Monday 28 December 2015

American War of Independence - Will Mc Nally's rules - Hessian Grenadier Battalion Linsing



Finally I found a way to paint the Revell Prussian Grenadiers of the 7YW!

 I bought some 50 boxes for this period some 20 years ago in a very strange Hindu shop that once emerged  in Coimbra's downtown close to the train station. I remember entering that place hoping to find just some resin cheap houses of those days but right in the middle of the big shop was a stand of hundreds of Revell 1/72nd plastic soldiers. Up until now no big deal if it wasn't for the fact that each box was less then 1 Euro in those days currency, while in normal toy shops their cost was by then three or four  times more. In the next few days I piled up in my basement - without a clear knowledge of the rest of the family, of course -  many dozen boxes from all periods Revell was producing by then.

Then that Hindu shop I was hoping to get old with closed down and a damn supermarket or something like that took over. Well, if the prices they applyed to Revell were the same for the rest of the stock it's not surprising!

With Brandywine OB definitly in my mind, I started my first Hessians. I still remember George Washington mini series of the 80ies and a very well portrayed Hessian attack on the patriot redoubts. If you also miss it here you have the full series:



                        



This is the Linsing Grenadier battalion made out of four detached grenadier companies in that very British and questionable tradition.


                         

This battalion carried no flags but with those stylish Mitre caps who needs them?

                         

As all three poses Revell offers with Grenadiers are in charging, most of them are grabbed to the base only by one foot. To solve that I used electric glue between the foot in the air and the stand before priming. Then, sand and static grass hides the mole hole that results from this.




This is a very good source for all those who want to paint proper Hessians. Go to


and you will find a wealth of information with this kind of plates made mostly on the Hessians return to Hesse-Cassel in 1783.



Sunday 20 December 2015

American War of Independence - Will Mc Nally's rules - 2nd Maryland Continental regiment


The force awakens... This regiment is my first for the American army. I'm looking for some time for a battle to build regiments around. I chose 1777 Brandywine battle: plenty of units on both sides and also plenty of Hessians whose grenadiers with mitre caps were one of the reason for starting this period. 

This regiment is made of Italeri figures. It's somehow a strange set. First class detail and accuracy but the poses are apparently not very useful for wargaming.  Nonetheless when combining the most relaxed poses you can have a nice homogenous group. The same can happen if you mix the firing figures both the kneeling and standing. 

Saturday 12 December 2015

American War of İndependence - Will Mc Nally's rules - British 64th foot


Having not been able to paint a British redcoated regiment for Buçaco with black facings - and the respective nice flag (the reason is because there weren't any!)  - I painted the 64th foot for the AWI which has all that.


Not many particularities: figures are the usual Revell and Airfix with some tall Revell Austrian 7YW for some diversity. All figures carry back packs, some had to be made from GreenStuff, like the Austrian and the Airfix Grenadiers.

 
Flags are Warflag. Meanwhile I downloaded the Krigspil ones and will use them in the next few units. The AWI is sorting out better than I was thinking. The units are small (which sometimes is a pity) but the  variety is just great with uniforms and equipment for all tastes, so its not easy to get tired.
 
By the way,if you want accurate drums for your British infantry go to www.fifedrum.org and you can find all of them for your AWI miniatures.
 
 

Wednesday 2 December 2015

American War of Independance in 20mm - Will McNally's Rules - FirstBritish regiments.


These are my first four British infantry regiments. Everything is Revell with two companies of Grenadiers from Airfix at the top.

They are from L to R: 52nd; 38th; 47th, 55th line infantry regiments.


 The flags are hand painted as in those days Warflag didn't exist or I still didn't find it. The flag bearers are standing musket soldiers without the musket and with added flag.


The few conversions are some Airfix Grenadier heads on Revell bodies. They become a little bit on the fatty side but hey, Grenadiers were expected to be the biggest guys in the regiment and probably the biggest eaters.




On the other side of the line the light infantry have caps simply transformed from the original tricornes, as it happened in real life.