some carrying hatchets under the turn-back coats alongside the normal bayonet frog.

The 'fire at will' group

The officer figures are simply stunning in the amount of detail applied and I had to flick through a few references to remind myself quite how much lace they wore and where these men would carry it.

The mounted colonel makes a nice centre piece and will do as a senior army commander leaving the on foot version to take command of the infantry which was more likely for fighting in the close country of North America.

Ready, aim, fire!

I have given these figures a bit of a parade ground appearance, conscious of  the references showing, brown grey and black leggings. Lets just say this batch of conscripts were all in the same queue for their kit issue and are new in theatre.

For the pictures I have grouped them into three particular platoons with two commanded by officers, one group which I think of as the bayonet group as per Zulu has an armed officer in the ranks together with a few NCO's.

Then there is the 'fire at will' group who have half the platoon pouring it on and the others choosing their targets and finally under the senior sergeant armed with his personal carbine, the 'platoon volley' group all ready to present and pour it on on the command.

The 'bayonet group'

So there we are, with the first unit post Talavera 208 which we have the second game coming up this weekend in time for the two-hundred and eighth anniversary this Friday and a special dispensation from Carolyn to allow me to invite the chaps over to play it all weekend as it also my wedding anniversary this weekend also.

So what about the desk and your fancy new light and extra storage space, I hear you ask.

This is my desk back in the newly decorated spot with my new 'LightCraft' triple tube professional task lamp giving me shadow free day light with low heat emission and I am in love with this bit of kit.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lightcraft-Tri-Tube-Fluorescent-Task-Lamp/dp/B005PXH7W6

I first heard it talked about on the Meeples Podcast and made a note to look into it once our decorating work was done and I am really pleased with the ability to paint with it any time of day.

The amazing bit about that fancy grid over the strip lights is that you do not get any shadow which really allows you to find all the detail on a figure.

The larger paint rack is from Wargame Model Mods who have an extensive, well priced range of mdf storage units, this being the 52 paint rack model with little draws for things like tweezers and metal files etc.

http://www.wargame-model-mods.co.uk/ourshop/cat_888025-Work-Area-Storage.html

It isn't full yet because Tom is going to fit some new back boards to my desk to prevent any paint splatter going on our newly decorated walls, so I am travelling light so we can get at the desk when he is ready.

Finally a lot of Steve's figures under work beneath all that lovely light.

References to the 60th Foot I looked at for this post:
http://www.militaryheritage.com/60thregt.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Royal_Rifle_Corps
http://madmonarchist.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-royal-american-regiment.html