46th Foot

The 46th Foot was raised in 1741, initially as the 57th but then taking the number 46 in 1751.  From 1749 the regiment was in Ireland, but was transferred to Canada in 1757 upon the commencement of hostilities with the French.  The regiment was present at the assaults on Ticonderoga and Fort Niagara and the capture of Montreal in 1760.  It saw further action in the Caribbean, assisting with the capture of Martinique and Havanna in 1762.  The regiment had an active AWI.  It fought in most of the major actions of the northern campaign from 1776 to 1778.  In 1778 is was again posted to the Caribbean, where it remained until leaving for Australia in 1814.  Later service include the Crimean War.  In 1881, the regiment (which by this stage had the country name of South Devonshire) was amalgamated with the 32nd Foot to form the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.

The 46th has been on the list for some time.  In the "British Grenadier!" scenarios is appears as follows: Long Island (12 figures), Brandywine (16), Germantown (16), Whitemarsh (12), Monmouth (16).  So it's very much a "large battles" unit.  Having used Perry Miniatures plastics for lots of loyalists, I thought I'd better paint some up as a battalion of British line.  The "at trail" pose is my favourite of the two that you can make up with the British infantry box.  I decided to put all the rank and file in brown overalls, and I used the various Foundry "Butternut" colours for this.  I confess that I found the flags a big problem.  As I've noted before in the context of the Perry French Napoleonic plastic infantry, the flag poles that come with the plastic sets are too small for GMB flags.  I usually solve this issue by adding a small bit of metal to the pole that's encase by the flag itself.  The issue this time was the plastic finials that go on top - I just could get them to stick to either the metal bit or, cutting the plastic pole in half, the plastic bit.  In the end I gave up and put two Front Rank finials on the top, which unbalanced the figures and then fell off anyway as I realised I hadn't left enough of the pole sticking up above the flags themselves.  All this is very tricky to do when the flagpole is part of the figure, and the end result is that the poles now look too big!  I took photos of the unit as it currently is, but the finials need re-working and they are rather wonky.  I might continue using metal figures for my remaining British infantry battalions and stick with loyalists for the plastics (as I don't give them flags). 

I've fallen behind of late with blog posting for various reasons, but I spent much of the weekend out in the garden taking photos so expect to see an uptick in posting from now on.  Currently on the painting desk are Butler's Rangers and Highland infantry command, all using King's Mountain Miniatures.  Also, coming soon, and after about 4 years' delay,.....is ACW week!

16 figures.  Painted February-March 2016.  Flags by GMB.