6th Maryland, Patterson’s Massachusetts, 7th Pennsylvania, and Virginia Light Horse

 

Another push to get this entire collection painted, with only another 6 standard Black Powder units worth left to go now. This time its three standard infantry units for the American's plus a small unit of light horse.

The flags were from a random search on Mr. Google and the uniforms are once again, straight from Baccus' excellent uniform guide.

Patterson’s Massachusetts Battalion

This is one of the last two units, from the 8 boxes of Italeri American Infantry, which I bought back in ~2014. Not sure if the drummers wore reversed coats but for ascetics I thought they'd look cooler in buff coats.

7th Pennsylvania Regiment

The last unit from the Italeri boxes, I couldn't go past the 7th Penn as a unit. 

I've issued these guys a BPL MkII (Bush, Portable, Low) for the same reasons as I did for the 2nd Canadian, just a fact of life for these aging 1/72 scale figures and the varying pose quality you get in the sets.

6th Maryland Regiment

A few years back I could be heard saying that I'd never buy any more 1/72 scale stuff. For the most part I've stuck to that focusing on 15mm and 28mm. But then earlier this year HaT Industrie released their American Infantry set.

So this is the first unit from the box I bought (😆) but in my defense, I'm not going to be using the IMEX stuff as I wasn't happy with the Green Mountain Boys unit I made using them, as I didn't really like their poses.

The same can't be said for this HaT box though. You get enough figures (96) to make 4 standard BP units, with great poses (marching, firing, loading, and ready).

Virginia Light Horse

Another light cavalry unit made up from the old Revell, Set 02573, Austrian Dragoons, with head conversions from the A Call to Arms, Set 65, British Infantry 1775. As per previous units, some of the detail had to be 'assumed' and painted on, so these don't bare close inspection.

Only a couple more standard infantry units to go, along with a small unit of light infantry, and a few artillery crews left for the Americans.

AWI: 5th/14th Continental, Green Mountain Boys, Grenadier Guards

 
After a 12 month hiatus due to a chronic illness that kicked my arse, a few more units for Black Powder AWI. Can't believe its been 12 years since I started the collection, now with over 46 standard infantry units completed. I reckon I've got another 12 or so units to go plus a few bits and (light) bobs.

Uniforms are again from multiple references, mostly the Black Powder: Rebellion supplement, Osprey references, and internet searches.

5th/14th Continental

Another continental unit from the Italeri Set 6060 American Infantry set. Brown/tan jackets with red facings, tan breeches and waistcoats, and a generic flag.

Still love the command and musicians, have reversed the museos coat just for giggles.

Warner's - Green Mountain Boys

Another iconic unit of renown, this time made up of the slightly smaller IMEX Set 511, George Washington's Army (and a redcoat thrown in from their British set for a standard bearer).

Have done a mix of green hunting shirts, and shirts, with green coats and red facings for the officers. Also a number of hat swaps so that most are wearing the tricorn... with varying success.

Combined British Grenadiers - Guards

A small unit of grenadiers from BnB Miniatures, painted as if units of guards and blue facings have combined during a battle.

Go to admit after 12 years, I'm kinda over painting these guys, especially with the fantastic 28mm ranges now available. But think I'll persist, with a standard unit of combined grenadiers up next, along with a small unit of French, Bourbonnais, grenadiers to boot.

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-étrangers de Lauzun and Volontaires étrangers 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 😁

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 😀

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 😂, now it looks like its kicking out 👍

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!

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.

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... 😨

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.

AWI: Regiments Touraine, Soissonois, Royal Duexponts

 

Like buses, painting BP units seems to be, one every so often and then three of them turn up at once.

With a bit of time on my hands during holidays, I was able to finish off the 3rd commission from Spiro at Pants of War, some AWI French; destined for Black Powder.

The 20 year old figures from Italeri certainly suit the French Ordnance colours from 1779, and the Warflag flags just keep on giving - but the drummers got their 'toy drums' sliced off and replaced with Italeri American drums as per the previous unit.

Regiment Touraine

The pink/apricot of the regiment's colours took some time to get 'just right' and I started to like the white uniforms offset by the royal blue of the musicians and flags.

The flutist seems to be snacking on a gold, 2-foot long, Subway sandwhich, but hey, the figures lent themselves to picking out details pretty well for 20mm figs.

Regiment Soissonois

If the Touraine colours took a while to get right, Soissonois took even longer and required a trip into our local model shop, Acorn Models, to pick up some Vallejo paints (Years ago, GW used to produce the perfect paint, which I'd bought, let dry up, and now their layering system just doesn't have the same brightness - I want a dollop of paint highlight at this scale, not hours of layering). But Scarlet Blood + Squid Pink + a small dollop of Citadel Xereus Purple for darkening, has done the trick.

Regiment Royal Duexponts

Which brings us to one of my favourite colour schemes of the AWI, the Royal Duexponts (and similarly the Lauzun's Legion troops and Brunswick Dragoons).

Unfortunately it seems the officer got a blast of gunpowder in the face, as his detail is missing, but the colouring is just superb.

I know the yellow should be 'lemon' but having highlighted this colour over Spiro's base contrast yellow, I liked the deepness of the yellow and there are three units of Lauzun's infantry to come, so they can be lemon yellow.

Including the regiment Saintonge finished before Xmas and the Bourbonnais finished back in June, that's another five BP standard units down, so enough to field the French as a separate BP brigade.

Regiment Saintonge

There is a real risk here that a wargamer will actually finish his lead/plastic mountain for a given period. 

Regiment Bourbonnais

Will have to wait until January to pick up the last of the French from Spiro and in the meantime, I've prepped up the last three units of Germans for the collection.

Forwards!

AWI: Regiment Saintonge

 

Another BP unit down for the AWI BP collection, this time a French regiment Saintonge.

Actually got these finished in the lead up to xmas but the weather was not conducive to varnishing so couldn't snap some shots.

Standard BP unit, 'firing by company'

This is the first unit from the 3rd commission lot from Spiro at Pants of War.

These white units are more of a pain to get looking right than the more colourful units, so Spiro essentially block painted them with contrast and normal paints and I've gone through and shaded them, and done the finishing bits and bobs.

Despite being almost 20 years old (and long OOP) these Italeri figures paint up well; although I've sliced off the 'toy drum' that the drummer is molded with (see the PSR comments) and replaced it with a slightly oversized drum from the American Italeri box of the same period (which comes loose) - and now I see I've glued it on upside-down 😆.

The other 'problem' at this scale is that the French - due to 1779 regulations - mostly have the regimental colour only on their cuffs, which is hard to see (and piping around other parts which I'm not going to attempt at this scale). But hopefully the excellent flags from warflag.com help to distinguish units amongst the 'sea of white' that I'm sure will ensue. 

So next up, while I'm waiting for work to kick off next year, the regiments Touraine, Soissonois, and Royal Deux-Ponts.

PS: placing a glowing xmas decoration behind the unit seemed like a good idea at the time I was taking these photos.