Monday, February 23, 2026

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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Wednesday, February 4, 2026

I Have Set Up My Trenton Winter Terrain - Wowzers!

 

The town of Trenton, New Jersey on Christmas Day 1776
CLICK TO ENLARGE

Yesterday I decided that it was time to bring all of my Winter terrain for my Battle of Trenton wargame and see how it all looks out on the table. I was pleased to discover that I probably have all of what I need now and there are only a few pieces that I would want to have when I run the game. The Trenton game will be hosted at this year's Seven Years War Association convention in South Bend, IN at the end of March 2026. I will run the games again at Historicon in July 2026.

Here are some pictures of the table layout. Nearly all of the buildings were made by Herb Gundt. Herb also made the road segments, stands of trees and post and rail fences. The game mat was made by The Terrain Guy (no longer in business).

You Tube video link added: Battle of Trenton video


Looking down King Street on the left and Queen Street on the right. Alexander Hamilton's artillery 
battery is seen in the distance as it is ready to roll round shot down King Street towards the Hessians.

Overhead view of Trenton taken from one of the Montgolfier Brothers' hot air balloons.

Looking along Queen Street in the background we see (left to right) the Post Office and the Printer's Store 
from Williamsburg and one of the taverns from Williamsburg on the right.

The large stone house is actually a model of the Chew House at Germantown, Pennsylvania.
The Williamsburg Courthouse model is on the right.

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A Hessian 6-pound cannon sets up in the middle of Queen Street

Looking down King Street towards Hamilton's Battery

General George Washington watches the Delaware and Maryland regiments on the march.

Hamilton's Battery as Washington looks on approvingly.


I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures of the miniatures, which do not seem to photograph very well on a white background. I am still working on my photography technique for Winter pix and hopefully I can post some better looking pictures in the coming days,

I created a short 4-minute video tour of my Trenton game table and I posted it on my Facebook page. It is also posted on the Facebook group AWI Historical Wargaming FB Group

I will try to upload the video to my YouTube page so that I can provide a link for your viewing.

UPDATE    the YouTube video link is now added:   Jim's Trenton Video on YouTube