Wednesday 25 November 2009

17th Foot

The 17th Foot began life in 1688 as Richard's Regiment of Foot. It was stationed in Flanders and Ireland before taking part in the War of the Spanish Succession. It was designated the 17th Regiment of Foot in 1751 and participated in the French & Indian Wars, being present at Louisburg in 1758 and Ticonderoga in 1759. After service in the West Indies and Pontiac's Rebellion the battalion returned to England in 1767. Nine years later it arrived in Boston and fought at Long Island, Monmouth and Princeton. The regiment suffered defeat in July 1779 at the capture of Stony Point, which was garrisoned by men from the 17th and 71st regiments. It is thought that the regiment lost its colours at this battle. The regiment also suffering the indignity of surrender at Yorktown.

The 17th Foot is an infrequent visitor to the published "British Grenadier!" scenarios - it has a strength of 12 figures for Germantown and 16 for Long island and the early Monmouth game in the second scenario book. There are more obvious gaps in my British line collection, such as the 15th, 64th and 37th which are all mainstays of the larger 1777/78 battles. But I wanted to paint an infantry battalion that provided an opportunity for some creativity in respect of the soldiers' backpack motif. As I've noted before, there are various ways in which you can paint the flap on a backpack. I usually paint the flap in a reddish brown colour and then add a circle in the facing colour in which I paint the regimental number (like for the recent 63rd). The 17th is the first of a pair of regiments which I think afford more individual treatment to the backpacks. The motif used here, which is supposed to be a laurel wreath enclosing the regimental number, was inspired by the design of the flags for this regiment as shown on the Fife and Drum website. I'm not sure where this design comes from - GMB's flags do not have this wreath. Fife and Drum suggests that the wreath was added to the colours in recognition of the regiment's contribution at Princeton (!) and I have seen this at other places. That means that the motif post-dates 1777. However, whilst accepting that this treatment of the backpacks has no basis in fact or history I think it's worth doing if only to add some variety.


The dog comes with the command pack (these are all Perry figures). I painted it as a labrador/golden retriever cross, modelled on my parents' late pet Lucy. This is a lovely little model - one imagines that Alan Perry's inspiration for it may have been Gainsborough's painting of an officer in the 4th Foot. This painting gives you another colour scheme for the pooch. Rather than have the dog looking up at his officer owner as in the painting I decided to have him growling at the battalion's drummer.

16 figures. Painted October 2009.



18 comments:

AD said...

Awesome as always.

Sire Godefroy said...

Returned to duty, very well!
I absolutely love the command blister with associated dog, still pondering over opportunities of a nice little vignette. It's an example for why I hold the Perry's stuff in high regard.

The backpacks turned out nice (as expected from the previews), surely have to try that by myself on return to figures in marching order.

Congrats to this regiment!

Cheers
SG

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Nice work Giles - I like the background as well...

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Oh yes,once again some very nice work Giles and I like the dog!:-)

Cheers
Christopher

Ubique Matt said...

Huzzah, more AWI please. The painting just gets better and better, unbelievable.

Perhaps the dog is just waiting for the nice man with a drum to throw one of his sticks so he can chase after it.
Regards,
Matt

Anonymous said...

Hi Giles,

Lovely work on your AWI collection. I'm really impressed, especially the detail on the backpacks!

I've started collecting 40 mm AWI S&S miniatures an I hope you can share some of your painting colour tips when I commence my painting.

Thank you for sharing your photos.

Helen

Anonymous said...

Giles,

Superb as always!

Any news on "Black Powder" being used for AWI battles?

Theo

Giles said...

Thanks for the commnts, chaps.

Theo, I believe the Black Powder book contains Freeman's Farm as a scenario. I won't be buying the book, at least not in the near future, but I'd also be interested in seeing how a core AWI battle plays out. I'd be concerned about (a) the quick movement rule and (b) the lack of open order. (a) is probably more a concern of the British player - it's hard to co-ordinate an attack if one of your battalions suddenly finds itself 10 inches in front of everyone else...

Giles

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

Just back from Thanksgiving holiday here in the USA. The pack decorations are wonderful, worth the extra work. I WISH I could do such detail work.

legatus hedlius said...

Good grief! really, really showing off!

Any chance of meeting up before Christmas? We failed last year so I am planning ahead!

Anonymous said...

Giles,
Thanks for the reply. "BG" it is then! Do you buy your bases precut for it?
Best Wishes
Theo

Betts-Davittovich said...

wonderful as ever

Bob C. said...

Again,I can always look to Giles for inspiration! At the moment I'm working on the OG special edition Brits that Chris Hughes did a few years ago,amazing figures! To flesh out my Ft. Clinton/Montgomery expedition. I'm also about to enter the deep waters that are the 40mm S&S ocean!
My fave Brit regiment! The fought nearby and were taken by Mad Anthony Wayne at the fort at Stony Point. They are also on my list of units for my Southern Army.
Great work as always Giles! Glad to see you back in AWI!

Bob

Anonymous said...

Giles,

I see in the BG supplement/scenarios vol 1 that a Hessian regt called "Rall" is listed under Stirn's brigade for Knyphausen's battle at the Branywine: can you say anything about this? I presume it is a musketeer or Fusilier Regt that got a new Colonel after Trenton. Most orbats for AWI seem slightly different from each other!!

Theo

Giles said...

Hi Theo

You need to dig deep into the archives for Rall's regiment, but here it is:

http://gilesallison.blogspot.com/2007/06/rall-grenadier-regiment.html

The reference in the Brandywine orbat must be to the "survivors" battalion which has been called "Rall" for lack of any alternative.

I buy ready-sized bases from East Riding Miniatures - very helpful people.

Anonymous said...

Hi Giles,

Thank you for your reply.

Greg Novak has at least different names for the regts in Stirn's Brigade. I'll be delighted if I can have a grenadier unit in it!

Are you still using 36mm x 50mm or the more straightforward 40mm x 50mm? The reason I'm asking about these sorts of details is that my AWI project will start this Xmas! I can resist no longer...

Best Wishes and thank you for the inspiration. Good Luck with the Carlist set-up - don't you just love those British shakoes!

Theo

Giles said...

Theo - yes, I still use 36mm x 50mm for 4 figure bases. 6 figures have a base of 54mm x 50mm. That's largely because the BG fraternity in London uses those bases and all my collection is based that way. I can't see anything wrong with a 40mm frontage though. Good luck with your project!

Best wishes

Giles

Anonymous said...

Hello Giles,

Thanks again for the reply.

Best Wishes

Theo