A Seven Years War diversion

I recently acquired a rather large SYW French and Reichsarmee 15mm collection from Richard at the club. He has been working on a set of SYW rules and from the game I played and those I've seen they are rather good. However, I'm a stickler for the cosmetics of the game and as I have plans for Imagi-Nation type stuff in the future I want all my troops in a uniform basing style.

Now there are a lot of figures here (c.60 x 16fig battalions plus cavalry etc.)so rebasing will be a long and slow process. I also want to keep the bulk of the army available for playing the rules at the club so I started with the smaller Reichsarmee contingent figuring some could double for Hessians and some for French in my AWI games! Now I also wanted to 'alter' the painting style to fit more with my own. They are very neatly but basically painted and given the numbers I didn't want to spend too much time on them so I applied a Games Workshop Flesh wash to the skin areas and then used Future/Klear with a little black over the rest of the figure. I think they've come out OK. This is my first attempt with Klear and the mix has been a little inconsistent so some look better than others.

Here are some comparison shots:

Cronegk - before and after
Kur-trier - before and after

Rear view

Warasdiner-Creutzer

The finished brigade

Still a lot to do but I think the approach has promise and when done they overall effect will be worth the effort.

Preparing for battle

Seeing as I've been trying to reorganise the attic to create some space I thought I'd set up a small table and finally take the shrink off some of the Purbeck blocks I have. It's only 4x4 but there is room when the underlying table is fully out to take it to 6x4 which for 15mm battles will do me. I also wanted to see what the troops I have to date actually look like en masse. Still having problems with the camera so no doubt if you zoom in then they'll be out of focus!

So first an overall view as multiple lines of Rebels prepare to defend the hills:


And then views of the Rebel and British lines:



I want to do some mods to the Purbeck to add some texture and variety and maybe some fields. Or maybe just do them on card at sizes my fences will fit around! And I need roads. And I've got a few buildings to paint up as well.

There is just sooo little time....

The British are coming!

Seems I have far fewer British troops than I thought. The other two guys had done the Royal Welch, some Hessians, Indians and Tarleton's Dragoons which made up a respectable force for the few games we had.

My contribution was:

British Legion Infantry
British Light Infantry
Jaegers
contingent of 71st Highlanders
Tarleton himself and a British Major for him to upstage!

When I can afford some lights I'll try for some better detail shots but to introduce them here comes the British flank attack!

The Maryland Continentals are forced to face their flank as Light Infantry descend from the woods and the British Legion supported by the 71st Highlanders launch their attack, Hessian Jaegers pushing back the riflemen and harassing the Continentals. Tarleton himself urges them on.

The Light Infantry emerge from the woods in support of the main attack.

The British Legion infantry, shielded by Jaegers, begin their assault.

I'd like to get some detail shots and closeups of the troops but may need to borrow a better camera for that. I now need to decide what to paint next...

A First Attempt at Photos

I'm not a photographer and this is just to get something going but here is my current American Order of Battle:


This is what I've got painted so far:

First Line, left to right: Lee's Legion Foot, Regular Light Infantry, Riflemen

Second Line, behind the fence: Militia

Third Line, Continentals: New York, Virginia, Maryland

Cavalry: front to back: Lee's Legion with a contingent of 4th Continental Dragoons, with 3rd Continental Dragoons behind.

Hill: a contingent of French Royal Deux-Ponts guard the artillery on the hill.

Some details:

1st New York Continentals prepare to deliver a volley!

The militia wait to deliver their first volley as the Maryland Continentals stand in support.

And steel themselves for the approaching bayonets!

On the flank, Lee's Legion move aggressively forward while the 3rd Dragoons and French observe.

So there we are. First photos I've taken of wargames figures since I went on a Wargames Holiday at Peter Gilder's more years ago than I care to remember! I probably should have waited for natural light as some are taken with and some without the flash. Mayb I'll redo then at the weekend if my wife hasn't made me pack them away or the cat attacked them!

A few British to follow but it is a few as the other guys I started this with were doing the Soldiers of the KIng.