Roll Out the Barrel's

The first sort of 'straight' Government unit rolls (slowly) off the production line. Barrel's (4th) Regiment of Foot. A perennial favourite of wargamers, they famously suffered the heaviest casualties of any Government unit at Culloden. As usual, figures and flags from Flags of War.

Disappointingly, a varnishing incident has resulted in frosting on the left side of the flags, but I think I can rescue that. 

The one point to note is that the cuff lace on the FoW figures is the 'gate' type, whereas Barrel's wore a sort of spine and feathers arrangement. A certain type of wargamer would have filed the lace off and painted in the correct style. Clearly I am not that type of wargamer.

The full unit arrayed. For Sharp Practice, 3-4 groups of 8 (if regular infantry) are commonly grouped together under a single leader, or leader and sub-officer/sergeant. Adding a command base allows me to field a 'regiment' for differently scaled rules. 

What's this 'column' thingy then?

Hat company rear.

 

1745 Dragoons & Artillery

I'm still working my way through the first unit (12 figures) of 'kilties' for the 1745, and I get the feeling I may be overdoing it a bit. I mean, who does highlights on the sock garters? 

But in the meantime, I have added a few other units. Oh, and decided that I couldn;t resist adding a couple more groups to the Shatp Practice forces. So an order to Flags of War, and I now have some North British Fusiliers, and some Irish Piquets to add to the forces arrayed. 

And this post was started ths morning, so by now... I did manage to finish a couple of things... 

Then there's these...

Close ups are very unforgiving...  I do need to fix Cumberland's face. And the drgoon standard bearer has been fixed since this picture was taken.

So the planned small forces will be: 

So far, 3/10 groups done for the Jacobites, 2/10 for the Hanoverians. Still a way to go... Right. Off to airbrush the base red for Lally and Scots Fusiliers. And another half-dozen 1/56 French tanks. 

1745 - A lengthy discourse or procrastination?

I've been planning the 1745 Project for some time. In fact, looking back at things, I first pledged to the Flags of War Kickstarter for figures back in 2018. Needless to say - this is not the oldest project \I have going, but it is one of the oldest since I moved continent in 2016. 

To date, there have now been three Kickstarter 'Waves' from Flags of War, and I have bought into each, so now, with the exception of the Irish Piquets,  (which I am now kicking myself I didn't get..) I now have a little of pretty much everything - 

I've actually had a long term hankering for a 1745 campaign or armies or battles. I suppose; having grown up with hugely conflicting and sometimes romanticised versions of the myth, having walked Culloden Moor in the rain, and learning to sing 'Hey Johnnie Cope' as a small child, it's inevitable that like most Scots, I would have some impression of the whole thing. I remember illustrations of how the Scot was depicted in contemporary or near contemporary prints and papers.   

'Sawney on the Bog House' att: James Gillray, (Wikipedia)

Untangling the myth from facts was immeasurably helped by Stuart Reid's 'Like Hungry Wolves' and '1745, A Military History of the Last Jacobite Rising', some contributions by John Prebble 'Culloden' and more recent publications such as 'The Army of George II 1727-1760' Peter Brown and 'The Lilies & The Thistle' by Andrew Bamford. There are also of course, the Osprey Books on uniforms, clothing and campaigns. With the one thing in common being the illustrations that show inordinate amounts of tartan. There are tartan breeks, tartan waistcoats, tartan coats, jackets, cloaks, hose, plaids, hats - in fact, a wealth of tartan. 

It's not worth re-hashing all the debate about tartans here, most readers will know that much of the tartan myth is a spurious 19th Century concoction at least partly to soothe injured pride in the far-flung Imperial outpost of North Britain. So we know that tartan would not have looked as we now know it. 

What we do have are contemporary or near contemporary illustrations such as the famous painting by David Morier:- 

'Culloden', David Morier via Wikipedia

Not to mention numerous near contemporary portraits of Lairds, Clan Chiefs, and other 'High Heid Yins' of that ilk. Many of them wearing extraordinary, and to the modern eye, ludicrous amounts of tartan.

I'm suspicious of such sources, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, that there was a real tendency to 'other' the Jacobites, and what easier way than to play up their barbarity of dress. It's the equivalent of all those Victorian illustrations of Africans with bones through their noses and grass skirts. Savages, of course. 

Then there was the proscription of the kilt, so gentlemen needing to display their Scottish-ness were depicted in trews, waistcoats and jackets of tartan. Whether this was reflected in their daily dress it is impossible to know.   

In any case, I should really be painting dozens of kilted savages, with claymore and targe, dirk and musket, but instead I am shilly-shallying - and to date have spent more time on Shock Markers than on actual infantry.

Now, whether to do artillery, 10th Dragoons or \Bagot's Hussars next? Anything to defer the savage hordes,

1745 Redcoat Sample Figure

Rather pleased with how this is looking, some further work to be done obviously, with metallic colours, washes and highlights to go. And then a light dusting via the airbrush with a mud spatter, and I reckon they will look the business.

Colours used so far:

White Base - Vallejo Sky Grey 70.989
Boots, hat, scabbards, canteen - Vallejo German Grey 70.995
Facings - Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue 70.899
Flesh Base, Musket Sling, Canteen Strap - Vallejo Red Leather 70.818
Gaiters, hair tieback - Vallejo Basalt Grey 70.869
Hair - Vallejo Flat brown 70.984
Kidskin sack - Vallejo US Field Drab 70.873
Flesh - Vallejo Flat Flesh 70.955
Knapsack - Vallejo Tan Earth 70.874
Musket Wood - Vallejo Mahogany Brown 70.846
Buff Straps - Vallejo Medium Grey 70.987
'5 o'clock' shadow mix of Basalt Grey and Flesh

And now some highlights:

I can see some stuff needing a cleanup, and the airbrushing on this one was too heavy and caused paint bubbling. But it works for me.

White Highlight - Vallejo Ivory 70.918
Blue Highlight - Tamiya Field Blue XF50
Flesh Highlight - Vallejo Basic Skintone 70.812
Musket Highlight - Vallejo Beige Brown 70.875
Gunmetal - Vallejo Gunmetal 70.863
Brass - Vallejo Old Gold 70.878
Black Wash - Citadel Nuln Oil
Brown Wash - Citadel Agrax Earthshade
Flesh Wash - Citadel Reikland Fleshshade

Redcoats and airbrushes

I've previously used an airbrush to paint 15mm Sasanians, with reasonable results, and I thought I would like to try something similar to get some basic effects on the 1745 Hanoverian red coats.

Overall, the effect I was going for was a somewhat dirty red, pretty bedraggled by the elements. After all, key battles in the campaign were over the winter, from September to April, so everybody should be wet, cold and bedraggled. The image that everyone is familiar with, by David Morier:

Was a studio portrait, using nice fresh uniforms. Contemporary sketches by the Penicuik artist, show a very different picture. Looking at the last few sketches on this page:

https://jacobitereenactors.wordpress.com/photos/the-penicuik-drawings/

You can see tricornes flattened out, coattails unbuttoned, and a variety of equipment. With the exception of the flattened tricornes, the Flags of War figures are a nice representation. So these men will be weary and unshaven, uniforms faded and mud spattered.   

First step was an undercoat of spray-can black. I don't buy or use expensive primers, and the usual car spray paints seem to do a good job.

Then the first step, a fairly dense base coat of Tamiya Hull Red, which is actually a nice leathery colour.

After the first spray

The Tamiya paint airbrushes beautifully, especially if it is thinnned at about 50/50 with their own thinner Tamiya X20A

Dragoons

At this stage, I am just trying to get  relatively even coat. Varying the paint pressure, distance etc provides some basic contrasts.

Red coats

These have now had an overall light coating of Vallejo Flat Red, then a second top down over-spray, to give a nice feeling of light and shade.  I am going to purchase some Tamiya Red though, for when I do the next batch of redcoats. The Vallejo is a great brush paint, but just doesn't spray as nicely as the Tamiya.

When this is all dry, I am going to go back and add some highlights. I am not quite sure what to use, I am tempted to use Vallejo Dark Vermillion for the officers, and a lightened Flat Red for the rank and file, to try and get the effect of the better quality cloth for the officers. A few discreet experiments will be required I think.

And while the airbrush kit is out, time to do some of my WW2 Japanese for Chain of Command. The Tamiya Dark Yellow makes a great base colour for Japanese uniforms.