15mm Revolutionary War British Light Infantry

The Freeman's Farm OOB called for one British light infantry unit of 16 figures.  I used Minifigs to portray this unit.

Minifigs British Light Infantry

This is another good set from Minifigs.  The figures are sort of lunging forward, which I'm not crazy about, but the detail is good.

I would like, some day, to be able to fight any AWI battle in a 1:20 figure scale, so I added more lights when I made my Jeff Valent order.

Jeff Valent Light Infantry

These are also very nice figures, much better than their Hessian grenadiers.  I'm a little skeptical about tha front pouch, but they look nice as a unit.

My army also needs figures in skirmish order.  I turned to two different Minifigs packs for my skirmishers.

British Legion

Butler's Rangers

The figures themselves are nice enough, but you see the problem in using Minifgs as skirmishers.  All the poses are the same, and the units just don't look like they're skirmishing.

So those are my British light troops.  The Minifig light infantry are my favorite of the bunch.

15mm Revolutionary War Hessians

As I mentioned in the previous post, the first AWI figures I bought were Hessian line infantry.  I needed three regiments of Hessian line for my Freeman's Farm scenario.

Old Glory Hessian Line

I was not very happy with these figures.  The infantry are definitely scurrying, and the detail on the figures is not that good.  Still, I had a hundred of these guys, so I went ahead and used them to field my three line regiments.

Jeff Valent Hessian Grenadiers

I turned to a different manufacturer for my grenadiers.  Jeff Valent has the cheapest AWI figures available at $.20 apiece.  The figures have a wooden toy soldier look, but they're well worth the price.  

Minifigs Hessian General

My Hessian brigade commander comes from the Minifigs mounted British officers pack.

15mm Revolutionary War British Grenadiers

I purchased a copy of British Grenadier! as soon as it came out.  I had bought a couple other sets of Revolutionary War rules, but neither really tempted me to start painting an army.  I had been playing General de Brigade, which I think is an excellent system, and I thought it would translate well to the wilds of North America.

This was my second period in 15mm.  I already had large ACW armies for Fire and Fury.  I bought a bag of Old Glory Hessians at my local hobby shop, and I did not like what I found.  That must be Old Glory's "scurryingest" range.

At the time, Musket Miniatures had one of the few complete (with pictures!) manufacturer's web stores.  Hard as it is to believe, just six years ago it was tough to buy figures direct from the manufacturer, and most web stores had almost no pictures.  Most of my 15mm Civil War troops were from MM, and I had enjoyed their clean sculpts.  I bought one pack of their figures to see how I liked their AWI range.

Musket Miniatures British Grenadiers

They were not at all what I was looking for.  These elite grenadiers had spindly legs, strangely pinched faces, and rather anemic bearskins.  Clearly I wouldn't be happy with a Musket Miniatures British army.

I asked some gamers more experienced in the period, and they suggested I try Minifigs.

Minifigs British Grenadiers

These figures had exactly the look I wanted: solid, elite infantry.  The faces have good proportions, the bearskins are suitable impressive, and pose itself communicates a certain swagger.  These guys are marching tall.  I was sold, and I still love Minifigs to this day.

Minifigs Casualty Marker

I did buy a few more Musket Miniatures figures, and I found that most of their AWI line is passibly good.  My American militia have a few MM figures, and I do like MM's casualty figures.

This is one of my older armies, but it's one I'm especially proud of.  I won "Best in Show" for my Freeman's Farm setup ay my local IPMS show back in 2004.  My painting has certainly improved since 2003, but I still think this is a great looking army.  I'm thinking about posting more pictures of my Brits, but they really don't compare with some of the lovely 28s you see online.  If you would like to see more of this army, leave a comment and let me know.

Old Glory 28mm Vikings

A couple of years ago I began reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories series.  I had tried mightly to enjoy his Sharpe books, but the incongruity of a 20th century man in a 19th century setting made me put them aside.  I'm glad I gave Cornwell another chance, because the Saxon Stories are very entertaining, and they even inspired me to try my hand at a WAB Danish army.  The Danes have been on the back burner for a while, but I've been considering painting a few more men and getting that army on the table.

Danish Hirdmen

This is the only unit I've painted, and I painted it back in January of '07.  The figures are all Old Glory, and I really like them.  They're animated enough to give the appearance of an undisciplined army, and the variety of clothing and armor adds to that effect.

I started painting 28mm figures in the summer of 2006.  Before that I had only painted 15mm metal and 1/72 plastic figures.  I went through a learning period with the larger figures, experimenting with different techniques.  Some of those very early paint jobs aren't very good.  My republican Romans, imperial Romans, and Gauls aren't up to my current painting standard.

These Danes were the first unit that I really felt I got "right," and the colors and techniques I used here became my new standard.  These are probably the last 28mm figures on which I attempted to paint eyes.  I've since given it up because they never look right.  If the eyes are big enough to see, they're too big for the figure.  If they're in scale with the figure, they're too small to see.  I don't bother with eyes any more.

Hirdmen Leader

This is just one of many outstanding figures in the Old Glory line.  It's just a perfect pose: dynamic without being over-posed and with perfect period details.  The spectacle helmet, the mail neck guard, the cloak under the long mail coat, the helmet, and the fur cape.  It exactly fits my mental picture of a Viking chieftan.

Horn Blower

The eyes on this guy are just about right, actually.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should go back to painting eyes?  I like this pose a lot too, mostly for the quilted armor.

Here follow some pictures of Danish warriors.  Note the variety of armor, clothing, and equipment.

This is probably the best face I've ever done.

The standard bearer below shows the flesh tones I used for these fair Scandinavians.  I've used this same combination on many figures since.  I prime black then layer the color up from darker to lighter.  I painted the whole arm with Delta's "Dark Flesh."  You can see that shade between the fingers and in the crook of the wrist.  Then I painted the bulk of the skin with Delta's "Medium Flesh."  Finally I picked out the raised areas and knuckles with Delta's "Fleshtone."  You don't have to use expensive paints to produce a good fleshtone.  These $1 bottles of paint did the job just fine.

eBay Auctions

I'm auctioning off my two 15mm Field of Glory armies for the Punic Wars.  If you're interested, take a look.

Romans

Carthaginians

Bid early; bid often!

15mm Old Glory Napoleonic French Advancing

My friend Austin intended to build his Napoleonic French army from Old Glory figures, but he soured on the line and bought ABs instead.  He offered me his 500 Old Glory French for a song, and I let him talk me into the purchase.  I added these to the hundreds of unpainted French I already possesed.  I'm running out of space to store them all.

I don't know that I'll ever paint all the French I have.  With about 150 bases of French line already painted, I'm fast approaching the maximum number of bases I'll ever need for an Age of Eagles scenario.

Still, I do enjoy painting French infantry.  They wear what must be the most beautiful uniform ever fielded, and it's a uniform that rewards a good paint job.  As I've developed my painting style, I've gradually started adding more and more detail to the French uniform.  I started with red collar, cuffs, and shoulder straps, white lapels and turnbacks, and not much else.  Then I started painting the blue cuff button strap and the blue in the center of the shoulder strap.  Next I added the white piping on the red cuffs and the red piping on the white turnbacks and lapels.  Finally, on this batch, I added the white trim on the red collar.  Somewhere in there I started painting all the brass buttons on the cuffs, lapels, and coat vents.  If you've followed this blog for any time, you'll remember that I started using two tones on the white bits of the uniform.

The result of all this is that my current French look much, much better than the figures I first painted.  And it doesn't take me much more time to acheive this.  I used to paint six figures an hour, on average.  Now I paint about four per hour.  It's not much of a sacrifice in time to produce better quality.  I may end up replacing all my earlier French with new figures.  Or I may begin basing any newly painted French for a more tactical game system like General de Brigade.

Well, enough of this.  The point of this post is not to muse on my lead compulsion, but to exhibit a pose I've not painted before.  These are Old Glory's French infantry in full dress, advancing.  I much prefer marching poses, but Austin had some advancing figures in his abortive army.  These are not quite up to the high sculpting standard of Old Glory's road march figures, but they are still very nice.

French Infantry Full Dress Advancing

Usually when I paint French, I do 24 figures at a time, 4 each of each company.  That way I have something approximating the French battalion structure on the tabletop, even if each unit is a brigade.  Here we have a company of grenadiers, a company of voltiguers, and four companies of fusiliers.  The bases are from Litko, with a metal base from Wargames Accessories glued to the bottom so my figures will adhere to their magnetic carrying case.

Rear View

Here you can see how I paint the cuffs, collars, and turnbacks, complete with their piping.  The greatcoat rolls are just grey over black, but I try to leave enough black in the recesses to show the actual roll.  I like this shot because you can really see the bands and barrel on the musket.  I do a silver drybrush to bring these out.

Detail

I drybrushed the elite companies' plumes on this batch, although I usually just paint them solid.  I found the faces quite a challenge on these figures, half hidden as they are behind the muskets.  I do try to paint the tricolor cockade, but sometimes the blue doesn't quite stand out enough.