Epic Revolution, Part 5: The 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) Painting Guide

 

The 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) in 28mm from Perry Miniatures.

I can definitely tell you that I am not going to paint my 12.5mm Epic Highlanders with the same detail as the above Perry's. I have painted the 71st two previous times using Old Glory Miniatures and Perry Miniatures. The good news is the quality of the Warlord Games Epic Highlanders that are resin. The figures do come in strips but there are a few individual figures for options so I used one to figure out how I was going to paint the unit. As always, this is a painting guide, not the painting guide.

Prime in white as I don't want the figures to look too dark as they are smaller.

I used Citadel Contrast (CC) Darkoath (BWAH HAH HAH!) Flesh for the skin.

I used Vallejo (V) Flat Red for the dicing on the band. As I painted I cleaned it up a bit.

V Dark Blue for the bonnet and CC Black Templar for the feather.

CC Blood Angels Red for the jacket.

I'll clean up the turnbacks later; fortunately the facing color and turnbacks for the 71st is white.

Trouser/coveralls are V Flat Earth.

The haversack and strap are V Buff. The cartridge box, bayonet scabbard, and canteen are CC Black Templar.

The musket is V Mahogany Brown. That's it. I'm not doing the metal parts of the musket for speed of painting.

V Gold for the cypher on the cartridge box and the end of the bayonet scabbard.

The hair will be various shades of brown, black and yellow ochre. The epaulettes, cuffs and turnbacks are V Flat white. The boots are also CC Templar black and I painted over the canteen with V Steel.

That's it! Quick and easy. Now to do the unit!

Epic Revolution, Part 4: The Highlanders Blister Pack

Image courtesy of Warlord Games, Ltd.

When I really decide on a project, I usually get a bunch of stuff as I design my forces. How can I do a British army without Highlanders? This will be my experience with the new Warlord Resin (when I purchased them I thought they were plastic). So what do you get? You get 10 strips of infantry and an additional 10 separate figures for the light infantry company. One strip are grenadiers with wings, one strip is command with options, and one strip has a space for a bagpiper or a regular ranker - of course it's going to be the bagpiper! If i counted correctly there are 112 figures with wood bases to mount them.

Wow. That's some detail. I was at first concerned how I would paint the dicing on the bonnet but I see that it is molded on the figure. I'm impressed as this is a 12.5mm figure measuring from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head (not counting the bonnet). The resin is firm but a little flexible so there should be no issue with breakage - thank goodness they are not marching with bayonets!

One grenadier strip - note the detail with wings.

Command strip with two spaces which allows you to customize with standard bearers, another soldier or a bagpiper. There is also one infantry strip that has a space to add an extra figure. This is where my piper will go.

Standard bearers and piper. The standard bearers were the only figures that had extra flash. I've noticed that all of the poles for the flags in the Epic Revolution line have cross beams below the finial. I'm guessing that this adds extra stability for the molding process and they are easily removed.

There are 10 light infantry figures.

There are also six wood bases that 60mm x 20 mm included in the blister pack.

A great value that I got on eBay for $15.00 (USD) with free shipping.

Epic Revolution, Part 3: I'm Officially Starting a New Project . . . Unboxing the Continental Army Brigade

 Okay I'm going to do it. I'll post later why. I was able to get the Continental Army Brigade from eBay for $5 (USD) below retail and free shipping (BWAH HAH HAH!). So what do you get? Per the Warlord Games website:

4 mounted Continental commanders

2 Continental small Militia regiment (120 soldiers)

1 Continental standard Militia regiment (80 soldiers)

1 Continental small Regulars regiment (60 soldiers)

1 Continental Artillery piece (1 cannon)

2 Continental tiny Cavalry regiments (8 cavalry)

1 Continental small Riflemen regiment skirmishing (15 soldiers)

Plus:

Plastic bases

Full colour British & Continental flag leaflet

Assembly & Painting guide leaflet

Did I mention a flag sheet?

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: 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.

You get one frame of the Infantry sprue which can be used either for the British or the Americans. It gives you a nice mixture of very formal looking soldiers and some that are more less(!) uniformed. In addition you have options for how many standard bearers you want if you paint them as British.

Sigh. I told you I was catching up on water colors.

You get one artillery piece; note the extra heads for the British artillery that wore that type of helmet.

Uniformed infantry.

Less uniformed Infantry.

Here are the Militia sprues that include a mounted officer, 4 riflemen, 1 Continental dragoon, and 1 mounted infantry/militia cavalry. You get 4 frames in the box.

And of course enough base frames for all of the figures; here is what the frame looks like:

Yep. I now have three gaming projects to keep me quite busy.

Veteran's Day 2025

It's Veteran's Day on November 11th in the United States and Remembrance Day in other countries. I'm proud to have served with the men and women of the following combat units of the United States Army:

2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment (Raiders)

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Bad to the Bone)

1st Battalion, 52nd Infantry Regiment (Ready Rifles)

7th Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment (Regulars by God!)

4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment (Warriors)

2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment (Regulars by God!)

Task Force Badger, Joint Special Operations Command

Epic Revolution, Part 2: Musketeer Regiment von Bose

Musketeer Regiment von Bose (sans Grenadiers) marching through Philadelphia

After Part 2's cliffhanger about when I discovered that the Hessian regiments had all of their grenadier companies detached to form composite battalions, I was left in the lurch as I need two more musketeer strips to complete my planned three stand unit. I really (at the time) was not interested in buying the Hessian and Allies Brigade so I just bit the bullet and bought another issue of Wargames Illustrated that had the Hessian sprue.

One command strip and one musketeer strip.

I decided to paint the Hessians as the Musketeer Regiment von Bose (which was originally the Musketeer Regiment  von Trümbach when they arrived in America) because it was a regiment from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel that participated in numerous battles of the American Revolution to include campaigns in the North and South. In this scale (and often in other scales!) my philosophy is to paint the figures so they look good at gaming distance. These figures are designed to be "generic" Hessian figures so I am not too worried about the Regimental details. In addition, with smaller figures, I have found it to make darker colors a shade lighter than what you would think they are so they show up better on the table. That is also why with smaller figure I usually prime in white so the uniforms are brighter.

Two musketeer strips. The NCO on the right is a nice touch. 

Due to the number of conflicts Britain was involved with globally at the time the American Revolution broke out, Britain found itself in need of more troops to quell the rebellion. As was the custom of the time, it signed a treaty with several German Principalities to essentially lease their armies for the duration. These troops, from several German states were commonly referred to as Hessians, because the largest block of troops came from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel. The total number of German troops committed to the conflict eventually reach about 33,000- almost a full third of the total Crown forces. The Hesse Cassel army was based on the Prussian army of the time and was among the most professional in Europe. 

Comparing the size of the 12.5mm figures with a 28mm Highlander from Warlord games.

Von Trümbach/Bose participated in many of the major events of the war, including the actions in New York, Stone Ferry, Eutaw Springs, Savannah, Charleston, Guilford Courthouse and Yorktown. At Guilford Courthouse the regiment received special note for its bravery as they fought back-to-back to battle foes on both sides. The main body of the regiment surrendered with Cornwallis's army at Yorktown. The red neck stocks worn by the regiment signify it is a veteran regiment.

 

For the basing of the stands I used watered down white glue and added fine model railroad ballast to the bases. Once dry I put clumps of watered down white glue in various areas and added green static grass. Once that was dry I sprayed a flat, clear protective coat to protect the figures and bases.

A new "shiny new toy syndrome" monster is forming in my mind . . .