4th New York Regiment At Saratoga

 

The 4th New York Regiment
Fife and Drum Miniatures

This week I finished the painting and basing of a 30-figure Continental Army regiment, the 4th New York, for my Saratoga Project. As with the regiments in this project, the unit has five bases, each measuring 60mm frontage by 80mm depth. The bases were purchased from Litko.

I designed this regiment to be in a firing line with a mix of figures that are firing muskets, reloading and standing at the ready. The combined effect of all of these different poses is stunning, in my humble opinion. This may well be one of the best painted units that I have done for this project. I am still waiting for the flags to arrive from GMB Designs, but other than that, the 4th New York Regiment is complete and ready for tabletop action.

Here are some close up shots of the new unit. I was not able to fit all five stands into the photos so I took pictures of 3 and 4 bases at a time.

In this unit, I used the officer in hunting shirt along with a few other hunting shirt poses,  
a couple of the militia figures, and some of the regular Continental uniforms

The side view of the command stand and one other stand.
Note the variety of poses that lends a sense of "action" to the regiment.

Same stands as the previous picture, but from the other side.

Well, one way to fit all five stands into one photo is to have them back to back.

I did not do any head conversions in the 4th New York because I am in a rush to get three more regiments painted in the three weeks leading up to this year's Seven Years War Association Convention on August 5th through 7th, 2021. I wanted to have some figures wearing round hats (brimmed hats) so I selected four such figures from the CA-001 American Militia pack: standing firing, kneeling firing, cocking musket, and advancing at port arms. I also used a mix of figures wearing regulation coats and hunting shirts to provide even more visual variety.

I based the figures into two ranks with the firing poses in the front rank and all other poses (ramming with ram rod, reloading, at the ready, standing, etc.) in the rear second rank. The deeper bases protect the muskets and bayonets from wear and tear on the gaming table, but also have the added benefit of having room to make some dioramas on the stands. One of the officers shielding his eyes with one hand is placed a bit forward from the rest of the firing line. Another casualty figure in hunting shirt, getting knocked off of his feet from a musket ball, also stands a little bit forward from the rest of the line. The firing poses are a mix of Continentals wearing tricorn hats, men in hunting shirts wearing tricorn hats, and militia figures wearing round hats. I simply paint the militia in the regimental uniform of the Continentals (albeit, the militia figures do not have lapels)..

I am a big proponents of firing lines because of the dynamic look of action that they provide. I also like the standard marching poses, but I don't want every regiment in the army to be marching.

The next unit on my painting table is a Massachusetts regiment wearing blue coats with white facings (lapels, cuffs and collars). They will be in marching poses.

Poor's New Hampshire Brigade at Saratoga 1777

 

The 2nd New Hampshire Regiment
Fife and Drum Miniatures

Over the past month I have been focused on painting some of the troops for the Continental Army that fought at Saratoga in 1777. I am focusing on Brigadier General Enoch Poor's brigade. At the battle of Freeman's Farm on September 19, 1777, Poor's Brigade was the first group of regiments to arrive on the scene at the engagement started by Daniel Morgan's Virginia riflemen and Henry Dearborn's battalion of light infantry.

Poor's Brigade consisted of the following elements:

1st New Hampshire Regiment - Colonel Joseph Cilley

2nd New Hampshire  - Lt. Colonel Adams

3rd New Hampshire - Colonel Alexander Scammel

2nd New York - Colonel Phillip van Cortlandt

4th New York - Colonel Henry Livingston

1st Connecticut Militia

2nd Connecticut Militia

Total all ranks present: 1,292; 356 sick; 153 "on command"; 7 on leave (per Brendan Morrissey).

For wargaming purposes, I would merge the two Connecticut militia battalions into one militia battalion, thus giving me 6 regiments under the command of Poor.  Dividing 1,292 by 6 = 215 per regiment. This works out to six regiments of approximately 20 figures using a 1:10 ratio of miniature figures to actual soldiers.

If I added all present, sick, on command (I assume that these fellows were hived off into Dearborn's light infantry battalion) and on leave I would have 1,809 total men in the brigade or approximately 300 soldiers per regiment or 30 wargame figures in the unit. If I were to deduct the "on command" soldiers from the brigade, that would average approximately 242 men per regiment or 24 wargame figures per unit.

So pick your poison and build regiments of either 20, 24 or 30 figures. I chose the latter amount for the simple reason that I like larger units. By comparison, my British regiments have 40 figures.

So far, I have painted the three New Hampshire regiments, Morgan's Rifles, and Dearborn's Light Infantry for my game at the Seven Years War Association Convention on August 5th through 7th in South Bend, Indiana. I doubt that I will have enough time to paint the two New York regiments so I will substitute regiments from my existing collection of Continental regiments for my Philadelphia Campaign collection.

Here are some pictures of the lads. Note that (surprise) all figures are from the Fife and Drum Miniatures AWI figuure range.

1st New Hampshire Regiment - Colonel Cilley

The 1st New Hampshire wore green coats with red cuffs/collars and red turnbacks. Some accounts have them wearing red waistcoats, others indicate red or white. I used a mix of all three waistcoat colors in the regiment. I have yet to flag the regiment, noting that I have some GMB Designs flags on order from the UK.

Ist New Hampshire Regiment "in situ"

Close up view of some of the figures in the 1st NH

The side view of some of the 1st NH figures.

2nd New Hampshire Regiment - Lt. Colonel Adams

The regiment wore light blue coats with red collars, cuffs and white turnbacks. Breeches and waistcoats were white or buff. I went with mostly buff colored kit. This is one of my favorite Continental army uniforms in my collection.

2nd New Hampshire Regiment

Close up view of some of the miniatures.

3rd New Hampshire Regiment - Colonel Scammel

This regiment just came off of the painting table and are clothed in dark blue coats with white facings, waistcoats and breeches. I gave them a grand division flag from GMB Designs because it looks like the Fort Ticonderoga flag that they were alleged to have carried. 

As with all of my Continental regiments, I like to add in some figures wearing hunting shirts and some militia figures from the Fife and Drum Miniatures figure range. In some cases, I will do a head swap to include more brimmed or round hats in the regiment.

The whole 3rd New Hampshire Regiment on five stands.

A close up view of some of the figures. Note the officer wearing hunting shirt in the front rank.

Same view as above, but with a view of the second row of figures.

The Continental Advance Guard - Daniel Morgan

I have posted pictures of the Virginia riflemen within the past month, but had not posted pictures of Dearborn's Light Infantry Battalion. The two units were brigaded together because the riflemen do not have bayonets on their rifles, and thus, they would need to fall back to the safety of the Light Battalion, whose soldiers carried muskets with bayonets.

Henry Dearborn's Light Infantry Battalion

Henry Dearborn's Light Infantry Battalion. Each stand wears a different uniform to represent
 that the men in the battalion were chosen men from their parent regiments.

Close up view of some of the figures. Each stand of figures wears a different uniform.

Side view of two of the stands (left - 3rd NH; right - 1st NH)

Another side view of three of the five stands.

Daniel Morgan's Virginia Riflemen 

The figures in this regiment are relatively new additions to the Fife and Drum Miniatures Saratoga range. Wonderful variety of poses and animation created by Richard Ansell.

Colonel Morgan directs his riflemen on the left and some of Dearborn's light infantry on the right.

A view of the whole rifle regiment.

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2nd New Hampshire Regiment At Saratoga

 

The 2nd New Hampshire Regiment at Freeman's Farm.
Fife and Drum Miniatures.

Click on all pictures to enlarge.

The Saratoga Project continues to advance at a rapid pace with new units being added at a pace of one week for each new regiment of figures. The British and Brunswick contingents are largely completed and so I am now pointing my brushes towards the American side. This past week I finished the 30-figure 2nd New Hampshire regiment.

The 2nd NH Regiment in a more bosky setting surronded by trees.

Close up view of the regiment. Click the picture to enlarge the view. Look closer at the second stand from the left and notice that in the front rank the officer, drummer, and soldier in the "at the ready" position have all had head conversions to give them round hats instead of tricorn hats.

On the third stand from the left, in the second rank, the figure with the ram rod is a head conversion. The gentleman in the red waistcoat is from the Armed Civilian pack. In the front row, the soldier biting the cartridge is a conversion of one of the British light infantry figures.

Some of the other figures in the regiment include those from the American Militia CA-001 pack wearing round hats; British Guards skirmishers wearing round hats with feather. I wanted approximately half of the regiment to wear round hats.

2nd NH Regiment standing in front of a Grand Manner log cabin and a blacksmith shop scratch built by Ed Phillips.

The 2nd New Hampshire Regiment is missing its colors, which will be supplied by GMB Designs (the best looking flags bar none - of other commercial or professionally-painted flags). The regiment actually lost its colors earlier in the Saratoga Campaign when they were captured by the British at Fort Ticondaroga in 1777.

Here are some pictures of the colors carried by the 2nd New Hampshire during the 1777 campaign season. Thanks to Bill Nevins and Ken Marshall for creating these flag images. Please feel free to download and use these flags on your regiments.

I have been on a head swap frenzy these past several weeks. I wanted to have more round hats in my Continental regiments because this style of headgear was commonly used. I liked how they look so much that I will be adding Continentals in Round Hats to the Fife and Drum Miniatures range in the near future, avialable in both regular uniform coats and hunting shirts. Stay tuned to my blog for more information about these new figurs.

Next on the painting table: the 1st New Hampshire Regiment in dark green coats and overalls, with red waistcoats and facings. They are a rather smart looking regiment.

Another Head Conversion

 

The officer from the CA-002 Armed Civilians pack gets a new chapeau.

Click the pictures to enlarge.

I needed one more officer for the 2nd New Hampshire regiment that I am painting for my Freeman's Farm game at this year's Seven Years War Association convention on August 5th through 7th in South Bend, Indiana.

Side view of the converted figure.

The officer holding a pistol, from the Armed Civilian pack, looked like a good candidate for a easy head swap. When the head is sort of out there by itself, with no weapons or hat or pole arms to complicate things, then it is very easy to do a head swap.

As stated in the previous post, I used an Exacto fine tooth mitre saw to do the surgery and a small pin vise to drill holes in the torso and the new head. A pin was cut from a piece of wire and inserted into the torso, adding a small snake of green putty around the pin to secure the join and to make a neck if needed. Any excess putty is scraped off and then Bob's your uncle, you are finished.

The 2nd NH regiment is completed, save for the terraining of the base and the addition of a GMB Designs flag. The flag is on order so the regiment will have to operate without its flag for awhile. My recollection is that they lost their flag at Fort Ticonderoga when the British captured the fort (and some flags).

Rectangles Win! See the Results

 

Morgan's Rifles
Fife and Drum Miniatures

After weighing the pros and cons of the circle versus rectangle basing scheme for my AWI American riflemen, I settled on using rectangular bases. The bases used are 60mm by 80mm. My original plan was to put five figures on the base with the longer 80mm frontage and 60mm depth. However, this did not provide what I deemed to be needed depth of the base, so I simply flipped the base around 90-degrees so that the frontage is the 60mm side and the depth is now 80mm.

This solution provides enough room to space out the deployment of the individual figures to give them a more "open order" appearance. The added depth enables me to place the figures on three different tiers within the base.

The added depth enabled me to make little dioramas on each stand, adding some rocks here and some cut up trees there. The stand was finished off with plenty of tufts and static grass. It is important to use the smallest rocks and twigs that you can find to decorate the stands, otherwise they will look out of proportion to the size of the 1/56 scale figures (~30mm).

Ground level view of the American riflemen.

The figures were glued to the stands in a sort of random and informal manner so as to convey the idea that these are skirmish/open order troop rather than formed troops. Since the riflemen do not have bayonets, they had best stay away from formed British soldiers with leveled bayonets. I also placed some of the firing figures aiming off to the side or front corner of the stand to avoid the appearance of any kind of formation.

I couldn't place all six stands in a single row within my photographic light box,
so  two of the stands are placed behind the front four stands.

Close up view of Morgan's Rifles.

Next up on the painting table: von Barner's light infantry in Brunswick service. After that I will probably start working on Dearborn's light infantry battalion, the musket-armed chosen men whose job was to provide support to the rifle-armed soldiers who lacked bayonets.

American Riflemen Painted Figures

I have finished painting the eight new American riflemen wearing hunting shirts and they comprise the product code CA-023 in the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store.

While we had the figures designed to use as Daniel Morgan’s corps of chosen riflemen at Saratoga, the figures can be used for all other AWI theaters of war. The variety of poses make them perfect for use in skirmish games as well as in a battalion of riflemen.

The figures are sold as Product Code CA-023 in the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store. Also, all AWI figures are available from Crann Tara Miniatures in the U.K. 

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New Products: Morgan’s Rifles Are In Stock

The shipment of the brand new American riflemen representing Daniel Morgan’s corps of chosen men, rifle armed, arrived two days ago. They are now available in the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store. The new product code for the riflemen is CA-023. Look for American Continentals in the American Revolution drop down menu. The are listed in the Continentals in Hunting Shirts section.
Web Store Link


The 8 different poses are packaged in one pack at a price of $16 per pack. They are now available at the introductory price of $15 per pack, through September 1, 2020.

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Washington, Greene and All That

George Washington (left) and Nathaniel Greene (right)

I have been painting samples of the new Fife and Drum Miniatures AWI Personalities and Highlanders. We have just added four new AWI personality figures to the range, and these include George Washington and Nathaniel Greene for the Home Team (Continentals) as well as Lord William Howe and Lord Charles Cornwallis for the Visiting Team (British). There is also a mounted Highlander officer that could stand in for Simon Frasier at Saratoga.

The new Personalities product codes in the web store are as follows:

AC-004  General George Washington

AC-005  General Nathaniel Greene

BC-005 Lord William Howe (not available yet)

BC-006 Lord Charles Cornwallis

BC-007 Mounted Highlander Officer

Fife and Drum Miniatures web store

The above personalities are in addition to the ones already in the range including Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox), Banastre Tarleton, and Lt. General Knyphausen. 

Clicking on the link will take you to the home page of the web store. From there, click on the pull-down menu "American Revolution" and then select "British Infantry" or "Continental & Militia" and scroll down the page until you come to the figure that you wish to select.

George Washington (AC-004)

The picture that was the inspiration for the George Washington figure.

All of the personality figures except Lord Howe are now available for purchase through the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store. Probably Howe has gone AWOL with Mrs. Loring for a little sojourn. His lordship is being cast at Griffin Moulds and should be available by early April 2019.

Nathaniel Greene (AC-005)

Lord Charles Cornwallis (BC-006)

Highlander Officer (BC-007)
I plan to use him as Lt. Colonel Archibald Campbell.

Richard Ansell's sculpting prowess really shines with the personality figures that he makes for Fife and Drum, Minden and Crann Tara Miniatures. I really had a lot of fun painting all of the figures shown in these pictures. George Washington was particularly fun to paint, what with his leopard skin shabraque, something that I don't get to paint very often. I also liked the mounted Highlander officer figure - he is perhaps my favorite figure of the lot.

Next up: pictures of the painted AWI Highlander figures.

Continentals on the March -A Daring Move?

Baron De Kalb directs traffic as his army is on the march.

I set up several "posed" pictures after I finished the Battle of Kingston, from the American Revolution, and wanted to post them on this blog. Continental troops are marching through a town that could be Kingston or another town in the South Carolina Campaign of 1780.

We are on Turn Eleven of Twelve in the campaign and the British have opened up a large differential in Victory Point over the Americans. Desperate times call for desperate measures. With Cornwallis near the Atlantic Ocean at Kingston, the British base in the interior of South Carolina at Camden might be vulnerable to a surprise attack. General De Kalb proposes to attack the Camden garrison (6SPs commanded by Lord Rawdon) with at least 6SPs of veteran Continental troops. 

Following the defeat and capture of Gates' army at Kingston, De Kalb commands the last Continental Army of any significance in South Carolina. So this is a very bold move by the American command, which cannot afford to lose a battle and a lot of men.

The veteran Maryland Brigade leads the column through one of the towns along the route.

A closer view of DeKalb directing traffic. Where are they headed to?

Continental light troops protect the wagon train.

The rear guard.

I am off to Warwickshire in the UK next week, so the Battle of Camden will have to wait to be played until I get back in the final week of June. The battle should be quite a cracker.