I'm just finishing up a pretty massive 28mm AWI project which encompassed full-sized armies for both sides as well as terrain and assorted vignettes, and status and casualty markers.
One thing I always wanted to have on the tabletop for this time period were some boats ferrying troops ashore from larger naval ships.
I searched pretty exhaustively most of the well-known online ranges of 28mm AWI figures, looking for British troops in a sitting or reclining position or anything close to it.
The only instance of an actual set of minis specifically made for this purpose that I found was the Perry Miniatures flatboat carrying a load of British troops. However that was for the Napoleonic Wars.
There was also an obscure 3D printer who did sitting troops for the FIW, but not AWI.
So I was out of luck from that angle.
After some torturous self-debate, having just finished building and painting upwards of 500+ 28 models, I decided I would make my own!
The first thought was, plastic is much more feasible to work with than metal if I'm going to be doing conversions. With plastic decided on, I looked at two of the best-known companies that make plastic AWI in 28mm, Warlord Games and Perry Miniatures.
Warlord Games was quickly ruled out due to the fact that none of the poses for either their British or Continentals would look right in a sitting position, even with the legs converted. Perry Miniatures seemed to be the only feasible choice left. However, it turned out that only their Continentals boxed set provided the "shouldered firelocks" arms position that would look right once the troops were seated.
Now that I had selected the product to be converted, I ordered a box of Continentals and seeing that the hats, coats, and equipment were neutral enough that I could paint them as British I felt like this just might work.
The next challenge was finding rowers for the boats. I came across Brigade Games' AWI/FIW ranges and they had an excellent set of "civilian rowers" that looked like they could serve as British sailors in their shirtsleeves more or less.
I ended up ordering 24 of the rowers, with 8 rowers spread over three boats: two carrying troops, and a third boat carrying supplies.
And finally I just needed to find the boats! This wasn't as difficult as there were quite a few choices out there. Etsy ended up being a great source. I found a generic "28mm rowboat" which looked like it could approximate a typical flatboat/ferry of the time period, if not perfectly at least generally.
I also found that Firelock Games makes an excellent 28mm flatboat for their pirate wargame Blood and Plunder. I ordered one of these and made it into the supplies carrier.
With all the elements for the project in hand, I set about the insanity of chopping off the legs of all the Continentals high up at the thigh, then cutting the legs themselves in half more or less, and then gluing both the upper and lower half of the leg back onto the model at more or less bent a 70-90 degree angle. I used putty to round out the rough edges where the legs were cut.
In the end I was genuinely surprised at how good the final effect and result looked! I was concerned that the legs would look much more butchered and awkward but when placed into the boats it all blended together pretty nicely.
I ended up with a total of 23 soldiers total spread into two boats. I don't know if I can do any more of these without losing my sanity. This was so time consuming but I love having them on the tabletop!
The article and painting that I turned to for some general knowledge was this one from the Journal of the American Revolution:
link
The article shows this painting done of British troops, artillery and supplies being landed at Kips Bay in 1776:
My 3D printed boats aren't really technically right for British historical flatboats of the period as they are described. According to the article the fronts of the boats were rounded off and the boats were wide and flat and sat very low in the water to allow for easier unloading. Plus proportionally they were larger and could hold many more soldiers than the ones I used and had many more rowers to be able to move the weight through the water.
My boats are basically generic 28mm rowboats, but I think they look pretty effective when loaded up with troops! (Only thing left to do is add the oars!)
ponders nirvana.
