Monday, March 30, 2020

FIW: Rogers Rangers & British Regulars

Moving quickly from terrain pieces for the French & Indian War, I recently received my first batch of figures from Northstar for the fledgling British force. I'm starting out rather small with some rangers and regulars.


Two skirmish groups of Rogers Rangers from Northstar Miniatures. 
These were a joy to paint, big chunky figures that make the movement of the paint brush along the contours quite easy.


Two groups of British Regulars in campaign dress from Northstar Miniatures.
Although the colours are rather dull, the officer in full uniform stands out in contrast.

Three groups of natives.
12 of these figures are from the War of 1812 collection but can do double duty with the FIW project. Recently, I added six bow-armed figures to increase the numbers.

The entire force: a tidy contingent for the British!




Thursday, March 26, 2020

Frontier Cabin

Having a fair few distressed wooden planks left over from my fort build (link), I decided to try my hand at a frontier cabin. This was partly inspired by various 4Ground offerings but I wanted a something a little more ragged (and I didn't feel like waiting for a delivery) so I dug into my drawers of bits and bobs to throw something together.




The cabin itself has a foam-core ... um... core and is clad with distressed coffee sticks, cut to length. The chimney is carved from blue foam and inscribed with a pencil tip. The roof is clad with Warbases shingles and the entire structure suitably dry-brushed and washed with various colours to give a weathered grey-brown appearance.

The wood shed is, I believe, a Sarissa modern bicycle shed, distressed and weathered (from whence it came, I have no memory). The split logs are simply 1/4" skewers cut to length and "split" with wire cutters to provide the rough cut effect.

The stone well is an old resin piece from who knows where and covered with a balsa cover. The figures are from Front Rank and meant to be used with my War of 1812 collection. For the French & Indian War, I'll need some suitable frontier folk. I'm also considering adding a small vegetable garden and a pig sty.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

War of 1812: Virginia Light Dragoons & militia artillery

Amongst the infantry additions over the last month or so for the Chesapeake campaign, I slipped in two units of American militia artillery. Since the state militia artillery uniforms of various states were, for practical gaming purposes, virtually identical, these could represent artillery from a number of states around the Chesapeake area, including Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. They are rather anachronistic in that they sport the bicorne, set aside earlier by the regular army in favour of shakoes. In a recent order to Wargames Foundry, I slipped in a couple of three pound cannon.

 Once again, I’ve gone with the venerable Old Glory figures. 

As a welcome Xmas gift, Captain Dan whipped up some American militia cavalry for my 1812 collection. Because many (if not all) militia units in the Chesapeake area sported anachronistic uniforms (aka more reminiscent of the American War of Ingratitude), we had to source the figures from the extensive Perry Brothers AWI line. While not a complete match to the requirements for Virginia cavalry, these British AWI cavalry are close. I had relatively little uniform info for this unit besides a couple of plates found online but this wasn’t a real deterrent. One of the advantages of creating a unit like this is that button-counters are usually silent.

Norfolk Light Dragoons
(Perry Miniatures)

Friday, March 20, 2020

Frontier Fort & a new project

Inspired by the wonderful work of Mike at dreispitz.blogspot.com, I decided to try my hand at a new terrain project to complement a new project. Muskets & Tomahawks II has recently been published by NorthStar and a look at the gorgeous figures associated with the release made me take the step into the French & Indian War. So onto another slippery slope...

I've been wanting for some time to build a small stockaded fort for my War of 1812 collection and thought that with new FIW figures winging their way to me through the ether, I'd spend the time waiting by starting on a frontier fort that could be used for the War of 1812 or FIW.


I decided first to try out a test piece based on the version in dreispitz.blogspot.com. The core of the wall section is blue foam mounted on 3mm mdf. The boards are wooden stir sticks, suitably distressed by rough sandpaper and "inaccurate" cutting. I wanted the wooden walls to look as rough cuts so "measure twice, cut once" was replaced with "roughly measure once, roughly cut once."



Satisfied with the test piece, I moved on to try out some corner pieces. Built the same way as the straight piece, I decided to raise the level slightly to provide a bit of  variety in the overall design.



Mid-build, I decided to throw the fort (as it was) out on a table to take a look at it with my existing gabion fortifications (these are from the now defunct Architects Of War). I also put out my Old Glory blockhouse to see how the different elements might fit together. This was also a practical break from the tedious work of cutting and sanding a seemingly unending series of wooden planks.



After much Youtubing, sanding and distressing, I had all the current* pieces together and ready for colouring. All were primed black before grey and white dry-brushing. Over this initial drybrush went a coat of GW Agrax Earthshade, mixed with a bit of GW Contrast SnakeBite Leather. This provided a lovely wood tone. But since wood is rarely brown after any time exposed to the elements, several more layers of greys and tans were dry-brushed on top. I also added a light greenish wash to the lower areas and between some boards to simulate organic growth.

*I say "current" because there is always room for expansion :)

Last step was to finish up the bases in my regular style: wood filler, sand/rocks, dry-brushing, static gras, and tufts. No rocket science here. Et voila!






Another addition from the terrain factory are some new trees. I found some coconut fibre matting (from the local gardening center) and hot-glued this to some spare Woodland Scenics armatures (the coco fibre is a cheap and easily-sourced alternative to rubberized horse-hair). These were then flocked and sealed. The biggest of these trees is approx 9 inches tall! So a nice addition to the collection. Others were made with Woodland Scenics ground foam and placed on multiple-tree bases. Another set mixed in there are some 20+ year old O scale railroad trees that have gone through at least four refurbishments over the years.


And what arrived at my front door yesterday? Northstar British rangers and regulars!