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.