AWI: Last British Units

 

After 13 years, I have finally finished painting all the units I had planned for Black Powder AWI, including these Brits.

Light Infantry

A couple of 'light bob' units were left to do including making a small unit up from the A Call To Arms, Set 65, British Infantry 1775 above. And also another small unit from the Strelets, Set M071, British Light Infantry in Egypt below.

17th Light Horse

The second unit of the 17th Light Horse, to round out the cavalry for the Brits. Like the first unit done, there is a dismounted option from B and B Miniatures range, which I can't find on the internet any longer.

The guidon, I think, is of first squadron and the previous unit is 2nd squadron, taken from a general Google search and resized.

Tavington's Horse from 'The Patriot'

The last unit of British light horse from the Revell Set, 02573, Austrian Dragoons, from their Seven Years War range. 

Having searched for a decent color scheme for some loyalist horse - that's wasn't Tarleton's legion horse - I've settled on the only completely unhistorical unit for the entire collection.

Based on Colonel William Tavington's horse from the movie 'The Patriot', I've gone for red coats and green facings. But that's it, no more British unit updates as this part of the collection is complete. What an effort 😀

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: Grenadiers

A quick post for the last unit of British grenadiers for the Black Powder collection.

These are from BnB Miniatures and rank up nicely next to other manufacturers covering the period. Like the last unit, painted as combined grenadiers from different units in the field - hence different coloured facings and cuffs.

Also a small unit of (using what's left in the box) of French, Bourbonnais grenadiers from the Revell, Set 02574, Austrian Infantry. Another unit who were allowed to ware their Bearskins on campaign, despite the 1779 uniform ordonnance requiring grenadiers to wear tricorns.

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: 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 😆 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.

AWI: Mounted Jaegers

Another small unit down, this time on the side of the Brits, some reinforcements for Mirbach's Hessian brigade completed almost a year ago; some mounted Jaegers/light troops.


The figures are actually from Revell's Set 02573 Austrian Dragoons but at this scale I cannot spot any difference between these guys and their German counterparts.


The uniform is painted up simply from a search on the net and without any reference material, other than knowing that dismounted they wore green coats with red or crimson facings, with green or buff waste-coats and breeches.


These guys are based as a small BP unit for the mounted infantry option in the BP supplement, for one of the Jaeger units painted previously.

Vorwärts!

AWI: 2nd Continental Dragoons

The first auxiliary troops for this period have come off the painting table, a small BP unit of the 2nd Continental Dragoons.

These guys have come from the Revell 02573 Austrian Dragoons set and I've done some head conversions using the heads from spare light infantry out of the A Call To Arms 65 British Infantry 1775 set.


The uniform reference this time began out of the Rebellion! BP supplement but was finalised on the Baccus website, hence the helmet conversions - which I admit was a last minute decision. I've gone for Bay horses - standard and buckskin - and a single gray for the commander.


Not my best effort and had to spend a lot of time on painting some of the white details on as the moulding from 1992 - when the set was first produced - was not the greatest.


The 1775 flag is off the net (after the following search on Google images "awi 2nd continental dragoons flag") and after a quick confirmation from the Historical Flags of Our Ancestors website to make sure it was correct... wish I'd scrolled down as there is a flag for this unit for the later part of the war, no matter.


Next up - will the fun never stop!? - an artillery crew.