Summer plans

I've given the blog a bit of  refresh with a different "theme" applied. To accompany this I will try to post a little more regularly and include a bit more in the way of words and thoughts rather than simply photos of what I have painted recently.

Following on from recent posts around #Partizaninthecloud there might also be more videos and I'm giving some serious consideration to using that format to walk and talk people through miniature versions of historical AWI battles including how/why I have set up a table in a particular way, the order of battle, which figures I have used and how I have painted them, etc. Each battle would require quite a bit of work, but it seems worth trying and it will be an excuse to extend some of the skills learned in the enforced lockdown and the loss of shows.

This week I have been continuing to expand my AWI forces for the Saratoga campaign, in the form of von Barner's Brunswick light infantry battalion. I've finished the painting on 11 figures, have 10 more part way through the process and have ordered a few more so I can round this up to a 24-figure unit and a command vignette. By doing this I can split the unit into two 12-figure sub-units or even 3 units of 8 for something like "Sharpe Practice". I've no plans for the latter but it makes sense to have a bit of flexibility in your larger armies in case the bug bites. As no-one makes figures specifically for von Barner's regiment I am improvising with Perry miniatures' Hessian musketeers charging, as these create quite a dynamic impression. The actual unit would have been armed with shorter fusils/light muskets so this isn't quite accurate, but I think I'll forgive myself. There is also the matter of lapels; which the figures have but the historical unit didn't. Given that the charging figures actually show very little of the sculpted lapels I'm just painting these in the same colour as the uniform. As with a few of my recent AWI units (Morgan's riflemen and the loyalists at Saratoga) I am basing these on half-depth stands so they can fight in 2 ranks or be fanned out into a skirmish line.

 

As well as ordering extras for von Barner I have also ordered Hessian musketeer figures (marching) for a 30-figure battalion. I haven't yet decided if these will be Hesse-Cassel or Brunswickers, but as I mount the standard bearers separately there is potential to cover both options. The sculpting is more suited to H-C as Brunswick issued poor quality uniforms with "swedish" cuffs, but for all but the post picky the figures are a reasonable fit. Apart from von Bose, I don't have any "Hessian" musketeer regiments, having favoured fusiliers and grenadiers in previous projects, so this is the start of filling a gap in the collection.

As I might have posted previously there are two aims with my Hessians. The first is to use them in AWI games (obviously) but the second is to use them for "Eurpoean" battles in a semi-fictionalised War of Bavarian Succession setting featuring the French and possibly my Bunker Hill British; all in dense formations and smart uniforms. The upcoming AWI Spanish Cavalry from Perry will no doubt help to fill-in a mounted element for this project.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Shame the weather isn't better. I'm off back to my painting desk!