From HarryV 28mm AWI Riflemen, Militia, and Hessians (150 pts)

 Hi all, something slightly different from me this week. But don't worry, there will be more Carthage coming next week!

For this entry I have 

12 American Riflemen 60 pts (Brigade games)

2 Riflemen Officers 10 pts (Brigade games)

6 Hessians  30 pts (Brigade games)

10 American Militia 50 pts (Brigade games + Black Hussar Miniatures) 

For a total of 150 points. 

 Sorry no nice background today, and the work desk is horrendously messy, so the window with natural light if going to have to do for pictures today. 

The American War of Independence/ American Revolution is probably the area of US history that holds the most interest for me overall. And in particular the years of '75-'78. 

My main goal is to do a slow grow for the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington (long live the Green Mountain Boys!), which are my particular fascination, but the battle of Long Island also holds a big interest for me, along with the other battles of '76. 

Now the danger with the slow grow is that the grow is too slow and the forces fails to grow at all, while being a distraction of time and capital from other projects. However, I am pretty committed to this, and my goal is to only order new elements once all the previous troops or terrain have been completed. 

First unit completed are 6 Hessian (or Brunswick for the Saratoga campaign of '77) Jaegers with "Amusettes" from Brigade Games. I mainly did these troops up as they were sitting in the stockpile for some reason (no idea what possessed me to buy these a few years ago) while I await the arrival of the main crown forces in the post. The Amusettes are somewhere between a large rifle and a small cannon, weighting in at around 50lbs. No idea how these will be used on the tabletop or what rules to use for these, or even how they will be deployed. But they were decent painting practice for the rifle armed Jaegers arriving in coming order. 

Next the riflemen - all from Brigade Games

Here we have a rifleman officer, probably my favorite figure from this batch that I painted. This fellow would be one of Daniel Morgan's troopers, drawn from the backwoods and frontierlands of Maryland, Virginia, or Pennsylvania. I loved the elaborate linen hunting shirt on this figure - obviously the more fringe the higher the rank among the rifle corps. 

This gentleman would be a Level I leader in "Sharp Practice", is perhaps a Captain, and would lead a company of riflemen. 

The officer's 6 riflemen. I color coded his command with the yellow flower tufts. My goal is to perhaps use an adaption of "Sharp Practice" for this force, but also in my mind is adapting Simon Miller's "For King and Parliament" or his new up coming "Lust for Glory" ruleset

A second rifleman officer. 

My original intent with these was to base them in a more forest floor like environment but I couldn't quite pull it off, so I just reverted to your classic field type terrain. I do want to try again with some forest floor basing on some of my coming units. 

This force was color coded with each other and the officer with the white flower tufts. 

Last, but not least, my militia force, from Black Hussar Miniatures and Brigade Games

Now there are 20 of these based up here, but only 10 were painted during this challenge. The other 10 I had painted a number of years ago. Originally I had bought these to serve as New Hampshire provincials during the French Indian War battles around Ticonderoga/Fort Carillon, who lacked uniforms during that conflict. However, painting French white uniforms at that time mentally broke me and I abandoned the project.  

They were initially singly based but I have based them up into these mass bases. I was going to paint a commander to go with these, but realized I lacked a figure currently of significant enough gravitas to serve as a colonel of militia. 

My idea for this project is that each base is a  unit from "Sharp Practice" and in real life terms would be a company. 

The officer bases would mainly represent  Colonels or Majors, with the officer level represented by the number of figures on the command base.

 Most of the actions that I am interested in do not have enough battalions for a "big battle game", but have too many troops from skirmish. 

Anyways, if you are looking for some inspiration, I loved this YouTube documentary which I watched while painting these up:

What a great selection of AWI types Harry.  I really like those Jaegers with their Amussettes.  I remember that WRG has a very light gun category to cover these, plus swivel guns and Indian jingals.  Some really fine detailed work on those 'Murcan riflemen too.  I have spent time In New York and Vermont around Lake Placid and Lake Champlain and I understand your interest in the Saratoga campaign.  Great work all around.