Wednesday 30 December 2009

7th Foot "Royal Fuzileers"


The 7th Foot was raised in 1685 primarily to act as guards for the army's artillery train. The men were armed with fuzils and the regiment's name followed the older spelling of the word until the 1780s. The regiment arrived in Canada in 1773 and at the start of the war formed part of the Quebec garrison. Most of the regiment together with its colours were captured at Forts St John and Chambly in October 1775 (these colours are at the West Point Museum). The men were exchanged in late 1776 and the regiment reformed for duty in New York. The regiment was sent to Philadelphia in 1777 and the following year fought at Monmouth. It then formed part of the New York garrison until joining Clinton's 1780 expedition against Charleston. The 7th remained in the south and was badly mauled at Cowpens, where the regiment's replacement colours were captured. John Andre, the British officer executed in 1780, had been a lieutenant in the 7th Foot's light company during its Canadian operations.

The 7th only appears in two published "British Grenadier!" scenarios, Camden in the first scenario book (18 figures) and early Monmouth in the second (16 figures). The National Army museum has a painting of an officer of the 7th circa 1775 wearing a fusilier bearskin cap (see here), but I'm a believer in the theory that fusilier regiments didn't wear their caps in the field and so I used the Perry campaign dress uniform that matches most of my other 1777/78 regiments. The drummer's coat and lace marks the unit as being a royal regiment. I decided to jazz the drum up a bit by copying the illustration on the Fife and Drum website; I've added a couple of close-ups but the detailing is a bit small for my camera's focusing.

The backpack motif requires a bit of explanation. I wanted to do something more elaborate than a simple "7" or "VII" and looked at the colours for inspiration. The regimental badge is clearly the Tudor rose within the royal garter, but this looked too complicated to paint. I considered painting just the rose, but again this would have been tricky to do effectively on such a small area (I recalled my experience with the 9th Foot's Britannia). I therefore chose the white horse that appears on the regimental colour, thinking that on a dark blue background the motif could be quite effective. However, what I'd forgotten is that the white horse is the regimental badge of the 8th Foot. I assume that the motif appears on the flags of both regiments because the white horse is a symbol of Hanover and was bestowed by the Kings George on certain regiments as a special honour, beginning, I think, with the 8th Foot. Still, it's not the end of the world and I suppose that what I have here is rank and file which can double-up as both regiments (although the 8th Foot is not something I had considered doing).

At the bottom is a post of current wip, a Hessian grenadier battalion and my first "post-Hugo" unit (no prizes for guessing which battalion is it, I'm afraid). Could I offer a huge "thanks" for all the messages about little Hugo. He is well worth the hard work he currently requires and I hope very much that he will grow up to enjoy this hobby as much as I do - what more could a dad want?

16 figures. Painted December 2009.







13 comments:

Consul said...

The detail on the drum skin is incredible! Very impressed.

Thanks for the help on TMP by the way. I've purchased some paint and will let you know when I make any progress.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Great work Giles and very inspiring.As always,I find myself eager for your next post.

Cheers
Christopher

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

16 hand-painted pack badges and they all look quite uniform. Wonderful! I'm glad you're able to steal away some painting time during Hugo's naps.

jmezz382 said...

Beautiful work ....

Andy McMaster said...

Excellent work again Giles. I keep planning on doing the 7th but never seem to get round to it!

Maybe 2010...

Bob C. said...

You beat me to it Giles! I was JUST thinking about 10 mins ago, "maybe I will post pics of my 7th Fusiliers"?
And lo and behold,there they are on Giles blog! LOL!
VERY nice Giles! Mine are painted up for the Northern, Clintons Expedition up the Hudson to Ft. Montgomery. I used the OG Special Edition figures. I will post soon!

Bob C. said...

On another note. I live about 20 mins from West Point,and have seen those very colors when they had them out for display awhile ago,along with the Anspach colors. I also live closeby to where Andre was hanged.

RTB said...

Giles,

I do believe you are getting better! The faces are excellent.

Not bad at all considering the filth you drink.

Hope wife and young tory are well.

Roger

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Now that's what I call an unlucky regiment....

Lovely painting as always - what a cracking way to end the year..

Happy New Year...

Sire Godefroy said...

No wonder they look so unhappy. Might be a portent to put them on a gaming table...
Anyway, very good painting with great attention to detail. The horse badges are just fabulous!

Cheers
SG

PS: Happy New Year!

Gunfreak said...

I have no ide how you did the horsies, I couldn't even get the number 23 to look even close to the same on my 40mm figs, the 23 looks like a 3 year old painted it on.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.