An Attempt At Command

Hello again.

Having painted up the rank and file a week or two back, I thought it high time I put the command element of His Majesty's 58th Regiment of Foot together as well. And here they are.

As previous readers may recall, I had a choice of five regiments from which to choose, all of whom had contributed towards my Combined Grenadiers, and the prospect of black facings and yellow lace won out, hence the 58th "getting the gig" this time around.

The figures are an equal mix of Eagle Figures (the drummer and national flag ensign, albeit converted slightly in the latter case) and Redoubt. When the photos were taken, they still needed to be varnished and, of course, added to their parent units, which still needs the bases texturing. I will post the complete unit once it is complete.

The flags are my usual hand-painted on calico affairs, a time-consuming but surprisingly pleasant affair this time around. I even almost managed to get the straight lines straight too! The flagstaves are brass wire. I chickened out of trying to paint the regimental number in the centre of each flag and used a gold pen with a narrow nib, courtesy of Daughter Eleanor's art materials. It was still a bit of an "ask" writing so small and getting it neat...

G

Eagle Figure converted slightly by the removal of his original cast-on flagstaff.

Redoubt officer

Redoubt ensign

Eagle Figures drummer

1st (Tsarevitch) Dragoons

Hello again.

It is almost a year since I bought the first of my 10mm Crimean War figures at the WMMS show last March. I painted up all except the cavalry unit I got with that first purchase - one of Pendraken Miniatures' Russian Army Packs - within a few months, but that final unit of dragoons lay dormant whilst I moved onto other things and did a bit of on/off research.

That research largely concluded with the purchase of Laurence Spring's "Uniforms of the Russian Army During the Crimean War 1854-1856" at the Derby show last October. Talk about a one stop shop for Russian uniforms! Well, almost. I have other books with colour pictures!!! What Spring's work does include however are orbats and, under the auspices of the 2nd Reserve Cavalry Corps is the 1st Dragoon Division under Lieutenant General Montressor. The 1st Brigade consists of 1st (Tsarevich) Dragoons and 2nd (Grand Duke Constantine Nicolaevich's) Dragoons.

The Tsarevich Dragoons can now take the field with their foot-slogging comrades.

I have really enjoyed painting these 10mm figures and will be doing more, not only the ones I have already bought, but I foresee some others coming along too.

What do I like so much about the 10mm I have done so far?

• They are obviously a LOT EASIER than my usual 28mm figures!
• As a result of that greater ease, they can be finished a lot more quickly.
• When I paint 15mm or 20mm, I feel obliged to paint them like smaller 28's, i.e. still with attempts to shade and highlight accurately. I still do this with 10mm figures, but it somehow seems like the effect is easier too and not just because of the size differential and reduced workload. They just seem to suit the style I paint in.
• They cost a lot less, although this is partially offset by the need to paint more figures and the need to buy more as I want bigger units.
• It is worth putting in the extra bit of effort with 10mm compared with 6mm figures, as you can still see it, especially en masse.
• Easier storage, less weight on the shelves and all those other practicalities that prevent my house from collapsing under the weight of lead in my proverbial mountain!

In truth, I have only painted Crimean War Russians so far, which are hardly the most difficult paint jobs around. I may feel a little different when it comes to the rather more sartorially-dressed British. Also, my other purchased range so far is American Civil War, so that should not tax my skills too much either, but we will see. I like the scale/ size so far and expect to continue to. Watch this space!!!

Anyway, the pictures show my Tsarevich Dragoons in all their "glory". I have another complete Pendraken Miniatures Russian Army Pack to paint, so the 2nd Dragoons will ultimately join the 1st to form the whole brigade. However, that is it for now whilst I finish my latest FIW regiment.

G

The complete unit so far, all seven bases of it. I may add more in due course.

A quick close up.

The command element.

And the whole army. One Brigadier (actually a Dragoon Officer figure from the pack - I only needed 14 figures out of the 15 in the pack for the unit), 2 battalions of Jager, 1 battalion of Naval Infantry, 3 battalions of the Minsk Regiment, 3 artillery pieces and the dragoons.

Big Men With Tall Hats

Hello again.

It is done. Not partly done. Not almost done. Just "done".

After many weeks of scratching away at a few figures at a time between work, sleep, Winter light conditions and the odd festive celebration, I have finally completed the second unit of troops for my "proper" Seven Years' War/ French & Indian Wars collection with the Combined Regiment of Grenadiers. Obviously, I have built up a reasonable collection of the skirmishing types for games such as "Muskets & Tomahawks" already, but these are "proper" troops because they stand shoulder to shoulder!

For those who have missed previous posts on my schemes in this area, I am building 24 figure regiments of British, using mainly Eagle Figures, which nicely devolved into "companies" of four figures and six "companies" per regiment. In truth, I simply cannot remember how many companies per regiment British units had at this time (and nor do I really care!), but I like the aesthetics of 24 figures in two lines using six bases. That is my raison d'etre in this case, as simple as that.

Anyway, painting six bases each of four figures from six different regiments nicely tied in with the sort of size of force I wanted to create for a show game set within the French & Indian Wars. A teeny bit of research later gave me six different regiments that fought in North America and Canada at this time, all with the desired different facing colours, thereby keeping a nice, distinct definition between contributing parties for this unit but maintaining a sort of homogeny at the same time with their nice, red coats. I now have to paint the parent unit for all except the Royal Americans, who were the first ones I did for this project. (What do you mean, you missed the posts on that???)

I selected:
27th Inniskilling Regiment - buff facings, white lace;
35th Regiment - orange facings, white lace;
43rd Regiment - white facings and lace;
46th Regiment - yellow facings, white lace;
58th Regiment - black facings and yellow lace;
60th Regiment (Royal Americans) - blue facings and no lace.

All of them featured at one or more of the battles/ encounters in North America at this time according to the various orbats I have.

Purists will no doubt argue that lace and other distinctions would have disappeared very quickly on campaign in the wilderness of North America, but I do not care, as this project is as much about aesthetics as anything else. I suspect that there are one or two inadvertent errors in the uniforms too, but then even sources cannot agree on what some of the troops looked like, especially the French, who did not necessarily wear their usual uniforms in North America as they were supplied differently for this conflict. I do have a 30+ year old copy of "Military Modelling" lying around somewhere with a detailed coverage of British grenadier caps in it, but do you think I can find it anywhere? Nope! So these at least are a tad conjectural in some cases. It is also a departure from my usual fare as I am painting red, which is not exactly my favourite exercise! Besides which, it is important these guys look their best when going off to engage in every Englishman's favourite pastime of fighting the French!!!

So, in all their "glory", I give you the Combined Regiment of Grenadiers.

G

The complete regiment. I was going to deploy them in regimental order from right to left, lowest number first, but gave the 27th the honour of the command element instead. The rest are on order, however.

Right flank

Left flank

Centre

The contingents from the 58th and 60th regiments

The contingents from the 35th and 43rd regiments

The contingents from the 27th and 46th regiments