For some time I had wanted to paint up a second unit of British grenadiers for larger games. At 1:20, a unit of 20 figures will suffice for most engagements in the "British Grenadier!" scenarios (e.g. 16 for Bemis Heights, 20 for Bunker Hill and La Vigie, 14 for Eutaw Springs etc). However, if you want to be able to put on the larger battles with your own resources you need a lot more: Brandywine requires two battalions of 24 figures, Monmouth two of 32 figures each, and Long Island needs all four battalions, 20 figures for each of the 1st and 2nd Battalions and 16 figures for each of the other two. This looks like a huge number of troops, but is only 8 figures more than what you need for Monmouth. For our Long Island game I needed to provide the 1st, 3rd and 4th Battalions. I already had the 1st (see here, which at some stage I will increase from 24 to 32 figures) and the 3rd and 4th, being 16 figures each, would neatly combine to form a second 32-figure unit.
The 3rd Battalion comprised companies from the following regiments: 15th, 28th, 33rd, 37th, 46th, 54th and 57th. These companies are represented by 4 figures for the 15th (i.e. the command stand) and 2 figures for each of the others. Usually one can expect a grenadier battalion to feature lots of different facings colours, but that is not the case here because all the regiments save the 33rd and 54th had (broadly) yellow facings. I differentiated between the various regiments by painting the lace differently and using two shades of yellow for the facings. The 28th and 57th seem to have a darker, more orangey shade of yellow, and for those regiments I used the Foundry "Ochre 4" palette. For the other regiments I used the Foundry "Yellow 2" palette. The figures are all Perry. I chose "charging" poses because they seemed suitable for what I expected the battalion to be getting up to at Long Island and also because the 4th Battalion is similarly posed.
16 figures. Painted October 2008.
7 comments:
Smashing - no other word for them...!
A long time ago on one of the Yahoo groups I got chatting to someone who gave me the makeup of the various battalions.. my notes agree with yours with one exception he mentioned that
"In October 1776, the 4th Grenadier Battalion was disbanded when an epidemic amongst the 71st's companies led to them being returned to their regiment (and possibly being reduced from three companies to just two for the remainder of the war). The 42nd's grenadier company (a double-size unit of 90-100) went to the 3rd Grenadier Battalion."
Was the 4th Battalion reconvened at a later date, or is the above incorrect??? I know where I'm tempted to put my money... :o))
Grenadiers in bearskins-the best uniformed soldiers of the war! Particularly like the officer with bandaged arm. Beautiful paint job as always.
Matt
wonderful pictures as always
It's a unit like this that makes me regret I decided not to pursue AWI!
Lovely!
Giles,
Very nice work on these. I particularly like your mixing in some with brown breeches. It really reinforces the notion of a converged unit. The slight dry-brushing on the bearskins really brings out the texture, I should go retouch mine using that technique. I always get so many good tips on your blog.
Reminds me, time for me to update MY blog!
AJ
Excellent work Giles. I have one Grenadier battalion will have to look at a couple more. From Steves comments about the 4th were they grenadiers from highland battalions? That would look impressive.
M
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