Perry 16th Light Dragoons, Dismounted

 

Perry Miniatures dismounted 16th Light Dragoons

I needed some figures for the 16th Light Dragoons at the Battle of Princeton, and since Fife and Drum does not make these figures, I purchased the dismounted figures from Perry Miniatures. Yes, Old Fritz does use some of the Perry AWI figures from time to time in his collection. They are a tad more robust than my figures, but to my eye the two ranges fit together quite nicely.

Note: Fife and Drum does have the mounted versions of the 16th LD, but not the dismounted or foot dragoons. Early in the AWI there was actually a battalion of dismounted dragoons, or foot dragoons, comprising the 16th LD. There weren't sufficient horses transported from England to the Colonies when General Howe's army landed in New York. Undoubtedly the plan was to secure the mounts in the Colonies.

At any rate, these are fun figures to paint and there is a nice variety of poses, four in all. They will be fighting for King George at Historicon this year when I host The Battle of Princeton.

Perry dismounted 16th Light Dragoons
Colonial Williamsburg gunpowder armory made by Herb Gundt.

Here is a picture of the armory that Herb Gundt made for me. It hasn't made it 
out on the table for very many games so I thought that I should post a picture of 
this fine work of art. It is modeled after the building in Williamsburg.

I have been busy painting figures for a small British army at the Battle of Princeton scenario that I am running at Historicon this year. There will be more pictures posted over the next several days.

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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.

SYW Convention Is This Week

 

The annual Seven Years War Association Convention will be held this week at the convention center in downtown South Bend, Indiana. Games start on Thursday afternoon and continue on through Friday and Saturday.

I will be running my Trenton game on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

I updated my terrain and tabletop layout yesterday, switching from a 12 x 5 feet table to my 15 x 6 feet table. This gave me considerably more space to work with and so I had to adjust my terrain placement accordingly.

Originally, I had the Trenton layout on the smaller 12 x 5 table and my Spanish Sharpe game on the 15 x 6 table. So I decided to swap the tables. This took me about 3 to 4 hours to remove the terrain from the Trenton table first, place the Trenton pieces on the Spanish terrain table; then once the Trenton table was cleared of everything, I had to move all of the Spanish terrain to the former Trenton table. Finally, with the former Spanish table cleared of terrain, I set up the Trenton game layout on the larger 15 x 6 feet table. This was grueling to say the least. And stupid too, but I wanted to see how Trenton looked on the larger table.

Here are the pictures of the new table layout. I decided to use some of the extra three feet of table length to put in a representative section of the Delaware River and set up the Washington Crossing the Delaware vignette.

UPDATE: I deleted a rather snarky comment that someone left in response to another reader's comment. I am sorry that I was not able to do so until today, having just returned from the convention a short while ago.

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A Nice Map of the Battle of Trenton

Map of the Battle of Trenton

I want to thank Ed D. for sending me a copy of this map showing the American attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton on December 26, 1776.

I like how it adds an element of 3D graphics to the map. It reminds me of the maps in the Amrican Heritage history books on the American Civil War. Somewhere, buried in the deep recesses of my memory, is the thought that the author of those maps might have also done one for the Battle of Trenton.

This map is also very helpful for my planning of the game table terrain, 

The one problem with depicting this battle on a six feet wide table is that I have to delete the action of Sullivan's division at the bottom of the map because there is no room for them in my 28mm set up. My home table is twelve feet long, but I have a 15 feet long canvas winter mat that I will be using in my convention games, so that gives me an extra three feet of space on either end of the table.

Painting Update

I finished my 12th regiment of Continentals and two regiments of the Hessians. The third regiment, the Knyphausen Fusiliers are on hold until I receive some new castings that I made and are currently at Griffin Moulds. They are making the moulds for the new figures and then spinning the castings for me.

The new Hessian fusilier figures include: standing firing, standing second rank at present arms, a standing drummer, a marching fusilier and a marching drummer. Since Hessian fusilier and grenadier officers wore tricorn hats, I can use my existing Fife and Drum Miniatures officer figures.

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

And Now Onto Something Completely Different: Trenton Project

 

General Nathaniel Greene consults with John the OFM about what game 
Der Alte Fritz should host at next year's Historicon.

Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach. You can feel it in the air, Autumn's out of reach...

So it is on to the next thing.

Now that Fall In 2025 is behind me, it's time to turn my focus on my next project for 2026. I have decided to do the AWI battles of Trenton and Princeton for my Historicon Project. Next year's Historicon theme will be the American Revolutionary War (or AWI, if you must) since it is the 250th anniversary of the war.

General George Washington decides on the next project for 2026
Fife and Drum Miniatures from my collection

I already have all of the Winter terrain and mats needed for a wintery looking tabletop, complete with snow. One would think that I already have the figures that I would need for the game. You would think.

But noooooo, I want to create two completely new American and Hessian armies with Winter snow bases. This entails upwards of 500 painted Fife and Drum Miniatures figures that I will need in the game. Don't worry, I have enough time to paint all of the figures.

I like to view every year as a "war game project". Each year I choose a new topic, turn it into a project, and then totally immerse myself in said project. I am good at that. The Project also has the benefit of making the Winter shorter as I break down time into one month at a time. It's January - good - paint 90 figures this month; February - what's next on the  painting table? March - SYW convention is on at the end of this month. April - Little Wars convention at the end of the month. And so on and so forth.

Here is my contemplated order of battle for a six player game for the Trenton scenario. I'm using a figure ratio of approximately 10 to 1 for my forces (one figure equals ten real soldiers).

American Forces at Trenton

Advance Guard - Brigadier General Adam Stephens (549)

2 units of Virginia Continentals, 24 to 30 figures each

Knox's artillery will also command the artillery

Major General Nathaniel Greene's Division

Sterling's Brigade - B.G. Lord Sterling (673)

2 by 30-figure units of Continentals (Delaware and Virginia)

Mercer's Brigade - B.G. Hugh Mercer (838)

2 by 30-figure Connecticut Continentals and one 24-figure Maryland unit

Fermoy's Brigade - (628)

2 by 30-figure units of Pennsylvania Continenals

Sullivan's Division

St. Clair's Brigade

3 by 20-figure New Hampshire Continentals

Sargent's and Glover's brigades were deployed covering the exit roads crossing Assunpunk Creek and so they were not in the central part of the action. Accordingly, I am not going to paint these two brigades for the project.

Hessian Order of Battle

Grenadier regiment Rall (512) = 1 unit of 50 figures

Fusilier regiment von Lossberg (345) = 1 unit of 30 figures

Fusilier regiment Knyphausen (429) = 1 unit of 40 figures

Jager Company (50) = 1 unit of 12 figures (taking 12+45+29 = 86 men from the three line regiments and adding them to the 50 jagers = 136 men = 12 figures).

Summary

Thus there is only one Hessian player and five American players in the game.

I will need to paint 318 Americans and 132 Hessians which totals 450 figures for the project. These numbers do not include artillery crew for the American army.

If I can paint at a pace of 90 figures per month then it will take five months of painting figures for this project. This takes me from December to April.

If the pace falls to 60 figures per month then it will take seven months to paint all of the figures. This takes me out to June which is cutting it close if I'm running the game in July at Historicon.

Trenton - My Historicon 2026 AWI Game

 

The Battle of Trenton - 1776
Hamilton's American battery rolls round shot down the streets of Trenton
Fife and Drum Miniatures

So I have established that I am going to Cold Wars in November 2025 to run my 28mm or 40mm Napoleonic Peninsula War in Spain game.

My Historicon 2026 game will recreate the Battle of Trenton. The Historicon convention theme will be the 250th Anniversary of the AWI and so I think that my Trenton game scenario is appropriate.

Here is Don Troiani's take on the Hessian general Rall receiving his mortal wound at Trenton.
I think that this one of Troiani's best paintings ever.

Here are some pictures of the Trenton game that I ran several years ago. All of the figures are Fife and Drum Miniatures. I have noticed that on many Facebook forums, people seem to forget (or fail to mention) that yes, there is another figure manufacturer out there called Fife and Drum Miniatures that makes a very good range of AWI figures. So if you happen to be on a website where someone is asking for figure recommendations for AWI war gaming, then I would be most appreciative if you would give Fife and Drum Miniatures a favorable "plug." Sigh...

An overhead view of my town of Trenton. All of the terrain was made by Herb Gundt.

Herb Gundt built winter trees and, roads and the frozen Assinpink Creek for this game.

Hugh Mercer's brigade on the march to Trenton.
Fife and Drum Miniatures

Here is another overhead view of Trenton that shows the frozen Assinpink Creek. Sorry, no boat models in this game.

Trenton and Assinpink Creek

I don't want to let too much of the cat getting out of the bag, but in conjunction with the 250th Anniversary of the AWI, Fife and Drum Miniatures will be adding new figures to the range that will be completely compatible with the ones sculpted by Richard Ansell. Look for these towards the end of this year.

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AWI Theme Announced for Historicon 2026

 

The British Brigade of the Guards
Fife and Drum Miniatures

It should come as no surprise that the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution War will be the theme for Historicon 2026. I would imagine that we will see a number of games covering the New York campaign of 1776 and probably Trenton in December 1776. 

Tall ships seemed to be a popular piece of terrain at this year's Historicon - the game tables were crawling with sailing ships and I wonder if the trend continues into next year. It remains to be seen. I wouldn't mind seeing some naval actions using larger ships suitable for 15mm figures and scale. That would look awesome; or maybe the British attack on Sullivan's Island at Charleston, SC or the obvious battle: Valcour Island. 

Years ago I purchased a dozen or so wooden ships from a tourist shop in Sarasota, Florida with the intention of using them in a grand naval battle. I still have the boats, but I never did the extensive modifications on them that I would need for a game. Moreover, I am totally inept when it comes to battles on sea or air. My spatial sense just doesn't work off of terra firma.

And there is no reason why other battles from the 1777 to 1781 period couldn't also be presented as tabletop games next year.

Here are a few pictures from my archive of AWI pictures.

My Freeman's Farm table from a few years ago.

One of the Massachusetts regiments at Saratoga
Fife and Drum Miniatures

One of the New Hampshire regiments
Fife and Drum Miniatures

"A Helping Hand" by the artist Chris Gregg
Commissioned by Fife and Drum Miniatures

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Thinking About the Battle of Princeton

 

After watching the Little War TV video about the Battle of Princeton from the American Revolutionary War (or AWI for those of you who are heathens), I decided that it was time to work up my own scenario for the battle.

Fife and Drum Miniatures: British artillery 6-pounders with limbers.

Here is a link to the Little Wars video about their game. It includes some really good historical background about the battle and it is well worth the look.

LWTV Princeton

Continental infantry opening up a withering fire on the British 

The following map from Mount Vernon depicts the opening moves of the battle. Princeton is basically a "meeting engagement" where the two sides are marching in the opposite direction and then spot each other. A short intense battle follows. The British commander, Lt. Colonel Mawhood (pronounced "maud")

Map copyright of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. 

Princeton Order of Battle

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The Shot Heard 'Round the World - April 19, 1775

 

The British are coming!

Today, April 19, 2025, marks the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution on that same day in 1775. The picture above depicts the Americans getting the word about what is up. The picture below depicts a column of British soldiers on the march through the Massachusetts countryside.

British infantry on the march. Towards Lexington and Concord?

With the 250th Anniversary kicking off today, you can expect Fife and Drum Miniatures and this blog to be oriented towards the events and battles of the American Revolution (ok, American War of Independence, if you must, but please don't).

Fife and Drum Miniatures offers an extensive range of 1/56 scale figures (approximately 28mm in size) that covers the period of the war, albeit, we do not offer British figures wearing tricorn/cocked hats. Our British figures are kitted out in the campaign look of shorter tailed coats and brimmed hats, the latter of which were more practical on campaign. Have you ever worn a tricorn hat and tried to do the manual of arms without knocking off your chapeau? That's why the British (and we) present ourselves with the tricorn brim turned down. But I digress...

Patriot Day (month) sale is ongoing through April 30, 2025

This is just a reminder that Fife and Drum Miniatures (and Minden Miniatures) is offering a 22% discount on its products from April 12th through 30th of this month in 2025. To order, visit the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store (click on the link below) and enter the coupon code  Lexington2025  and your 22% discount will automatically be applied to your order when you check out.

Fife and Drum Miniatures

This is a really good way to kick off your start to building your American and British armies for your war games over the 250th Anniversary period 2025 through 2033, or if you already have armies and want to add to your existing forces.

The Spirit of '76 - Fife and Drum Miniatures

Men, if they aim to have a fight, then let it begin here!
(not quite Lexington Green, but you get the idea)
American militia form up to receive the British

I haven't been able to get around to creating a Lexington and Concord scenario for my game table and group of war game partners, because I've been engrossed in getting my Hannibal game set up and running for Little Wars 2025. LW starts next week on April 24-27 at the Sheridan Hotel in Lisle, Illinois. There will be a number of AWI games on the roster, and my HANNIBAL game. Stop on by and say hello.  I always enjoy talking with my blog readers.

Seven Years War Association Convention in 2026

It is not too late to start making plans to attend next year's Seven Years War Association convention on April 16-18 in South Bend, Indiana.

Here is the information that Ken Bunger sent to me about the 2026 show:

The 2026 Convention, closing in on 40 years of our convention, is confirmed for April 16-18, 2026.  The venue will remain the century center Convention facility in South Bend, IN  I'll send out more info as it becomes available.  NOTE: Easter is early next year (April 5) so the convention will be a little later than usual.  The date avoids direct conflict with other known conventions Weddings and football blacked out other spring or fall dates, so we are fortunate to have secured the April 16 date.

THE 250th ANNiVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THerefore, we will attempt to invoke an American Revolution theme next year. and will seek out speakers and new vendors in that regard.  Please let me know if you have thoughts or suggestions that might assist in that effort.  This is an excellent opportunity to more widely advertise our convention and expand our merry band.  Jim McIntyre has developed a new brochure that advertises our convention.  I'll send it to everyone when we get it in final form.

I will be attending the convention and hosting several games. I might even load up the track and bring the Fife and Drum and Minden Miniatures inventory to the show as a vendor/dealer.