Troiani's Battle of Trenton

This is a wonderful picture from the talented artist, Don Troiani, depicting the death of Colonel von Rall at the Battle of Trenton on Christmas of 1776.

This picture really has me thinking about our future releases of AWI Hessians in 2014.

1st Continental Light Dragoons from Fife & Drum

1st Continental Light Dragoons: loading (L) and Firing (R). Click all pictures to enlarge the view.

Here are some pictures of the eight poses that Richard Ansell created for the Fife & Drum range of AWI figures. As with the British dragoons in the range, this set is primarily in skirmish or vedette poses, although you can create a formal looking regiment of troopers all with shouldered swords, along with the appropriate command figures. The Continental dragoons are at Griffin Moulds right now and I expect that we will have them in production in January 2014.

Continentals firing pistol (L) and resting carbine (R)

Continetal Command: trumpeter (L) and officer (R)

Continental standard bearer (L) and trooper with rested sword (R)

I could envision two squadrons of the 1st Continental Light Dragoons on the table top. The first squadron would be posted out front in open skirmish order and might include a mix of the Officer pointing, the carbine at rest, a pair of firing carbine and loading carbine, and shooting pistol and carbine at rest. Then you would have the second squadron deployed further back, with the officer, standard bearer and the trumpeter, plus 9 of the troopers with shouldered swords, ready to support the skirmish line.

The next batch of AWI cavalry will include the British Legion cavalry (8 poses) and the 3rd Continental Light Dragoons. These two sets of figures will be in a more energetic series of charging and hacking poses. This way, one regiment can be used for skirmishing and the second regiment could be used for charging and melee.

16th Light Dragoon - Fife & Drum AWI Figures

16th Light Dragoons

16th Light Dragoon: rested carbine (left); firing pistol (right). Click all pix to enlarge the view

I finally had a chance to download all of the pictures that Richard Ansell sent to me that depict the eight different poses that he has sculpted for the 16th Light Dragoons. I will post views of the figures from the left and from the right side of the figures. In a couple of instances, a front view of the figures will also be shown.

The general idea is that the first pair of American and British AWI cavalry regiments will feature skirmishing and scouting poses, as well as some "shouldered sword" poses to create either a skirmish line or a squadron deployed in line and ready to advance.

An active looking squadron or regiment can be created using the four "skirmishing" poses of the 16th Light Dragoons: loading carbine, firing carbine, firing pistol,  resting carbine on thigh and then adding the officer and musician to complete the set.

16th LD loading his carbine (L) and firing his carbine (R)

Left hand side view of the loading and firing figures.

The more formal look of the cavalry regiment in line and ready for action can be achieved by using the two 16th LD troopers with shouldered swords: one is wearing the traditional uniform coat while the other is wearing a hunting shirt out on the campaign. You can pair these figures up with the two command figures (musician and officer pointing) to create a squadron or regiment in line, possibly serving in a second line behind the cavalry picket line.

16th LD shouldered sword: uniform coat (L) and hunting shirt (R)

Right hand side view of the shouldered sword set of 16th LD.

16th LD command figures: trumpeter (L) and Officer (R)

Reverse view of the command figures.

The greens are on their way to Griffin Moulds, where Stewart will have the master and production moulds made, and after that, they can start spining metal and getting them into production. I anticipate that the 16th LD and the 1st Continental Light Dragoons will be ready to sell in January 2014.

NEXT: 1st Continental Light Dragoons.

A Cold Winter's Night & A Warm Fire

Der Alte Fritz's Fireside Perch

It is 5F degrees outside this evening here in Wintry Hesse Seewald. Mrs Fritz is in her kerchief and I'm in my cap and we have settled down in front of a warm fire to watch the Chicago Bears defeat the Dallas Cowboys. This is the best place to be on a cold evening like this.

You can see my favorite chair right next to the fireplace. This is where I spend some of my evenings plotting the next Prussian invasion of Saxony or Bohemia or planning future additions to the Minden or Fife & Drum figure ranges.

That leads me to comment on the upcoming SYW game next Saturday at Chez Protz. The game will feature all of my painted Minden and RSM figures in one game, so it should be quite a thing to behold. I have been painting Mindens almost non-stop since Labor Day back in September  in anticipation of this game. I had hoped to add 8 more Bayreuth Dragoons and 2 more Black Hussars, but even I have 

Painting limits and the reality was that I couldn't add these last few figures without spending a ridiculous amount of time on them and getting all stresses out. So I bowed to reality and said "this is enough".

The rest of the week now looks a lot more relaxed.

Bloody Ban Tarleton Is Painted

The Banastre Tarleton Personality Figure from Fife & Drum Miniatures (click all pix to enlarge)

I was able to paint and base the new Banastre Tarleton figure that we have added to the Fife & Drum range of AWI miniatures. The figure shown in these pictures is seated on one of the six new medium sized horses that we added specifically for the AWI range, with the assumption that the heavy cavalry horses of the Minden range would be more suitable for the heavy cuirassiers and dragoons of the SYW era. Over here in America, the horses tended to be a lot smaller because the armies did not use their dragoons for heavy shock action tactics.

Front view of Tarleton

I think that Tarleton cuts a dashing figure and Richard Ansell did a wonderful job of conveying the spirit and elan of the cavalryman. He was really a lot of fun to paint and rather an easy job at that too, because the figure is not loaded down with a lot of equipment. The new (one of six new horses) is another walking pose - very life-like and natural in appearance.

When I look at this figure, my mind wanders into the future when we add the British Legion cavalry and I can just imagine Bloody Ban leading a frenzied charge against a line of shaky American militia. I imagine that the full regiment will look rather spectacular.

Left rear view of Tarleton

Banastre Tarleton - Fife & Drum Personality Figure. (click to enlarge)

And finally, here is a Work In Progress picture of the Knyhausen personality figure that I am working on. He has a ways to go before I can finish him off and base him, but I thought that you might enjoy the preview nevertheless.

Baron von Knyphausen, commander of the Hessian corps in North America. Work in Progress photo.

AWI Dragoon Greens - Sneak Peak

Here are a couple of teaser photos of the greens that Richard sent to me this morning. The first batch of Fife & Drum dragoons will include 8 poses each of the British 16th Light Dragoons and the 1st Continental Light Dragoons.  I will post more pictures over the next several days.

16th Light Dragoons skirmishing or on piquet duty.

16th Light Dragoon Command (above)

1st Continental Light Dragoons skirmishing (above)

Standard Bearer and trooper with shouldered sword (below)

Knyphausen, Marion & Tarleton Castings Are Here

Fife & Drum Personalities (left to right): Knyphausen, Francis Marion, and Tarleton. Click to enlarge view.

I received a package of castings from Griffin Moulds today. Talk about fast service, it only took two days for the package to ship door to door. I'm impressed. The box contained a resupply of some of the Minden Miniatures figures, so if you have any items on back order, I will be shipping your figures within the next several days.

The most exciting part however, was the inclusion of the first of the Kickstarter AWI Dragoons figures, of which we have the three personality figures for Knyphausen, Francis Marion and Banastre Tarleton. The figures won't be available until all of the Kickstarter backers receive their rewards in January 2014. After that time, anyone can buy the figures. If you are one of our Kickstarter backers and you happen to place an order for additional or other AWI and SYW figures, I will add your personality reward figures with your purchase.

Another view of the same figures, with picture scaled closer to their actual size. Knyphausen and Tarleton sit on 2 of the 6 new horses added to the AWI range. We have 27 horses in the range as of today.

I can see some multiple uses for the Knyphausen figure: perhaps use him as Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick or the Duke of Bevern for your SYW armies. I will attempt to paint these three samples over the weekend so that you can get a better idea of how they look. Please forgive my poor attempts at black washing the figures for photographic purposes.  They do no justice to the actual figures, which to my eye, are quite stunning.

Richard informs me that he is nearly finished with the rest of the Kickstarter Dragoons and so I expect that I should have some pictures of the greens within the next several days. We are making good progress and it looks like we will be able to deliver the dragoons on time in January.

I have also had some equipment pieces cast up to sell as weapons packs: swords, carbines, muskets and drum castings. Richard also made the Prussian Garde du Corps vexillum flag so that I could have a proper flag for my own Minden Guard du Corps.