Announcing the Fife & Drum "1776 Deal"

British Light Infantry face off against American Continentals

Celebrate Independence Day with Fife & Drum Miniatures by taking advantage of our special "1776 Deal" from now through the July 4th and Bastille Day (July 14th) holidays. Fife & Drum wants to help you declare your independence from ordinary miniatures by offering two special discount programs to get you started.

Try a small sampling of our figures with a dozen figures for $17.76 plus postage. Or, if you are prepared to go all in on our range, we also offer the Grand 1776 deal of 84 figures for $117.76. Either way, you can save from 18% to 23% by taking us up on one of these deals and if we do say so ourselves, you will get some very nice figures in return.


Start out with two skirmish companies of maybe 12 American Militia and 12 British Grenadiers and give the Sharpe Practice rules a good work out with these figure sets. This is an easy, cost effective way of giving Fife & Drum figures a try at a modest cost.


Or if you are already convinced that Fife & Drum figures are great, then take advantage of our Grand 1776 deal and buy an 84 figure army at 23% off of list price. This will give you enough figures to start a brigade of Americans or British for the "British Grenadier" set of rules.


But don't wait too long, this offer expires on July 14th!

Visit the Fife & Drum blog for ordering information at:

http://fifedrumminis.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-1776-deal-starts-now.html


The Deal: buy 12 foot figures for $17.76 plus postage

The Discount: that is the equivalent of $1.48 per figure, or nearly 18% off our list price!

Limited Time Offer: The 1776 Deal starts today (June 26, 2012 and runs through Bastille Day on July 14, 2012. After July 14th, our prices go back to our normal price of $1.80 per foot. Offer does not apply to artillery equipment and crew.


Or try our Grand 1776 Deal:


Buy 84 figures for $117.76  or $1.40 per foot figure. That's $0.40 off list price or 23% discount.

Setting Up My Next Wargame Table

This is how things looked before the clean up began (click pix to enlarge)

 This afternoon and on into the evening, I decided to clear away my wargame table and set things up for my first annual Fife & Drum July Fourth Wargame. This will be a solo game with about 7 or 8 British battalions and 10 to 12 Continental and militia battalions. I might also add some Minden SYW Prussians that can serve as a Hessian brigade in order to balance out the numbers a little bit. That is one of the great things about the Fife & Drum range: you can also use Minden Miniatures and RSM 95 miniatures since they are compatible in size and proportion.

Feel free to browse through the pictures to see how the game table took shape. The end result was very pleasing to my eye. I think I spent an extra hour just examining the troops up close and adding a few more terrain bits and pieces. I am ready to game!

Double click on all pictures to seem them at their maximum size, especially the last two pictures in the series.

All of my big battalions go into these large plastic storage boxes. I can get five 60 man battalions into each box.

The troops are now stored away in their boxes. Now to pick up the other bits.

Clean at last!

Slide some books underneath the game mat and start placing road sections.

Now we add the trees and some fences. Hmm, I don't like the way that this scenario is working out. Time to change it again.

That's better - a more game-able terrain. We will be playing along the long axis of the table.

Finally, just add miniatures and we are ready to game!

Fife & Drum Range So Far: 70 figures and counting

British Light Infantry in Roundabouts

We have been making steady progress in building and expanding our range of 1/56 scale (~29-31mm) figures for the American War of Independence. The Company commenced production in early 2011 and we are now up to 70 assorted figures and 7 artillery equipment sets as of the July 4th Independence Day. Another 16 figures – Continentals in hunting shirts & tricorne hats are in the pipeline as well as sprues of heads for those who want to make some light conversions to their models.

AMERICAN FORCES:
8 x militia
12 x Continentals in tricorne hats
2 x Mounted Officers
8 x artillery crew (loading and firing sets of 4)

CROWN FORCES:
8 x Light Company in roundabouts
8 x Brigade of Guards
6 x Grenadiers in bearskin hats
10 x Centre Company men in slouch hats
2 x Mounted officers
8 x artillery crew (loading and firing sets of 4)

ARTILLERY EQUIPMENT:
1 x French Valliere 4-pdr
1 x American cast 6-pdr
1 x British 6-pdr
1 x Galloper Gun 3-pdr
1 x Amusette with wooden mantle
1 x limber
1 x Galloper gun limber
1 x limber team driver
2 x limber team draft horses

1 x pack of artillery tools

As you can see, we have kept ourselves and sculptor Richard Ansell very busy this past year and there is much more in the pipeline and on the planning board, including light dragoons for both sides, Highlanders, Personalities and a complete array of Hessian infantry.

Take a look at our blog for more information and news updates at:

fifedrumminis.blogspot.com

And while you are at our blog, be sure to click on the "Follower" button on the left hand side of the page so that you will become eligible for the monthly drawing to win a $50.00 USD certificate for free Fife & Drum miniatures.

I am really excited by our progress so far – even more so when I consider how the range will continue to grow.

Looking for a few more Followers

Advance token on the Reading Railroad to the Fife & Drum Miniatures Blog and sign up as a "Follower" on the blog. Each month I will make a random drawing from the list of Followers and the winner will receive a $50.00 certificate good for the purchase of any Fife & Drum Miniatures.

British Brigade of Guards on the march for Fife & Drum Miniatures

Fife & Drum Miniatures Blog

So click on the link above, then click on the "Join  this Site" button on the left hand side of the page and then you are automatically entered into each month's drawing.

The elves are working on the moulds for the artillery equipment and crew, so it shouldn't be too long before they arrive across the pond from Old Blighty.

Next in the queue: Continental infantry in hunting shirts and tricorne hats (plus some head sprues so that you can make your own hat conversions).

Williamsburg Powder Magazine

Williamsburg Powder Magazine model by Herb Gundt

I just received some pictures of the next model that Herb Gundt has built for my American Revolution collection of buildings. It is the famous octagonal-shaped powder magazine at Colonial Williamsburg, in Virginia. I am looking forward to using this model in a game with my Fife & Drum American militia defending the supply depot from raiding British light infantry companies.

With the July 4th Independence Day coming up very soon, it is a certainty that I will set up an AWI wargame in my basement and play a solo game to celebrate our independence. I am hopeful that the artillery crews and guns arrive in time for me to paint a couple of artillery sections to use in the game, but I might not have enough time  to get them painted in such a short time span.

In any event, this model will provide a nice focal point for any AWI game. Now that I have the Williamsburg courthouse, the Powder Magazine and one of the taverns, perhaps I ought to get really crazy and commission Herb to make the Virginia House of Burgesses or even the Governor's Palace. The latter might be a case of getting too carried away with myself (it might prove to be too large to even use on my 6ft by 15ft wargame table).

Another view, with the door closed. Perry civilian figure.

Fife & Drum AWI Artillery Greens Pix

Here are the various components for the first releases of AWI artillery equipment in the Fife & Drum range. On the top row we have (left to right) a French Valliere 4-pdr,  American cast 6-pdr,  British 6-pdr, and 3-pdr galloper gun. In the second row you can see the limber horse team with civilian driver, the amusette 1-pdr with mantel, British artillery limber, and galloper gun limber.

We are getting very, very close to having both the artillery crews and the first releases of AWI artillery equipment added to the Fife & Drum range. I daresay that you might be able to celebrate July 4th by painting a couple of these little beauties. Everything has been sent to the caster  and I don't know about you, but I am getting very excited about all of this and can't wait to hold the actual cannons in my hands. I really like the way that these have turned out.

This picture shows how the galloper gun pieces are put together.

Royal Artillery Amusette, used to protect the field guns when they were deployed (at least in theory).