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 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: 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.

AWI Loyalists

 The final standard infantry units for the Brits are done and probably the final thing I'll paint this year. 

Its only taken five years to get British line completed but it was worth it... 😂

To finish off the 'sea of red' created by the other ten line units (and some Grenadiers still to come) a splodge of green, Loyalist Green from early on in the conflict.

Loosely based on the Loyalist Regiment Massachusetts and Regiment of Fencible Americans - although flags have been swapped around for ascetics.

Loyalists - Massachusetts flag with blue facings.

This was another joint effort from Spiro at Pants of War (Commission: Lot 2) and some highlighting and shading to move the contrast paints closer to historic colours.

Loyalist Fencible Americans(ish) with speculative flag (read 'made up' - I'm speculating they had a flag) and white facings.

 

So, still two lots of French to come and another four Continental units off their sprew awaiting paint (might be a holiday thing)(and some militia which I've been putting off for years now). Still loving the detail on these IMEX/Accurate figures.

But having received some drummers with tricorns from Irregular and placing the grenadiers I'd brought against some Continentals, I've had second thoughts about using them as they stand a full head shorter than the Italeri figures - sad face.

So as bold as the Loyalist colonel standing above, his drummer clearly wondering what the last order he barked was, I've sent the Irregulars to Coventry and ordered some B and B Miniatures which stand the same height but are a little bulkier in style to the plastics - fricking onwards!

Kinda like the light dragoons painted previously, so why not... oh and some Butlers Rangers... and some Queens Rangers... for light duties, why wouldn't you?

... anybody want two BP units of unpainted, AWI British Grenadiers, circa 18mm tall, PM me 😁 .. to be fair on Irregular, they are excellent, well proportioned figures - just accurately 20mm (unlike the plastics which stand between 22mm and 26mm). I remain yours, pendantically JS.

Merry Non-Denominational Holidays 😄

Gaslands! Got the Bug!

 

Haven't played a game of Gaslands yet but after reading the rules, reviews and watching a few demos on YouTube, it was I game I decided I couldn't live without - coz Its like Car Wars but without the grid! 😁

I just gotta say it was oddly satisfying and addictive wrecking some Hot Wheels cars and making models from them.

It started slow with The Great Die Cast Shortage of '21 but my wonderful little buddy of a step son sorted through what was left at our local Warehouse (think KMart for US friends and 'big shop with heaps of stuff you didn't know you didn't need' for UK friends) and found the Kia (on right). Then lo and behold, 10 weeks out from Xmas, a shipment must have arrived in NZ from the states and the Jag came next.

Then, after going to down to buy a hose fitting or something as equally mundane, we came home with another 9 cars!

Killer Kia: Grenades and minigun

I got some templates and roads from a local firm Battle Kiwi and might do a sperate post for them coz their stuff is excellent. And then got the Implements of Carnage sprew 1, some dice and Warboys from Northstar.

Jaguar XJYes!: Also grenades and minigun

Just couldn't resist putting miniguns on these first two and in the spirit of the game, the team name for these guys is Black Knights of the Red Dragon.

And I can't describe the almost insane feeling you get when you drill out the cars.

And just how awesomely replete it is when you stick a Northstar figure in a Hot Wheels car.

Think I ended up drilling out everything we bought and then stuck most of the metal chassis in 1:1 solution of Dettol and water - hey presto, overnight, no more paint.

Drilled out Camaro and some of the awesome bits from the Northstar Implements of Carnage 1 sprew

Looking forward to getting some Mad Max type vehicles together using the Northstar figures and actually getting a game in!

AWI: Even More British

 

Two more AWI units down much thanks to Spiro at Pants of War, the first half of the second lot he's commissioned to do (of 4 lots! 😄).

This time its the last of the regular Brits and by the looks of it the colonel of the 44th is as happy about it as me (he looks like he's smiling).

But having gone through every regimental colour with previous units I doubled up on yellow as the regimental colour for the 44th - primarily as there seems to be more of these units in the theatre.

I've given them blue trousers to distinguish form the other yellow unit and as there are a couple of photos in the BP AWI supplement of Brits with blue trousers, I say its good and it looks great.

Yes, this chap may well smirk as his sergeant barks the order for the firing line of the 44th to open up, as next up the first beige unit for the force.

The 3rd regiment 'The Buffs' waits patiently to engage and I chose the regimental colour for this unit primarily as I really liked the drummer uniform with reversed coat. I must say that the contrast paints Spiro used have brought the details out for the uniform and the faces.

For tiny ~18mm figs (listed as 1/72 but don't go there - I already did in a previous post), this is great detail.

The 44th's colours are from warflag.com and the 3rd's are from warflag and then (because they have a distinctive wreath) I borrowed from other flags on Dr Google and munged the two together.

That these units can take there place with the other 8 finished units is something to smile about...

... and the drummer can continue to hope that his distinctive coat, in amongst the distinctive flags, doesn't make him an immediate target on the field, as he waits for the next two semi-regular units to arrive; two loyalist units in as equally distinctive bright green. 😀