"Too many? No, NEVER!" Topic

Okay, twice in recent threads I have mis-identified Amer Revo minis. In defense or mitigation I will say that I have been building those armies since 1960, and still have some Jack Scrubys scattered through the ranks. Hinchliffe, Old Glory, Perry, Front Rank, and I am confident at least another half dozen makers. I suppose there are other periods as blessed with such a wealth of miniatures, but hard to imagine one MORE blessed.

I am curious, though, as to what relative newcomers to the period are purchasing and painting? OG still has that huge line, a bit dated now and there are better minis available. Perry has nearly everything, but I don't think theirs mix too well with others.

What empty slots still need to be filled? besides Associators?

Associatos? Kings Mountain, with appropriate heads.

I would like to see 28mm British mounted infantry. I want them with shortened coats, appropriate gear and wearing slouch hats. If I need the 76th in the South, I can always do surgery and substitute Kings Mountain Highlander heads.

Mounted Jaegers.

Mounted Brunswick Dragoons. Everyone makes dismounted. But all Prussian Dragoons I have seen wear those heavy boots.

My early Rev War army was with Frying Pan and Blanket Miniatures. Lost my collection in the great house disaster (flood) of 2004. Now my armies are Fife and Drum and RSM miniatures. As of late I have added the Old Glory second edition Figures.

It is a good point – the AWI does seem to be very well covered in terms of ranges of minis

Fife and Drum from Jim Purky and KMM.

I am rebuilding for the third time.

Eric

I'm going for slight build figures, so a mix of Hinchliffe, OG2 and Fife & Drum. The biggest figures I have are Perry Plastic and Warlord. The Perrys I'm happy with and will keep. Warlord have been great to give me a cheap quick fix, but they are large in comparison and I intend to gradually replace them with metals.

I'm also looking at RSM but the cost of shipping may scupper my plans. Depends how desperate I get!

RSM are dirt cheap. 36 figures for $29. USD
You can only place an order by email, so assemble an imaginary order and email to ask what shipping would be.
RSM are perfectly compatible with Hinchliffe "X" range (same sculptor) and Fife & Drum, and Minden.
The horse's legs can be very thinly cast and fragile.
I'm planning an order soon, but then I live in the next state over.

If I guessed wrong about the intent of this thread, I apologize.
But I like to put as many different manufacturers on the table at one time as possible.
The last time I counted an AWI skirmish game, there were 17, starting with Hinchliffe as the granddaddy.
A few newbies haven't seen the table yet, like Brigade Games and Knuckleduster.

Rich has already tempted me that way, John! Ah, what the heck – I'll do it tonight!

It is a good point – the AWI does seem to be very well covered in terms of ranges of minis

Yet we don't have figures for the mounted element of Pulaski's Legion. We don't have mounted British infantry. We don't have figures for the British Legion infantry. We don't have figures in short sleeved jackets. Is anyone currently producing Brunswick Dragoon specific figures? I cannot find anyone who is making figures appropriate for the southern nations such as the Cherokee, Creeks or Catawba. We have only recently seen Perry produce Spanish infantry and F&D produce South Carolina continentals and Brigade Games continentals in bounty coats.

Considering what we do have these are minor omissions. Yet similar omissions in other eras would bring out demands for production.

Working (slowly) in 15mm-- so Peter Pig and Stone Mountain figures for now.

The Dayton Painting Consortium (AKA RSM), with their old London Warroom line, produce Spanish figures that are very compatible with many of the lines mentioned above. dpcltdcom.org/rsm95_010.htm

Figure Comparison: link

And some pictures with some of them during a "pirate" battle:

Jim

I've had Brunswick dismounted Dragoons since the 1980s. Hinchliffe figures, leggings without the heavy boots. But yes, nobody makes mounted dismounted. I don't really see a market, though. I might buy …6? Who else would?

As for Pulaski's Legion, I'm using Fife and Drum Continental Light Dragoons, with the closest looking helmet. Next order, I'll get some standard bearers for the lancers.

I'm using Old Glory and Warlord Conquest Seminoles for the Southern Indians, until something better comes along.

I agree completely about the need for British mounted infantry.

I'm about to do head transplants to give early New York Grenadiers mitre caps, but that seems like a waste of a figure.

When I'm feeling silly, I ask for (demand!) Anhalt Zerbst Grenadiers.

As for British Legion infantry, they seem to have been attached to the Dragoons on an ad hoc basis.
Old Glory makes them with the helmet, but I don't think so. I just use generic Loyalist infantry in slouch hats.

Mounted jaegers, yes please. More and better Cherokees, please (I also use OG seminoles).

As an interesting case, I don't think the gaming universe were really pining for Volunteers of Ireland. If needed, we made do.
But the Perrys are unique gamers. If they're planning a Camden game, why then Alan just sculpts them, and in a week or so he has all the figures he needs.
Like in Field of Dreams. "If you build it, they will come."
So all those gamers who made do suddenly find they need them. I'm speaking for myself here. I found that need.

I bet they paid for themselves.

Now if we can only convince Perry that they need mounted jaegers and mounted infantry.

Would the Hinchliffe 7YW Austrian Grenadier work as Anhalt Zerbst? File down the hairy hat a bit for a metal front plate.

I never looked into that.
AZ was never really involved in the War. They stayed in Canada as a garrison for Montreal or Quebec.
It would take another American invasion of Canada to bring about any "need" for such figures.
Anyway, Austrian uniforms were changing after the SYW.

Now, if Alan Perry were to decide to game an American invasion of Canada lead by Lafayette (don't laugh, it was discussed), we would have three packs of Perry figures toot sweet. Line, command and Grenadiers.
I'm not holding my breath.

Speaking of Canada, here's some other figures we need. Soldiers in blanket coats with hats tied on with scarfs. Just in case you want to game street fighting in Quebec, and don't think that ragged Continentals in shirt sleeves work for Canada in the winter.

I recently started my AWI adventure. Began when I got my hands on Muskets and Tomahawks II.

I got the miniatures from Brigade Games and like them very much.

I got all of my initial British painted up and now am starting on the rebels. The miniatures are a little pricey at $2 USD each but are of high quality.

-Stew

Nice paint job.

I was tempted by the Brigade figures as well, but decided it was another rabbit hole that I didn't need to go down.

Brigade filled the need I never knew we had, which is Massachusetts State Regiments in MPC coats. So I got two regiments worth. Fill the need!

And of course you can never have "too many militia". (sic)

Yes, I have four 36-figure battalions of musket-armed militia, plus another one and a half of rifles.

More than me, but not by much!

Your militia battalions have 36 figures doc! How many figures do your regulars have? For me 36 militia would be a brigade.

John, what do you think of Brigade Games AWI compared to Fife & Drum and Perry?

They have 36 as well. Each battalion is 9 stands of 4. The middle stand is command, and then eight "hat" companies. Notionally a 1:10 scale, so a company is 40 men. I like this arrangement because it lets me change the figure to real ratio and also accommodate table size. If playing a big battle, I might use five stands instead of eight, in which case the scale would be 1:20, and the footprint of each battalion much reduced. If I'm doing Guilford, I keep the 36 figure battalions, but Germantown, say, would need much smaller to fit on the table. And a 20 figure unit still looks okay.

I also have one stand per battalion that is four individually-based (on magnets) figures, which can be removed as casualties. When all 4 are dead, I swap that stand back in for a 4 fig base. No casualty caps or pipe cleaners.

The militia, and especially the riflemen, have more of the individually mounted foursomes, to use in skirmish games. Ditto a few light infantry battalions for each side. I do a lot of skirmish gaming, but also the occasional big battle.

I have 20 to 25 battalions painted and playable for each side. My table is 14 feet, but even so that pretty much fills up the left to right line without much room for maneuver, unless I reduce the number of figures/bn to 20, or to 28.

The lockdown has resulted in an increase of 3 or 4 battalions for each side, as I have lots of painting time. But all my games are solo!

I organise mine by the suggestion in an old Military Modelling article:

Line infantry 30
Light infantry 24
Skirmishers 10
Guns 2 + crews
Cavalry: not quite worked out yet, but most likely troops of 5.

My current militia are units of 30, but on upgrade they will vary between 24 and 27 to make them slightly more open. I've no intention of relighting historical battles with them, so fixed sizes work for me.

That is interesting doc. My militia units are created on an ad hoc basis from my pool of militia figures. I also model at 1:10, but for most actions I am doing militia regiments come in between 5 and 20 figures. My nominal size for Continental regiments are 24 figures, with 32 for most British. These are for painting purposes. For wargames the strength gets adjusted based on the size of the unit in that action.

The lockdown has ended up decreasing the number of my militia. A few older figures were retired and a number were upgraded into Continentals.

It will be interesting to see the effect of the lockdown on the hobby, as on all else. Few or no cons, greater reliance on mail order (my son's company is doing well), lots of time for painting, not so many games. The question will be whether these changes are long term; will cons ever come back?

Well, I'm not afraid to admit that being laid off due to Covid actually helped me with my finances.
If you want to throw money at me, I'll shovel it up.
That contributed mightily to my nude lead pile.