Saratoga is coming...

Apologies for the lack of new posts over the past week. A crisis at work and the resulting long hours meant that I have not yet finished basing the British artillery train and variousn other bits that I have been working on. In any event, the ghastly (and in some places very dangerous) weather in the UK of late has also made it too grey and miserable to obtain any decent photos. But hopefully there will be more figures to look at by the weekend and an ensuing torrent of posts. Anyway, for the second half of this year I will be concentrating on the Saratoga campaign of 1777. To date I have been mainly drawn to the larger battles of the northern theatre, but the Saratoga campaign offers plenty of painting/modelling interest: Indians, Brunswickers, Morgan's Rifles and of course the British troops in their specially modified "light infantry" uniform. I will post up orders of battle as this sub-project progresses but the first objective will be to paint the British regiments that were engaged in the two battles of Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights: 9th, 20th, 21st, 24th and 62nd. These regiments are quite small - the 20th and 21st are only 12 figures each and the largest is the 24th with 20 figures. Hopefully they won't take too long and there's also the new Perry Saratoga Royal Artillery packs to think about. I then want to add some particular American regiments that featured in the campaign, such as the 2nd New Hampshire with its distinctive flag(s). This is also an excuse to return to the Indians I began painting last year - I have various Conquest packs to finish off.

By way of a taster, attached above is a photo of my John Burgoyne command stand, painted a couple of years ago. The Burgoyne figure and his aide are both Old Glory sculpts. I think the aide is actually from the Continental Mounted Officers pack. The foot figure is the officer from Eureka's useful F&IW Highlanders range, painted as a loyalist. Fortuitously, the July issue of "Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy" magazine has a feature on the Saratoga campaign, along with some stunning pictures of the Perries' collection. This should prove to be essential reading and excellent inspiration.