Introducing the Rall Grenadier Regiment at Trenton

Hessian Rall (not von Rall) Grenadier Regiment at Trenton in 1776.
Fife and Drum Miniatures figures in 1/56 scale (approximately 28mm)

Click on all images to enlarge

I have been very busy with my Trenton 1776 Project, accumulating a lot of painted Continentals - ten regiments as a matter of fact. At an average wargame figure size of 30 figures per regiment, that is 300 figures in my newly painted Trenton Winter Army. I decided to paint entirely new American and Hessian armies for Trenton and base the stands in Winter snow, rather than using my existing armies with their green grass bases.

A couple of weeks ago I finished 20 Hessian Jagers and while there were only about 60 Jagers in total at Trenton, I decided that the Hessians needed a few extra figures in their wargame army so that I could have at least two Hessian game players versus four (maybe five) American commands. As a result I painted 20 Jagers which equates to 200 men using my standard figure to man ratio of 1:10.

Rall Grenadiers (top) and American Continentals )bottom). 

Next I turned my attention to the Hessian regular regiments. The army will have the Rall Grenadiers, (50 figures)  and the von Knyphausen and von Lossberg fusilier regiments (40 figures each). Poor Colonel Rall apparently didn't qualify for "von Rall" status, just "Rall".

Grenadiers are more interesting to paint so I started with them:

The Rall Grenadies pose in the town of Trenton. I have ten figures on each stand.
Buildings, trees, fences and roads were made by Herb Gundt.

Fife and Drum Miniatures Hessian grenadiers in firing line poses (first and second ranks).
I use a deeper base for firing line units to protect the extended muskets. 60mm deep by 80mm long.

So as of today I have 20 Jager, 50 Rall Grenadiers and two 6-pound cannons, each with four crewmen. I can swap out the cannons for Prussian 3-pounders. I don't want the artillery on both sides dominating the tabletop game.

And finally, I finished the personality and command stand for Colonel Rall.

Colonel Rall at Trenton.  I used the von Knyphausen personality figure and the 
Hessian Jager officer holding a telescope for the command stand, which is 
approximately 40mm round. We are looking up King Street towards the Continental
artillery in the distant background.

For my fusilier regiments I plan to paint one unit marching using the Minden Prussian fusilier figures and one unit of fusiliers in a firing line pose. The latter will be conversions using AWI torsos and SYW fusilier heads. If there is enough interest, I might add the Hessian fusiliers to the Fife and Drum figure range.

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Hessian AWI Jagers are now in stock!

New Fife & Drum Miniatures AWI Hessian Jagers.

The new AWI Hessian Jagers have been added to the Fife and Drum Miniatures AWI range of figures and they are now available for purchase from our webstore Here

There are two new infantry pack codes HP-008 Jager Command and HP-009 Jagers Skirmishing as well as one new regimental pack HR-003 Hessian Jager Regiment. The regimental pack saves you 10% off the retail price of the individual figure packs.

Closeup view of the seven new figure poses for the jagers

HP-008 Hessian Jager Command pack features one officer with telescope,
one musician with horn, and one NCO.

HP-009 Hessian Jagers Skirmishing

HP-009 Hessian Jagers Skirmishing

These new jager figures are ideal for small skirmish level wargames such as Sharp Practice as well as for more conventional set piece table top battles.

Austrian Firing Line

Austrian infantry regiment "Lacy" comprised of Fife & Drum Hessians and Minden Austrian command figures.

CLICK PIX TO ENLARGE

I bet that you did not know that Minden Miniatures has SYW Austrians in firing line poses.

Well, you would be right, because there are no firing line poses in the Minden SYW range (yet). However, I decided that I needed a new Austrian battalion of infantry to use in my Kunersdorf game next year - there were some 18,000 Austrian commanded by Loudan that were at the battle. I wanted to do something different for my Austrians so I decided to paint a battalion in a firing line.

Austrian regiment Lacy with 3 stands.

Austrian regiment Lacy with 4 stands

Since Minden does not have regular infantry in firing line poses, I decided to select some of the Fife & Drum AWI Hessians and "convert them with paint." In other words, I would use the Hessian musketeers in firing poses and turn them into SYW Austrians by the simple mechanism of painting the figures white. I also added in some Minden Austrian command figures such as drummers, NCOs and officers to give the battalion a bit more of an "Austrian" look to it.

I think that the miniatures really look like Austrians at first glance, and perhaps at second, third and fourth glance.

Side view of the battalion.

The Austrians are based to my new organizational method with 32 figures instead of 30 figures. I use 4 stands instead of the old 5 stands. I put 8 figures on each stand and on the two flank stands I offset the drummer in the second rank and also place an NCO on the stand.

Austrian Command Stand.

This Austrian unit needed a deeper base than my usual 40mm to provide extra room on the base to protect the extended muskets from possible breakage. So I used a stand that was 80mm deep and 40mm wide. Thus the total frontage of the battalion is 240mm compared to the 280mm that I normally use for my Russians and Pommeranian corps Prussians.

I'm On a Painting Frenzy

Marbach Regt. Firing Line in front and von Donop Marching Regt. in the second row. Fife & Drum Hessians. Click to enlarge the picture.

My painting mojo has returned and I have been on a painting frenzy for the first two weeks of January 2017. I have painted two Hessian regiments using the new Fife & Drum AWI Hessians: von Mirbach (50 figures) using the firing line musketeers and the von Donop (40 figures) regiment using the marching musketeers. You can see my output for Hessians in the picture at the top of the page. I also painted two Russian SYW artillery crew, which are behind the Hessians.

I have also painted some of the Minden SYW civilians, as shown in the pictures below. All of these figures could be used as AWI American Militia, noting that the farm tools would have to be replaced by muskets and rifles. RSM95 has some muskets that would work with the Minden figures. Note to self: ask Richard to make a sprue of muskets and rifles to sell weapons in a new pack.

CIV-001 Agricultural Workers #1

CIV-002 Agricultural Workers #2

CIV-004 Armed Civilians

I had not done any serious painting since about June 2016. No matter how hard I tried, I could not bring myself to pick up a paint brush and sit down at the painting table for an hour or so. Usually painting figures is relaxing and reduces some of the stress in Life, but I think that the old Black Dog was working against me and I couldn't do much of anything for quite awhile.

I think that being retired (since November 1, 2016) has made me a happier and less stressed-out person and this has enabled me to pick up the brushes once again. 

I working on painting samples of all of the Minden and Fife & Drum figures to use on the on-line shopping cart on the Fife & Drum website. The civilians are fun to paint because they are in small groups of 4 or 5 figures and I can paint each figure as an individual with different colored clothing. I didn't add eyes to these samples, so some of them look like zombies when you click and enlarge the pictures. Trust me, they look better first hand.

In parting, some pictures of the Minden Pioneers set. These are very useful figures as the poses can be used for a variety of uses. I often use them as laborers for my artillery crew sets. I have seen other people using them as bakers in a field bakery or as brick masons, etc.

CIV-003 Pioneers (one pose is missing in the picture above, see below for the full set of Pioneers)

CIV-003 Pioneers

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Painted Fife & Drum Hessians

Prinz Karl Regiment of Hessians (click all photos to enlarge the view)

I finished painting 30 Hessians over the holiday weekend and was getting ready to base them when I decided that the regiment would look better with 40 figures rather than 30 figures. Early in the American Revolution, the Hessian regiments mustered 400 to 600 men. At a 1:10 ration, such as I use in my own AWI armies, that would result in a regiment of 40 to 60 figures. The latter figure is too many to use on the tabletop due to the frontage that it would take up on the table, so I decided that all of my Hessian regiments will be 30 to 40 figures.

Below are some pictures of the contents of the Hessian Musketeers Marching packs of figures:

HP-001 Musketeer Command (6 figures: officer, NCO, 2 ensigns, and 2 drummers)

HP-003 Musketeers Marching (8 figures - identical pose)

Contents of Hessian Musketeers Marching pack of 8 figures: HP-003

HP-003

HP-001 Hessian Musketeer Command Pack of 6 figures.

Since Hessian regiments were single battalion regiments, I increased the size of the command packs from 4 to 6 figures so as to include 2 ensigns to carry the flags. An extra drummer was added to the pack to bring the pack to a  nice even number of 6 figures.

There are still a few more days to take advantage of the Trenton Christmas Deal and purchase 30 figure regiments for $50.00, which represents a discount of 17% off of the regular retail price of $60.00 for 30 figures. (Otherwise, foot figures continue to sell for $2.00 each).

Fife & Drum web site link

Click on the link above to visit our Fife & Drum website and explore our product offerings for both the AWI and SYW periods.


Tomorrow: a review of my Christmas war-game swag.

Trenton Christmas Deal for Fife & Drum Hessians

Two Fife & Drum Hessian regiments, firing and marching. Click all pictures to enlarge the view.

My next painting project will be to get two 30-figure Hessian regiments painted over the next couple of weeks. There will be one each of a marching regiment and a regiment in firing line formation. See picture of the pair of regiments at the top of the page and the marching musketeer regiment below:

Hessian Musketeer Regiment Marching

The Hessian Musketeer Marching Regiment consists of the following Fife & Drum packs:

1 x HP-001 Command Pack (6 figures per pack)
3 x HP-003 Musketeers Marching (8 figures per pack)

I have tweaked the packs by adding 2 extra NCO's, one at each end of the line, and removing 2 of the marching musketeers. (more on this later). This will become the Prinz Karl regiment for the simple matter that it is the only GMB Designs flag set that I have on hand.


The Hessian Musketeer Firing Regiment consists of the following Fife & Drum packs:

1 x HP-002 Command Pack (6 figures per pack)
3 x HP-004 Musketeer Firing Line (8 figures per pack)

As with the marching regiment, I have removed two rank and file and substituted two extra NCOs placed on each end of the line. The name of this regiment will be determined after I order more GMB flags. I want to have regiments that participated in the Philadelphia Campaign of 1777.

Hessian Musketeer Marching - Command Set

Hessian Musketeer Firing Line - Command Set

The Trenton Christmas Deal

I liked the way that these two regiments looked, especially with the extra NCOs anchoring the end of the regimental line, that I decided to offer a complete regiment for the discounted price of $50.00 per regiment. This represents a 17% discount off of the list price, which would be $60.00 without the discount.

This is a limited time offer through the end of December 2016 - after that, the deal will expire.  Click on the link below to visit the Fife & Drum website and shopping cart. Take advantage of the Trenton Deal today!

Fife & Drum website

This is really a great way to get a Fife & Drum Hessian regiment into your tabletop army at a very attractive price. The Hessians were added to the AWI range earlier this year and there will be fusiliers and jagers coming in the future as we expand the AWI range.

AWI Hessians Are Now Available for On-line Store Sales

Hessian grenadiers and musketeers marching.

I have added the AWI Hessian musketeers and grenadiers to the Fife & Drum Miniatures web site and on-line web store so they are now available for sale to everyone.


Click on the following link to the web site:


Fife & Drum Web Store Link




We now accept either Pay Pal or credit cards for payment.



Hessian firing line figures.

New Fife & Drum AWI Hessians Pix

Hessians in Marching Poses. The NCOs hold their muskets with the strap facing outwards.

Hessian Firing Line Poses: Officer, Grenadier standing in second rank, Grenadier firing, Musketeer standing in second rank, and Musketeer firing.

CLICK or DOUBLE CLICK ALL PIX TO ENLARGE THE VIEW

The AWI Hessians have arrived and I have finally had some time to sort out the figures and devise new product codes for the range and also to paint a few samples of the figures. There are a total of 16 new Hessian figures with enough variants for you to make up grenadier battalions that are either marching or standing firing and musketeer battalions that are either marching or standing firing. The second rank  figure holding his musket upright in the ready position could also be used to make an entire battalion of Hessians in the same pose. You could do the same with the firing poses.

Here are the new product codes for the Hessian range. Command packs will include 4 figures for musketeer units comprised of an officer, standard bearer, NCO and Drummer. Grenadier command packs will consist of only three figures because Hessian grenadier battalions did not carry standards. The marching packs will include 8 figures. The firing line packs will have 8 figures including 4 of the second rank pose and 4 of the standing firing pose. 

HP-001 Musketeer Command, Marching ( 4 figures - officer, std bearer, NCO, drummer) - $8.00

HP-002 musketeer Command, Firing Line (4 figures same as above, but standing) - $8.00

HP-003 Musketeers Marchig (8 figures per pack) - $16.00

HP-004 Musketeer Firing Line (8 figures: 4 each of firing and 2nd rank) - $16.00

HP-005 Grenadier Command, Marching (3 figures: officer in tricorn, NCO & Drum in mitres) - $6.00

HP-006 Grenadier Command, Firing Line ( 3 figures: officer, NCO & Drummer) - $6.00

HP-007 Grenadiers Marching (8 figures) - $16.00

HP-008 Grenadier Firing Line (8 figures, 4 each firing and 2nd rank) - $16.00

HP-009 Extra Standard Bearers (pack of 2 figures) - $4.00

I will add the new product codes to the Fife & Drum Miniatures web site next week, after I have had a chance to mail Hessians rewards to my Kickstarter backers, who deserve to get their figures first.

I don't like to do "pre-orders", but if you send me an e-mail with a list of the figures that you want, I could probably manage to ship them ahead of them being loaded onto the web site store for on-line ordering.

Hessian Grenadiers, marching and firing line.

Reverse view of the first picture.

The AWI Hessians are wearing gaitors, as they did during the first couple of years in the American Revolution. Later in the war, they began wearing the "overalls" just like the British infantry. You could also use the Hessians for SYW Prussians in Swedish cuffs, SYW Hessians and SYW Brunswickers.

Musketeer Firing Line: (L-R)  officer, second rank and front rank firing.

Musketeer Firing Line - reverse image of the first picture.

I haven't had the time to paint the drummers and standard bearers yet, but here are some pictures of them in primer or in the raw metal state.

Hessian Drummers (L-R) Musketeer standing for firing line, Musketeer marching,  Grenadier marching, and Grenadier standing in firing line.

Hessian standard bearers: standing (left) and marching (right)

I'm very anxious to get the Hessians into the on line store on the Fife & Drum Miniatures web site, as I know that you are too. I should have the majority of rewards packed and shipped by this coming Saturday, so after that I can offer the figures to the general public.