"28mm AWI British 55th Foot and Grants Brigade completed" Topic

link

More of a personal post this week, my 2014 project was a 97 fig 28mm brigade of Brits for the AWI and the last unit was finished this week on time ! Final unit is the 55th along with the mounted brigade general.

Project 2015 is announced in the blog as well, no pressure then.

Thanks to all who have showed interest dyring the growth of the Brigade during the year.

Regards, Ken
yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk

Great work, Ken. It's a delight to see the brigade finally finished.

Giles

I really like the expressiveness and animation in the faces. Well done!

Rick

I like your use of the French officer as the mounted British. I like that the command of this era can be used for almost army. I have American officers that I have painted up that started life as a British officer. It looks good to my aging eyes.

Your units all set up look really nice.

Matthew

Nicely done! You must be pleased.

Ken,
One thing that I would like to comment on is the fact that you got the Flag poles about the correct length! Usually, gamers have these long poles on their flags. However, the poles were only about a foot or so longer the length of the flag. I do my flag poles about the same length as you do!
TomS.

Auttie – the pole was about three feet longer than the flag, but you are correct in saying most gamers seem to have them on 17th Century pikestaffs.

Ken – if you are seeking a "Grant" figure, look for one that is very, very fat; for vignette purposes, he was accompanied everywhere by a West Indian chef (I think he was called Batiste) who doubled as his bed-warmer.

Very nice, I think the figure works well for Grant as he is a bit plump. The only thing that confuses me is his facing colors as Grant was colonel of the 55th Foot and also a general which would suggest dark green facings or blue.

Overall, very nice. Some thoughts:

Why blue overalls? There were usually white or brown (wool) for winter.

Flagpoles look practical, but definitely would have been longer.

Figure nit – British generals, colonels, etc, would only wear one epaulet on the right shoulder. Figure sculptures often get this one wrong. Yes, blue facings for a Major General would be correct.

Top of his boots should probably be dark brown.

I know, nit picking. :-(

One other suggestion, figures that scale you may want to paint the waistcoat buttons (and others that show). They would be pewter, gold for the general, metal color (gold or silver) for any regimental mounted officer/foot officer.

Why blue overalls? There were usually white or brown (wool) for winter.

One of the versions of the Loyalist Osprey MAA says they (the winter overalls) could be black or dark blue wool as well.

I had heard that, just not sure how much it was in use.

Wow !

Wasnt expecting that, back to painting school for me ! AWI certainly generates more discussion than any of the other stuff I do, think I'll put it back in the box for a while.

I'll try and respond to those above, beforehand I will say that I am a wargamer 1st, I enjoy painting and collecting figs but they are first and foremost for gaming. I could spend much longer on each figure and have one perfectly painted unit to enter in a painting competition or go for a "style" or "feel" which I like and produces gaming units in a reasonable time.

Blue Grey trousers – very common winter trouser colour in later periods for Brits, research done by Brendan Morrissey for the Perry plastic box set colour guide. If its good enough for the Perrys it works for me. Each of my brigades has a theme to make them easy to id on the table, this brigade is blue grey trousers.

Buttons – yep I could, but I want to get 600 plus 28mm figs a year done for gaming. Not 20 with nice buttons.

Flag poles are to scale by the Perrys and flags to scale by GMB, I have no control over either but I am guessing they are right.

Brit Gen Epaulet – The figure is a French General overpainted as a Brit.

General Facing Colours are Buff to reflect the majority of battalions (3 of 5) in the Brigade, the figure represents not just Grant but also his staff.

Generals Boots – The top of them is brown !

I'm off for a lie down

Regards Ken
yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk

You have my sincere apology, I did not mean to offend. They are very nice figures. I was just confused about the facing color for Grant and you have provided a perfectly logical reason.

Best wishes,

Redcoat 55

Ken – Your stuff is fine as it is; sometimes, posts such as yours are a good opportunity to introduce snippets of info that aren't widely available or easily found – eg below……

One other suggestion, figures that scale you may want to paint the waistcoat buttons (and others that show). They would be pewter, gold for the general, metal color (gold or silver) for any regimental mounted officer/foot officer.

Plus silver lace and buttons for main staff officers (ie adjutant and quartermaster general types).

Agreed on all accounts. :-)

Ooops, except one:

"Plus silver lace and buttons for main staff officers (ie adjutant and quartermaster general types)."

SM – a series of paintings of some of Clinton's staff was apparently done and all are shown in gold, not silver buttons and lace (if any). Odd, not to regs, but there you go.

Cheers everyone,

although a gamer for years I have only had an AWI army for a couple of years and then it was to fill a gap in our groups collection who had Americans and Germans. Its not my strongest area of reading.

The depth of knowledge on here is amazing for this period. Any questions I have on uniforms / scenarios in the future I will be putting up on here before I put Vallejo to metal.

Thanks again, Ken
yarkshiregamer.blogspot.co.uk

243regiment.com

Take a look at this site for the correct length of a period flag pole. For those interested, this is the unit Don Troiani belongs too as a member – meaning their accuracy is pretty darned good. Their commander is one of the leading acknowledged ACW collectors in the country. I know, different period, but it shows his dedication to research.

The 43rd is a decent unit, but I think Don was in the 40th Foot Light Comp, not the 43rd. I could be wrong if this is a new development.

Don is a long time member of the 2nd PA/43rd. He is/was good friends with the founder and the current commander. I think you are thinking of Jim Kochan.

HG,

Didn't know that about Clinton's staff – wonder why that was?

I haven't looked at the 43rd website for some years – they've grown into a good-sized unit, around company strength it seems.

You can ask Prof Greg for some photos of the paintings if you like. It was a bit surprising, but they do look snappy in blue with gold. Must have been a number of them that sat for those. :-)

Unless Don was in the 40th a long time ago, I am not aware of it. Don is/was good friends with the founder of the 43rd/2nd PA and the present commander. They are all major militaria collectors and share that interest. Jim I recall meeting in '92 while he was in the 40th at an event. Like real military units, the 43rd's numbers wax and wain, but they are one of the largest fielding re-enactment units out there in the period. They have chosen to look as they would have when they disembarked at Boston in 1775.

FWIW I think they look fab? Like you I'm a gamer first and take a similar approach with all my painting.

I realised early on with my AWI that if I wanted accuracy both of my armies would have to be painted for one campaign/battle only as the uniforms and battle dress changed constantly on both sides.

I like the early continentals and additional/state regiments as they look great in a variety of colours but of course some people would then sneer when I roll them out for later war games!!,

It was an easy solution in the end, I painted them as I wanted them. I get lots of nice comments, you can hide soon much with good basing, and that's good too.

For me it's about pushing lots of nice shiny toys around. If the perfectionists aren't happy that some units are campaign weary but my grenadiers look like they've just been issued with newly pressed uniforms who gives a monkeys chuff!!!

Keep up the good work and keep wargaming.

Cheers. Nick.

And you have the wrong Highlanders uniforms. LOL LOL LOL

You're painting is perfect for what you are attempting to accomplish. Really great stuff. Please continue to post more examples. I very much enjoy your site.