Epic Revolution, Part 10a: Starting the 1st Maryland and the Continental Artillery

Painting of the Battle of Guilford Court House (March 15, 1781) from Soldiers of the American Revolution by H. Charles McBarron. A pretty darned good representation of the 1st Maryland Regiment.

I'm loving these figures from Warlord Games. One of the items that I like about the Continental Army Brigade for Epic Revolution from Warlord Games that I like, is that I can do several "units" at once. I think this happens to all of us; we a need a break from what we are painting or we want to make sure that what we just painted is really dry! As I was getting ready to start my first Continental infantry unit, I also decided to do the artillery that is on the same sprue as the "uniformed" troops and also the mounted commander on the milita sprue.

Since I am working on units for the Southern Campaign, how could I not do the legendary 1st Maryland Regiment of the Continental Line. I'll probably post about the history later, but the 1st Maryland was composed of veteran troops, many who had been in the Continental Army since 1776. After the American losses at the disaster of the Battle of Camden, the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Maryland were amalgamated into the 1st Maryland. In addition, the veteran survivors of the Delaware Regiment, the smallest in the Continental Line, were also assigned to the 1st Maryland and are distinguished by the yellow tape on their tricorns.

I added a tricorn "head" to the drummer of the generic command strip to make it stand out as a Continental unit.

For figures that are 15mm or smaller, I usually use a white or light grey primer in order for the figures to be brighter. I paint with an eye toward gaming distance and I don't want my units to look like dark blobs so I tend to make my smaller figures slightly brighter. I personally consider the Citadel Colour Wraith Bone (BWAH HAH HAH!) to be the best primer to do this. It's more expensive but I feel it is worth the price.

I'm going to make the 1st Maryland look exceptionally uniformed except with some variations in waistcoats, pants and leggings. For Caucasian flesh color I am using a base of Vallejo (V) Dark Flesh which toward the end of the project will have a watered down wash of Citadel Contrast (CC) Darkoath (BWAH HAH HAH!) Flesh. Uniform jackets are V Dark Blue and the red facing colors of Mid Atlantic States (Delaware, Maryland and Virginia) are V Flat Red.

The tricorns, hats, boots, etc. are done with CC Templar Black and later cleaned up with V Flat Black. Trousers (which some I changed later) are CC Skeleton Horde (BWAH HAH HAH!), CC Snakebite Leather, CC Nazdreg Yellow, V Yellow Ochre, and watered down CC Basilicum Grey over the primer to give the primer depth, and some V Dark Blue and V Flat Green.

In the above photo you can see where I put a black dot centered on three of the strips. I read some painting advice on a forum to spend more time on the "front" of the front rank and the "back" of the rear ranks. That makes sense since they are mounted in two ranks. The drum above was painted with CC Gore Grunta Fur.

The front of the guns.

Meanwhile . . . on the same sprue is the generic artillery which can be either Royal Artillery or Continental Artillery. I really, REALLY, hate painting artillery but with only one gun and four figures it should be a breeze.

The back of the gun.

I'm not as familiar with the artillery of this conflict but from looking at pictures and some of the nearby battlegrounds, they appear to be 6 pounders.

I used the same basic paints as I did for the Continental Infantry but I spent a little bit more time, since there were only 4 figures and I wanted them to really stand out, with the red facings trimmed with Citadel Paint Sunburst Yellow. For the wood I used CC Space Wolves Grey (For The Emperor - May He Sleep Long!. It was nice to work on them to give me a break from the infantry and while paint dried. 

I painted the barrel V Flat Black and will go over it with V Brass.

Ta Dah! Very quick and simple and now all I have to do is to finish the base - oh and the plastic bases come with the set.

Next: A legendary Continental Commander and more progress on the infantry.

Epic Revolution, Part 10: How About Some Head Swaps?

 

I am now diving into the Continental Army Box for Epic Revolution from Warlord Games and will be doing "3" units at the same time: a Continental Infantry Regiment, a Continental artillery piece and a Continental Brigade Commander. First up are some decapitations!

The generic infantry sprue comes with components that allow you to build either Continental or British units. I know that some Continental and States troops had drummers with bearskin mitre caps, but I want my first Continental unit to have a drummer with a tricorn.

I had just received for Christmas the British Infantry Brigade Box which also has a generic sprue. The artillery has the option of having the Royal Artillery wear the leather helmet. Since I was going to do my Royal Artillery with the leather helmets . . . OF WITH HIS HEAD!

I recommend that you do the head swap before you prime (I forgot) but this shows the new head on the drummer. I turned the head slightly just to give the strip some more animation.

Since I was decapitating heads, I took another from the Royal Artillery, chopped off one of the American/Militia Cavalry heads and added the tricorn to the cavalry to add some variety.

The figure on the sprue.

Another head is gone!

"Ta Dah!"

I forgot to mention that I used a sharp hobby knife to take off the heads and regular model glue (I use Testors) to glue the head.

Now to start painting.

Epic Revolution, Part 9: Major General Horatio Gates Warlord Resin Figure

 

Not one of particular favorite generals in history; but, the Major General Horatio Gates figure from Warlord Games is pretty cool. I love the horses that they have done in resin. Since I am focusing on the Southern Campaign in the American War for Independence, I thought this would be a great figure for Major General Nathaniel Greene.

"Hmmm . . . I wonder if the bakery is open."

There was one mystery to be solved when I started to paint the figure: What in the heck is in his right hand? At first I thought it was his sword and scabbard; but, his sword and scabbard are on the left side. Hmmm . . .

"Yep. That's sword and scabbard. Great horse!"

I threw my question out to various forums and Facebook groups and the general consensus is that is a riding crop. That is one big riding crop. I decided that is was going to be a surrendered sword that was presented to the general. Crisis solved!

Epic Revolution, Part 8: Lieutenant General Sir William Howe Warlord Resin Figure

Lieutenant General Sir William Howe

The Black Powder Epic Battles: Revolution! - Commanders pack is actually pretty good! At first I was hesitant when I saw the figures were Warlord Resin as I had read on various forums and blogs that the Warlord Resin was brittle, etc. Then I read that they had redone their formula and they did a great job. I found very little "flash" mold lines which were easily trimmed or filed down with a gently with a hobby file. The resin is firm but flexible enough that items like bayonets and swords will not snap off. Supposedly you can paint them without priming but I prefer to prime my figures.

The resin allows some incredible detail on the small figures and in fact, the horses are fantastic. As you can see, Sir Howe is charging at the head of the troops with sword in hand. They are many documented events that he did this, as did other senior commanders such as Cornwallis. This figure will usually serve as an army commander for the upcoming battles.

I will put my painting philosophy on how I am doing my forces for the AWI in a latter post, but at this scale (and many others!) I like to paint to gaming distance; especially since it has been a while since I painted figures smaller than 28mm. If I look real close at the figure, I notice the gold trim is not straight on the cuff or a missed a button. When gaming, it looks great. On the other hand, I am going to go back and work on the face just a little bit since I am now looking at the pictures!

 

Epic Revolution, Part 7: A Scientific Investigation of Figure Scale

 

What scale is the Warlord Games Epic Revolution? Well, after an extensive, scientific investigation of about 2 minutes I have determined"

1. From the bottom of the feet to the eyes it is 13.5 mm.

2. From the bottom of the feet to the top of their headgear they are 15 mm.

Ta Dah!

Will my findings hold up after the peer review? I had to place the stand on another stand because my blankety blank blank ruler has a margin at the end so I had to extrapolate with my calibrated eyeball.

Thank goodness I have a calibrated eyeball to extrapolate.

Epic Revolution, Part 6: British Army Brigade

 

What a great Christmas present! I think Santa has figured out what to give me each year. As I type this, I have already figured out how I'm going to organize my British and Colonial forces which will be an upcoming post. In the meantime, let's look at what came in the box with a present surprise.

All in all you get:

4 mounted British commanders

1 British standard Line Infantry regiment (80 soldiers)

1 British small Line Infantry regiment (60 soldiers)

1 British small Militia regiment (60 soldiers)

1 British tiny Light Company regiment skirmishing (10 soldiers)

1 British Artillery piece (1 cannon)

Plus:

Plastic bases

Full color British & Continental flag leaflet

Assembly & Painting guide leaflet

The Flag Sheet is the same flag sheet that is in the Continental Army Brigade box and I suspect the other boxes. Actually I'm glad I have a backup in case I mess up a flag: 

British Colors: King's Color and Regimental Color for the 23rd (Royal Welch Fusiliers), 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot, 33rd (West Riding) Regiment of Foot, 44th Regiment of Foot, 63rd Regiment of Foot, and the 64th Regiment of Foot. A nice selection of Colors as it represents units that did a lot of fighting and gives you essentially one facing color each which at this scale can just represent generic units.

Hessian: Let's not forget that the Hessian or German troops made up roughly 1/3 of British forces. Leibfahne (Colonel's Colors) and Ordinärfahne (Regimental Colors) of Fusilier Regiment von Knyphausen, Musketeer Regiment von Donop, Regiment von Mirbach, Grenadier Regiment von Rall, Musketeer Leib Regiment (Erbprinz) and Musketeer Regiment von Bose.

French: Colonel's Flag and Regimental Flag for the Regiment de Gatinais.

Americans: The Betsy Ross Flag, the Grand Union flag, General Washington's Headquarters Flag and five flags with the Striped Canton and a colored field. I think we got a little lazy with the American flags; then again, it is really hard to pin down which flags were actually carried. Washington's HQ flag is perplexing as there are no "HQ units" in the range but I look at it as a vignette project.

For the troops you get 2 frames of the British Infantry; I was surprised to see the additional mounted commander/officer that doesn't get advertised on the Warlord web site. As with the other "line" frames you have the option of one or two standard bearers. Since these will be British units they will definitely have two. Just so you know, I don't care if a particular unit didn't carry their colors in a battle - they are going to carry them on my tabletop!

A close up of the light infantry skirmishing. I particularly like the officer with the sword in a heroic pose.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the officer on the right; I assumed, since I had only seen pictures of the officer on the left, that it was the only one in the set. At this scale it can also be a Hessian officer or Continental office by carefully trimming the gorget from the figure (not to get ahead of myself but I did that and it's easy!) 

In addition there is one generic infantry sprue that you guessed it - will be painted as British Infantry. The less standard uniformed figures will find themselves in the American militia. The artillery are gong to have head swaps and wear the helmet for two reasons: The American and British artillery uniforms are very similar so I want the British to be easily recognizable and, I'll be using the tricorn decapitated heads to replace the heads of drummers wearing the bearskin for my Continentals.

There you go - on to painting!