War of 1812: Virginia militia

My plan for 2020, at least initially, is to build up Sharp Practice forces and terrain pieces for a mini-campaign set in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1814. To do this, I'll need to add for the Americans some local militia units from Maryland, Virginia, and perhaps the District of Columbia. For the British, it would be helpful if I were to have some marines and sailors. The last couple of months, I've been slowly amassing the figures for the project and at Fall In! in November, I picked up some American militia figures from Brigade Games. Over the last week, I've finished these up, ready to repel Admiral Cockburn's incursions...

Two groups of Virginia militia in their striking blue and red hunting shirts and one group of rifle-armed skirmishers (and yes, those are purple hunting shirts!).

I'm still waiting for flags to arrive from Flags of War. In this case and because I have little in the way of information on Virginia militia flags in 1814, I chose to use AWI versions of the state flag. SP enthusiasts may also notice that I have the drummer and the standard bearer in the groups, rather than as separate "purchase-able" force supports. Two reasons for this: 1) I'd like to use these as battalions in our Black Powder games and integral flags always look better; 2) I have separate standards in some of my other SP forces but they are rarely (if ever) purchased as force supports.

A group of Virginia rifle-armed skirmishers. These are unique with their purple hunting shirts. I've opted to remove the bayonets, as I do normally with all skirmishers. The first reason for that is practical. Firing figures with bayonets are far too "wide" and the bayonets inevitably break anyway. I also believe that skirmishers would not have bayonets fixed while firing (in fact, troops in formation would not normally either). The image of miniature armies marching across the battlefield with bayonets fixed is a falsely-based one. It was difficult to reload a musket with the bayonet fixed and made the weapon even more unwieldy while firing. Whenever possible, the bayonets would not be fixed, unless the unit was threatened by cavalry or the possibility of fisticuffs of any sort. How long does it take to fix bayonets anyway? But we all like to see shiny bayonets, with our marching troops especially (perfect example is the blue-clad militia above).

Xmas activities: gifts for the offspring

Although not many posts this fall, painting has continued unabated. Most my pre-Xmas months the last few years have been taken up with putting together hobby Xmas gifts for the family. And this year has been no exception. For Captain Dan in the wilds of New Brunswick, I decided to add some non-military pieces to his burgeoning AWI collection. Since he uses exclusively Perry Miniatures for his collection, I decided to order up some civilians and carts to populate the plantation house I whipped up for him a couple of years ago.

Large farm cart from Perry Miniatures. 

I decided to use only the single horse rather than the two supplied to reduce the footprint and avoid and base warpage. The bases of all are unfinished for Captain Dan to match to his collection.

Small farm cart from Perry Miniatures. 

I decided to spruce up the colours and used GW green contrast paint on the wood.

And some rural denizens for the plantation house.

For offspring #1, I chose to put together the start of a Romanian WWII force. While at Fall In! in Pennsylvania earlier this fall, we had picked up a squad pack of Romanians from Great Escape Games. Unfortunately, once home and on my desk, I realized quickly that I couldn't bring myself to paint the figures. First of all, the sculpts were not to my taste at all, somewhat stubby and lacking in character. That could have been overlooked if the casting quality had not been quite horrendous. I struggled through cleaning four or five figures before chucking the lot in a box in disgust. This is the 21st century, yes? Given the casting quality with other manufacturers in the industry, excessive flash and highly-prominent mold lines are ...frankly... unacceptable. Anyway, over to the interwebs and I ordered up some of the beautiful Empress Miniatures Romanians. They arrived forthwith and I was quite pleased. Beautiful sculpts, minimal mold lines, and no flash at all.

One section of Romanian infantry (late war organization mirroring the German model). Also included are an Sd222 armoured car and StugIII in Romanians colours. These were donated to the cause by Vidal, fully assembled and primed, both from (I believe) Warlord Games. Decals are from Company B. I particularly like the blue fenders on the StugIII, as discovered in numerous references.