How I create an AWI regiment - 2nd New Hampshire

 

The 2nd New Hampshire regiment at Trenton 1776
Fife and Drum Miniatures

I recently finished my eleventh American regiment for Washington's army at Trenton in 1776. It is the 2nd New Hampshire regiment commanded by Colonel John Stark (he of fame at the Battle of Bunker Hill).

I eschew having my AWI regiments consist of all the same or similar poses in the regiment. Why? Because an irregular, casual regiment with a mix of uniform colors and types, plus a multitude of figure poses creates the right look for American Continental armies of the American Revolution.

Using my new off-the-painting-table 2nd New Hampshire I thought that I would show you how I mix up poses and uniform styles (conventional military jacket, hunting shirt, and civilian militia clothing) to create a unique and diverse looking wargame regiment for the AWI.

Continental Regulars poses

Fife and Drum Miniatures American Continentals figures in assorted poses
suitable for a firing line of figures.

The uniforms of almost every Continental army regiment would typically be a mix of soldiers wearing uniform coats of blue or brown color; a variety of colors for trousers/pants and vests/waistcoats. In fact, it was common for different companies in a regiment to have different uniforms. This could be due to what color of coats were available (if any at all) when the company was raised, or whether a company had just received new replacement uniforms for the coming year or they were wearing last year's uniform jacket. Trousers and waistcoats could be white, tan, khaki, brown, blue or something else. That being the case, why not paint some of the figures with brown coats and some with blue coats? The same holds true for trousers. So you could have two Continentals standing side by side wearing the same blue coat, but one of them wears white/grey trousers and waistcoat while the other wears brown trousers with his blue coat. Mix and match the colors to your heart's content.

Hunting Shirts

Hunting shirt clad Continentals on the left, and Morgan's Riflemen on the right.

The Fife and Drum Miniatures figure range has Continentals in both marching and firing line poses. These can be augmented with figures from the Morgan's Rifles set of figures. The former have tricorn hats and the latter wear round hats. Hunting shirts were worn early in the war before a system of uniforms and cloth colors was established. They might also be worn by troops along the frontier or in the Southern Colonies, where state governments did not have the funds to outfit their regiments in uniform coats.

My 2nd NH regiment has five figures wearing hunting shirts. I wanted to have a few of them, but not too many because I want the regiment to be predominantly clad in jackets.

Militia or Civilian Clothing

American militia figures in round hats, loading and firing muskets.

The two kneeling firing figures in the picture above are cast wearing a sleeveless waistcoat and long-sleeved shirts. I painted the shirt the same color as the vest as a "conversion with paint" to give it the appearance of a long-sleeved jacket. Note also the mix of light blue, one green and one brown jacket in the set

American militia wearing round hats, advancing.
Note the one figure wearing a brown coat versus the light blue coat of the other figures.

American militia in round hats, firing. There is also one figure wearing a tricorn hat.
Note that two figures have brown coats and three figures have light blue coats.

These figures are the same pose from the Armed Civilian pack of  figures.
They are cast wearing waistcoats and long-sleeved shirts. I simply painted the shirts the
same color as the waistcoat to give it the appearance of a jacket.

Putting It All Together 

After all of the figures are painted it then becomes a simple task of mixing up all of the different poses onto your figure bases. For the most part, no two figure poses are side by side in the pictures.

Blue uniform coast, hunting shirts and brown uniform coats in the same unit.

I wanted the majority of the figures to be wearing round hats rather than tricorn hats.

The final result is a rag tag looking American regiment that seems informal and has a diverse number of figure poses.

That's my style.