Regiment Von Trumbach/Von Bose - Hesse Cassel Infantry - American Revolutionary War

A change of historical periods again for me with my latest addition.  I have been busy in my absence from blogging!

This time sees the Regiment Von Trumbach from Hesse-Cassel.   This unit later became the Regiment Von Bose when it had a change of command in 1778.

This regiment was hired, along with a large contingent from the German state of Hesse-Cassel, by King George III to go to American during the American Revolutionary War.  Hesse-Cassel provided the largest contingent provided by the German states.

The regiment saw action at New York, Eutaw Springs, Stono Ferry, Charleston, Savannah and Yorktown.  The regiment also famously saw action at Guilford Courthouse where they gained renown for their courageous actions during the desperate battle.

These figures are from the fabulous Perry Miniatures range.  Flags are from GMB and paints used are mostly from the Foundry range.

I couldn't resist painting some of the troops with 'mattress-ticking' overalls in a red-striped scheme.  I guess that the John Mollo book 'Uniforms of The American Revolution' left a deep impression on me. Despite an aversion to painting straight lines, I felt these just didn't look right until I had painted around a third of the regiment with stripes (after which I felt in need of a well-deserved drink!).

So, I am back into painting American War of Independence/Revolutionary War figures again.  There are several reasons for this, one being that I have a game scheduled in December.  I started this collection in 2008 and have never had enough figures for a game.  I now have enough...just...but I may need to use some French Indian range troops to fill in some gaps.

I am desperately painting Lord Cornwallis and two other commanders for the game.  Competing with this is an exam in December, and two weekends of Brown Bess shooting events (another reason for getting the inspiration for this fascinating period of history again!).

Sir John Merrick's Regiment of Foote

I'm back again! Another absence from blogging. Too much going on but I have managed some painting time even when I have been away.  This post sees my completed unit of Sir John Merrick's Regiment of Foote in all their glory.

This regiment was raised for Parliament in 1642 and served in various campaigns and garrisons.  In 1643 the regiment served in the west of England.  At least two companies of the regiment joined Waller's forces where it saw a lot of action including the Battle of Lansdown.  It was effectively destroyed at Roundway Down.

I decided to paint the whole regiment up rather than just a couple of companies.  This gives me the flexibility to use them as other units.  Also two strong companies could be the same strength as a very weak regiment so I saw no point in being too pedantic in the numbers of figures.  Greycoats will be useful in any campaign.

Paints used were my usual mix of Foundry, Vallejo and Citadel (with some Miniature Paint colours used too).

Figures are Bicorne 28mm from their superb English Civil War range.  I love the amount of small detail which makes painting so enjoyable.  The little things like patches on clothing are nice touches.
The flags are by GMB.

I'm doing my usual thing at the moment of flitting between historical periods. I have designed a set of campaign rules for the Western Campaign in the English Civil War but just about as it's ready for play-testing I then get the American War of Independence bug!   I have nearly finished a unit of Hessians but then I played a game of Ancients at the weekend and I'm desperate to paint Roman's again.  Ah it's all good fun really!

Sir William Waller's Regiment of Horse

Well now, having my car break down on the way to a weekend of working has left me with two days of unexpected free-time for blog-posting and painting.

Here we have Sir William Waller's Regiment of Horse.  This regiment saw extensive action during the English Civil War in Waller's western campaigns against the Royalists.

The figures are from the 28mm Bicorne Miniatures range which I think are a magnificent range of figures for this period of history.  The riders are more sedate looking than the others in my collection and are from the more recently produced figures in their range.  I think they have used two sculptors to create their figures
.

I opted for these figures because they have the coloured identification scarves whereas others in the range don't have them.  With cavalry uniforms on both sides being almost identical, the use of identification colours must have been widespread.  These troopers are also carrying carbines, which I'm guessing would have been more than likely with a wealthy officer like Waller having raised them. The carbines would also have been extremely useful in the hedge-fighting and ambushes which occurred in the western campaign .

I have painted these mostly with the Foundry triad range of paints, though Vallejo and some Citadel paints have been used too.

I couldn't find a commercially available Guidon for Waller's cavalry so I created and painted this up on paper using a photograph of Waller's re-enactment cavalry from Facebook as a guide.

There are some rather nice photos of the re-enactment unit at this link here:

https://www.facebook.com/Wallershorse/photos_stream

I try to avoid making my own flags whenever possible though this one was quite fun to do.

So what next...well at this time of year I am always drawn into three periods of history:

• English Civil War, mainly due to the campaigns all round my locality and this being the traditional mid-campaign season and looking at the countryside I can just picture units marching down the same roads that I travel each day.  During my recent blogging absence I have painted some more English Civil War units and some more are on my painting table now

• WW2 Normandy campaign - inspired by hot sunny July/August days driving around roads with giant hedgerows (not quite bocage by easily imaginable!).  I keep dipping into getting troops and tanks out but rarely getting beyond that stage. 

• WW2 North Africa - I think its a summer weather thing again!  Nothing makes me think '8th Army' more than wearing long khaki shorts all day, remembering that I need to refuel the car at 1am in the morning for the next day and going out in the car as its cooled right off, with shorts, jumper and coat on!  Yes very eccentric I know but I'm a wargamer - at least I'm going outside!   I seem to have managed to collect WW2 North Africa in about 4 scales with none of them at the playable level yet!

Having said all that, like some wargaming magpie, something else new and shiny might get my interest!

Sir Marmaduke Langdale

Well, it's nice to do another blog post! Much has been going on since the last post but I have managed to get quite a bit of painting done of late too.   My games of Pike and Shotte have shown me how desperately short of command stands both my Royalist and Parliamentarian armies are.  

As much as I prefer to spend time painting infantry and cavalry instead of commanders (because of some sort of feeling of obligation to doing my very best efforts to the great and bold), I felt I could put this off no longer.

Inevitably,once started, I really got into it and enjoyed putting the colours and detail on.

This is Sir Marmaduke Langdale along with one of his senior cavalry officers.  He was an important Royalist commander during the Civil Wars, and he famously led the particularly rough and mutinous 'Northern Horse'.  More information is available at this particularly good resource:

http://bcw-project.org/biography/sir-marmaduke-langdale

Interestingly Sir Marmaduke appeared to suffer an awful lot of defeats and one can only admire his doggedness and spirited refusal to give in.

The portrait appears to show him wearing some kind of cap which seems to sit too far to the back of the head to be an armoured skull-cap, so I have made the assumption that it some sort of velvet cap, perhaps to add extra padding beneath his helmet, so have painted it as such.

The figures are all produced by Bicorne Miniatures and have been painted with a mix of Vallejo's, Citadel and mostly Foundry colours.

Greek Peltasts

At last!  Some time to do a blog post.  I had been quite pleased to get three posts done in April, but May was less good for my blogging!  I have done some painting though and I am pleased to have got several units painted up over the last couple of months.

These are the 28mm Victrix Greek Peltasts from the excellent 'Greek Peltasts, Javelinmen and Slingers' box. They really are great figures and I thoroughly enjoyed building and painting them all. Paints used were mostly from the Foundry triad range and which I am finding very pleasing to use.

I must say that it was hard to decide who were going to be the Javelinmen and who were going to be the Peltasts in the box.  Basically for me it came down to a question of basing to ultimately differentiate.  Peltasts seemed to me to be infantry who could fight formed or in open order and were happy to skirmish at distance or at close contact.  

I decided to base my Pelasts in threes so I could disperse them in Open Order should the need arise.  I saved the arms carrying multiple javelins for my Javelinmen (who I will post a pic of at a later date) who will fight in more open skirmish order and are based in two's.  There seemed to be some blurring of roles and kit between the two types of troop from the sources I read, but I now have light infantry and skirmishers so this suits me fine.

The stand above shows my command group for this unit.  Just small details to differentiate this stand; a trumpeter and a suitably heroic leader with smart shield design, striped tunic and Corinthian style helmet to set them off.

They have seen action twice now, not against another Greek City State but in the Roman Civil Wars between Pompey and Caesar as Greek allies.  With some more painting I may yet get a Greek Army painted up...alas I'm currently in 17th Century mode with a strange pull towards painting Napoleonics...no idea what is causing this other than a certain anniversary!