British artillery (4)

This is the first of two posts featuring British artillery for the 1777 Saratoga campaign. These Perry Miniatures figures show the crews in the modified uniforms that were worn on (and are unique to) this campaign - shortened coats, gaiter trousers and caps with red horsehair crests. I think it's correct to say that only Perry make Royal Artillery in this uniform. I have painted 3 of these sets and a small battery commander vignette which will feature in a second post. The 6-pounder you see here with the aiming crew is actually from Foundry; the pack's 6-pounder strayed to the 3rd crew I painted (whose own 3-pounder I lost somehow). The guns are painted in my usual British blue-grey palette, which I appreciate is more "blue" than "grey" but it's what all the other guns are painted with so I wanted to maintain consistency. The three colours used are GW "Shadow Grey", first highlight of Foundry "French Hussar Sky Blue 76B" (replacing GW "Hideous Blue" which has apparently been discountinued), then second highlight of GW "Space Wolves Grey". If I was starting from scratch I'd probably use Foundry's "British Gun Grey 108" palette. The gunners' coats were painted with Foundry "Deep Blue 20", my default dark blue for AWI figures.


The Royal Artillery had a hard time of it during the Saratoga campaign. I'll elaborate on this in my second post. I appreciate that these photos are a bit rubbish. For the past couple of weeks the weather in London has been grey, miserable and very photo-unfriendly. If this year is like 2009 it will remain grey and miserable until next March...So I've had to rely on artificial, overhead lighting; hence the yellow glow. The good news is that I hve several posts' worth of stuff now, so blogging should be more regular in future. An advantage of painting artillery is that they are quick to do.


I was surprised to see on checking this blog's archives that I last painted up some artillery over 3 years ago. I am making an effort to polish off all the artillery I might need for the British and Americans over the next couple of months (I don't require any more Hessian crews so that will only leave the French). With the completion of 3 Saratoga crews the British are now essentially finished - I suppose I could do with some larger guns perhaps, but will only buy and paint those when they are specifically required. Another couple of limbers might be useful, but again are not a priority. The British total is therefore 12 crews - 5 in "full dress", 2 in "northern campaign dress", 2 in "southern campaign dress" and 3 in the Saratoga uniform. I'm not particularly fussed about mixing these figures up; if I did Freeman's Farm, for example, which requires 6 guns on the British side, I'd use the 3 Saratoga crews and then 3 of the others.


8 figures and 2 guns. Painted November 2010.