From PeterD: SYW Wrap Up Hessian Garrison Battalion (42 points)

Full Regiment, but only eight were painted this challenge.

Wow, last post of the Challenge!  I have several projects on the go, but with minor issues to be worked to on all of them I went with finishing these guys off to get a final post in before it's all over.  I could knock myself out to finish some others, but I've found that I work much if I keep things in balance.  They'll get done later this spring when I work out basing for my mounted dragoons, get the right colours on my dismounted dragoons breeches and fix my kitbashing of a house!

I'm wondering what book the officer is reading.

I have completed 8 members of the Hessian Garisson Regiment Kutzleben (as it was known in 1760) for my SYW project.  Some challengers might remember that I painted up 13 of these guys back in 2017 and I thought I'd add a couple of stands to bring it up to a better strength.  They also have a command stand with officer, standard bearers and drummer.

Figures are from the Perry AWI range, Hessians and command at rest.  The sculpts have lovely poses with a definite Sears Catalogue menswear feel to them and I've used them for a few projects along the way.  I had none of the big flash issues that others complain about with Perry figures, but having started on Airfix soft plastics my tolerance level is probably higher than some.  I do wish that the faces had a bit more definition to them however.  Purists could come up with differences between AWI and SYW uniforms, but for Hessians they are pretty minor plus the Perry AWI range is gorgeous.

Flags are home creations, pictures downloaded off Kronoskaf, resized and then printed at home.

This unit was raised as a Militia battalion, then became a Garisson regiment in 1760 and by wars end had become a full time regular unit.  Originally these battalions were raised to allow the regular units to go off and fight for their British paymaster, but with the French over running Hesse-Cassel several times they got pulled into the fighting themselves.   

I love the drummer getting some fife practice in during down time.

My SYW project started as a Sharp Practice Affair 2-3 yers ago as a way to do some SYW uniforms without going full in.  However, I found that I really enjoyed the Lace Wars period and it kept expanding to the point where it out grew SP and got converted to a Black Powder or Honours of War project.  This unit started as two groups of militia for supports, but has now been beefed up to count as a small unit of 20 in BP or HoW terms compared to my 24 man regular sized units.

My biggest challenge in doing the extra men was matching the blue, which is pretty vibrant on the original figures.  I found the right match (Grumbacher Ultramarine) and in my defence it's not too far off some illustrations I've seen, mostly it's the blue pants and waistcoat that add to uber blau effect.  Actually the uniform has a firm revolutionary or early Empire French Leger feel to it.  Of course having matched the blue, I was a bit off on the basing colours but not too far that I'm bother to rebase them.

The new stands are in the middle and the ground work is just bit off the colour of the older figures.

I've gotten some favourable comments on basing before so I'd thought I'd share my recipe, which is as follows.

• Glue your figs to your base of choice (I've used the plastic bases that come in Perry kits because I'm cheap)
• Take a good sized glob of Liquitex raw Sienna and add a heading spoonful of Liquitex Matte Gel medium
• Mix these together with a shake of fine ballast
• Apply the resulting gloppity glop (Lorax reference) on the topside of the bases, attempting to smooth the transition from flat base to raised figure base and leaving lots of lumps about.  Paint the edges of the bases in raw sienna without the ballast etc to give smooth edges.
• Once dry (this takes a while) give it a heavy wash with Liquitex raw umber (I worked this out while working on Italian Wars and figured I'd use colours based on actual Italian mud).
• Go back and touch up boots, hoofs and gaiter as required, although mud splatters look good too.
• Add stones to flavour - I use a mix of sand, fine ballast and chunky kitty litter.  Add tufts (I use army painter because I'm cheap and lazy and they can be had locally) to cover up the worst flaws.

I've really enjoyed this year's challenge - great work everyone.  Can't wait til next year.

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Great work Peter! It's been a pleasure watching you develop this project over the past few years and I look forward to when we game it next.

- Curt