"Saintonge" Regiment joins the ranks..

Just to show that all is not completely quiet on the wargaming front, last night (my other half being absent on work related matters) I took myself off to the painting table with the intention of reducing the pile of under-coated lead sitting in the "waiting to paint" pile.. as an aside, I suspect I'm not the only wargamer who is surrounded by index-linked piles of little metal men - there's:

• the waiting to be opened pile
• the opened and waiting to be organised into units pile
• the units waiting to be undercoated pile which is by far the largest in my case - though depending on how organised (ie. anal) you are, then it may be the former... I leave you to judge how "organised" I must be..
• the undercoated units waiting to be painted pile

Anyway - the unit I planned to work on were the tail end of yet another cupboard clear out by Lofty C. (aka John Corrigan; the diamond geezer who started me off on the 25mm AWI path) - namely more Minfigs 25mm American War of Independance... I haven't painted any AWI for some time, but was struck by something said by one of the guys on the Old School Wargaming group - basically that the periods you play in are "kept alive" by constantly adding to them in the way of new units, rules, terrain etc. It seemed to me to be very apt - hence the choice of unit..

So a long preamble, but in summary, at the end of the evening I'd finished another French Regiment - the Regiment Saintonge (regimental colours as follows from Warflag.Com) and very smart they look as well. White uniforms (naturally, being French!) with a darkish green turnback on the cuffs. Very easy, and enjoyable, painting... all that's needed now is some varnish and basing.

My research shows that they were also know as the 85éme regiment of the Line, and were originally raised in 1684 (may well have to paint this regiment for the WSS project if they were present in the North European theatre of operations!). 

From 1763 to 1768 the regiment served in the West Indies and French Guiana, but in 1780 the regiment was sent to America and took part in the siege of Yorktown. 

In 1782 the regiment returned to the West Indies, and then back to France and in 1783, following the French Revolution, they became the 82éme Regiment of Infantry.