Long Island prep (5)

After a rather disasterous end to September, I have picked up the pace a bit, managing to paint 8 figures over the weekend in addition to finally finishing off the Hessian artillery and my last unit of Southern militia, the collapsing firing line. Above are a couple of photo of the militia. I spent a good while trying out different basing combinations and eventually settled upon a 36mm x 70mm base - this keeps the standard "British Grenadier" frontage but adds more depth so that the figures running away are more detached from the main line. The extra depth also allows me to add a ruined fence to the front of the line and tree-stumps to the rear - the fence posts are glued in place but the other bits will be very discretely blue-tacked in so that they can move around a little as the bases are placed together. I am working on a hand-painted flag for this unit, which I hope to have photographed at some stage over the weekend.

In the meantime, the British grenadiers are continuing apace and are, I think, turning out pretty well. Two wip shots are below; I have deliberately gone for a "campaign" look with different coloured trousers. This is the second of three grenadier battalions that I want to field at the game. Eclaireur may need to provide another one as I think we are going to need the full complement of four grenadier battlions for the British side. Once this second battalion is finished I will turn to the third, which consists of highland companies from the 42nd and 71st (which will require the touching up of existing figures and 2 brand new ones). In order to make up the time I lost the other week, I am now trying to paint 8 figures in one go rather than 6. The plan is to have the grenadiers finished by the start of next week and the British light infantry by the end of next week. That should then leave me with a week and a bit to do other stuff, which hopefully may allow Smallwood's Marylanders to get a look in and perhaps another limber for the British artillery. Oh, and I need to ensure I have enough British cavalry too - I keep forgetting about them....

Incidentally, I hope British readers are managing to see the television series "John Adams" on More 4 (Saturdays at 5.30pm). It concentrates on politics rather than military action, but is well acted, meticulously researched and altogether quite excellent.