28mm Continental Infantry, Old Glory First Edition

I finished the last of the scatter this afternoon, and these troops are ready for your viewing pleasure.  I bought five bags of infantry and one bag of artillery, so I have 158 foot and two guns here.

These are six regiments of infantry and two stands of artillery, all castings from Old Glory's old range.  I found these figures adequate, but I would not choose them over Perry, Fife and Drum, or Old Glory's second edition.  I paid $108 for these figures, so I certainly got a lot of lead for the money.  With one bag of skirmishers and one bag of mounted generals, I could have fielded a nice starter army for under $150.  That is Old Glory's great strength: adequate troops for very little money.

These are filler for my army, and I painted them as such.  I started them on December 10th and finished on December 28th, so I was definitely painting quickly.  Still, I varied the uniforms quite a bit, using five different shades of brown for the coats, 11 different colors for gaiters / stockings / overalls, and seven different colors for hats.  I like my Continentals to look motley, and these come close.  If I could have mixed in civilian coats, shirtsleeves, and fringed hunting shirts, as I did with my Perry regiments, I would have been even happier.

Generic Brown Regiment #1 26 figures

Generic Brown Regiment #2 26 figures

Generic Brown Regiment #3 26 figures

Generic Brown Regiment #4 24 figures

If the Continentals ever really had a standard jacket color, it was not the dark blue of our schoolbook illustrations.  The blue coat was only adopted in 1778, when all the northern battles were over, and it is unlikely that blue was ever widely worn.  The American army had supply troubles all through the war, and I imagine that any serviceable clothing would have been acceptable to army quartermasters.

In short, the Continental army was brown, brown, brown.  These four regiments can stand in for almost any unit, any time.

Generic Blue Regiment with Red Facings 24 figures

Generic Blue Regiment with White Facings  24 figures

Of course, some units would have worn blue, so these two regiments represent my nod to the quartermasters.  The unit with white facings has even been able to secure white leg wear for most of the men.  I have still included some brown coats.

Generic Continental Artillery 

This was the standard artillery uniform for both sides: blue coat, red facings.  I painted them with drab gaiters to match my drab army.

Lamb's New York Artillery Company

I saw this uniform in Mollo / McGregor, and I liked the idea of trying something other than the standard red faced blue coat.

So there you have it.  Enough figures for a decent game, at least for one side.  $108, 160 castings, 18 days.

Now if I can ever get going on the British, I may actually be able to fight an American Revolution battle someday.  I have enough bare lead to get a scrap going, but I cannot prime them until the weather cooperates!  I does look like it's supposed to get above freezing here on Monday, and we all know that weather forecasts are never wrong!

AWI Project Continued

I thought I might finish these by Christmas, but it took until the 28th.  Here are 150 infantry, 8 gunners, and 2 guns.

I am basing today.  Tomorrow I will post some pictures of the completed regiments and batteries.

Merry Christmas

I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday.  May Santa fill your stocking with lead!

Old Glory First Edition AWI Rankers

I had hoped to be farther along than this by now, but here are the first 40 rankers for my Old Glory regiments.  Only 80 more to paint!

That "DC all" means that all the figures on that stick got Delta's "Dark Chocolate" as their shade on their jackets.  This set of 40 gets all the interesting colors: blues, greys, off-browns.  The other 80 figures all get Dark Burnt Umber jackets.

I knew I wanted my Continentals to look motley, so when I ordered these figures years ago, I ordered a mix of pants and hat styles.  You'll see stockings, gaiters, and trousers, and the hats are half blocked and half floppy.  Old Glory has six different packs of marching Continentals, and I ordered four of them.

Not one of these figures has a black hat.  I may mix some in with my next batch, but then again I may not.  So far I have only painted my officers and NCOs with black hats.  The men in the ranks have various shades of browns, tans, and greys.

In fact, I am treating these figures just like I would a few regiments of Confederates.  I like that look for my Continentals.  I could wish that Old Glory had some marching troops in fringed hunting shirts, civilian coats, and shirtsleeves.  Then I could do with these what I had done with my Perry figures: get the look of an armed mob that is becoming an army.

I am enjoying these figures for what they are.  The poses are a little awkward at times.  The faces can be downright ugly.  The many small folds in clothing make them difficult for my painting method (these really call for an wash technique).  Certainly Perry and Fife and Drum are better.  But these Old Glory figures will work very well for filling out my army.  And I have to admit, they do have a charm of their own.

You know, we really are spoiled for choice in AWI ranges.  For such a niche period, I am amazed at all the excellent ranges available.

Old Glory 15mm Napoleonic Austrian Jager

Before I could host that game last Saturday, I had to get these 42 jager ready for the table.  They are all Old Glory.

I have always liked the Austrian army for its colorful mix of uniforms, and the jager are some of the sharpest looking troops the Austrians fielded.

These troops, with slightly different firearms, would not look out of place in 1914.

The Old Glory figures are full of movement and very attractive.

Some of the figures came with bayonets fixed, but I figured no rifle armed skirmisher would keep his bayonet fixed if he could avoid it.

I used two tone shading throughout.

I primed these figures last Tuesday, painted them on Wednesday, and based them on Thursday.  14 bases took part in our game last weekend.

1809 in Austria

On Saturday the fellows came over to my place for an 18mm Napoleonics game.  We used General de Brigade for a hypothetical meeting engagement in Austria.  I was only able to take one picture of the game before my camera died, but this picture does show the terrain the troops fought over.

A French cavalry brigade (on the other side of the river) has bumped into an Austrian brigade of jager, hussars, grenzer, and a line battalion.  The French have orders to clear the road over the bridge and through the town so the rest of the army can march through.  The Austrians have orders to retard the French movement by holding the town.

The French had a strong division with eight infantry battalions, all line and veteran, and two large line hussar regiments.  The Austrians had a much weaker force, with a mix of smaller hussar regiments, irregular troops, and 2nd line infantry.

I designed the scenario to have variable reinforcements and variable arrival points, but it turned out that all the troops arrived on time and in fairly predictable spots.  The river was fordable everywhere, but troops had to make a die roll to cross, with chances improving each turn.

Kevin commanded the French, and he quickly decided to move by the upper bridge, farther from the town.  Jon commanded the Austrians, and he moved his hussar regiment up to contest the crossing.  That hussar regiment got destroyed in three turns, but it crippled one French hussar regiment and bought time for Austrian reinforcements to deploy and block the approach to the town.

The rest of the battle played out as a series of French attacks on the Austrian line.  Jon's initial brigade, down its hussar regiment, lost its grenzer as well and failed its brigade morale roll.  Kevin's hussar brigade and his leading French infantry brigade also lost heavily and failed brigade morale rolls.

Jon has written up the battle with more pictures on his blog (here).

I like the rules, but every time I play them, I find more things I am doing wrong.  I think the only cure is to play more tactical Napoleonics!  The rules have enough heft to them that I can catch glimpses of their complexity without fully comprehending it.