Rangers, Compagnies Franches, and American Indians

I made several additions to my "French and Indian Wars" forces in anticipation of a game on Saturday, February 16.  I guess I needed an incentive to get these figures painted.  They will reinforce my Britannian and Gallian field forces.

The first group are 12 American colonial rangers from the old Conquest line (now made by Warlord Games), packs C and D.  They will join the rangers from packs A and B that I had already painted to form a ranger company.

The figure on the left with the map will actually be a senior officer for my Britannian force.

The second group are Blue Moon's French box from their "Drums in the Ohio Valley" range.  These are rather large figures with a large circular base.  I had to mount them on 1" square bases.  They are a varied lot of Compagnies Franches de la Marine colonial infantry.  Theses units were raised by the French Navy who had jurisdiction over the overseas French colonies.  they join two other previously painted units.

The figure in the tricorne in the center will actually be a senior officer for my Britannian force.

And finally I have a "hand me down" unit of Gallian "courier de bois" (woods runners) and Huron Indians manufactured by Frontier Miniatures which no longer exists (unfortunately to my mind).  The Hurons are armed with bows, muskets, and tomahawks.  Along with their Gallian associates, they will be the Red Rock Clan.  We think that they were painted either by the late Mark "Doc Ord" Stevens or by the late Andrew Doyle.  They were gifted by Mark to my friend Lord Sterling who then gifted them to our friend Steve H.  Not having a need for northeastern woodland Indians, Steve then gifted them to me.  They are mounted on US pennies so I glued them to 3/4" washers to give them some additional height since almost all my French and Indian War figures are 28mm in size.  I still need to do some touch-up painting on their bases.

The Red Rock Clan with their Gallian associates

Here are a couple of close-ups of the figures:

Courier de bois leader

Huron Indians, showing base label

I'll be posting pictures of my game on Saturday at a later date for your enjoyment.

Carpanian Regiment Schweiger

In January, the Margraviate of Carpania added a new infantry regiment to its army with the completion of the outfitting of the Infantry Regiment Schweiger.  This 24-figure regiment is patterned after the Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 22, Prinz Moritz Anhalt-Dessau and is composed of 28mm Sash and Saber Prussian figures.

The regiment can be used for either the "Batailles de l'Ancien Regime" rules or the "Der Alte Fritz Seven Years War" rules.

Here the regiment is deployed in three ranks for use with the
"Batailles de l'Ancien Regime" rules.

Here the regiment is deployed in two ranks for use with the
"Der Alte Fritz Seven Years War" rules.

Although I have plenty more SYW Imagi-nations troops to paint, these may be the last for a while as I have other, more pressing painting requirements - 28mm Britannian and Gallian units for the "Gallian and Indian War" (AKA French and Indian), a 15mm Union brigade for the ACW, 28mm infantry sections for early WW2 British and Germans, and a 28mm improvised Malcolm-Campbell armored car for the Very British Civil War.

Royal Ecossais Second Wave

And on the last day of the year 2018, I'm posting the completion of the 2nd wave of the Gallian Regiment Royal Ecossais.  These figures have been waiting for four years to be completely outfitted.

These are from Old Glory's Jacobite range.  The flag they are carrying is the colonel's "white" flag blazoned with the Scottish thistle and French fleur de lis.  They join their compatriots of the "First Wave."  There will be a "Third Wave" next year as I outfit the grenadier company and the picquet company.

The complete regiment will see their first action on Saturday, January 19, 2019, as part of the Gallian contingent to the Imperial Armeeabteilung Kreis Obere-Sachsen.

I hope that everyone had a blessed and merry Christmas and that you will have a prosperous new year!

Almost Year-End Wrap-up

Christmas brought some gaming items:

An early war squad of 28mm British infantry from Warlord and an early war squad of 28mm Germans from Artizan Designs, both of which will be used as my "contribution" for our group's WW2 skirmish action.

A Great War Miniatures WW1 British artillery crew for my British 18-lbr I obtained several years ago which will be part of my Very British Civil War gaming.

Also for VBCW, a Warlord improvised armored car, the "Malcom-Campbell" which I just had to add as those are my two middle names!

It has a resin body and white metal wheels, bumpers, and half-rifles.  This will be a nice little addition to my VBCW forces.

And two books - The Komnene Dynasty, Byzantium's Struggle for Survival: 1057-1185 by John Carr and A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution by Craig L. Symonds.  Both should make interesting reading.

I've not completed as much painting this month as I wanted, mainly due to a nagging cough from a month-long flare up of my allergic rhinitis.  It has robbed me of my stamina later in the day.  I did remount some pre-painted 25mm MiniFig Wurttemburg troops (a battalion of line infantry and a battalion of light infantry) as well as painted a few figures to complete their organization.  they were used in a fictional 1813 battle preceding Leipzig that pitted a retreating French force and their pursuing Prussians.

As a result of that game, I spent several days going through my 25mm Napoleonic French and Prussian forces and laying out a schema of painting next year to try and complete some of the commands.  As part of that inventory I redid my Napoleon command group by removing a mounted escort (needed him elsewhere), changing Napoleon's horse (also needed elsewhere), and adding two Old Guard escorts (who were extra figures).  The result:

Napoleon, with his faithful Mameluke Roustam, an ADc on foot, and a sergeant and grenadier of the Old Guard keeping close watch.  All of the figures are Miniature Figurines except Roustam's horse which is a Warrior figure.  Roustam himself is an earlier MiniFig casting while all the others are later MiniFigs castings.

I'm still hoping to get 24 more Royal Ecossais figures completed by the 31st.  If so, I'll make them my last post of the year.

Here's hoping everyone had a blessed and merry Christmas and will have a prosperous New Year!

Mystery Napoleonic (?) Figures

I'm trying to identify the manufacturer of these Napoleonic (I think) figures.  They are "true" 25mm figures cast in lead, not pewter.  I got the group of three officers and 16 soldiers a number of years ago but as far as I can recall the seller didn't know the manufacturer.

MYSTERY SOLVED

Thanks to the help I received on TMP, I went looking for the Frontier Miniatures line.  Now evidently out of production, I did find some "no longer in stock" groups of Frontier figures on the Noble Knight Games site.  Once I looked at the pictures, I realized this is where I procured them.  And as others guessed, they do appear to be Crimean War figures.  But I'll probably still use them as Prussian landwehr.

Thanks to everyone who helped over on TMP!!

Officer and soldier

Number engraved on bottom

I think both figures are Napoleonic Prussian landwehr.  Both have the letters "CW" and a number [3 for the officer and 11 for the soldier] engraved on the bottom.

Any help would be appreciated since I'd like to get some more if they are still available.

Many thanks!!

Carpanian Regiment Clausthaler

I just added a new battalion to my Seven Years War imagi-nations forces, the Carpanian Regiment Clausthaler, named after a German beer.  It is patterned after the real-world Prussian Regiment Braunschweig-Bevern (#7).  The only distinctive change I made was to substitute a more redder "rose" for the pink rose listed on the Kronoskaf web site.

The figures are 28mm Old Glory SYW Prussian infantry and the flags are from the Warflag web site.  The battalion, like all my SYW imagi-nations forces, is organized for Bill Protz's "Batailles de l'Ancien Regime" (BAR) rule set.

Please click on the photos for a larger image.

Configured in two "companies" with three ranks each per the BAR rules.

Configured in a two-deep single line for use with other horse and musket rule sets.

Next month I hope to add another two companies to the Gallian (read French) Regiment Royal Ecossais.

Union Reinforcements

I'm continuing to slowly add to my 15mm American Civil War forces, this time some Union elements.  My ACW focus is central Tennessee with the Union XIV Corps of the Army of the Cumberland facing a modified Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee.

Please click on the photographs for an enlarged image.

The figures are all 15mm Old Glory miniatures.  The units are organized for the "On to Richmond" rules.

Major General George Thomas' command group, XIV Corps

Brig Gen Absalom Baird, 1st Division command group, XIV Corps, and his division artillery
(4th Indiana Battery and H/5th US Artillery, armed with rifled guns)

Brig Gen John Starkweather's 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, XIV Corps
(24th Ill, 79th Penn, and 1st and 21st Wisc Regiments)

More will slowly be added.