British artillery (5)

This is my second batch of Saratoga campaign British artillery. This gives me 3 gun crews and the command stand shown here. The Royal Artllery crews engaged at Freemans Farm suffered at the hands of American riflemen. Lieutenant Hadden's detachment of 6-pounders was caught in open ground. Of the 22 men in the detachment only Hadden and 3 others remained unknotted by the time reinforcements under Captain Thomas Jones arrived. Jones and the 11 men who had arrived with him were soon casualties and the remnants of Hadden's battery had to retire, leaving the guns themselves to the Americans. Had den himself carried Jones to a log hut that was full of wounded, but Jones had been mortally wounded and died shortly thereafter. The officer and drummer are taken from the Perry standing Saratoga line command pack.

At the recent Freemans Farm game I played with Eclaireur we used a rule that prevented Hadden's battery from rallying off disruption points by virtue of remaining stationary in a game turn. The point behind this was to replicate the conditions in which the battery found itself on the day. Sure enough, the battery quickly took casualties from Morgan's riflemen without causing much damage itself. The deliberate targeting by the Americans of officers and specialists is something that rules should take account of. If British regulars receive plus modifiers on bayonet charges and firing etc, there seems no reason why they should not be disadvantaged by American targeting...

6 figures. Painted December 2010.

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.

Warner's Extra-Continental Regiment

The "Green Mountain Boys" were militia largely in the area of what is now Vermont but which in 1775 was territory called the New Hampshire Grants and claimed by the state of New York pursuant to an order of the British government that the territory was property of New York rather than New Hampshire (Vermont declared its independence in 1777 and was admitted to the Union in 1791). These men were staunch defenders of independence from the control of the New York state's government and seem to have taken active steps to prevent the exercise of the state's authority (taking pot shots at surveyors, that sort of thing). The Green Mountain Boys' founder and leader was Ethan Allen, who in May 1775 led some 200 of them in the expedition against Fort Ticonderoga and other British posts on the Canadian border. Seth Warner, Allen's cousin, was also involved in that operation.


In June 1775 Congress authorised a regiment to be raised from the Green Mountain Boys for service in the Continental Army. Further to a local vote, command was given to Seth Warner rather than Ethan Allen, much to the latter's disappointment.  The unit was an "Extra" Continental regiment rather than an "Additional" one like Henley's Additional Continental Regiment, for example. The regiment returned to Canada for continued operations, but suffered during the winter and as a result of a smallpox epidemic and was down to a hundred effectives by March 1776. The following year the regiment was heavily engaged in the Saratoga campaign, notably at Hubbardton and Bennington. During 1778-9 the regiment operated in the Lake George area. It seems that recruiting became a problem, largely due to political interference, and the regiment was disbanded in January 1781 as part of the wider re-organisation of the Continental Army.


The direct inspiration for painting this unit was the website of the re-enacted regiment, here. I was immediately taken with the photo on the main page of men in a variety of clothing, but most of it green of some hue or another. Of particular interest were the light green, pistachio-coloured hunting shirts; I have seen pictures of dark green hunting shirts, for example on the 1st Continental Rifle Regt., but not of such light ones. The photos also show differently-cut uniform coats, some with white turnbacks and some with red ones, and men in civvies or shirtsleeves. So I decided to paint the figures as shown in these photos - a mix of hunting shirts of various shades of green and uniform coats, with a couple of new recruits in civilian clothes or perhaps just a green waistcoat. The idea was to capture a unit with troops wearing a combination of different issues of clothing, but which keeps green as a unifying colour. So the uniform coats have subtle differences in colour (you can't really see on the photos, but some have brighter highlights than others), and the hunting shirts were all painted with different mixes of green. This approach seemed a good one for representing the regiment as it might have looked during the Saratoga campaign - some old sweats from the Canada expedition wearing faded hunting shirts and coats and new recruits in freshly-dyed ones. I went for 18 figures because the Hubbardton scenario in the second "British Grenadier!" scenario book requires the regiment to be split into two wings of 18 figures each (this scenario is at 1:10 troopscale). At some stage I will have to paint a second 18-figure green coated regiment for the other wing.


These are all Perry Miniatures figures. The colours used for the coats were the Foundry "Bright Bottle Green" palette with additional highlights to a varying degree of "Bright Green". The pistachio hunting shirts were painted with "Bright Green C" mixed with a lot of white. The other hunting shirts used the darker "Bright Green" colours mixed with "Forest Green" and some of the new Napoleonic greens. My favourite hunting shirt colour is actually the chap behind the drummer - this was painted with the "French Chasseur a Cheval Green" and "French Dragoon Green" palettes, and is the colour I'll probably use for the 1st Continental Rifles. Some of the breeches and waistcoats also use the new Foundry "authentic Napoleonic" colours - I might review these in detail when I next paint a militia unit; my initial impressions are rather mixed, as quite a few of the colours are useless (either because the paint is so thin, there is no difference between the shades or the tones are simply too dark). The basing has a sprinkle of "bluebell" scatter from Realistic Modelling, which shows up mainly as lumps of blue. I pulled some of this off with tweezers after taking a couple of photos as the clumps of blue seemed far too large for patches of blue flowers. It may be a bit ott, but at least the blue blends in with the general colour scheme of this unit.


This is my last regiment of Continental line for a while. There are a couple of others that I will get around to in the fullness of time, but with over 35 units of regulars I have enough for now. I need to focus on cavalry and Hessians, some more command vignettes perhaps and a couple more artillery stands. And that's when I'm not painting First Carlist War stuff...


18 figures. Painted February/April 2009. Flag by GMB.

9th Foot

The 9th Foot is my last (of five) "Saratoga" regiments. The 9th was raised in 1685 as Colonel Henry Cornewall's Regiment of Foote. In 1751 it was designated the 9th Regiment of Foot and became The Norfolk Regiment in 1881. It was posted to Canada in 1776 and joined Burgoyne's campaign of the following year. One of the very few references to colours being carried in the Saratoga campaign is the story of how the 9th's commanding officer, Lt. Colonel John Hill, apparently removed the flags from their staves and hid them in his luggage after Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga. These colours were presented to King George upon Hill's return to England and allegedly remained in Hill's family's possesson thereafter.

A unit of 16 figures is required for the British first line in the "British Grenadier!" Freeman's Farm scenario. I chose standing pose figures simply because my other Saratoga regiments are in firing, charging and advancing poses. These figures wear backpacks and the flap on the backpack is a tempting canvas for a distinctive regimental motif. Brendan Morrissey's Perry website article on the Saratoga troops (indespensible if you are modelling this campaign, as is his Osprey Campaign book) refers to a "Britannia badge". A bit of research suggested that whilst Queen Anne may have awarded the figure of Britannia to the Regiment for gallantry displayed at the Battle of Almanza in 1707, it was not until 1799 that the regiment was given official permission to use Britannia as a badge. This information notwithstanding, I tried to paint a representation of the Britannia badge on the flap of the figures' backpacks (for the illustration of Britannia that I used, see here). However, in 25mm the "canvas" is just too small for a meaningful and deciferable representation. I knew what I'd painted, but my test was the Kiwi who, whilst usually fairly perceptive (although admittedly not knowledgeable about British Army insignia), just couldn't work out what the painting was supposed to be. So I added a Roman numeral motif instead, and the Britannia badge lives on only in the photo below. The Britannia motif was fun to do once, but I did feel relief at abandoning the prospect of painting 16 of them; and anyway, sometimes less is more...

After my Napoleonic sojourn I am not back on AWI big time. On the works are 2 Continental/militia regiments and some Saratoga artillery. Posts of the last French Naps should be up fairly soon (and I will need readers' advice on the Young Guard Voltiguers...).

16 figures. Painted December 2008. Flags by GMB.

62nd Foot

As its numbering suggests, the 62nd Foot was a relatively new regiment, raised in 1756 as the second battalion of the 4th Foot. It was re-designated the 62nd Foot only 2 years later, by which time the regiment was in Canada and it took part in Wolfe's epic attack on Quebec the following year. After a period at home the regiment returned to Canada in May 1776 and joined Burgoyne's Saratoga expedition of the following year, during which it was brigaded with the 20th and 21st regiments under Brigadier General James Hamilton. The regiment fought at both Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights.

This is my fourth Saratoga British regiment and after two battalions in "firing line" poses and a third in "march attack" I decided to use "charging" figures. 16 figures are required for the regiment in the "British Grenadier!" Freeman's Farm scenario (contained in the rulebook). As you can see, the unit's facings are buff. To add some more colour to the unit I gave the officer a patterned Indian bag. I painted most of these figures in February and finished them off in March I only made up the flags at the weekend and nver thought this regiment would take so long to reach the blog! I have one Saratoga regiment left to go now, the 9th Foot (which, incidentally, are the only figures I bought at Salute last year which I have not painted). What's on the painting desk? A few figures of the 84th Foot to finish off and I am also working on two units of Continental/militia regiments using a mix of Perry hunting shirt figures and the new militia. These should be finished fairly quickly after Salute, together with my first ACW Reb regiment.

16 figures. Painted February/March 2008. Flags by GMB.

Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann

Von Breymann was one of the Brunswick officers who was employed in Burgoyne's Saratoga campaign. He was the colonel of a Brunswicker combined grenadier battalion and commanded the Advance Corps, which consisted of a detachment of Hesse-Hanau artillery, Barner's light battalion, a company of jaegers and Breymann's own grenadiers. Brunswick was in fact the first German state to sign a treaty with Britain for the supply of troops (4,300 men in total). Breymann didn't fare well in the campaign. He was wounded at Bennington, where in command of the relief force Breymann failed to arrive in time to save a foraging expedition (and was criticised by Burgoyne for contributing to that disaster by marching too slowly). Breymann was then killed at Bemis Heights in the redoubt that was named after him, possibly shot by "friendly fire".

These figures are from Eureka's Seven Years War Saxons range. This range is more suitable as Brunswickers than Perry Hessian figures (for example) because of the larger cuffs and the arrangement of the buttons on those cuffs. Mollo also has the Brunswick toops in black gaiters, which most Perry figures do not wear. These Eureka sculpts are a bit smaller than Perry/Foundry figures but not excessively so; grouped together they look fine. Although I have no doubt that in real life Burgoyne's army would not have ferried bassoons and oboes around the Hudson Valley, I reckoned that a colonel who had been criticised for taking his time on the march would be the kind of person who would enjoy having his own band. We know next to nothing about Breymann and this vignette probably does him a great disservice, but it looks neat and these Eureka musicians are really quite diverting sculpts. The yellow and sky-blue uniforms were particular to Brunswick musicians and deserve plenty of tabletop exposure. Modern oboes and bassoons come in all kinds of shades of brown and black, but I painted these in standard natural wood on the basis that this is probably authentic for the late 18th century.

Painted February 2008. Tree stump from Front Rank.

Neilson's Farm

My model of Neilson's Farm arrived the other day, and here it is. The model was made by Tablescape (see their address in the links section) and I'm very pleased with it; the total cost for the painted model was £30. At the start of the Saratoga campaign, Neilson's Farm formed part of Gates' lines at Bemis Heights. A battery was positioned there and the fortified position was called Neilson's Fort. The building was a bit too removed from the battlefields of Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights to feature in any refights of those particular engagements, but in design it is representative of the type of farmhouse that was in the area; absent any photos of Freeman's Farm itself, this model of Neilson's Farm will feature prominently in my refights of the first Saratoga battle. The figures are settlers from Conquest Miniatures. You can read more about Neilson's Farm here. Tablescape did an excellent job - I found out the other day that they even contacted the trustess who look after the site and obtained details from some original plans (presumably of the replica house that was built on the site) to double-check the dimensions. The model is also very light; I know Tablescape use light-weight material but this will be dead easy to carry around if the need arises. The same day I received this model I gave the chaps details of a few houses that are still extant on the Brandywine battlefield - those are their next projects!

2nd New Hampshire

This regiment seems to have been raised in 1776 and served until 1782. Its colonel was originally Enoch Poor, but he handed over command to Nathaniel Hale upon his promotion to Brigadier. It fought in the Saratoga campaign, and part of the regiment was captured at the Battle of Hubbardton in July 1777. In the "British Grenadier" scenarios currently published, the regiment is fielded at 16-figure strength for Freeman's Farm and 18 figures for Bemis Heights.

The figures used are Foundry marching Continentals. I wanted a "smarter" regiment that those I have painted recently; hence the white tape on the hats and lack of "ragged" Eureka figures. I've had these figures knocking around the lead-pile for a couple of years and thought they'd be best used en masse without any additions from other ranges. I wanted to paint this unit because of the distinctive sky-blue coats - it's not clear whether the entire regiment wore this uniform, but a couple of companies are recorded as having men dressed this way. The blue coats were painted with the Foundry "Sky Blue" palette, with the second and third colours mixed to create an intermediate highlight before the "c" colour was used on its own.

Legend has it that two colours belonging to the regiment were taken by the British at Hubbardton, one in dark blue and the second in buff with an interlinked ring design by Benjamin Franklin. You can see computer prints of the two flags here . GMB make a pack which has both flags and I did some research to see which flag should be given to this unit. It seems that the second, buff flag, has a lesser claim to authenticity that the dark blue one. Various online sources, including the re-enacted New Hampshire regiments, seem to conclude that the dark blue flag was most probably carried by the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment whilst the buff one belonged to another unit. I saw references to this buff flag perhaps being used by the 1st New Hampshire Regiment, so I decided that I would paint up 2 NH units and distribute the flags accordingly.

20 figures. Painted November 2007. Flag by GMB.

24th Foot

The 24th Foot, nowadays immortalised as the regiment of Rorke's Drift, Isandhlwana and Michael Caine, arrived in Canada in May 1776. Their commander was Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Fraser, shortly thereafter promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. When Burgoyne formed his army for the 1777 campaign, Fraser was given command of the Advance Corps and the 24th went with him. The regiment was then commanded by Major Robert Grant until his death in July at which point command passed to Major William Agnew. The 24th was engaged throughout the Saratoga campaign. Two companies fought at Hubbardton and the regiment was present at Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights (where Fraser was killed).

The "British Grenadier" scenario for Bemis Heights requires 16 figures for this regiment, whilst Freeman's Farm needs 20. I stuck with 16 on the basis that the Freeman's Farm scenario does not permit the 24th to move out of a redoubt, and so the full 20 figures won't be required unless the Americans get very lucky and manage to assult the redoubt itself. The forthcoming second scenario book will contain a Hubbardton scenario so I may need to add some more figures to the unit later on anyway. Again, I consulted Brendan Morrissey's invaluable article on the Perry Miniatures ebsite to check the uniform. That article told me that all companies of the regiment had black cross-belts and also grey socks; the latter particularly I would not have thought of. He says that the horse-hair crest could be black or dark green; I went for green simply because it looks nicer.

16 figures. Painted November 2007. Flags by GMB.

Iroquois (3)

This is the "mounted Indians" pack from Conquest Minatures' "500 Nations" range; three generic natives who will pass for most Eastern tribes in the second half of the 18th century. Beautiful sculpts, but how will I use these figures? They will not see combat as such, but I envisage using them either as scouts for Burgoyne (hence the "Saratoga" label) or as general "scenic" Iroquois for something like Oriskany or the F&IW. As readers know, I'm very keen on putting "extras" on the table to add some colour, and these chaps certainly provide that.

I set out to paint the horses in colours that were not matched by "Western" cavalry, and each colour scheme is a new addition to the colours I use on horses. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the official names of the horse colours are, or even whether they are appropriate for the mid 1770s. But I think they look suitably "native" and they took a while to do. As a rough estimate, each horse took just over an hour to complete (but then I am a slow painter when it comes to horses...). I decided not to give the Indians themselves any war paint, as they are not really on their way to confront settlers; these chaps are on patrol, not looking for scalps. In the second photo below, you can see how the mounted figures stack up against Perry and Conquest "foot" Indians.

I have to admit, these figures have leapt up to the top end of my favourite sculpts. Sometimes one's painting just "works" and sometimes it doesn't, for reasons that you can't quite understand. I'm sure readers know what I mean. When I post pics of the Hessian du Corps Regiment early next week, you can see figures that don't really work - I have no idea why, but they just look, well, messy. These, on the other hand, seem to have come out fairly well I think. The quality of the sculpts is certainly a factor - these are outstanding and very characterful figures, which look like something out of a Robert Griffing painting. It's odd the way that units which appear on the table the most often are usually "ok", whilst those that have very little wargaming purpose, but are a bit different, are often painted with more effort. Anyway, I'm rather proud of these fellows, which explains the excessive number of photos!

3 figures. Painted October 2007.