Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Huge Perry AWI Order

The fellows and I have decided to take on a group project, Freeman's Farm in 1:20 for British Grenadier. I'll paint up the entire American army, Austin will paint the British, and Jon will paint the Hessians.

We spent some time deciding on a manufacturer. And by "some time," I mean that we spent about five minutes before settling on Perry Miniatures' AWI range, which have to be the most beautiful 25mm figures I've ever seen. With the exchange rate turning back to the UK's advantage and with the cost of postage, the figures will be pricey, about $2 apiece for foot, $5 apiece for horse, and $15 for a gun with four crew.

And this isn't a small order we'll be making, either. Our three forces together will run us £651, which translates to $1,053. Ouch. But the figures do look very nice, and I'm in a mood to splurge.

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing a really large order in all its glory. Here's what we're getting.

AW30 Warriors advancing with rifles and muskets x1 A
AW34 Riflemen skirmishing x2 A
AW35 Riflemen advancing x1 A
AW37 Mounted infantry officers x1 B
AW38 Command Advancing x1 A
AW39 Command Standing x1 A
AW40 Infantrymen advancing, shouldered arms x5 A
AW42 Infantry advancing, shouldered arms, hunting shirts x4 A
AW44 Command advancing, hunting shirts x1 A
AW45 Command standing, hunting shirts x1 A
AW46 American casualties x3 A
AW47 Mounted officers x2 B
AW53 British command standing x1 A
AW54 British infantry firing line x1 A
AW55 British infantry standing, shouldered arms x4 A
AW56 British infantry command, slouch hats and cut-down coats, advancing x1 A
AW58 British infantrymen, slouch hats and cut-down coats, advancing, shouldered arms x5 A
AW59 British casualties x2 A
AW60 British command, standing, "Saratoga uniforms" x2 A
AW61 British infantry standing, shouldered arms, "Saratoga uniforms" x4 A
AW62 British infantry firing line, "Saratoga uniforms" x1 A
AW63 British infantry advancing, shouldered arms, "Saratoga uniforms" x4 A
AW65 British command in "Saratoga uniforms" advancing x1 A
AW74 Hesse-Cassel Jaeger command x1 A
AW75 Hesse-Cassel Jaegers skirmishing x2 A
AW76 Hesse-Cassel Grenadier command advancing x1 A
AW77 Hesse-Cassel Grenadiers advancing ,shouldered arms x3 A
AW84 Hessian casualties x1 A
AW87 Hesse-Cassel Musketeers command advancing x3 A
AW88 Hesse-Cassel Musketeers advancing, shouldered arms x9 A
AW99 Hessian mounted Generals (Knyphausen, Riedesel and Stirn) x1 B
AW100 British officers interrogating a capitve Continental officer x1 A`
AW109 British royal artillery running up six pounder, Saratoga dress x2 C
AW110 British royal artillery in cap-hats firing six pounder x2 C
AW112 Continental Artillery firing three pdr "butterfly" x1 C
AW113 British royal artillery in cap-hats firing three pdr "butterfly" x1 C
AW115 British royal artillery in Saratoga dress firing three pdr "butterfly" x1 C
AW121 Hesse-Cassel Artillery firing Swedish four pdr 1 C
AW122 Hesse-Cassel Artillery Loading Swedish four pdr 1 C
AW136 Southern militia / continentals advancing, shouldered arms, in shirt sleeve order x3 A
AW139 Militia in coats, advancing, shouldered arms x3 A
AW140 Infantry in regimental coats, overalls and various hats x3 A

That's 75 packs of infantry, 4 of mounted generals, and 9 of artillery. I think this is the second largest miniatures order I've ever made, just behind the massive Sash and Saber ACW order I placed 15 months ago.

We're setting an ambitious timetable, hoping to field our completed armies by Christmas. With my last commission in its final stage, I'll have my painting table clear for this project. Expect this blog to turn into a lesser version of Tarleton's Quarter for the next few months.

12 comments:

  1. Scott - I'm very much looking forwar to following your progress with this! At 1:20, even with some British regiments only 12 figures strong, Saratoga is no mean undertaking. Just out of interest, why are you using Brit artillery with both "Saratoga" hats and "cap hats"?

    Best wishes

    Giles

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  2. I'm not sure what's more impressive - the size of the order or that you plan to have it all painted by this Christmas - wow.

    Good luck with your time table, I look forward to following your progress.

    Miles

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  3. I couldn't get that order painted in time for Christmas 2010! I admire your ambition. Best of luck, and like Giles, I'll be watching every update with great interest.

    AJ

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  4. The Brits were my call as it will not be an all "Saratoga" force. In fact, the majority of the infantry is in slouch hats. I even decided to put the grenadiers in slouch hats (any advice on how to differentiate them would be appreciated). It was just to have flexibility for other AWI battles. Heck, with this much cost and effort, they might be used for Ancients or WW2 battles as well!

    Austin

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  5. Jeez! That will take you, like... three weeks to paint!! How can you take on such a big project?!

    ;)

    Sounds like fun:)

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  6. Hopefully this project gets done more quickly than my 28mm ACW project. I've been working on that one for 14 months, and I still can't put on a game.

    We're hoping that by committing all three of us to this project, we'll be able to avoid distractions.

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  7. Austin - a couple of ways to differentiate the Grenadiers would be to give them shoulder wings and add the piece of match cord to the front cartridge-box cross-belt. See the Don Troiani picture here:

    http://www.historicalimagebank.com/gallery/main.php/v/album01/album15/TRW110+-Grenadier+Private+of+the+British+Marines+in+1775+as+they+would+have+appeared+at+Bunker+Hill+.jpg.html

    Giles

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  8. So does this mean we won't be playing 28mm ACW anytime soon ? .....bummer !

    I can only hope that this group project turns out much better than most of our modeling club group projects !

    Good luck Gentlemen !!!

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  9. Scott, I think we'll still be able to do some ACW gaming this spring. The AWI project shouldn't take me too long. I hope.

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  10. Well, your painting as of late has been even more impressive than ussual and I can't wait to see how these new figures will turn out .

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  11. I'm quite a fan of this period,so I'm looking forward to your project completion.That order is truely massive and very daunting to paint.Good luck!

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