Grenadier Battalion von Minnegerode Completed

The first battalion is complete the Grenadier Battalion von Minnegerode. The rest of the details are in the post below. I hope you like them.

Hessian Grenadiers

Right. I have been hard at work with my new 10mm Hessians and I have the first stand completed. The whole regiment will be posted soon and I am hoping to get my new camera to function better than this so please see this as a taster only. Obviously I cannot get as much detail on these as the 28mm but I think the models are excellent, without doubt the finest 10mm models I have ever seen. The variation in poses and detail is unbelievable. hat I particularly like is the effect of seeing 40 figures to a battalion as this unit will be. The unit represents the Grenadier Battalion von Minnigerode. The unit is made up of four companies from the Fusilier regiments Erbprinz, von Dittfurth, von Lossberg, and von Knyphausen. Each company has been painted to represent the parent unit. This particular company is from the von Dittfurth Fusiliers. I have gone away from using British Grenadier (which is a shame because I think they are excellent) as I don't see casualty removal working with bases like this and recording casualties will be a mess. I have instead written my own rules utilising several sets of rules I like (including BG as I have kept the disruption points system) and also a fantastic and amazingly original Throne of Bayonets (available here: http://guildford-wargames.org.uk/info/?page_id=27). ToB is a Napoleonic set of rules but elements of it will work for any horse and musket period game with a few tweaks.

The Army is no more... Well at least not in the UK

Hi peeps....sorry its been a while between blog entries but there has been a reason for this. I have sold my huge 28mm to a chap in California! However, I have replaced the army with a Pendraken 10mm army which I shall be reporting on unit by unit. I am concentrating on the Germans first so I will be posting the first completed Hessian Grenadier regiment soon. I have 5 units of Grenadiers to post, 2 Fusilier Battalions and six Battalions of Hessian Musketeers as well as Guns and Jagers. So please keep your eyes peeled.

Greatest apologies for this

Sorry guys....but I cant resist putting one or two of my fantsay and sci-fi based projects on here for people to see just so I can give examples of other styles of painting I sometimes indulge in. I do play the odd fantasy game, although historical gaming is my real passion. Below is a picture of one of my Space Marines I sold on ebay a few months back. I will be posting other off topic bits and bobs intermingled with the AWI stuff so don't be put off :) I am currently working on some ACW stuff too so now doubt that will be on here soon as well. I am afraid that I have given up on my Napoleonics at the moment, I just don't have the time to invest in another huge scale collection particularly one where I will need five times the troops I currently have for the AWI. I am now waffling.... so a space marine...what do you think?

Battle of Englishtown

This was a smallish battle played out as part of the Germantown game we played a few weeks previous. With the British narrowly defeated at Germantown the Americans were on offensive trying to pin the remains of Howes army as it evacuated Philadelphia. The next engagement occured at Englishtown with the Americans in hot pursuit. As at Monmouth Howe turned retreat into a re-offensive luring the advance guard of the Americans to commit against his apparently numerically inferior rearguard. The Americans discovered the ruse too late. The militia Brigade sent to pin the British rearguard whilst the continentals manoevered into position for the killing blow, was utterly defeated by a strong force of British regulars. The elite companies of the lights and Grenadiers then bursts from the trees to the north to assail the two brigades of continentals who luckily managed to hold a strong position on the edge of English town behind some snake rail fencing. However this time the British proved nigh on invincible, fired by the need for revenge after Germantown. The Grenadiers and light infantry followed by other British regulars charged the strong American position. Despite some disruption to their lines the British surged forward and smashed into their counterparts routing the Maryland battalions causing crippling losses. What actually happened here was some amazing rolling by the British players rolling two lots of double six for the close combats! This effective broke all resistance and the Brigades disintegrated leading to an exceptionally heavy American defeat. In campaign terms the Americans withdrew back to Philadelphia as the British Cavalry caused havoc during the pursuit. The ascendancy after Germantown for the Americans had been lost.

Some British Generals too

Not too much to say here apart form the fact that these are a selection of my British command. once again a mix of Foundry and Perry with some Foundry models on Perry horse and vice versa! I do promise to get the Continentals on asap..... sorry for the delay!

52nd Foot

Right, I know I said more Continentals next but these have been sitting on my painting table for a while. I am not going to attach the Grenadier battalions that I paint to go with each unit and instead I will display these separately as several huge battalions of converged grenadiers, hence this regt is only currently 16 figures strong. I have painted each regt as a 20 man unit so I can attach or un-attach the grenadiers at will. If a scenario dictates I need a 20 strong unit I simply place the grenadiers on the table with them. Some may argue this is not historically accurate but I frankly don't give a monkey's!

I also do the same with my light infantry regts, which are generally 20 strong and quite frankly very vanilla ( they are sometimes loyalists as well). These are simple roundabout and slouch hat infantry. I sometimes portion these out amongst my other units to to bulk them out in times of need. This unit portrays the 52nd Line in their buff small cloths and facings. I have to say most of my British regts, say 60% were bought before the Perry brothers extended their range with their own company. these are Foundry figures and as expected are excellent. I intermix freely foundry and Perry miniatures and also the odd Eureka miniature for some flavour here and there. I like the standard regulation uniform and as I don't collect for on particular theatre I like a mix in uniform variations. The only theatre I have no dedicated British for at the moment is Saratoga, but that is currently being remedied. I am not completely convinced about the uniform changes in the Americas as none are particularly well documented (apart from Burgoynes amendments). I have seen sketches of troops at Yorktown quite clearly showing British foot in Tricornes so I think it was very variable. Most units garrisoned in New York and not actively campaigning would have worn the regulation uniform I think. As many of the units at Yorktown were also fairly new to the Theatre it would seem fitting for them to be in regulation dress. Overall, I don't think it matters too much, the mix of uniforms is something I prefer, although in the future I am going to add some more roundabout and shortend coat units to represent some more loyalist battalions and the odd British on campaign unit. Enough ranting now!

New Year...New Blog Priorities

Again a massive apology to those who want me to post more stuff. I have had a hell of a year but this one will hopefully bring a bit more in the way of stability. So...I will post all of my units on my Blog, starting with my representation of a Virginia Continental Regiment (probably the 10th). I am very much in Gile's camp when it comes to painting units to represent what they were as opposed to the generic method and because of this I have spent a great deal of my time researching uniforms and generally copying Gile's regiments I like the look of! (SORRY GILES).

I like the individual appearance of the different uniforms which often gives a rag tag appearance to the American forces which I like. I also mix many civilian and un-uniformed chaps in each unit to enhance this look further. So there we go...the first unit to show you with many more on the way I hope.

I hope you like them.