Epic Revolution Part 22: American Riflemen

 

"Two shots. Aim for the officers. Wait until they're 50 yards away", the general said.

Just a quick post featuring the American Riflemen figures from Warlord Games Revolution! Epic range. You have to have at least one unit of rifles! And don't forget - they can be classed as Continentals (no bayonets) or Militia.

2nd Quarter Update for 2026

Summer! Grandchildren! Travel! Oh . . . and doing some gaming and painting as well! With celebrating 250 years of Independence and freedom I've been focusing on the American War for Independence. So, how are we doing?

1. Phase 3 of the Boxer Rebellion Project for The Men Who Would be Kings. To complete my Chinese Field Force for the Boxer Rebellion I'm going to add two Boxer units of 16 figures each. The Boxers will be from Crusader Miniatures Boxer Rebellion Range. I anticipate doing this in the 3rd Quarter.

Figures from Wargames Foundry.

Kansu Braves from Crusader Miniatures.

2. The American War for Independence in the South. Wow. This was the big progress so far this this year as I jumped into the AWI again using the Epic Revolution figures from Warlord Games. I spent an inordinate amount of time pulling out my old papers and research as I purchased and designed the armies I wanted:

a. Army Commanders:

Continental Army Commander based on MG Greene.

British Army Commander based on Lord Cornwallis.

b. Other Commanders:

LTC James Webster.

Colonel late Brigadier General Daniel Morgan.

c. Units:

1st Maryland Continental Line. How can you do the Southern Campaign without the 1st Maryland?

Light Company, 71st (Frasier's Highlanders) Regiment of Foot.

Continental Artillery.

Webster and the 33rd Foot. Webster wears the uniform of a senior officer with the red facings of the 33rd Regiment.

South Carolina troops muster. This unit can represent either SC Continentals, State Troops or Militia. The mounted figure is the Daniel Morgan resin figure from Warlord Games.

Musketeer Regiment von Bose.

The 2nd Spartan Regiment of Militia.

Hessian Jägers.

In addition I have painted a Royal Artillery gun and crew plus a unit of American Rifles. Once I get some pictures, I will post them. Upcoming for the British will be the 71st (Fraser's Highlanders and the 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fusiliers). Next up for the Americans will be a generic Continental Regiment in brown coats and some American Dragoons and Militia Cavalry.

3. Games. Listen up! Yep; played quite a few games! The next game will be on the Northwest Frontier circa 1898 with the Army of the Raj facing a (ahem) Metallic menace:

"When will they ever learn that they are no match for Doctor Fu Manchu!"

4. Terrain. When I started my AWI project I suddenly realized that I did not have any 15mm terrain. Hmmm . . . I have started some buildings and trees that I will post.

One of the pre-painted MDF buildings from Micro Art Studio and the first batch of trees.

On with the Third Quarter!

Epic Revolution Part 20: The 2nd Spartan Regiment of Militia

Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, along with Major General Nathaniel Greene, review the 2nd Spartan Regiment of Militia. 

I served as a senior Infantry officer in the US Army for 24 years with numerous combat tours. Even so, I am still amazed at the men and women that founded this great country. Our forefathers were tough - but real people; with loss and triumph. It's been almost 250 years of freedom (wipes tears from his eye). Okay, let's talk about toy soldiers.

As the regimental flag of the 2nd Spartan Regiment of Militia, this banner is a rare surviving artifact from the war in South Carolina and the American Revolution. Many questions about the dog and snake painted on this flag remain unanswered. The dog may be a reference to Shakespeare's Othello, which mentions a "spartan dog" as a representation of a bloodthirsty man. American Revolutionaries often used the rattlesnake to symbolize resistance to British authority.

By the end of 1778, the Revolutionary War in the South reached a bloody turning point. Violence between Loyalist and Revolutionary forces increasingly targeted non-combatants and civilians.

Just before the New Year, British forces captured Savannah, Georgia. In order to increase protection for its population, South Carolina’s revolutionary government created a new regiment of militia. 

The 2nd Spartan Regiment of militia served in dozens of battles across the state from 1779 until the end of the war in 1783. Individual companies, battalions, or individual members of the regiment were present at Stono Ferry, Hanging Rock, Musgrove’s Mill, King’s Mountain, Ninety-Six, Eutaw Springs, and dozens of other skirmishes. Also known as the “Fair Forest Regiment” and led by Colonel Thomas Brandon, its men experienced the brutality of a civil war.

The militiamen who served in the 2nd Spartan Regiment reflected the diverse society of the South Carolina backcountry they came from. John Biddie (or Biddle), a free man of African descent originally from Virginia, volunteered for service with the regiment. He served with the unit until the Battle of Cowpens in 1781. 

Aquila Hollingsworth, born to a Quaker family in Delaware, moved to South Carolina and was expelled by the Quakers in 1776, possibly because of his pro-Revolutionary stance. He joined the regiment in May 1780 as a horseman and was killed at Cowpens. His brother and father served by his side. Joseph Hughes, a teenaged South Carolinian, fought in all of the regiment’s major battles and rose to the rank of captain.

I was originally going to paint the flag of the 2nd Spartan Regiment of Militia and then I noticed that one of the banners that came with the Warlord Epic Revolution boxes was similar. So I go lazy! Colonel Thomas Brandon kept the regimental flag of the 2nd Spartans in a wooden box in the years following the Revolutionary War. An inscription inside the case tracks the subsequent owners through the 1900s.

Colonel Thomas Brandon leads the militia of the 2nd Spartan Regiment.

The militia sprues from Warlord are easier to paint than I thought. I stuck to primarily various browns using Citadel Contrast paints with the occasional blue Continental jacket thrown in for good measure so don't be intimidated!

 

Epic Revolution Part 18: A South Carolina Infantry Unit

South Carolina troops muster. This unit can represent either SC Continentals, State Troops or Militia. The mounted figure is the Daniel Morgan resin figure from Warlord Games.

 When I decided to paint a unit that was not uniformed from Warlord Games Epic Revolution, I was a bit apprehensive. I had my technique down for uniformed troops but I was sure the irregular look would take longer. I was wrong! After looking at pictures on the Warlord Games website, plus many Facebook Groups of units of various scales, I decided that really all I needed were various shades of Brown, some blue jackets and maybe the odd green. I did most of the figures with various browns from the Citadel Contrast range of paints, plus Ultramarine Blue (For the Emperor!). Any kind of speed paint should work. I painted a few figures per strip of one color, then moved on to another color. Here is a picture of the process in progress:

I used 5 strips of the less uniformed infantry from the generic Infantry sprue and a command strip from the militia sprue. The flag was an image from the internet, scaled down, and then I painted over it with Vallejo Dark Blue, Vallejo Flat White and Vallejo Flat Black. The flag is a pattern of the first South Carolina State Flag that was used in the Revolution. 

I didn't realize that I needed to touch up many of the black hats until I took the pictures and edited them. My painting room is upstairs in our house and I prime and put a protective coat outside. I usually take pictures before I spray on a protective flat coat.

One of the advantages of this scale is that I paint to "gaming distance and I don't have to add a lot of extra detail. Looking at the figures this closely would not happen during the game.

Epic Revolution, Part 11c: Heck! Designing two Armies!

Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel zu Eisenbach. Warlord Resin figure from the Epic Battles: Revolution Commander's pack.

On to the cavalry! Oh . . . it's the American War for Independence (AWI)! If you want to deploy a lot of cavalry for the AWI, you are better off doing some of the raids or smaller actions. My previous collections of 28mm AWI had more cavalry as I deployed Butler's Rangers, American Continental Dragoons, the British Legion and Lee's Partizan Legion (plus militia) on daring raids and actions. For the scale of battles I am doing, I will not need copious amounts of cavalry on the gaming table. But using the Warlord Games Epic Battles: Revolution range may pose a financial issue for British Cavalry.

Colonel Banastre Tarleton.

I understand the limitations and challenges in producing sprues. It is a lot easier if a period has a wide variety of figures allowing smaller sprues to be produced or more figures of 1 - 3 units on a larger sprue. With the small amounts of cavalry, and the variety of other units, the British Cavalry was relegated to the Hessian Army sprue. As a reminder, I'm planning on focusing on forces for the Southern Campaign. In order to get the mounted element of the British Legion (or paint them as the 16th Light Dragoons) and the 17th Light Dragoons I would need to buy the Hessian & Allies box or one of the larger bundle boxes. I am not prepared to do that yet and may look for alternative figures. It's not an issue for me for the Americans as there are enough figures to represent the American cavalry. My cavalry will be represented as either 1 stand of cavalry or 2 stands for a larger element. 

Head swap to give some variety to the American Cavalry.

On to what I am planning on building!

The 1st Maryland Regiment of the Continental Line.

My forces will be (for the most part) be based on the units that fought during the Southern Campaign on  the free sprues from Wargames Illustrated, the Continental and British Army Brigade Boxes, the Highlander pack and the Commanders pack all from Warlord Games.

British Army:

Commanders: 6 British Commanders and 1 Hessian.

British Line: 4 Regiments.

Highlanders: 1 Regiment.

Hessian Line: 1 Regiment.

British Light Infantry: 1 unit of Highlander light infantry.

Hessian Jägers: 1 unit.

British Grenadiers: 1 unit. (Wargames Illustrated bonus!).

Hessian Grenadiers: 1 unit (Wargames Illustrated bonus!).

Indian Warband: 1 unit (Wargames Illustrated bonus!).

Artillery: 1 gun.

Light Infantry from the 71st (Frasier's Highlanders) Regiment. Warlord Games resin. I need to repaint the leather straps black.

American Army:

Commanders: 7.

Continental Line: 2 units and maybe a third.

Militia: 4 units. One militia unit may find itself as a Loyalist unit from time to time.

Rifles: 1 unit.

Cavalry: 2 units or 1 combined unit.

Artillery: 1 gun.

I'm holding on to the British Light infantry (10 figures) for now as I am convinced that the British Legion infantry, at least at Cowpens, for light infantry caps. How I'm going to get the rest that I need I haven't figured out yet.

The technique I use when painting an army (or two) when I have all or most of the figures is adopted from Bruce Quarrie's Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature:

1. Line Infantry.

2. Artillery, Cavalry or Specialty Unit.

3. Line Infantry.

4. Repeat.

I'll be doing the above and also alternating between the British and Americans and also other projects I am doing.