Epic Revolution, Part 10b: John Eager Howard and finishing the 1st Maryland Regiment

 

Every general knows a battle plan lasts until the first shots erupt. And as such, grit and experience of soldiers standing fast when faced with war’s horrors decides the day; who will be the victor, and who accepts defeat. Yet one other factor is in play. Improvise. Call it misfortune, opportunity, or just plain luck, be it good or bad.  But as they say given lemons, make lemonade. For Colonel Howard, when a full basket of lemons dumped at his feet during the Battle of Cowpens, he turned what was a grievous mistake, destined to doom the American army to defeat, and turned it into a miraculous gift and total victory. It was the veteran officer who, in an instant after a sheet of led decimated the charging redcoats, saw what was needed to claim the day. The entire British invasion of the south was turned on its heels. For General Cornwallis’ army, it was the beginning of the end, manifested in the eventual march to Yorktown. In one moment, one order, Lt. Colonel Howard earned his place in history.

The Silver Medal awarded to Lieutenant Colonel Howard by the Continental Congress for his leadership and bravery at the Battle of the Cowpens.

After the disaster at Camden, Howard commanded the 1st Maryland, the best infantry unit in the Continental Army for the rest of the American Revolution.  was a superb commander, perhaps the finest battalion commander in the Continental Army. Major General Greene would later write, "Howard, as good an officer as the world affords. He has great ability and the best disposition to promote the service. He was 28 at Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse and would be 29 when he mustered out.

Even though the various rules I am using don't use battalion/regimental commanders, the mounted commander (there are a total of 4 mounted Continental commanders) from the Continental Army Brigade box will be based on Howard - as closely as I can base a figure on a historical commander in 13.5 mm!

The Continental commander is on the Militia sprue and you get 4 in the Continental Brigade box.

Hmmm . . . he seems to only have the same 4 buildings and huge cobblestones for this scale.

One of the advantages of taking pictures is that I notice slight corrections that need to be made. I need to touch up some black on his tricorn and fix a smeared button on the coat lapel. In addition, several portraits show Howard with some white in his cockade which I might try,

Okay, let's finish the 1st Maryland. As a reminder the strip with the yellow tape on the tricorns is the Delaware Company which is part of the 1st Maryland. I have now finished the trousers/coveralls/etc.:

Unfortunately it looks like I accidentally deleted the photos of the next steps. Essentially what I did was paint the muskets Vallejo (V) Mahogany Brown, I undercoated the metal parts of the muskets with V Flat Black and then painted it V Gold. After that just some cleanup on the figures.

The strips were then carefully cut off the sprues, a few spots of V Dark Blue to paint where the figures were attached to the sprues and then I glued the strips to the included plastic bases with modelers glue.

There is no definitive evidence on what the flag of the 1st Maryland looked during the Southern Campaign other than they carried a unit color and a few smaller flags. The above flag was a common pattern used by Continental units, State units and militia and I thought that it looked cool with the completed unit.

Next up I'm going to spray with a clear, matte protective coat and then complete the bases for both the 1st Maryland and the artillery unit. Maybe I'll have some new terrain for the final pictures!

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!