A Productive January

It’s been a great painting month.  I spent lots of time focused on those Enfilade projects I’m working on.  I’m kind of a procrastinator about most things in my life, but not about getting convention games ready.  I’ll never forget watching some guys painting figures at their table for their weekend-long Battle of Gettysburg game.  That is not me.

I began the month working on figures for the Rebels and Patriots game David Sullivan and I are hosting.  It’s based kind of loosely on the retreat to North Carolina across the Dan River, leading to Guilford Courthouse.  Sort of like Weitzel’s Mill.

Two of the units I wanted to paint were light companies of the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards that are part of the British pursuit. The figures for both units are Front Rank, from their Light Infantry in slouch hat group.  It’s a pretty thin batch of figures, so there’s not a big mix to choose from.  As I’ve stated before, these figures are very fun to paint, very easy to paint because they’re large and kind of blocky.  They remind me of working with a coloring book, because the lines are so clear. No facing colors or lace to speak of.  I did give the officers Scarlet coats instead of the Vallejo Flat Red, so they could be in regulation dress and be better targets for the American riflemen.

Front Rank Light Infantry in southern dress.  These are painted as the light company for the Coldstream Guards.  Their device is painted on many of the figures’ backpacks in the photo upper left.

Though there’s not a lot to dress them up, I decided to paint their backpacks with crests for each of the different regiments.  The Coldstream Guards were pretty straightforward.  The Grenadier Guards not so much.  Every guardsman was not a recipient, but the majority of figures have their respective crests.

Grenadier Guards light company.  Their devices were more of a challenge to paint and I skipped trying to paint the royal script inside the garter.

I also painted Kirkwood’s Delaware light infantry.  These are Front Rank figures in 1779 regulation dress.  Again, fun to paint.  I didn’t quite get the figure mix right.  Was hoping to add some figures in hunting shirts but didn’t order correctly.  My bad. The biggest distinction for Kirkwood’s troops is the yellow hat lace, so at least I could see them coming.  As their white overalls wore out they resorted to bed ticking for trousers.  I was hoping to have a few more examples of this and remembered what a terrible pain in the ass it was and called two examples good enough.

Robert Kirkwood’s Delaware Regiment was really part of the old Continental Line that served throughout the southern campaign.  It’s the closest Nathaniel Green had to an elite unit, but though it had only 80 or so men.  Kirkwood was a soldier’s soldier, serving through the Revolution, only to die on the Wabash battlefield in 1790.

Back in December I went to the Perry Miniatures site and put together an order for the remaining figures I need for this project–British Legion figures for the loyalist South Carolina Dragoons, Lee’s Legion dragoons, and a handful of riflemen.  Four weeks later, having not received them, I went back and looked at my order, only to discover it tidily sitting in the site’s shopping cart.  Sent in my order the next day, and shipped immediately from the Perry site.  Still waiting, but am watching the mail daily.

While waiting for the Perry’s to arrive I decided to switch gears and begin work on planes for Ploesti.  I don’t have a ton to do but they are big ol’ Scotia B-24D’s.  The models are nice but large, which always poses a bit of a challenge.  The planes often come with their uber-long wings pretzeled and their large stabilizers and double tails needing careful straightening.  I set into this task one evening, only to realize the B-24’s I ordered back in August weren’t the early D version of the bomber that set upon the Romanian oil fields at all, but the later B-24J with the power nose turret.  Still a nice model I can make use of, but it took another order to the UK to retrieve the situation, so I am still awaiting the whims of the Post Office.

This Scotia B-24D is one of ten I acquired from the late Phil Barsdley.  They are spectacular in every regard, including the guns Phil added.  The paint, including “Flying Eightball” emblem and nose art I’ll never be able to equal.

Scotia B-24J in all its raw metal glory.  Note the nose turret. They’ll paint well.

With the R and P figs and the required planes unavailable, I’ve been working on some figures for my Philippine scenario. Because there is a coastal element to the game, I gotta have marines and sailors.  I think I’ve already shared my U.S. Marines.  Like those figures the sailors are offerings from Old Glory.  Not a tough job–because they are in white uniforms with white sailor caps.  Managed to knock out both units this month.  As figures go, they are pretty simple and straight-forward.  they seem a bit small.

Well, no they aren’t a lot to look at, but if you’re gonna be afloat you gotta have sailors.  Two units of Old Glory Sailors from their Spanish American War range.

They are a pretty simple paint job.  I used Vallejo Grey-White as an undercoat and then painted highlights in straight white.  That’s really all you gotta know.  Simple but reasonably effective.

About the time I thought I could start another unit I got a raging four-day case of the flu.  When I could bring myself to actually go back in my den, I decided to paint some of the heavy weapons I’ll need for the Philippine scenario.  There is a mountain howitzer and crew and a Colt machine gun in both the firing and moving position. I’m about 50% finished with those figures

This bunch is from Tiger Miniatures and include crews for Colt Machine guns as well as a breach loading mountain gun from their Spanish American War range. Under construction.  Hope to be done with the lot by February 2nd.

If I’m able to finish those figures by Friday, I’ll have done 72 figures in the month of January, all 28mm, which is a whole lot for me.  And honestly, it was truly enjoyable.  It’s nice to have about three hours a day to paint.  I can get a lot done.

And the really good news–my Perry order arrived today.

My small, but anxiously awaited Perry order.

 

 

Fix Bayonets: The Day of the Horsemen

 

A view from Maison Smyth in Dean Motoyama’s Franco-Prussian War game adapting over the Bolt Action rules. The miniatures and the terrain was spectacular.

Yesterday was our annual Fix Bayonets game day.  Like the trip to Chehalis, it is a fun little gathering, now in its seventh year.  Lawrence Bateman, Damond Crump and Bruce Smith take responsibility for hosting the game day at historic Fort Steilacoom, and the ten dollar entry goes toward buying new stuff for the fort.

Fix Bayonets offers two game periods and I participated in both of those.  In the Morning David Sullivan and I hosted a Rebels and Patriots game.  David chose a scenario out of the rule book and created “Barlowe’s Necessary.”  The British and American forces were created out of roughly equal points for six different players, three per side.  Three of the players in the game were school-age and fairly new to miniature wargaming.  But they were a pleasure to play with and did pretty well.

I was an American player, pretty much in the middle of the table, and paid for that privilege.  David was on the left side, slogging through slow, rough terrain, which also shielded him from a lot of fire.  Chris, my young cohort, was on the right side, and though the British facing him scalded him with hot fire at times, was able to take cover behind a fence line and some woods.

My command, was in the open.  Which means about the same thing as my personal motto: “Shoot me again.” If I had a piece of heraldry, it would feature a green cross, with a red heart in the middle, full of bullet holes.

I actually had some cool units.  My best unit was Lee’s Legion light infantry, and they did some great work, trading shots with several units and making an important charge during a key turn.  My unit of William Washington’s 3rd Continental Dragoons made their debut.  I also had a unit of militia skirmishers.  Finally, by a sheer order of luck I rolled up a unit of raw militia, shooting poorly, that I figured wouldn’t be too useful.  I’m glad I did.

A lot of the British units were lights or grenadiers, with a couple of line units.  That meant that point-wise, there were fewer Brits to fight, but they had  much better staying power than the Americans.  I faced a unit of light infantry skirmishers, a unit of line infantry and a unit of lights firing at my guys.  Tough.

But I also fought with my own damn die rolls which were pretty terrible for the first two- thirds of the game.  I was able to activate okay, but just wasn’t able to hit much.  The worst was when I sent my cavalry crashing into the woods woods to rout out the annoying and destructive fire of the British skirmishers, hit them, but couldn’t inflict a single casualty.  They returned to my lines at half strength, having accomplished nothing.

Things were brightening on my right flank, as Chris inflicted casualties on Mark’s lights.  A bad die roll saw the Brits take to the hills and Mark withdrew his grenadiers to cover a source of victory points. But David was being pressed on the left as troops from the center were being drawn into the the fight around the Barlowe house due to my ineffective performance.  My skirmishers fled the field after taking serious damage from the British skirmishers.  The dragoons cowered behind Lee’s Legion.  The Legion troops soldiered on, firing ineffectively, slowly accumulating casualties, but tough as nails. The green militia, gamely advanced, looking for something to do.

Then, it was like a light bulb was turned on. A round of fire sent a unit of British line running.  A British light infantry unit advanced just a little too far, were charged by the Legion, and even though the Legion lost the combat, they didn’t break.  The militia advanced and successfully fired at the British skirmishers. Dragoons, advancing behind the Legion charge were perfectly positioned to deal some death.

The British line infantry to the right prepare to dispatch Col. William Washington’s dragoons after their successful charge eliminated a key British light infantry unit. Only Washington would survive.

In the following turn, the last of the game, the dragoons charged the light infantry, surprising the startled Brits, inflicting enough casualties for them to break, both sides taking losses.  However, the redcoats retreated just far enough to be contacted again by the pursuing Continentals.  The lights disintegrated, and the cavalry dispersed.  In the end, only Washington rode back to the American lines.

David held the Barlowe house, the Legion lights earned two honor points, and the British forces were all damaged enough to win the Americans a convincing victory. The Continental dragoons rocked.

In the afternoon, I played in Dean Motoyama’s Franco-Prussian War game using Bolt Action as a rule mechanism.  I found it easy to play and the WWII rules set worked pretty well for the 19th century conflict.

Dean devised a six-turn game in which both of the evenly matched sides could easily control two of four ruined buildings on the table. The side that could control one of the other side’s building would win.  The Germans had an artillery piece, while the French advantage lay with their Chassepot rifles, out-ranging their foe’s Dreyse needle-guns.

Mark Serafin and I ran the French.  We committed half our force against the building directly to our front, while holding off units to our flank.  To my right, I occupied one of our buildings with one unit, supported by a unit of mounted chasseurs.  Mark took the building on the right side supported by a unit of Algerian Tirailleurs.

With the clock ticking, we immediately pinned the unit in the house to our front, without doing a lot of damage.  Meanwhile three units of Prussians crossed the stream protecting my fortified flank.  What to do?

The chasseurs were a deterrent to do too much too quickly, and I eventually drew two units to support my building.  Fire into a wood full of Prussians neutralized one unit.  Twice, the Prussians advanced to fire on the chasseurs, but using Dean’s emergency escape rules allowed them to retreat to safety.

Jim Sagen, commanding the Prussians threatening my command, decided to assault on my position on turn four.  He advanced his artillery to get within close range. He chased my chasseurs away for the last time.  Things looked bad.  In his bloody assault, Jim destroyed my defending unit, but in the process, lost all but one of his figures. My cavalry crept ever closer to one of his supporting units.  It was now turn five.

I counter-attacked an unblemished unit of Zouaves into my building, tossing out the lone surviving Prussian.  When the time was right, I launched my horse into the supporting Prussian unit.  With no pre-measuring, I wasn’t quite sure whether they were within the chasseurs’ 18 inch charge range.  Made it by a quarter of an inch.  I managed to kill five of the eight Prussians before they could fight back, and that was their end.

The chasseurs rule the my end of the table in Dean Motoyama’s Franco-Prussian War game.

In the final turn it was pretty clear the building was secure, but there was one more Prussian unit ripe for the taking. The damaged unit in the woods fell victim to the chasseurs.  With that, the game was over and it remained tied, as it began.

Dean’s experiment with the rules was successful for a first test.  I think there is still some fiddling to be done with the assault rules, but the firing and casualties seemed to work quite nicely.  I had a lot of fun with his beautifully painted miniatures.

So two awesome games in which cavalry played a major role in both.  That doesn’t always happen.

 

Grenadiers, ick

Ack!  Enough already.  I think everyone paints something that makes them crazy and for me it’s British grenadiers of the American Revolution.  Red coats, bearskins and their front plates.  Straps on straps on straps, lace, facing colors brass buttons or silver. Spare me.

I have 36 figures to finish, ideally before March 23^rd when we do our first Concord run through.  I have twelve figures about 85 percent complete.  I’m ready to slit my wrists. I’d rather paint an army of Philippine soldiers in rayadillo.

Maybe it is the deadline element.  Maybe it’s just that there are so many bits that need attention—like the musicians, I forgot to mention the musicians.  Gah!! Maybe it’s remembering how great the late Phil Bardsley’s grenadiers looked when we did our Guilford Courthouse project back at Enfilade II in 1992.  Great figures and mine . . . not so much.

In any case, I’d almost rather be painting anything else.  Some F-8 Crusaders need my loving attention.  I have a dozen Philippine infantry all picked out-in rayadillo, of course.  It’s almost time to start painting some adversaries for the Philiippine Republic and I have those too.

One thing that I have learned from all this.  When I finish the 36 grenadiers, that will follow 36 light infantry and 72 militia figures, all for the Concord game.  I started working on these in Octoberish, and I think this is the last time I’ll paint for an Enfilade project.  Rather, I’ll continue painting troops for Daniel Mersey’s games, or Airwar C 21 or Regimental Fire and Fury, but the game will have to find what I have at hand, and we’ll call it good.

Figure Review: Fife and Drum AWI British Guards

This Christmas my wife and I are trying something a little bit different with our gift-buying, including allowing each of us to buy a gift for ourselves that will be wrapped and put under the tree. I opted for figures. So I put together an order for some British Guards from Fife and Drum Miniatures.

There is something magical about Fife and Drum. I don’t know a ton about them, except they were conceived from the prominent war gaming mind of Jim Purkey of Lake Forest, Il. You may know him as Altefritz on TMP. He’s always offered considerable knowledge of 18th century military matters including the 7 Years War and the American Revolution. I became aware of the Fife and Drum range when he launched a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to fund his range of Hessians for AWI.

Line companies, including one fairly mangled bayonet.  But, I think I can fix it.

Guards light infantry company, including an NCO figure.

I have units from many different manufacturers in my AWI collection, but I chose Fife and Drum for a couple of reasons. First, I know Jim chose to depict his figures in the non-traditional cut down uniforms adopted for the 1777 campaigns for Philadelphia and Saratoga. These and the slouch hats replacing the tricornes work well for the South, 1779-81. Second, I admired his work assembling this range, seemingly from scratch, and I wanted to support his effort.

I need the Guards for Guilford Courthouse and Weitzel’s Mill. Two battalions of 24 figures each was their game strength. I ordered the first battalion. Unlike any other range, Fife and Drum offers flank companies specifically for the Guards. Because these companies were active at places like Weitzel’s Mill, it’s nice to have unique figures with their peaked caps and horsehair crests. Though the Guards are offered in several positions, I chose the firing line. These come with figures priming their muskets, and figures firing. The command figures are a bit problematic with the officer shouldering a musket and the drummer in the Guards range. I had to add the standard bearers from the line infantry.

I really like the detail on these figures. It’s quite good, but not over-done. The simplicity of the uniforms should make them easy to paint. The faces will be hidden by the large hats. Posing is pretty simple, without a variety of head and arm positions. These figures will look very uniform on multiple figure bases, which is quite a nice departure from the Victrix Napoleonics I’ve been working on.

Comparison between Fife and Drum figures and Perry miniatures from the same period.  You can see they are about the same height but the Perry figures are beefier.

A comparison of Fife and Drum figures and Front Rank grenadiers.  Yep, the Front Rank guys are big.  Bill Stewart always called them corn-fed.

If the Fife and Drum range has a flaw, it is in their size. I have figures from Perry, Old Glory, and Front Rank in my collection, and they aren’t going to match well with any of them. It won’t deter me from using them, or ordering a second Guards battalion, but it’s important to acknowledge the difference. The Fife and Drum figures are 28mm tall, but their physiques are pretty slight. Compared to the Perry 23rd Regt. figures in the first comparison photo, they seem fairly small. The second picture compares the F and D guardsmen with the Front Rank grenadiers. We’ve always considered them robust, compared to the other ranges.

I’ll close with a shout out for the customer service I received. I e-mailed Jim on Black Friday about my order. He responded within an hour or so. I sent him my payment that evening, and he had my figures out to me on Saturday. They arrived by US Mail on Wednesday. I live in Washington State, so a pretty painless experience. Shipping was only $4.

Very nice figures and superb service. If you can live with the size differential between manufacturers or if you are entering this period, I would easily recommend this range of miniatures. Cost per figure is $2, about the same as Perry.