Saturday, January 4, 2014

From PeterD: 28mm War of 1812 American Infantry (40 points)


Peter continues with his War of 1812 project by completing this fine battalion of American infantry.

From Peter:
Eight of this 24 man unit make up my second submission.  These are the US 16th Infantry Regiment from the War of 1812 in 28mm.  The original 16 men I painted much earlier this year are Perry plastics and the 8 men I painted this week are Victrix plastics.  
These figures are based on a plate in the Osprey on the American War,  The US Army had difficulty obtaining blue cloth for its units, due in part to the trade embargoes that led to the war in the first place.  Many units made due with other colours, including the 16th who had black tunics with red facings and white lace.  Since officers bought their own uniforms they typically had the regulation blue faced red (although one expects as a premium price).  

My original plan was to put the Victrix figures on two separate bases and leave the 16 Perry-men as they were.  However, the two figure manufacturers have very different interpretations of the packs issued to British infantry.  The Perry figures have a shorter squatter pack while the Victrix packs are tall and skinnier.  Worse still, I took the blanket rolls off of my Perry figures (since the US didn't typically store their blankets on top) but left them on the Victrix figures.  I course noticed this right after I finished painting them in black tunics…
I  decided that a miss-match of equipment was likely in 1813 and that using captured Brit kit to supplement was done as required.  But it looked better to blend the Victrix into the Perry masse rather than have them send out on their own.  The two makes fit together well.  Once they were based I was telling them apart by their base shapes (Victrix's are square and Perry's round) or their packs.  Given equipment and uniform issues, I gave the lot of them different coloured trousers.  My Trojan Green's faces didn't show the level of detail that I like so I gave these guys an extra wash of Raw Umber to bring the details out more (I hope).
Anyway the 16th fought in many of the key actions in the Niagara, Lake Ontario and Montreal campaigns.  Elements who present at York, Stoney Creek, Crysler's farm and Cook's Mills.
Great work Peter. I found the Victrix French plastics to be very nice but a bit fiddly to assemble whereas the Perry models seem a bit more straighforward (if less open to options). I'm quite looking forward to having a game with these and I expect your British will find good allies amongst my Penninsular War lads in future tabletop adventures.

These 8 figures will give Peter 40 points. Good job!

15 comments:

  1. Thanks Curt
    I agree that the Perry's are more straight forward to construct and I prefer the sculpting better. However, I also agree that Victrix gives more pose options. My red coats look forward to Iberian operations.
    Cheers
    PD

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    1. Yes, campaigning in Spain looks pretty good right now, especially in light of this f*cking weather we've been suffering through.

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  2. Nice work Peter and probably a good idea to mix the figures. It's less noticeable and in reality some men are tall and thin and some are short and stocky.

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    1. Thanks Anne - and yes I am a big believer that we are all different shapes and sizes and our units should be too.

      Cheers
      PD

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  3. Thanks James, Greg and Tamsin

    Cheers
    PD

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  4. They look good, and have really come together as a unit, well done.

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  5. These are nice and well worth the effort to rebase and mingle
    Ian

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  6. Thanks all
    Cheers and stay warm (the windchill's at -50C in Regina right now)
    PD

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  7. Very nice painting, I wouldn't have guessed the manufacturers.

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  8. Very nice painting. Always nice to see figures for the 1812 war.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)