While I wait for the Perry order to come in, I finished painting the last of my Old Glory second edition AWI Americans. These figures are all in full dress, and I'm happy to report that the sculpts are solid efforts, with nice faces and good proportions.
Here first are the command figures from AWI-61 "Continental Command Full Dress." I painted the figures for two different regiments, one with blue jackets and red facings, based on an early New York Regiment, and one with brown jackets and red facings, which can be used for any number of pre-1778 regiments.
The command figures are nice enough, but I was even more pleased with the rank and file. The following figures are from AWI-57 "Continental Full Dress - Cocked Hats."
I thought the figures looked very natural, and as you can see, the faces are indeed much better than those in the hunting shirts packs.
As I wrote in the last post on the Old Glory Americans, I'll definitely use these figures in my games. Having dropped close to $400 on Perry figures, however, I'm not going to order any more Old Glory figures in the foreseeable future. These 36 figures will have to be grouped together in regiments without any additions. Here's how the Old Glory figures look with a mix of packs.
By mixing figures in hunting shirts and full dress, I'm able to depict something of the rag-tag look of the continentals. This may well be the way some units looked in 1777, when the early issue coats had mostly worn out and Washington was asking the states to send hunting shirts to equip his men.
The Old Glory line actually allows even more latitude than I've been able to show. They have packs of full dress and hunting shirts with floppy hats, which would allow one to vary his units yet more. But I still feel like that would give too uniform a look. In my mind's eye, Continentals looked as they do in this Troiani painting, but that would take figures in shirt sleeves, figures in civilian coats, and figures in uniform coats with trousers, none of which Old Glory has.
The final verdict? I would be happy enough with these Old Glory figures to field an army of them, but I'm treating myself to Perrys. Will the painted figures look good enough to justify the difference in cost? I'm going to find out.
In the meantime, if anyone knows of any images of painted Eureka Continentals, please point me in their direction!
Fantastic job painting these. I particularly like the variance of color on the canteens. Sometimes small details like that make all the difference. I should do that more often.
ReplyDeleteWell done!
Scott,
ReplyDeleteCheck out my long-neglected blog http://bede19025.blogspot.com/
I've got some photos of Eureka Ragged Continentals I did.
Hi MacPhee,
ReplyDeletewhat size wooden bases are you using and who makes them? Great job as usual. Your work makes me want to collect AWI.
Scott,
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I think the OG 2nd Edition look great and you've done a great job on them.
I'm sure your Perry's will look fantastic too.
While I'm not sure the Perry figures are 3x better sculpts, as you point out, they do make the figures you need. For example, no one else in 28mm makes, as far as I know, British in cut down coats and floppy hats, which should be standard uniform by around 1777.
Thanks, Ken. That's just what I was looking for! I might have to try some of those figures if I expand my army.
ReplyDeleteRJ, the bases are from Litko. They have a 30mm frontage and 40mm depth. They're the same bases I've been using for my ACW armies. I like to get my figures packed as closely together as possible.
ReplyDeleteThanks Scott!
ReplyDeleteWould you use the same size base for ECW? I have some pike and shot I need to base.
RJ, I used 60mm square bases for my own ECW figures. I put six musketeers on a base, two ranks of three files. I put 12 pikemen on a base, three ranks of four files. The rules you use will probably dictate how you're going to base. My group uses Ironsides.
ReplyDeleteRJ, for what it's worth, I think the rules dictate the base sizes.
ReplyDeleteI mount my 28mm ECW foot on 40mm square bases, four to a base in two ranks, both for pike and shot.
Although I've been playing Peter Pig's Regiment of Foote (which uses bases, not figures, as the building block of units) I chose 20mm frontage for foot because that's what's called for in other popular rules like Warhammer ECW, 1644 and Forlorn Hope. Sounds like Scott's also alotting 20mm square per figure, but making larger bases. While the larger bases look good, they give you less flexibilty. Just a thought.
Scott - lovely painting and it's a real eye-opener to see the new(ish) Old Glory figures painted like this.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Ken's fine collection, you can see some painted Eureka figures here:
http://gilesallison.blogspot.com/search/label/Eureka%20miniatures
A couple of the regiment have Eureka and Perry/Foundry mixes, whilst the others are pure Eureka.
Giles
Your figures are looking quite nice and your painting arrangement seems to work well.
ReplyDelete