76th Foot (2)

When I first posted about the 76th Foot in June 2014 (see here) I explained how I intended to paint up two units' worth of figures.  As I explained in that earlier post, in the published "British Grenadier!" scenario books, the 76th appear in two battles: Petersburg (volume 3) and the hypothetical Gloucester Point (volume 2 - a planned but abandoned British break-out attempt from Yorktown).  In the Petersburg scenario, the ratio of 1:15 creates a large unit of 32 figures that is divided into two "wings" of 16 figures each.  In Gloucester Point, there is just one unit of 24 figures.  I decided to paint one "wing" in marching poses and the second "wing" in charging poses, the latter being bulked out to 24 figures to accommodate the Gloucester Point scenario.  So here's that second wing.

I won't repeat the AWI service history of the 76th Foot, which is set out in my previous post.  And needless to say, these are all King's Mountain Miniatures figures.  Bill Nevins' extraordinary commitment to this range means that (together with the Perry range) we are now well served for highlanders.  In fact it's hard to think of what's missing, except skirmishing flank companies, perhaps.  I placed the colours with this "wing", as the relevant figures seemed to me more suited to the charging poses than the marching ones; but you can use them for either.  I mixed in a couple of casualty figures - again, these work for any of the three poses that the KMM figures come in (the third being firing line).  There isn't a charging officer but there is a charging sergeant figure - I've used two of those in this unit.  I can't recall why it's taken me so long to post about this second batch of the 76th.  I think it took me a good while to get around to ordering the colours from GMB (who then delivered very promptly).

24 figures.  Painted January to March 2016.  Flags from GMB.    

 

 

    

I recently took all my highlander figures out of their boxes for a parade. My current tally is this: the 42nd/Black Watch (30 figures); the 84th/Royal Highland Emigrants (18); 3 units of the 71st (18, 18, 24);  2 units of the 76th (16, 24); the "4th combined grenadier battalion" (16); plus 3 mounted officers and 4 casualty figures.   That's 171 highlanders in total (in fact it's 172 if you include the highlander mini-me in the Perry interrogation pack, and I haven't included any of the generals who happened to be Scottish), of which around 115 are wearing some sort of tartan. And I've painted 50-odd highlanders for Bill too. I'm not quite finished - I need a unit of 71st Foot skirmishers for Gloucester Point, and in theory a 16-figure unit of light companies for Briar Creek, but I'll probably give the latter a miss.  Here are a few photos of my collected Jocks (although without the grenadier battalion).  I'm intending to write posts about the three mounted officers shortly. 

 

 

 

 

British reinforcements (2)

This is my second "reinforcements" post and it gives me an excuse to think about British grenadiers.  I'll start with the basics. These troops served in composite battalions that combined the grenadier companies of the various regiments serving in the Americas.  These combined units did not carry colours and were often much larger than in strength than the parent line battalions (as they contained more companies).  At the beginning of the AWI there were two combined battalions of grenadiers, expanding to four in 1776.  In October 1776 the 4th Grenadiers were disbanded due to high rates of sickness, with the 42nd Foot's grenadier company being transferred to the 3rd Grenadiers.  During the northern theatre battles of 1777-78, the main army had two large battalions and Burgoyne's 1777 Saratoga army had a battalion of just under 600 men.  The grenadiers shrank once major operations in the north ceased and there appears to have been just one battalion in the South.
I suppose there are three issues that might concern an AWI wargamer when considering how to add some grenadier units to his/her collection: size, facing colours and headgear.  The last is probably the easiest issue to address: there is evidence that bearskins were worn in the war's earlier years, and further evidence that they were put into storage in later years, from 1779 or thereabouts, if not earlier (and quite probably during the Saratoga expedition as well).  But realistically, who is going to pass on having these iconic troops in their full finery?  So bearskins all round.

The issue of size, is less binary, although you have two broad choices: medium or xtra-xtra large.  Below is a breakdown of grenadier units as they appear in the published "British Grenadier!" scenario books:

Lexington: 24
Bunker Hill: 16
Dorchester: 16
Long Island: 20, 20, 16, 16 (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Grenadiers)
Haarlem Heights: 20, 20, 16, 16 (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Grenadiers)
Bound Brook: 20
Pell's Point: 40
Brandywine: 24, 24 (1st and 2nd Grenadiers)
Hubbardton: 32
Freemans' Farm: 24
Bemis Heights: 16
Whitemarsh: 24, 24 (1st and 2nd Grenadiers)
Monmouth: 32, 32 (1st and 2nd Grenadiers)
Briar Creek: 10
Eutaw Springs: 14
La Vigie: 20

So a unit of 24 figures will cover over half the scenarios, and many gamers will be satisfied with that.  It's when you look at the larger battles that numbers get a bit sticky.  There are five scenarios in which the 1st Grenadiers and the 2nd Grenadiers both appear and two of those also feature the 3rd and 4th Grenadiers.  So the most grenadier figures you need at one time, for Long Island or Haarlem Heights, is 72.

I painted the 3rd and 4th Grenadiers for a Long Island game back in 2008 (together with a command stand).  Those 16-figure units, both in charging poses, helpfully combine to form the 2nd Grenadiers for Brandywine, Whitemarsh and Monmouth.  My existing 1st Grenadiers, in marching poses, was 24 figures, so that needed bulking up to 32 anyway.  But I then looked at the other scenarios and thought I might as well just another 8 figures to bring the unit up to 40 so I could use it as both the 1st and 2nd Grenadiers for Long Island and Haarlem Heights.

Having decided on numbers, the last issue is to think about what regiments the unit(s) should include.  The composition of the combined battalions changed over the duration of the war, but the following information seems reliable (and is taken mostly from the research that Brendan Morrissey has made available either in his excellent Osprey books or on TMP and other websites): 

At Bunker Hill in June 1775:
- 4th, 5th, 10th, 18th, 23rd, 38th, 43rd, 47th, 52nd, 59th. 

In 1776:
- 3rd Grenadiers: 15th, 28th, 33rd, 37th, 46th, 54th and 57th;
- 4th Grenadiers: 42nd (one double-size company) and 71st highlanders (three companies).

In 1777/78:
- 1st Grenadiers: 4th, 5th, 10th, 15th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 27th, 28th, 33rd, 35th, 38th, 42nd and 55th regiments;
- 2nd Grenadiers: 37th, 40th, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 49th, 52nd, 57th, 63rd, 64th, 71st, and Marines (the companies from the 71st and Marines were reassigned before the battle of Monmouth in June 1778);
- Burgoyne's Saratoga army: 9th, 20th, 21st, 24th, 29th, 31st, 34th, 47th, 53rd and 62nd.

At Eutaw Springs in September 1781:
- 3rd, 19th, 30th.

Trying to replicate the precise configurations of these combined battalions would therefore require a lot of extra figures to ensure that the correct regiments were represented.  The easiest way is probably to stick to just one pose, whether marching, charging or firing, as that would then allow you to mix and match more extensively.  I'm constrained by having one large unit in charging poses and the other in marching poses.  So combining my 3rd and 4th Grenadiers to form the 2nd Grenadiers at Monmouth, for example, doesn't really work as 42nd's grenadier company was with the 1st Grenadiers and the 71st's had been sent to New York.  The approach I've taken with the larger units to ensure the numbers are correct without worrying too much about the facings.  That said, the most common facing colours were yellow and dark green, so you can't go too wrong with lots of figures in those colours (looking at the 1st Grenadiers in 1777/78, for example, you have four companies with yellow facings, three with dark blue, two each with buff and dark green, one each with orange, white and red; of the seven companies in the 3rd Grenadiers in 1776, five had yellow facings).  The facing colour that is most noticeable is buff, because that means the colours of the smallclothes and cross-belts should be buff too.  I already had a couple of buff-faced figures in my existing 1st Grenadiers, but with an eye on the Eutaw Springs scenario I decided to paint a new base of 6 figures, including a Foundry fifer, to represent the 3rd Foot's grenadier company (and which I could then combine with two 4-figure bases to make the 14-figure unit required for that scenario).

Here are the new figures:

The figures here are mainly from Perry Miniatures, but with some older Foundry ones too.  Fife & Drum also make some nice grenadier figures.  I tidied up the older figures, which had a few daft painting mistakes.  So that's my brigade of British Grenadiers.  If I wanted to go absolutely nuts, I could do some more troops in "Saratoga caps" specifically for the Saratoga battles, but that would be right at the back of the list (I'd use Perry plastic figures, although they don't have flank company shoulder wings; but then did the grenadiers remove those wings before the campaign began....?).   My next batch of "reinforcements" will be British in campaign dress, but those will have to wait until later in the year.

I appreciate that the blog has been quite of late, but I'm now back in business and there is much more AWI to come shortly.

14 figures.  Painted August 2016.  Below are some other photos of the complete "brigade" out in the sun.

The second battalions of the 42nd and 71st have a red stripe in their plaid. 

British reinforcements (1)

I mentioned earlier this year that one thing on my AWI radar is to bulk up existing units to ensure they are of sufficient strength to cope with all relevant scenarios.  I keep a detailed spread-sheet of all units that feature in the published "British Grenadier!" scenarios and seeing regiments listed as "done" but with insufficient figures for the latest scenarios irritated my completist's mentality.  I hadn't meant to make a start on this work now, but I found some spare figures and painting them now would further my aim of painting all remaining AWI lead by the end of the year.  Of course it's in the nature of wargaming that finishing this task meant I had to buy a couple more packs of figures at Salute, but since they were largely painted immediately afterwards so the lead-pile hasn't been increased.   I realised that this "bulking up" project naturally falls into 4 stages: (i) units requiring Foundry figures in full/1768 Royal Warrant dress; (ii) units requiring Perry figures in campaign/cut-down coat dress; (iii) Hessians and Brunswickers; and (iv) units for the Guilford Courthouse scenario (this was originally presented in the first edition "British Grenadier" rulebook, but an amended version with different unit strengths appears in the 4th scenario book).  So that's probably the order in which I'll approach this sub-project.  I don't intend to re-do all my earlier blog posts about these units - I'll post pictures of the new figures as I go along and I'll add additional "group" shots to the original posts.

So first of all, here are the figures in 1768 Royal Warrant; this is a post that has been some months in the making!  These figures are the first Foundry British line I've painted for years.  Painting the marching figures took some getting used to, as they have a lot of kit and fiddly straps which one doesn't have on "campaign" dress figures.  That said, the firing line and charging figures were easy in comparison, as they don't have any kit other that the cartridge and bayonet belts.  I did a small amount of remedial work on a few of the original figures, some of which were painted as far back as 2003, when I first started out on my AWI odyssey.

First, I needed an additional 6 figures for the 38th Foot.  This is a useful battalion to have as it appears in the following scenarios: Bunker Hill (18 figures), Long Island (16), Fort Washington (12), Brandywine (16), Springfield (24).  I already had the battalion based in sixes for Bunker Hill so I've added a 4th base of 6 figures to take it up to the 24 figures required for Springfield.  That battle was fought in June 1780, and it's highly unlikely that at this stage the 38th was still in un-modified "full warrant" uniform.  But I don't think it's worth painting a whole new unit in modified campaign dress just for that scenario.

Secondly, the 63rd Foot needed 10 more figures to take it up to 30 for the Hudson Forts scenario.  The 63rd appears in the scenarios as follows: Bunker Hill (20), Long Island (16), Hudson Forts (30), Monmouth (16).   The attack on Forts Clinton and Montgomery took place in October 1777, so the regiment was most likely in cut-down coats by this time, but the rest of the figures are in full dress.  I painted up another base of 4 figures and then put the remaining figures on a base of 6 with an additional officer.  I see I need to paint the outside edges of the bases on the older figures.

Thirdly, the 49th Foot needed another 4 charging figures to bring it up to 20 for Dorchester.  This battalion's scenario appearances are: White Plains (16), Fort Washington (16), Dorchester (20), Brandywine (16) and Germantown (16).  I reckon full dress is ok for the first three of these battles, and again I don't intend to paint the regiment again in campaign dress for the 1777 scenarios.  Out of all these older units, I think this one shows the biggest change in style - the way I painted faces back in 2004 was rather embarrassing - oh, that horrid GW "Flesh Wash"!!

The 57th Foot required a further 6 firing line figures to increase it from 12 to 18.  The battalion appears only twice: Long Island (12) and Hudson Forts (18).   I had this regiment based in fours, so just added a base of 6 figures (including a corporal) to finish it off.

Lastly, the 43rd Foot, which I posted about only recently, needed another 6 marching figures to take it up to 24 figures for the Newport scenario.  The regiment otherwise appears in the Bunker Hill (18) and Long Island (16) scenarios.

I should add that anyone looking for Fort Washington in any of the BG!/Caliver scenario books will be disappointed.  It's on my scenario spread-sheet but the information on unit strengths came from material that AWI guru Brendan Morrissey posted on the General de Brigade website a few years ago.  Looking at that spread-sheet I see that the end is in sight for British line infantry.  Outside of  further "reinforcement" work, I have the following left to do:

- 3rd Foot ("the Buffs"): two wings of 18 and 16 figures for Eutaw Springs (both of which I'll do in full dress, given that the 3rd was only recently "off the boat" at the time);
- 22nd Foot: Long Island (16) and Newport (20);
- 26th Foot: Hudson Forts (24) and Monmouth (16);
- 37th Foot: lots of battles;
- 54th Foot: Long Island (16);
- 64th Foot: lots of battles;
- 80th Foot: Petersburg and Gloucester Point (32).

Add a couple of skirmish units and that's it.  So 32 line battalions done (plus 6 flank battalions) and 7 left to go.  That's not bad. Maybe I should get the boys out for a parade over the summer.....Next on the list will be the 37th and 64th (Perry metals in campaign dress, I think) and the Buffs. 

32 figures.  Painted March to May 2016.  All flags by GMB.  All buildings in the background made to order by Tablescape.

43rd Foot

The 43rd was originally raised in 1741 as Fowke's Regiment of Foot and received the designation as 43rd Foot in 1751.  The regiment was sent to America in 1757 and fought in the centre of Wolfe's line at Quebec.  After the capture of Montreal, the regiment participated in attacks on Spanish possessions in the Caribbean before returning to England in 1764.  The regiment returned to American in 1774.  It saw action at Concord and Bunker Hill and then Long Island and White Plains in 1776.  From August 1778 to October 1779 the regiment was garrisoned in Rhode Island.  It was part of the army that surrendered at Yorktown.   In 1803, and by then with the country name of Monmouthshire, the regiment became one of the first British units to be trained up as light infantry.  It participated in the Peninsular War but missed Waterloo as in 1814 it returned to America to fight in the War of 1812.  In 1881 the battalion joined with the 52nd Foot to form what became the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.  That regiment in turn became the Royal Green Jackets and in 2005 was amalgamated with other regiments to form one of the British Army's super-regiments, The Rifles.      

This post is a prelude to a much longer post featuring "reinforcement" figures that I have been painting this year.  I painted the 43rd in 2003 as one of my first British line regiments.  I began my AWI collection with the Bunker Hill orbat, in which this battalion features with a strength of 18 figures.  That's why these are Foundry "full dress" figures.  The 43rd is also in the Long Island scenario (16 figures) and Newport (24).  As I had originally painted the 18 figures required for Bunker Hill, I needed to add a further 6 for the Newport scenario, which was only published a couple of years ago.  So I painted those extra figures and realised I had never posted about this unit at all.  So before I post in depth about the "reinforcement" work I've being doing since March, here is the 43rd Foot.  My style of painting hasn't changed all that much in the intervening 13 years - the main difference is the way in which I do faces, which is now more subtle than it was in 2003-5, when I used a GW flesh wash that is more noticeable than the Winsor & Newton inks I use now.  My scarlet palette is a bit different - the earlier figures have GW "blood angles red" as their final highlight, a paint which doesn't exist anymore.  The flaps on the backpacks have a simple white circle with "43" in black writing.  If I'd started these from scratch, I'd probably have tried something a bit more creative.  Also, the ground work on the earlier figures is less fussy/busy (which you may well think is better).  The ERM bases I use have also changed over the years - they now have a black edge which I paint brown - they didn't use to, so the older figures are easier to spot due to their lighter base edges.

24 figures.  Painted 2003 and March 2016.  Flags by GMB.

 

15th Foot

What became the 15th Foot was raised at Nottingham in June 1685 by Sir William Clifton, the Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, to help deal with the Monmouth Rebellion.  Clifton didn't remain colonel of the regiment for very long - he died in 1686, aged only 23.  After some years in Scotland and Ireland the regiment fought with Marlborough at Blenheim.  It was part of the Scottish garrison from 1714 to 1724 and in the 1740s fought in the Caribbean at Dominica, Jamaica and Cuba and at Cartagena.  Designated the 15th Foot in 1751, the regiment deployed to the Americas at the start of the French and Indian War and fought with Wolfe at Louisburg and Quebec.  The regimental lace was later amended to include a black line in remembrance of Wolfe's death.  The regiment remained in Canada until 1768, when it returned to the UK.  But it returned to America in 1776 and fought in the AWI until being sent again to the West Indies in 1779.  During the AWI the 15th acquired the nickname of "The Snappers" - at Brandywine the regiment ran short of ammunition and what was left was given to the best shots, with the remaining men simply "snapping" powder charges.  Unfortunately the regiment was captured at St Kitts in 1782 and had to reform from scratch (at which point it was given the county title of Yorkshire East Riding).  After five years in Ireland the regiment returned to the Caribbean in 1805 and remained there, so taking no part in the Napoleonic Wars.  The 15th returned to Canada in 1862 as one of the battalions shipped to the Americas in the wake of the Trent Affair (so one could also model it with the Perries' conjectural "British Expeditionary Force" figures).  The regiment was one of four battalions which fought in the AWI that are the ancestors of the modern British Army's Yorkshire Regiment, the other three being the 14th, the 33rd Foot (Cornwallis' own regiment) and the 76th.

This is something of a counterpart to the 44th Foot I painted at the end of last year - I wanted to use up my remaining metal British infantry figures and the 15th is the second and last full unit that I had in the leadpile.   Like the 44th, the 15th Foot is a useful regiment to have in one's collection if you like the big northern battles.  It appears in the Fort Washington, Brandywine, Germantown and Whitemarsh scenarios as a 16-figure unit and also as 18 figures in Monmouth 1 (i.e. the "morning action" contained in the second volume of "British Grenadier!" scenarios).  The classic Howe-era campaign dress of cut-down coats and slouch hats is perfect for these battles.  Incidentally, I've never really been sure whether the figure I've used as an officer is supposed to be a sergeant or an officer.  Under the 1768 Royal Clothing Warrant, officers were to carry "espontoons" while sergeants carried "halberts".  I know there is a technical difference between the two in terms of shape, and I think the figure here is probably carrying a spontoon.  If this chap is an officer, then he's removed his right-shoulder epaulette as well as all his lace.

These marching figures are among my favourites in the Perry AWI range.  They are straightforward to paint, with good faces (shared with the corresponding Continental infantry packs) and look quite elegant.  The 15th brings my tally of British line battalions to 32 (not counting converged battalions of flank companies and Marines).  I'll have some further thoughts on British line regiments in a couple of weeks when I post about the first batch of "reinforcements" that I've been painting over the past couple of months.

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