Tuesday, October 4

AWI re-basing project - British and Hessians (Part 2 of 3)

All figures are Minifigs 25mm unless otherwise stated, click on the unit name to be taken to any specific post for the unit (for more information on unit history etc.).. 😀

Side Unit Name Base No's Unit Type Artillery TypeComments/Notes
British and Hessian
British Rogers Rangers - 1st Battalion 1 and 2Rangers OO N/A
A bit of an anachronism to start the British roll... At the end of the French and Indian War, my research indicated that most of the Rogers Rangers soldiers had returned to civilian life, but at the outbreak of the American War of Independence, former Rangers were among the Minutemen firing at the British at Lexington and Concord. After these events, Rogers offered his help to Washington, but Washington refused, fearing that Rogers was a spy. Infuriated by the rejection, Rogers joined the British, where he formed the Queen's Rangers (1776) and later the King's Rangers. These guys are those very early forerunners of the Queens Rangers... and yes I know they aren't wearing the correct uniforms for the Queen's Rangers - they hadn't arrived yet...
British Rogers Rangers - 2nd Battalion 3 and 4Rangers OO N/ASee previous entry..
Hessian Brunswick Jaegers 5 and 6 Line Infantry CO N/A

Based on plate no. 126 in the Mollo "Uniforms of the American Revolution" book. During the American Revolutionary War, Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel and other German leaders hired out about 30,000 of their conscripted subjects as auxiliaries to Great Britain to fight against the Americans. The gentlemen depicted here were subjects of Duke Charles I of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel a blood relation of George III; and the first ruler to sign a contract to send troops to North America. The contract was approved by the duchy’s Landstands (parliament). "The money received was invested for the general good and the interest was still helping to relieve the tax burden on the general populace of the region in 1918!"

The corps of 4,300 men (176 officers, 389 NCO's, 102 Drummers, 3372 soldiers and 261 servants) received their pay direct from the British government – at the higher rate paid to its own troops – and all equipment was purchased in Brunswick in order to support the local economy.

Theoretically there were only a company of these troops, but I had enough to make two and a half battalions, so if needs must they can also fill in as Hesse-Cassell Jaegers when the need arises. Lots of this information from the Perry website - well worth a read..
Hessian Brunswick Jaegers 7 and 8 Line Infantry CO N/ASee previous entry..
Hessian Brunswick Jaegers 9 Line Infantry CO N/A See previous entry.. a single base.
Hessian Brunswick Battalion von Barner 10  and 11Line Infantry CO N/A

More Brunswickers. Plate no. 127 in the Mollo book - and along with the Rangers these were some of the the easiest units to identify. This regiment comprised picked men, and was classed as light infantry (though I have them based in close order).

They were commanded by Major Friedrich Albrecht von Barner. This was a newly raised Battalion of Chasseurs (Jaegers) supplemented by light Infantry from other Brunswick Regiments. They arrived in Quebec in Sep 1776 with the 2nd Division and became part of Burgoyne's army. Fought in the battles of Ticonderoga, Hubbardton, Freeman’s Farm, Bemis Heights, and Saratoga.
Hessian Brunswick Battalion von Barner 12 Line Infantry CO N/A See previous entry.. a single base.
Hessian Infantry regiment Erbprinz 13 and 14 Line Infantry CO N/A

The elite of the elite, and therefore guaranteed to get trounced on every table top outing! Based on plate no. 138 in Mollo. Specifically the plate shows the grenadier, but early in my research I missed the fact that the rest of the battalion would have worn the tricorn... ("Composition – one grenadier and five musketeer companies [24 officers and 522 combatants]; this unit is often wrongly described as being all grenadiers." from the Perry site)

In retrospect I should have chosen them to represent Grenadier Regiment von Rall (or at a pinch one of the Fusilier regiments with their slightly smaller mitres); they may still do if I can summon up enough nerve to have a go at the red stripes of the von Rall trousers!
Hessian Regiment Prinz Ludwig - 1st Battalion 15 and 16 Line Infantry CO N/A

One of the sadder stories to come out of my reading for the war - identified from plate no 125 in the Mollo. This four squadron regiment of Dragoons arrived in Quebec without their horses, but with all the equipment to make them mounted once horses were sourced... they never were and the regiment served on foot throughout the war.
"The only German auxiliary cavalry regiment to serve in America, the regiment was 336 men strong and was part of the 1st Division, arriving in Quebec in June, 1776. They did not bring their horses with them, hoping to procure them in America. Very few horses were obtained, only enough for small units to act in patrol work, etc. The remainder of the regiment fought in infantry. Their heavy cavalry boots were exchanged for long overalls made from striped ticking material, but much of the remainder of their cavalry dress was retained. They were another of the regiments taken into captivity at the surrender of Saratoga as part of General Burgoyne's Army, although many men were exchanged, escaped from captivity, etc., to re-form the Regiment around the detachment left in Canada." from here.
Hessian Regiment Prinz Ludwig - 2nd Battalion 17 and 18 Line Infantry CO N/A See previous entry..
Hessian Regiment Prinz Ludwig - 3rd Battalion 19 and 20 Line Infantry CO N/A See previous entry..
Hessian Regiment Prinz Ludwig - 4th Battalion 21 and 22Line Infantry CO N/A See previous entry..
British New York Loyalist Artillery 23 Artillery Medium

An entirely fictional unit, and one of three artillery pieces on the British side (same for the Americans). I suspect I picked New York because of the brown coats, but I have no idea who these guys were actually painted to represent..
British New York Loyalist Artillery 24 Artillery Light

As per the previous entry, a fictional unit.

The gun by the way is one of the only plastic pieces to survive the first awakenings of the project - I have no idea what kit it came from though I think it might have been Revell - perhaps an ECW or 30 Years War set, as the gun is slightly old fashioned, but ideal in size for a smaller calibre artillery piece..
British 16th Light Dragoons 25 and 26 Cavalry N/A



John passed me on a significant quantity of British cavalry, I used 12 of them to represent 3 squadrons of the 16th Light Dragoons, far too many, and I've never used them all at the same time... in hindsight and with experience, a little judicious painting could have meant making one of the units the 17th Light Dragoons (the "Death or Glory Boys") I may still do that.

The American War of Independence did not feature cavalry heavily, it was an infantry man's war, so usually I have no more than one, occasionally two, squadrons per side.

I still have a dozen of these guys un-based - I used some for the American's (repainted as a Continental dragoon regiment) and I used some of them for British officers...

Plate no. 90 in Mollo.
British New York Loyalist Artillery 27 Artillery Light As per previous entry...
British 16th Light Dragoons 28 and 29 Cavalry N/A


See previous entry..
British 16th Light Dragoons 30 and 31 Cavalry N/A


See previous entry..
British 24th Light Infantry 32 and 33 Light Infantry OO N/A
British Royal Irish Regiment 34 and 35 Line Infantry CO N/A
British 33rd Foot 36 and 37 Line Infantry CO N/A
British 17th Foot 38 and 39 Line Infantry CO N/A
British 23rd Foot (Royal Welsh Fusileers) 40 and 41 Line Infantry CO N/A
Front Rank
British 71st (Fraser's) Foot 42 and 43 Line Infantry CO N/A
Hessian Grenadier Von Donop 44 and 45 Line Infantry CO N/A 1st IR von Donop - a Hessian regiment destined for the American colonies as part of the British contingent in the War of Independence.

I may paint a second unit of this regiment (dependant on their actual strength), but in tricorn, as my reading indicates that only a part of the regiment would have worn the brass mitre, most would have worn the normal headgear...
British 35th Foot (Royal Sussex Regiment) 46 and 47 Line Infantry CO N/A

The figures are Parkfield Miniatures, the flag is from the Warflag site (I used one of the generic regimental flags with the colour changes to reflect the regiments unique orange facings)... they were "difficult", or rather not easy, to paint but having finished the basing and the standard I'm quite pleased with how they turned out...
British Brunswick Jaeger 48 and 49 Line Infantry OO N/A
Triggered by the awesome plate in the Osprey book on the British Army in North America (that's it to the left - painted by the inestimable Gerry Embleton) I decided that for my next mini-project I'd tidy up and base some Jaeger that I bought ready painted a long time ago (in 2007 I think) from a fellow member of the Old School Wargames forum (Hi Jim - sorry about how long it took!)

The more I read about the Jaeger's, the more I realise that my original basing (see bases 5-9...) which was based on my very poor knowledge of the war at the time, was incorrect - you can see that I've based them as close order troops, when in reality they were light infantry, so this time I'd base them as lights, to be used in that role for skirmishing against the flanks of formed troops.

British Fusilier Regiment Erbprinz 50 and 51 Line Infantry CO N/A I got these figures through a private sale back in 2008; they were partially painted so in this case only required some touching up - some blue ink on the coats, flesh wash, re-painted the gun barrels, and I decided to colour the wigs a more natural colour as I assumed they would soon have "lost" the originals on campaign...


I've taken a bit of a liberty as this regiment became a musketeer regiment in about 1780 (so just before the Yorktown campaign which is my "timestamp" for the AWI project) but as I had the fusilier figures, and the uniform colours were correct for Erbprinz, I decided to go with it anyway...



The fusilier regiment as they would have looked prior to being designated a musketeer regiment and painted by the inestimable Mr Troiani
British 43rd Regiment of Foot 52 and 53 Line Infantry CO N/A

These figures are some of the last of those that Lofty C [clicky] left me, and were already partially painted, so it was more a matter of finishing the rest of the paint job and matching to existing scheme..

John was a "parade ground uniform" painter (something these old school/classic sculpts almost force upon you) so these guys are painted pretty much as the illustration top left.. In reality I suspect the gaiters wouldn't have been full length (but they look good), and during this campaign they would have cut their coats down shorter because of the heat, probably would have had larger, circular, hats, and would have looked a lot more lived in than I have represented them.... but hey, this more than any of my projects is an "old school style" one, a homage, the look is derived from Mollo and Mcgregor [clicky] but more from the style of these old Minifigs sculpts... No flags for this unit...they lost them at Yorktown
British Queen's Rangers 54 and 55 Line Infantry CO N/A

These were a 'paint conversion' of a unit gifted to me all those years ago by Lofty C [clicky] and which had already been painted...

I think these were listed in the Miniature Figurines catalogue as Hungarians (Line Fusilier Advancing I think - product code ASW7 [clicky]) but from my perspective the most important thing was they were already painted largely hunting green and grey, and just needed a few modifications...so, I added knee length black gaiters (which I thought would be likely on campaign), and applied some paint to the trousers of about three quarters of them to give some variation (again I thought this might be likely for a unit on campaign) - I think that typically the regiment would have worn white trousers... touched up the helmets, added the silver crescent, and the flag started off as the one from Warflag but I modified the central shield and wreath with a better one I found elsewhere on the web... a coat of varnish and a quick wipe over with Dullcote, based, and the jobs a good'un - not as nice as Giles's [clicky] but they'll do!
British (or American) Mohawks/American Indians 1 to 8 Indian OO N/A

14 comments:

  1. Great looking troops, I do love this period, infact the whole of the Lace Wars, its so colourful. Love the Prinz Ludwig regt!

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    1. Ray - agreed - of all the periods I play, early/mid Black Powder remains my absolute favourite....

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  2. Great post, will keep this bookmarked. Thanks.

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    1. Cheers Norm.. will also be refreshing the project page once the series is finished

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  3. Fine looking chaps and an informative post Steve, thanks!

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  4. Thanks Steve. Just when I am trying to concentrate on finishing off my Seven Years War troops you have rekindled my interest in AWI. The pain of a butterfly wargamer. Your figures do look very nice though, and interesting notes to go with the pictures. Best wishes.

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  5. Jim - all those years ago when I started the Marlborough project I was worried that the period was too close in time to the AWI project, I didn't need to worry of course as the tactics and style of war in the two periods is totally different, same I guess with SYW and AWI?

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    1. I started with the AWI when the 200th anniversary loomed and after some years my regular opponent thought it would be a good idea to get extra use out of the French element by going back to the SYW - neither of us was too fussy about uniforms. Although tactics are similar I have found the make up of the armies, particularly the American, differing proportions of troops - more light, less cavalry - and nature of the terrain gives enough variation. I am sure there are many who would disagree but I have fun with the games and that is what it is about.

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    2. Greater involvement of Indian/irregular forces in the SYW as well I guess.. no argument with your choice.. I know people who game the same period in three different scales...! :o)

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    3. Sorry Steve - I actually meant SYW in Europe. The FIW doesn't really appeal for some reason. I must confess, at the risk of you barring me, that I play SYW at 2mm as well as 20mm!

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  6. Steve, this is a nifty way to account for and document your collection.

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