Project 1777: Next Steps

What Do We Need? More Troops! When Do We Need Them? Now!

So, I've been working out what figures I'll need for Project 1777. I took stock of what I already have, made a rough estimate of what more I'd need, and put in an order with a couple of suppliers to fill in most of the gaps. Perry Miniatures are wonderful for Rev War, but they are missing a few things. 

They started the line, as I understand it, to complement the work they had done before with Wargames Foundry. So they didn't rush to do basic things they had already done, like standard British infantry in the early war clothing of the 1768 Warrant. Also, they don't sell artillery pieces as stand-alone items, so if you want such and such a piece, you buy the set of artillerists and gun that feature it. And while they do most of the types of guns seen during the war (3 pounders, 4 pounder, 6 pounders, howitzers, even a 24 pounder siege gun), they don't do a 12 pounder field piece. So I also had to make small orders with other makers, including with Front Rank (now owned by Gripping Beast), who do a handsome 12 pounder. 

I also wanted to fill out a few of my older units, built with Front Rank figures. I had built them back int he day to fill slots in an OB (also 1777, as it happened) for gaming with my friend Rocky's Fortunes of War rules. Those involved considerably smaller units, based in one rank, so if I were to make those units of to Carnage & Glory's preferred two-rank basing, I'd need more figures to match the old ones I'd used.

And I also needed to evaluate the bits and pieces I've assembled, partly secondhand, to see what would be suitable. After my initial foray with Front Rank (whose figures are good-solid, beef-fed fellows, very stocky, and tend to lean forward a great deal), I'd tried out Redoubt Miniatures, whose figures have character and at the time had the benefit of being cheap. They have stopped producing their Rev War line, so I can't fill in any of those units, and at some point I'd rather like to replace them and sell off my Redoubt units, as they are rather cartoonish figures. But at the moment, they make a good half of my Continentals, and I have 40 British infantry in the "cut down" uniform assumed by much of the army for the 1777 campaign. They're not handsome, but there are a lot of them and they're easy to paint up.

Here are two batches of them, one unprimed and the other with six colours on, almost ready to be based.

Two things are brought home by making up a list of what units I need to build and what figures I'll use for them. One is that, while the British OB is mostly a matter of what units (and officers) started out the 1777 campaign and which were added up to the evacuation of Philadelphia and the battle of Monmouth, the American army is much more ... changeable. The British army used more or less the same organization throughout, but the Americans, I presume because of their enlistment system and the resulting variable strength of their units, made substantial organizational changes from 1777 to 1778. So I'm going to proceed on the basis of 1777 and then see what changes need to be made for 1778 when I get there.

The other realization this process brings home is the sheer scope of the project I've taken on. the British and American armies are both over 15,000 men (the British closer to 20,000), which will mean over 300 stands of troops. At the moment I have the equivalent of about 50. Lots of work ahead!

dead highlanders

I've been a fan of Giles Allison's work for some time. As can be seen at his blog, Tarleton's Quarter, he's an accomplished painter of wargaming miniatures, primarily from the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars (with a few other periods on the side).

His latest post shows some Revolutionary War Highlander casualty figures, a follow-on from recent postings of figures he painted for the 76th Regiment of Foot (Macdonald's Highlanders) and command and music figures for several different Highland regiments. These are all from a new(ish) range of 28mm RevWar Highland figures produced by King's Mountain Miniatures (their line also includes "over the mountain men", the principal American protagonists at the battle whose name the company bears).

Giles has done his "usual" exceptional paintjob on these chaps. They're very peaceful casualties (rather like casualties at a reenactment); in fact, I can imagine a small vignette with one of these chaps, a model musket leaning against a tree, and a very frowny officer...

Army painting: DBA IV/13 continued

So, with colours picked out, it was time to start slapping them on. I like to put down the main body colours (usually uniforms or other clothing) first, secondary body colours next, weapons after that, then faces/hands, with details and touch-up coming last.

Here's everyone with the first colour on:

And then everyone with two:

And a photo of my lovely (handsome) assistant:

Then weapons and shields got painted, and work on hands and faces began.

Army painting: DBA IV/13a

I don't seem to be finding much time to post, but I've been busy nonetheless. I've had a few chances to get together with friends for table games, but my wargame hobby time has mostly been of the painting variety.

Painting is a task I don't much enjoy. I do get a sense of accomplishment, and a bit of pleasure, when the lads are all done and dusted, but I don't have the talent or pleasure in the process that some of my friends do, so it's often a rushed process, trying to get a small portion of my huge lead mountain ready to play. This especially happens in the spring and autumn, when the big East Coast HMGS cons come around (I rarely go to the summer one), and I sprint to try to finish a couple of DBA armies in time for tournaments.

This year I had two on the table, and one appears to be almost done, nearly a week before the event, with the second well underway. Most unusual.

In this case, I'm painting a Medieval German army (IV/13) for Alan Ferrency's Holy Roman Empire pyramid tourney. Here's the list:

1x 3Kn//4Bd(Gen), 2x 4Cb, 2x 4Sp, 2x 4Bd, 2x 2Ps, 3x 7Hd or 4Bd or 3Cb

It's an unusual variant; most IV/13 armies have a healthy dose of Knights, but this one has only one Knight, and that optional. It's nominally a IV/13a list, but one of the mandatory four Kn in that list has become a Cb and three others have permanently dismounted as Bd. (Interestingly, the General is also allowed to dismount, which he is not in the original army list.) The final Kn has joined the original 2 Ax or Sp or Pk in becoming 3 Hd or Bd or Cb. It's a list that was going to be heavy foot for the most part in any case, but now it can filed six Bd or five Cb where before it could have fielded no more than one Cb and at most four Bd. Curious.

That curious composition meant I had to raid other armies in the painting box. Fortunately, I had two Medieval Scandinavian armies on hand (both from the same "I sell ugly armies cheap" packager on Fanaticus), so I had pillaging material. Goodness knows I'll have to do some sorting later to make sure I have a "proper" IV/13 army and the ability to paint up a Kalmar Union or Swedish army for my GF, affectionately known as Fröken Sverige. :-)

I took far too many snaps as I was going along, so I won't bore you with them all here, but you can go to my Fotki account and see them. For now, let's just have a shot of them at start, assembled (crossbows in hands) and basecoated with black gesso.

It's an odd mixture of manufacturers. I have no idea where the knights are from (they were partly painted already); I don't like them much, but there are only three of them, one element. The spear and crossbow are definitely Essex, with the pluses and minuses that come with Essex (portly and with crappy bases, but nicely sculpted and good detail). The handgunners look like they could be Minifig. The blade are nice figures with good detail and lovely animation; I think the fellows who will be appearing later in white and red are different to the fellows who will be in yellow and blue, but I'm not sure.

Besides prepping the figures, I had to prep my palette. I fiddled around a little on the Internet, using the information that my fellows were supposed to represent Hannover. In the end, since Hannover existed int he period in question only as a city (the Electorate, and later Kingdom, of Hanover didn't exist until the 18th century), I assumed that they were troops of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg and chose for all the knights and blades colours that would match that realm: red and white for Brunswick (Braunschweig) and yellow and blue for Lüneburg. The crossbows and spears would have colours from some of the cities of the region, perhaps representing burgher militias or professionals hired by those towns, and got assigned blue and grey. The two stands of handgunners, I figured, would be top-quality professionals hired by the general, so they too got red and white liveries.

Next: Paint goes on!