Fife & Drum British in 1768 Warrant Dress (?)

 

British 20th Regiment
Fife and Drum Miniatures

I decided that I would need several British Redcoat regiments wearing cocked hats for my Princeton 1777 game that I am running at Historicon this year. They had to be Fife and Drum Miniatures figures to maintain the consistent look of all of the figures in the game. While we don't officially have British wearing cocked (tricorn hats if you will) it occurred to me that we had something very close in appearance.

And that would be the Fife and Drum Continentals figures, as shown below:

British center company infantry from Fife and Drum Miniatures
These are actually some of the Continental figures painted in red coats.

To my eye, the Continentals look very similar to the British 1768 Regulation and so I thought that I would paint a unit of them in red coats and see how they turn out.

I think that they look pretty good as shown below.

I am no expert on the 1768 Regulartions uniforms other than to notice that they wore breeches and hosiery and some half-gaiters at their ankles whereas the early 1776 campaign uniform has them wearing the one-piece "overalls" and the tricorn hat. The Fife and Drum British wear the overalls but sport the round hat, which was more practical to wear in the field as it provided better protection from the sun. I noticed that the Continental uniforms of the 1776-1777 period look very similar to the early British uniform so I think that it is perfectly fine to use them as British soldiers.

Now we do have the British grenadiers that would be correct for 1776-1777. I painted a small unit of 16 figures using the Fife and Drum grenadiers in firing line poses. I don't see many AWI firing line painted regiments on the internet and my own unit of grenadiers are marching, so I decided to use the firing line poses for my winterized Princeton British Grenadiers.

British Grenadiers in bearskin hats
Fife and Drum Miniatures

In conclusion, if you are already using Fife and Drum Miniatures in your British armies and you would like to have some of the figures wearing the cocked hat, then consider using the Continental soldier figures in our figure range.

One of these days we will be adding "official" redcoats wearing cocked hats.

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I Like This Picture

 

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I was scrolling through my iPhotos library and this picture randomly popped up on the screen this morning .

The picture is from my 40mm Sharpe's Peninsula game at the Little Wars convention this past April. That's the convention where they stuck my game table in some far away back room that nobody could find. Grrr.

At any rate, the photo shows the Vistula Lancers riding down a company of the British 45th regiment that was attempting to withdraw across the Coa River bridge. Alas, they didn't make it. Some other Lancers are trying to ride down some other Redcoats, but they were made of sterner stuff and shot down the charging lancers to the man. A little help from some of Sharpe's riflemen helped too, although both Sharpe and Harper were either killed or captured during the game.

However, one way or another I suspect that Sharpe and Harper will march again.

New Products: Hessian Fusiliers and Continentals in Round Hats

 

Continentals in Hunting Shirts and Round Hats

We are happy to announce the addition of 14 new packs of figures for the Fife and Drum Miniatures American Revolution (AWI) range. There are 8 new packs of Continentals wearing round hats with some wearing uniform coats and some wearing hunting shirts.

There are also 6 new packs of Hessian Fusiliers wearing miter hats. These arrived just in time for me to paint a regiment for my Battle of Trenton game at this year's Historicon convention (July 15 - 19, 2026).

Here are the links to the Fife and Drum webstore where you can take a look at the new figures, and dare I say, order a few packs and start building your AWI regiments. Note that each Continental product code has pictures of the new figures whereas the Hessians do not yet have their pictures. I recently finished painting the Hessian samples and still must snap some pictures and upload them to the web store.

Hessian Fusiliers in webstore

Continentals in webstore

The new Continental in round hats

CA-029 Continental Command in Round Hats

CA-030 Continentals in Round Hats Firing

CA-031 Continentals in Round Hats Advancing

CA-032 Continentals in Round Hats ram rods

CA-033 Continentals in Round Hats cocking muskets

CA-034 Hunting Shirts with Round Hats, cocking muskets

CA-035 Pullover hunting shirt with round hat , firing

CA-036 hunting shirts open in the front and round hats, firing

New Hessian Fusiliers in Miter Hats

Note: no pictures yet, but coming soon!

HP-010  Hessian Fusilier Command, Standing

HP-011  Hessian Fusilier Command, Marching

HP-012  Hessian Fusiliers Marching

HP-013  Hessian Fusiliers standing firing

HP-014  Hessian Fusiliers 2nd rank for firing line

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"Official" Fife and Drum Miniatures Facebook Page

 

I have had an "official" Fife and Drum Miniatures Facebook  page for some time now. I have been remiss in not promoting it very well. Below is a link to the page. Click the link and take a look.

Fife and Drum Miniatures Facebook Group

If you go to that page you can view the new movie trailer video that I have posted about my upcoming Battle of Trenton games at this year's Historicon convention July 15 -19, 2026 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Blogger won't let me post the video on this blog for some reason).

Continental Artillery Battery of two Swedish 4-pound cannon.

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Washington, Greene and Rall Personality Figures

 

His Excellency General George Washington from Fife and Drum Miniatures.

Here are several pictures of some of the Fife and Drum Miniatures personality figures for the American War of Independence. We have specific personality figures for Washington, Greene and Francis Marion for the American side and Howe, Cornwallis and Tarleton for the British team. The command stand vignettes shown in these pictures center around the personality figure, which I have augmented with various mounted and foot figures from the Minden and Fife and Drum figure ranges to help tell the story. The headquarters flag is from GMB Designs in the UK.

George Washington command stand

I start with, naturally, the Washington figure and add a mounted horseman that carries Washington's headquarters flag. The latter is the mounted standard bearer from the AWI 1st Light Dragoons. The dismounted officer in the hunting shirt is shielding his eyes as he looks off into the distance and seems to be a natural to use in a variety of vignettes. He comes from the Continental Infantry in Hunting Shirts Command pack set. Since everyone is looking in the same direction I also added a Hessian lager office holding a telescope and painted him in a Continental uniform.

Major General Nathaniel Greene command stand.

Major General Nathaniel Greene
Fife and Drum Miniatures

Once again I used the Hessian lager officer with the telescope and the Continental dragoon standard bearer to set the scene. The standard bearer is carrying a "grand division" flag which indicates that the command stand is for a Continental division in my game rules. Division commanders have a flag bearer whereas brigade commanders only have the mounted officer figure. The grand division flag is from GMB Designs.

Hessian Colonel Johann Rall command stand

For the Colonel Rall (he wasn't a "von") figure I used the Prussian general Prinz Moritz personality figure from the Minden Miniatures figure range. The foot officer shielding his eyes is from the Hessian Standing Firing command pack from the Fife and Drum figure range. Rall would not have worn the orange sash of the Prussian military order, but he looked the part and so I drafted him into the Hessian army.

Colonel Johann Rall, commander of the Hessian garrison at Trenton.
Minden Miniatures "Prinz Moritz" personality figure.

Washington Crossing the Deleware vignette

Washington Crossing the Delaware River vignette.
Various Minden and Fife and Drum Miniatures figures.

I found a printing file for the Durham boat on line and available for free download. See my previous post about Durham boats for the direct link to the web site. After a little bit of experimenting I decided that twelve figures were enough for the boat crew. 

The seated Minden wagon team driver figures seemed like a natural to be holding the oars of the boat, however, I found it difficult to maneuver the arms so that they could hold an oar so I gave up on that idea. I used some of the Minden Pioneers figure to hold oars or poles: the figure at the front holding a pole, the standing figure in the middle of the boat holding an oar, and the figure at the rear holding an oar is from one of the Minden Agricultural Workers vignette pack. The oars are made by both Brigade Games and Old Glory.

I ended up using four of the Minden wagon drivers as simply seated passengers on the boat. You can see General Washington standing near the front  and he comes from the Minden personality pack PER-001 "Duke of Brunswick and staff, dismounted". The flag bearer is a Fife and Drum hunting shirt command figure as is the chap standing to the left of Washington (the hunting shirt figure with one hand shielding his eyes). I added a couple of AWI rank and file figures to fill out the crew.

American Artillery Battery

I am also showing two of the Continental Army artillery sets from the Fife and Drum Miniatures figure range. They are made in both the firing and loading poses.

Continental artillery battery with Swedish 4-pound cannon.

American crew loading a Swedish 4-pound cannon

American artillery firing a Swedish 4-pound cannon.
Note the crew figure covering his ears.

You can see all of these figures and more at the five games that I am hosting at this year's Historicon convention in July 2026 at Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

 

Fife and Drum 42nd Highlanders of the AWI period marching through Winter snow.

I am running three games at Historicon this year in July 2026. The first two games will be the Battle of Trenton. I figured that there probably aren't enough convention goers to fill up the same game three times, so I am working on a different scenario for the third game on Saturday. It will be called "Now Let's Go Surprise Mr. Washington".

The concept is that Lord Cornwallis has received good information from spies about Washington's intended surprise attack on Trenton. So Cornwallis plans for his own surprise by rushing a brigade of British Highlanders, Guards and Grenadiers to Trenton before the Americans arrive. Instead of facing one brigade of Hessians, Washington will now face two brigades, one Hessian and one British.

And when push comes to shove. I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love!

(from the musical "Hamilton")

The Grenadier company on the left and the light company on the right.
I haven't added the snow effects to the bases.
Fife and Drum Miniatures

So for the third game I will need some British troops on Winter bases. The first to be painted are the 42nd Highlander regiment: 40 center company figures, 8 grenadiers and 8 light company figures in the entire unit for a total of 56 figures.

Next in the painting queue are 16 British grenadiers wearing bearskin hats. These will be converged with the 42nd's flank companies to create a battalion of 32 flank company figures.

I might then paint some Continental castings as British regulars wearing cocked hats (32 total figures).

And finally, finish things off with the Brigade of Guards: 16 flank company figures wearing peaked caps and 16 center company figures wearing round hats, for a Guards battalion of 32 figures.

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Durham Boat File Link

Durham boat for Washington's crossing of the Delaware is manned by Fife and Drum
Miniatures and a few Minden Miniatures. Flag by GMB Designs.

Several people asked me to post a link to the 3D file for the Durham boats that I have shown in my blog, so here it is:

Durham-Boat

So far I have three of them painted and based on stands as shown below. I have painted a fourth model and I plan to place a cannon and artillery crewmen in it as a vignette .

Trenton game set up in my basement. Note the Durham boats at the front end of the table.

Durham boats and Fife and Drum Miniatures - a perfect combination.

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