AWI: 5th Regiment on Campaign

5th Regiment of Foot in campaign uniforms. (click pix to enlarge).

I finally finished the 5th (Northumberland) Regiment of Foot for my AWI British army. These lads have been painted to depict what their uniforms might have looked like after a season on campaign. The bright red coats have now faded to a light red or pinkish red color. Some of the men have knee patches and elbow patches painted onto them to give them a worn look. Sometimes patches were added to the blanket rolls too. I really like the way that this unit turned out. I think that I hit the faded red coloring right on the nail - nearly perfect as far as I'm concerned.

Now I'm keen to add another unit with faded colors for my next British regiment.

5th Regt. plus command stand, using the Continental mounted officer and the British artillery officer (on foot).

In the picture above, I have added a new command stand to the front of the column. I used one of the Continental mounted officers and painted him in a red coat to make him British. The uniform distinctions between the British and the Continental officers is not that far apart. So this is a good way to get more variety in the poses of my British officers. The officer on foot is the British artillery officer from the gun crew, that I've painted in infantry red rather than artillery blue.

5th Regiment

3-pound Galloper gun plus British command stand.

The above picture depicts a 3-pound Verbruggen cannon mounted on a Pattison carriage. The limber device converts the carriage to a galloper configuration. Information on this comes from the Adrian Caruana book on the British light 3 pound guns.

View of the front of the column. Officers are wearing newer bright red uniforms, while the rank and file uniforms are faded to a red-pink from the sun.

British Infantry on Campaign - AWI

I was able to finish the 5th Regiment of Foot over the weekend and will post some pictures by Sunday evening. The regiment has been glued to its bases (40mm by 80mm), 8 figures per base and in two ranks, for a total of 32 figures in a British regiment. The goop was then applied to the bases and dipped into a box of fine gravel. Tomorrow, once the goop has dried, I will finish the bases by applying dark brown ink, dry-brushing some tan onto the base, then apply static grass and some flock.

The 5th has been painted to resemble a regiment that has been out on campaign for quite awhile. The soldiers' jackets were painted in a faded red-pink color to depict the effects of continuous sunshine on the red dye. Lots of knee and elbow patches were painted onto the figures (conversion by paint, if you will) and a spattering of mud was painted near the feet, using some brown paint applied by dry brushing.

I think that I will paint another regiment on campaign to pair up with the 5th Regiment. It will be one of the yellow-facing regiments, either the 10th or the 44th regiments. In this manner, I can have one brigade of British infantry in brand new red jackets and have another brigade in faded jackets. My brigades will have 3 or 4 battalions plus a section of 6-pound artillery.

***************

Minden Miniatures are in transit

I ordered some of the marvelous mounted civilians from Minden Miniatures last week and look forward to seeing them first hand and then pitching in to paint the figures. While going through some boxes of Minden figures, unpainted figures, I remembered that I had bought some of the Minden civilian laborers and it appears that these will work perfectly for either the SYW and/or the AWI periods. I may have to move the civilians up in the painting queue as these are beautiful little figures.

I also ordered a battalion of the new Minden SYW Highlanders in firing line poses. I simply love figures that are firing their muskets, because that is what they are supposed to do during a battle. I realize that the majority of people prefer march attack poses, but give me firing line figures any day. That said, even though I probably will not paint the Highlanders for at least a year, I want to support Frank's new production by purchasing the latest figures. Maybe if enough people purchase firing line poses, Frank could be persuaded to have some Prussians in firing poses too.

***************

Hessians

Speaking of Minden Miniatures and their Prussians for the SYW, I would like to remind people that the Prussian figures will work perfectly fine as AWI Hessians. Because of that, I am not in any particular hurry to add AWI Hessians to the Fife & Drum range of figures. When I want to use Hessians in a wargame, I will just pull out my SYW Prussians as stand-ins. So if you want Hessians, if you need Hessians, if you gotta have your fix of Hessians, please considering buying them from Minden Miniatures.

***************

Napoleonics in the Peninsula

I also ordered some Napoleonic figures from Elite Miniatures last week. Bill P. and I enjoyed our Coa Bridge scenario (curtesy of Charles Grant - the scenario will be published in Grant's forthcoming "Wargaming in History" series, due to be published before Christmas 2012. The book will deal exclusively with the Peninsula War in Spain) so much that we want to play it again in November.

This should give me enough time to add two more sections of Royal Horse Artillery to the British forces. We only have four 6-pounders so far, and I would like to increase the battery up to 6 cannon and crew. Also, since I am starting to get a little bit tired of getting shellacked by the Frogs in Spain, I also ordered a battery of British 9-pounders to use when we get around to staging larger Peninsula battles. For now, we are content to fight some smaller actions while we work on building up our British forces.

Faded Colors

The other day I was wearing my "Indiana" baseball cap while driving my car and I happened to set the cap down on the dashboard. It tumbled onto the floor, of course, the next time that I pulled away from a traffic light. However, this was a good thing because it was then that I noticed the difference in the color of the red on the outside of the cap (faded red, almost pink) and the inside reverse part of the cap, which still retained its original bright red color.

Now if you are anything like me, all manner of things in your daily life somehow, someway have an application to the wargaming hobby. Right?

I immediately began to think about the regiment of British infantry for the AWI that was sitting on my painting table. I wondered how the unit would look if I painted the uniforms a faded red to give it a campaign appearance rather than painting the coats in crimson red, straight from the tailor's bench.

Fife & Drum figures: British Centre Company (left) and Guards (right).

You can see the difference in the two figures in the picture above. The fellow on the left is a member of the 5th Regiment of Foot, Centre Company and he is kitted out in a faded pinkish-red coat with light green facings. His right knee, which you can not see in the picture, has a knee patch on it and his elbows have elbow patches that he used to repair his worn out jacket. For good measure, I gave him a used brown blanket (see the tumpline on his back) rather than the usual medium grey blanket. Finally, I spattered some dust or mud on his overalls near his feet. He certainly looks like he has been on campaign for the whole season.

Now compare our man from the 5th Regiment with his compatriot from the Brigade of Guards. Our Guardsman wears a bright red coat and his blue facings (cuffs, lapels and collar) have yet to fade. He is the epitome of spit and polish, as one might expect from the Guards.

Above is picture of the first dozen of the 5th Regiment that I painted over the weekend. I thought that I would give the officer (far right) a new coat in its original crimson red, given that he would have the personal funds available to keep his uniform up to snuff. The first sergeant (far left front row) also has a crimson coat. The rest of the rank and file wear faded red coats. The picture is not very good, but it gives you a general idea of how things might look once the whole unit is completed. 

To provide a little more variety, some of the men will have different color overalls (light brown, tan or darker grey) and I will randomly distribute knee and elbow patches on the figures. The blankets will be painted in a variety of brown, green and grey. The figures with the blanket rolls are easier to paint as the blanket covers up a lot of the lapel areas and give you the added bonus of having more surface area on which to go crazy with patches or patterns to give the regiment an even more hodge-podge appearance.

I will be working on the rest of the regiment this week and hope to have the 5th Regiment finished and based by the end of next weekend. Stay tuned for pictures of the finished product.

Announcing a New Napoleonic Blog: Campaigns in Iberia

Major General William Justinian Pettygree and his staff.

Bill Protz and I are pleased to announce the establishment of a new blog that will feature our Napoleonic campaign in Spain, circa 1808 to 1814. Our hero is one Major General William Justinian Pettygree, a name that may be familiar to you if you follow Bill's wonderful 19th Century Colonial blog. William J. Pettygree is the father of Augustus Pettygree, so you can see that service to King & Country goes back many generations in the Pettygree family.

Click here to travel to our new blog, titled: "Campaigns in Iberia" to see what is going on.

94th (Scotch Brigade) Regiment - Connoisseur Miniatures and GMB Designs flags.

Three French battalions advance with full skirmish companies leading the way.

AWI Painted Artillery

British 6-pound battery deployed for battle.

I have been busy painting samples of each figure in the Fife & Drum range, in preparation to photographing them for our web site. You can see some of the artillery crew and equipment in this post.  Be sure to click on the picture to enlarge the view.

AWI artillery limber set (AE5) towing the British 6-pounder (AE3)

Continental Crew Loading (AE13) a Swedish light 4-pounder (AE2)

Continental Crew Firing (AE14) a French Valliere 4-pounder (AE1)

Continental artillery battery in action, showing both firing and loading variants.

A picture of my work bench today. I have just glued 32 British figures to card bases prior to priming them with grey paint. The regiment will become the 44th (Essex) Regiment -- see GMB Designs flag in the back ground. You can also see a Foundry French Tumbral cart from their French Revolution range.

Der Alte Fritz's Den

Here is a picture of my den or library room at home. This is the epicenter of all things Fritz. It is a nice, quiet and contemplative spot, complete with sliding French doors so that I can keep out those who should be seen rather than heard, et cetera et cetera.

In the right hand corner, you can see a reproduction British Grenadier Mitre for the 44th Regiment, that I bought from The Discriminating General, in Canada. Above that are some playing cards featuring Napoleonic personages, which I had framed in green and gold. The book case holds my collection of American Revolution books and other American history subjects.

Moving to the left hand corner, there would be an identical set of book cases that hold my 18th Century (SYW and WAS) collection of books and uniform plates. Some of the larger "coffee table" books are also kept on these shelves. Underneath the ledge of the book case is a mini-refrigerator, stocked full of the latest and best years of Diet Coke vintages. Diet Lime Coke is one of my favorites. Mrs. Fritz sometimes impinges on my mini-frig space by storing bottled tea mixes.

On the lower left hand side, you can barely make out the roll top desk, circa George II period, that my Father purchased in London back in the 1970s. He used to go on English antique expeditions to the UK and I always looked forward to seeing what finds and treasures he would find. When he passed away, I was given most of his 18th Century English antique collection, bless him.

In the upper left hand corner, is an old cathode ray tube TV that is still in good working order. I'm rather amazed at how bulky the old TV sets are compared to the current generation of flat panel screen TVs that most people now have. One of these days, I will have to replace it with something more modern, but as long as it works (and it is a secondary or tertiary TV in our house), there is no rush to get a new model. The surrounding book shelves contain largely Napoleonic books. Moving to the right, the three little round pictures are of Napoleon, Josephine, and another Napoleon picture. I couldn't find a decent picture of Frederick the Great (most of the portraits are a bit too severe or too "Alte", for my tastes).

So on quiet evenings, I sit in here reading or developing plans for world domination, until Mrs. Fritz walks in and sets things straight. Bless her too.

***********

Longs Peak (14,000 + feet high) near Estes Park, Colorado

We were in Colorado two weeks ago for our summer vacation spent in the Rocky Mountain National Park near the town of Estes Park, Colorado. We decided to drive the 1,000 plus miles from Chicago to Colorado so that Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe could get a better sense of how big the United States really is.  We drove about 500 miles on the first day, stopping at Lincoln, Nebraska over night. We drove via Interstate 80 which follows the old pioneer trail to the west, following the North Platte River in to Colorado. Once we crossed the border from Nebraska to Colorado, the terrain became almost arid with only sage brush thriving under the dry conditions. Occasionally we would see a field of crops or greenery where there had been some irrigation. About an hour or so in to Colorado, the feint outline of the mountains could be seen and there was a sense of excitement as we drew nearer to the mountains.

We stayed there for a week at a dude ranch which provided opportunities for horseback riding, hiking and other outdoor activities. On some days, Lady Emma stayed at the Kids Camp while the Missus and I hiked some of the many splendid trails that can be found in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Longs Peak, see the picture above, is one of the highest peaks in Colorado. It is the center peak shown in the picture above and I have climbed it three times. The peak on the left, Mount Meeker is 13,000 plus feet and I have climbed that one as well. I forget the name of the peak on the right - I did not climb that. But those adventures are long past and as I grow older, I'm content to stick to trail hiking.

*******

On Saturday, seven of us convened at Chez Protz to refight the Battle of the Coa River Bridge in Spain 1810. I will post a battle report this week, but for now, here is a little taster of the action. I am sorry to say that it was a bad day for Black Bob Crauford and the Light Division. It was an overwhelming French victory.

Light Coy of the 94th and 5/60th Rifles defend a wall against the French tide.

New Family Member: Pippa!

Pippa (the dog, not the girl) is joining our family.

The Higher Power works in mysterious ways, and so it is that we are now about to introduce the newest member to our family: Pippa, the Golden Retreiver, shown above with Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe. Back in November 2011, we had two Goldens, Katie and Dave, and both died within a month of each other. 

Then virtually out of the blue, we received a phone call from a Golden Retriever rescue service that they had Tiberius (Ti) available for adoption. So in January 2012, we added Ti to our family. We knew that we wanted to have a second dog so that Ti could have a companion. He really likes to be around other dogs.

We had explored getting a puppy, but that kind of fell through (along with the deposit, ouch!). Then another adoption opportunity was not the right fit for our situation. Then once again, out of the blue, we received a call the other day from the rescue service. They had a female, named Pippa, who was available for adoption. We visited Pippa this afternoon, and it was clear that she and Ti were getting along very well (um, she's spayed, so um, uh, you know, they liked to play together) so it looked like a good match for our family.

At one point, Lady Emma fell down and Pippa dashed over to her to make sure that she was OK, and if we had had any doubts, they all went away in an instant.

So next weekend, we will be a two-dog house once again, with Tiberius and Pippa holding court and making us all very happy and grateful to have them in our lives.