Native Americans

 After having done a bunch of AWI figures recently for sharp practice, I had a conversation with some local guys about what figures I had.  I realized that I had an entire old GW case full of Native Americans left over from the French and Indian War project I sold off 5 years ago. 

Upon inspection, I remembered I had updated some of the painting on most of them, but had not photographed them afterward. These are a combination of pre-Warlord Games Conquest Miniatures and Perry AWI Native Americans. the ratio is about 40% Perry, 60% Conquest. 58 miniatures in all.

the full Native American Contingent.

Native Americans with Muskets

Native Americans on the attack

Native Americans with bows

More Native Americans with Muskets

Mounted Native Americans and  Big Men

When I was selling my FIW collection, I liked these miniatures too much to sell. the Conquest miniatures are spectacular miniatures.  directly from Conquest, they were virtually flash free, clean castings, with no mold shifts. The Perry miniatures are equally as good, and the chiefs pack has some great character. I've seen some of the Conquest miniatures on offer from Warlord, and the casting quality has slipped, but otherwise are the same quality miniatures.

I still have a couple of chiefs to paint up, as well as a Christmas miniature(native pulling a Christmas tree) and the Last of the Mohicans character pack to repaint.

Last of my AWI for now...

 this week I finished the last 3 complete units for my American War of Independence SP2 project. I still have a unit of  British grenadiers but I'm missing 1 figure, and I don't have money to buy a replacement right now unfortunately.

This week all 3 of the units are British.  I have 2 units of 6 British light infantry, and 1 unit of 8 grenadiers. The grenadiers are a mix of Perry and Foundry metals and the  light infantry are Perry plastic.  I also had a an extra mounted commander which I painted up as a British officer with the same facings as the light units.

24th Regiment of foot, light infantry,
Perry plastics

=

Grenadiers of the 42nd Regiment of Foot,
Mix of Foundry and Perry Metals.

I picked these units at random.  I liked the idea of dark green horse hair crests on the "saratoga" cap so I did the lights as that unit. I just like the blue facings on grenadiers, so I picked a random unit that would have used that facing colour.

I realized last week, while talking with a friend, that i have 50+ native Americans that I kept from my FIW project, as they were both the nicest figures form that collection, and probably the best painted. I don't think they've been photographed since i touched them up, so I'll be taking pictures some time in the near future.  Expect that to be my next post.

Brown-coated Continentals

 I've been pretty lax of late with the painting. I've already missed my aim to update no less then once a month.  I've also been lax on getting my miniatures photographed, as I've had these miniatures painted for about 10 days.

Anyway, here are some brown-coated Continental Infantry I painted for Sharp Practice.  These are the left over from the 2 Perry Continental boxes I bought, hence why there is only 16 instead of 24. I have 2 extra unpainted. I threw in the mounted overweight militia colonel from AW195, as its just a great miniature.

Perry plastic Continental infantry,
with metal colonel from AW195

I have 20 British  infantry left for this project on my desk, partially painted. I'm hoping to get them knocked off next week.

Cheers!

Pandemic projects: American War of Independence

 I started my 28mm American War of Independence  skirmish project a little over a year ago. I painted 120 figures in about plus artillery and command in about a month. I used the project as a test bed to learn how to use GW contrast paints. It was also the fire project to seriously use tufts during the basing. i learned 2 things:

1)  most Contrast paints aren't really worth using.  The Blood angels Red is the most notable exception. it shades constantly and produces a red that works well for British uniforms. other notables are skeletal horde and Apothecary white.  most other colours I used were either the wrong tint and required mixing multiple colours to a close enough colour and/or they went on with an inconstant effect. 

2) tufts are way too expensive to use on every project. I spent over $40CDN dollars on just tufts! it literally doubled to cost of the basing. they look nice, but if i used them on every project I'd definitely have fewer projects! unless there is a viable way to bulk buy them(in Canada, specifically), its not worth it in my opinion.

Everything I've painted since last post, last week.

 

Anyway, I had not painted 2/3rds of 1 group of 24  in each army so  I pulled them out, touched up the finished figures and painted the remaining ones. I also finished up the remaining artillery bits and officers.

I refer to each unit of 24 figures as a "regiment"  as I only paint 24 figures from a given regiment usually. since its a skirmish project, obviously its not an actual regiment, its not even half a company. its just the terminology I use.

Continental(top) and British(bottom)
grasshopper guns and limbers

Grasshopper guns, limbered

I had a pair of Fife and Drum grasshopper guns to paint. 1 each for continental and British. i decided to leave the gun loose so I could limber it as shown in the pictures.  I coated the peg on the limber in carpenters glue to protect the paint.  The guns fit securely on the peg, so when I store them they get stored limbered. I don't normally do this with guns so this was a bit of a viability experiment.

A pair of limbers for my 6pdr cannons

These limbers belong to my 2 6pdr cannons, 1 British, 1 continental. They are also Fife and Drum miniatures.

Continental light infantry, from Pennsylvania

These continental light infantry are Perry plastic with Perry AWI British arms. I just didn't paint the lace in the cuffs. they are painted up the same as my Pennsylvania regiment, and there was at least one entire Penn. regiment that wore light infantry caps, so they can be used either way.  a 24 figure light infantry "regiment"  can be used as show in 3 units of 8 line or 4 units of 6  skirmishers in Sharp Practice.  I repainted the blue coats and all the white on the 8 figures that were painted last year. the mixed contrast blue I made(Tallasar blue and Ultramarines blue) didn't consistently shade to my liking.

this "regiment" also has an attached amusette team not shown that i had previously painted. I did some reading and found that at least one armoury in Virginia? made amusettes for the Continental army. There are even surviving examples. so I bought a pack of Perry Hessian jager amusettes and converted one team to be in (plastic)light infantry caps, and then painted them to match my light infantry.

Loyalist Kings Carolina Rangers

The Kings Carolina Rangers are Perry British plastics. they can be used as any green coated loyalist regiment. I picked Kings Carolina Rangers because they name sounds cool, and because they had green lapels on green coats with no lace. Easy to paint! I repainted a lot of the white on the 8 figures that were already painted, as well as added some colour variation in the gaitered breeches.

Bits and pieces

 I had a few bits and pieces of other "regiments". The commander and infantry in hunting shirts belong to my Maryland regiment, and the brown coated commander is going to be the leader to a 16-man unit of brown coated continentals/militia that have yet to be assembled. the water cart is a 4ground accessory I think.

I really like these figures.  I only used the collection once before the pandemic began, but I'm looking forward to getting more gaming in with them when the pandemic is over!  I still have some British grenadiers to paint, and enough plastics for a 16 figure continental/militia "regiment"in brown coats, and a couple of 6-figure British light infantry units at the trail.  I plan on ordering some cavalry eventually but that is down the road a ways.

28mm Napoleonic Prussians

about 3 years ago I painted a Napoleonic Prussian brigade to act as the flanking force in a Battle of Kulm scenario I put on at MayDay, the Local convention.

I had wanted to make the 8nd Brigade, under the General-major von Hunerbein(at Leipzig), but I goofed.  I put the flags for the 1st east Prussian line regiment on the regular infantry instead of the 8th Prussian regimental standards.  I'll have to make sure I fixed that when I eventually paint the 2nd Brigade(under Prinz Karl of Mecklenburg-Strelitz). Both were part of the 1st Army Corps during the battle of Leipzig)

The 8th brigade is supposed to contain the 8th Line regiment(1st Brandenburg), the 12th Reserve regiment , the 14th Silesian Landwehr regiment, XV foot battery, 2 squadrons of Brandenburg hussars and the 2 squadrons of the 3rd Silesian Landwehr Cavalry.

the (mostly) 8th Brigade, under General Major von Hunerbein

(Left) Bandenburg Hussars, (Right) 3rd Silesian Landwehr
Cavalry, (front) XV foot Battery

1st East Prussian Infantry regiment, with Fusilier battalion
leading the way

12th Reserve Infantry regiment

14th Silesian Landwehr Regiment

Prussians and Russian Guard engaging the French right flank

The French right flank routs

All the Prussian Miniature are Perry except the Landwehr which are 1st generation Warlord.
I have all the infantry I need for the 2nd Brigade from the 1st corps at Leipzig. I have 1 unit of 8 hussars but I'll need a second unit of 8 and another 2 guns for the foot battery. I also have a unit of volunteer jagers for each brigade to finish.

Finished Imagination Army: the Electorate of Lustigzollern-Großgesaß

 About 2 years ago I started playing Beneath the Lilly Banners. I put on a bit game at the Mayday convention(in... May).  For the game i added larger cannons to my existing 2 3Iber crusader teams, as well as finishing off the line infantry. I also painted the full regiment of Osterhaagen Dragoons.

Map of the Electorate

Earlier this year I also finished off  2 Converged grenadier battalions, 2 more 3Ib cannon teams 6 pandours and 8 jagers.

Electorate Artillery Park.  4 3Ib cannons and Crew by Crusader,
2 6Ib cannons, Crew, and carts/limbers by Front Rank

24 Köztársaság Pandours by Crusader, 6 Mounted Pandours from
Front Rank, and 8 Perry Hessian Jagers.

2 Battalions each of Traugott Regiment(left) and Fenstermacher
Regiment(Right). Front Rank figures.  1 Crusader Converged
grenadier battalion at the back

Kurfurst(left) and Kurprinz(right) Regiments by Crusader miniatures.
Converged Grenadier Battalion in the rear, also Crusader)

Metzger Cuirassier(left) by Crusader. 
Osterhaagen Dragoons(right) by Front Rank.

 At this point, I may reorganize the cavalry command figures into a command stand stand for each regiment, and I need to purchase a a pair of limbers to finish off the artillery.  I also have some Allied troops  for the Aquilonian Army(small nation to the East of the Electorate) using Eureka Arquebusier de Grassin.