Monday 5 December 2022

AWI: Lauzun's Legion

 

I still have a thing for the legions of this period, producing a brigade of horse, foot, and gun that's complete in itself. More so when it's Lauzun's Legion with their sky blue coats and yellow facings (and grey turnbacks). So I've gone for it and produced several units for Black Powder... which might be a disproportionate amount for the rest of the American allied army...

For the uniforms there were several searches on Google and a huge call out to Baccus 6mm Miniatures, Scenery, & Rules for producing their uniform guides - much used for this and many other units in this collection.

Fusiliers

There's two standard BP units of fusiliers, Volontaires-รฉtrangers de Lauzun and Volontaires รฉtrangers de la Marine. Its pretty hard to tell the difference at this scale as only the collar colours differ so most have either white or yellow collars per unit.

These are made up from Italeri Set 6043 French Infantry and the detail is good for 20mm. They were from the Lot 4 commission that Spiro Dotgeek completed, the final figures of that commission, and another joint effort to finish - adding shading.

The flags are the official flag from the Lauzun's reenactment group in the states, not sure if they're historically accurate though - but they look cool.

Chasseurs

I added a small BP unit of chasseurs mostly because it used the advancing figures left once all the standard fusilier units had been assigned to regiments and painted. Also from the Italeri box and Lot 4 mentioned above - but I changed my mind when shading and the original white and red Viennois chasseurs became Lauzun's ๐Ÿ˜

Grenadiers

Probably the single biggest stretch of the imagination when using figures of a different period and nationality, to form AWI regiments from 1/72 scale figures. These are from the Revell Set 02574 
Austrian Infantry. The detail was pretty grim from the 30-year-old casting and I'm pretty sure its the wrong bearskin-covered grenadier cap. But it seems the foreign volunteers weren't covered by the 1779 uniform ordonnance so got to wear their bearskins.

Hussars

Continuing on with the craziness, a couple of units of hussars and a command element for the brigade. These are from the SYW Revell Set 02575 Prussian Hussars and are a close approximation of the uniform (pretty close except for the mirliton decoration and chaps).
First there's the 2nd Volontaires etrangers de la Marine and I'm not sure I've painted figures with so many different colours before.
Next there's 1st Volontaires etrangers de la Marine which, I'm pretty sure, only served in what was the West Indies at the time, although different pictorial sources conflict here. So, good for the collection but perhaps not once setting foot on American soil ๐Ÿ˜€
Then there's a close approximation of Lauzun himself in Hussar uniform. The mirliton is definitely incorrect as he's depicted with a giant bearskin. But a clearly identifiable command unit for a clearly identifiable BP brigade.


And of course there was this guy. This poor horse is going down. There's no other movement it can complete to recover, its front legs won't be able to take the weight of the rider and equipment, given the force of movement, and its back legs won't get underneath it in time - I've been exactly here when I missed a jump coming off another jump and tried to correct - result - eating dirt for horse and rider (and the rider goes over the top of the horse and flies - I can actually remember the wind whistling past and thinking it was going to hurt when I hit the ground, which it did)... either that or its bucking, see 'rider goes flying' comment.
So, cut the thing off the base at the grassy stump and carve a hole in the base, then insert grassy stump and cover with glue ๐Ÿ˜‚, now it looks like its kicking out ๐Ÿ‘

But that's the French completely finished. A brigade of Duc de Lauzun and a brigade of units that could feasibly be found at Yorktown. Onwards!














Wednesday 23 November 2022

2nd Punic War: Late Etruscans

First lot of Newline Design figures since everything was heartlessly put into storage nearly a year ago. Some Etruscans for the Hail Caesar ruleset and massive shift from old DMA/M basing. But these are new figures straight out of the bag.
First up some Etruscan Class III and IV Advancing based together to act as Italian Hastati or light infantry. I'd forgotten just how hard it is to get pure white shields to behave.
Next up are some Etruscan Class I and II Standing based together and re-shielded with Scutums from the Roman HaT range to act as Principes.

I've probably been too literal in my interpretation of how the Italian tribes morphed into Hastati and Principes as they were Romanized. But I figure its late in the war, somewhere between Cannae and Zama, and they've been given or taken some of the huge surplus of Roman weaponry and armor left over from previous battles. There's certainly some good detail on these Newline figures.All the shield designs were a transfer commission by a local printer that I sourced off of Google and rescaled/touched up - at this scale the individual dolphins and wreathes were a little fiddly to position correctly.

  

Tuesday 8 November 2022

2nd Punic War: Carthaginian Elephants and Veteran Spear

 

I know I've caved to the wargamer's bane and completed the crown units of the army before doing the masses but I couldn't resist getting these guys converted for Hail Caesar.

War Elephants

The units have been rebased from DBA/M and a general's elephant element added.
The fighting bases are from the HaT Set 8023 War Elephants and depict the smaller African Forest Elephant with howdah. Some of them were painted nearly twenty years ago and needed quite a bit of touching up.
I also added some shield transfers I'd commissioned from a local printer and most have been based two to a base to create four HC bases.
The elephant general is from the Linear-A Set 023 Hannibal Makes a Triumphal Entry in Italy and as the name indicates, is meant to depict Hannibal riding on Surus - the last remaining elephant of that epic trip. The companions are from the same set and the HaT Set 8056 Carthaginian Command and Cavalry, shield transfers are from Big Little Men Studios Carthage Punic range.
That Surus seems to be a bigger than the other elephants supports the idea that he was an Indian/Syrian elephant - a lot larger than the smaller forest elephants. I just wish, instead of going directly backwards, Hail Caesar had similar stampede rules to the old WAB ruleset, where a scatter dice was rolled to see which direction the elephants went when they stampeded ๐Ÿ˜‚  

Veteran Spear 

Another crown unit, Hannibal's veteran spear from HaT Set 8020 Hannibal's Carthaginians - African Infantry and command set from the same company mentioned above. There's also a standard bearer/officer and trumpeter from Newline Design's Carthaginian Command pack and as always, they mix in well with the HaT troops. Shield designs are also from the Little Big Men Studios Carthage range.
Again, some of these figures were painted nearly twenty years ago so have received new paint on their spears and a dose of PVA glue to stop the paint from splitting off when the spears bend. Listed as Phalanx in the army lists, these guys are four ranks deep as opposed to the normal two for HC.
With the transfers applied, they make me want to have a game of HC, better rebase and transfer some more units.








Wednesday 26 October 2022

AWI: 2nd Canadian, Connecticut Light Horse, Tarleton's Dragoons

Some more AWI completed over the last few months and finally ready. Bit of a mix but getting through the backlog of units.

Congress' Own - 2nd Canadian

Quite an important unit for any Black Powder AWI collection, the regiment raised by congress itself, the 2nd Canadian. These are more from the Italeri Set 6060 American Infantry and have come out well again. Although you can probably see that the regiment has pressed itself against a low hedge.
The reason for this is that the front firing figure is leaning against a rock and I just can't bring myself to model the same rock 12 times in a regiment. So I issued my 2nd Canadian guys with a BPL Mk I (Bush, Portable, Low). Now they can take it with them wherever they go. The flags are from a Google search on the regiment flag.

Connecticut Light Horse

Some more light horse for the Americans, this time from the Revell Set 02573 Austrian Dragoons, again at this scale you can't tell the differences of equipment so using some figures from the period immediately preceding works just as well.

Tarleton's Dragoons

Finally for the moment, another unit that you just can't be without in an AWI Black Powder collection, Tarleton's Dragoons. These are more from the Strelets Set 119 British Cavalry (Egypt) and are reasonable figures for the scale. Although I used a green from the Speedpaints Starter Set and was not impressed - as any highlighting I tried to put on the green just disappeared.
I've also done a small dismounted unit of skirmishers for when the need calls. These are from Strelets
Set M071 British Light Infantry in Egypt. Same can be said for the green and for using figures immediately succeeding the period being modelled.

All in all a good run for the AWI collection.





Wednesday 31 August 2022

2nd Punic War: Hastati and Velites

Finally, after almost a year of living in a tiny cottage with most of our stuff in storage, we have moved and I have access to my figure mountain of shame.

And this is one of my more crazy ideas, recycling the 20mm/1/72 figures painted around the turn of the century, for a game system I've never used; Hail Caesar.

Originally for DBA, then DBM (and DBMM), then WAB, I've taken the Carts and Romans painted up for those games and started rebasing them, sometimes adding to their numbers by a factor of two. I figured, I liked Black Powder, Warmaster, and WAB, so why not give this a go... completely basing to a new standard and building the collection to nearly 500 figures... and I was trying to move away from the scale!

Both the Hastati and Velites are from the HaT set 8018, Republican Romans Hastati & Velites. Command figures are from the HaT set 8051, Roman Command. The signifier is from the HaT set 8035, Roman Catapults (even now I wonder why the Hastati and Velites in this set are 25mm).

But have to say I like the way they are based now and of all the basing standards, Hail Caesar really gives the 'impression of a unit'.

Hastati Command

One of three commands, painted as a commander of one of the main troop types for the army (Hastati, Principes, Triarii). Although they'll probably end up being the generals for a single legion.

I bought a pack of plastic gems at the local 2-dollar shop and glued them on the Signifer's pole (ooh err... um, I think its called an aquila), then hand painted the details including the little 'H' ๐Ÿ˜†

Hastati

These guys have finally come up as I'd originally imagined. The shield designs are from Little Big Men Studios Range, specifically designed for the HaT figures. They're a little bit fiddly but are excellent and well worth it. It only took one or two figures before the 'product line' kicked in.
I've gone for the tenth and thirteenth legions, a) because the 13th was Scipio's legion and b) because there were a lot of 'pig' insignia available for the 10th - though I'm not sure they fought the Carts.
Along with the LBM transfers, I got some transfers made for the command figures.

Velites

Two of about eight small light infantry units for the Romans.
Basing all the lights individually seemed like a good idea at the time, but am questioning that choice after only two units. Luckily a mate gave me a whole lot of movement trays ๐Ÿ‘

Next up, the Cart's elephants and a veteran spear unit, and maybe some Etruscan Hastati and Principes.

AWI: Combined Grenadiers, Regiments 4th Connecticut & 3rd New Jersey

 

With things available and readily at hand in our new place, I've been able to crank out some more units for the AWI collection, and snap some shots of the grenadiers I finished months ago.

3rd New Jersey

A suitably heroic unit rushing towards their freedom, 1776 pattern star spangled banner fluttering in the breeze.

These are from the Italeri set 6060, American Infantry box of awesomeness, one of four units left to do using these figures. I used the Uniforms of the American Revolution as a reference and it matched the Rebellion! supplement, so I though why not. The flag is once again from Warflag.com but printed at the local printer with better results than my home printer.

I've even used the single 'overly heroic' pose in the box (which you get three of in each box), even though I swore I'd never use it.
I'd swear, even after being wounded in the head, he's yelling "For freedom!" but then that would be mixing up Mel Gibson movies. But another standard unit for Black Powder: Rebellion! down.

4th Connecticut

Next up a small unit (16-odd figures) to bolster the numbers of the rebel ranks. Technically painted as the 4th Connecticut but the 2nd's flag. Not sure where the flag came from. I did a Google search on flags AWI, found it and shrunk it down to 1/72 size. I think its was someone's store... but printed at the local printer... ๐Ÿ˜จ
These are actually from the IMEX set 512, British Redcoats, but having finished all the redcoats I wanted, with some snipping of bayonets, they've come up well. Again the uniform is from Uniforms of the American Revolution.

Combined Grenadiers

Finished these guys ages ago but they got stuffed in a box ready for moving. They're B n B Miniatures grenadiers and really like how they've turned out. Painted up as companies of grenadiers combined from other units, to make one big (standard) grenadier unit.

I um'd and ahh'd about which grenadiers to use and even bought Irregular Miniatures ones to begin with, but, although they were awesome figures, they were also awesomely accurate to scale - so way smaller than even the IMEX figures.

So I bought the B n B ones and they stack up well against everything else in the collection.

Next up, Tarleton's light horse is on the painting table (now I actually have a painting table again) - and my mate Spiro is finishing off Lot 4 of the commission he took on last year.



Friday 4 February 2022

AWI: Regiments von Rall, von Lossberg, Brunswick Prinz Ludwig, and Mounted Jaegers

... Mirbach had wasted no time in utilising the reinforcements that had arrived shortly after lunch. Not they were really reinforcements, he'd been waiting on Lossberg's fusiliers since daybreak. But finally Lossberg had arrived with his expected battalion, along with von Rall's battalion, some Brunswick Dragoons and a unit of mounted jaegers.
The morning had been a stalemate, primarily becuase Mirbach could not force home their objective without the troops he'd been allotted. But now he would drive through the rebels and meet up with the British as planned - albeit, four hours late...

... or what I did with the rest of our summer holidays - finishing the German regiments in my BP AWI collection. Yes, this portion of the collection is done. Complete. Finished, and take their place along side the other 7 units started in 2014 and based in 2016!

While there may be a command stand to come at some point, its nice to get something completed for this collection.

Regiment von Rall

There was one more German grenadier unit on the plan and having started researching uniforms again after all those years, I found that Rall's regiment was actually formed from scratch and had its's own colours - rather than being combined from line units. So, along with the 'straw-coloured' waistcoat and trousers, and gold 'metal' colour, a unit of grenadiers with flags was a no-brainer. The flags came from a search on the Dr. Goolgle and resized for scale - but more on that later.

Regiment von Lossberg

Chosen mainly for their flag colour in 2016 and mentioned in my little vignette from that post, these guys were satisfying to finish, mainly because I'd set an expectation, and 5 years, 1 month later, they were a thing ๐Ÿ˜† The flags are once again from the brilliant warflag.com.

HaT Industrie 8280 and 8282

Both Rall's and Lossberg's battalions were created using HaT's Seven Year's War Set 8280 Prussians Marching and Set 8282 Prussian Command, and have awesome detail for 1/72 scale figures. For this scale, the slight differences between the theatres make little difference - so quite a few 7YW sets have been used for this collection.

They all come with separate hats and you can chose from musketeers, fusiliers or grenadiers. These were very tricky to put on, the figures and hats needed some flashing removed and a good deal of patience when gluing.
As you can see from the picture above, the hats are tiny - the exacto-knife shows the scale. But the couple of hours spent gluing the 50 hats paid off in the end becuase of the excellent detail - including the back of the headgear.
Finally, if you use the standard bearer's flagpole, as I've done, then the flags have to be a bit smaller than scale to fit between the figure's shoulder and the tassels at the top of the flag. This makes the flags about 2.3cm, rather than the 1/72, 2.77cm, for flags roughly 2 meters in size.

'Brunswick Dragoons'

While there's been some 'tactical' thought to what units to field over the years, to make balanced BP armies, the whole point of this collection was to get colour on the table. So, with that in mind, I couldn't go past a unit of Prinz Ludwig dragoons from the Brunswick troops.

They're converted from Set 02579 Austrian Artillery from Revell's SYW range. I chose them primarily for their knee-high boots and stick-like artillery thingys - that at this scale can be painted as swords. Most figures had an artillery-baggy-thingy at the front of their belt, which needed some gentle carving to make into normal belts, and other figures needed something to hold, so some hasty conversions providing them with muskets were made - cutting up spare figures from Italeri's Set 6060 American Infantry.

The guidon (flag) is from another Dr Google search and these make for another small skirmishing unit for the German brigades.

Mounted Jaegers

Part of balancing a brigade in BP: AWI Rebellion, for me at least, is to ensure each brigade has access to a small unit of light horse of some description.

Having made the embarrassing mistake of asking if anyone had a picture of the Brunswick Dragoon's horse furniture, I quickly realised that that unit was sent to America without any horses and never procured them while in theatre - fighting only dismounted. So another unit of mounted jaegers was produced from Revell's Set 02573 Austrian Dragoons.

The uniform is based on the BP supplement and a Google search.

Along with every other unit completed here, it just goes to show that looking at periods either side of the conflict you have chosen, at least for 1/72 scale armies, enables you to field just about any unit you'd like - with only a bit of patience and suspension of belief.

Next up, some B and B miniatures British Grenadiers.