Monday 14 May 2007

American militia (2)



Although there are plenty of "minutemen" figures available in 25mm, one way of modelling a militia battalion is to throw in a few figures in the same uniform. This then creates a unit that can double-up as a ragged or newly-raised Continental regiment. I have a couple of units that can "swing both ways", as either militia or a state regiment. Foundry make "uniformed militia" packs that are perfect for such use, not least because they don't have bayonets, and these figures are largely a mix of the "uniformed militia marching" and "marching minutemen" packs. The officer, fifer and standard bearer are Perry figures. When painting the faces of these figures I tried to make them look more than a little apprehensive at the thought of marching into battle with seasoned redcoats. The flag marks the men out as a Virginia regiment (the legend says "Virginia for constitutional liberty"). I used blue faced buff for the uniform coats as that scheme is pretty generic and seems to have been fairly common.

16 figures. Painted March 2006. Flag by GMB.

3 comments:

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

I have one or two similarly-formed units. Versatility is a great thing to have in your units when you're trying to field historical orders of battle.

asgard636 said...

A great unit, Giles: What paint do you use or your buff facings?

Giles said...

Asgard, I use the Foundry "buff" palette with a final extra highlight of "buff c" mixed with a little white. Very easy to do. Occasionally I mix thing sup by using those colours over a light brown base and finishing up with a purer white highlight. I have a sergeant whose breeches were painted like that in one of the Maryland regiments I think (not posted yet).

Giles