15mm Essex French and Indian War - British Army - Part 1

Muskets & Tomahawks (M&T) have really given FIW gaming a lift since their release. This is one of the first periods I completed early on - by that I mean gameable sized forces painted for both sides. It was my first "serious" endeavor along with the ACW where I was only tasked with painting the Confederates. I think I was in my early twenties when I started and finished most of these - that puts them back in the late 80's early 90's when they were all done.

These were actually gaming miniatures too and saw a fair amount of action. (Today, I prepare to game but rarely do.) I didn't pre-wash them but they were primed. and there is much finger grease on many of them from handling over the years. Here is the CiC "Wolfe" of the British side.

First up - the Regular British forces. I had just a couple of Ospreys for reference at this time - no internet in those days - and it seemed that Essex sculpted right off the plates as most regiments they did had a plate in the Osprey. Lucky me! This is the 60th Royal Americans as Ray so correctly points out.We used a variant of Sword & the Flame basing whatever came in the pack - I didn't have leftovers in those days and if I had 'em, they were painted up with the rest. Most unit weren't identically sized anyway so you'll see lots of variation in this set of pics and for the French as well)

Here are the detached Grenadiers for the above Line Regiment.

It was above my pay scale to do the horse and Latin writing at the base of the bearskin - ergo the blank spot.

55th Foot - There's two sets of command in here so I could split it for M&T.

55th Foot - this regiment was a beast on the table as I recall it. Many of the French units are smaller and under Sword & the Flame this spat out a lot of fire power for a single red card.

If they bother to sculpt the eyes I'll bother to paint them - I've always had the wherewithal to do it but luckily Essex is one of the few companies to do it in 15mm.

Very dull and un-inspriational sculpts for the officers - the unit is at near high port so I guess it's ok. 5 o'clock shadow on may of these figs - I've always liked that simple touch to give it a little something extra.

Feet face front or face face front? One of each to give the illusion of different sculpts.

The Colours - hand painted and very considerate of the sculptor to fan it out nice like this. Unfortunately, this one man takes up two slots in the line.

The sole field piece and crew from the Royal Artillery - no limber.

Some of this stuff came right from the 7 Years War line though I wonder if some of this isn't in production any more?

Next up - the Lights! This unit of Roger's Rangers was the first of all the FIW stuff - first started, first completed.

The "Command" are the two in brown instead of the green - hard to tell.

Light Infantryman, 1759. All of these figures use 1/2" x 1/2" steel bases from Wargames Accessories yet one of the sculpts (of the three) didn't fit properly so I did them diagonally thinking they wouldn't rank up anyway being lights. I'd put them on circles today or carve off the extra bit of base so that they could face forward with a clean frontage.

The "Command" are the three odd figs with muskets in one had - a twist of the head, bend of the elbow, La! three different officer figs.

80th Regiment of Light Armed Foot (Gage's Light Infantry) per Osprey.

As above - I'll just repeat it here: The "Command" are the three odd figs with muskets in one had - a twist of the head, bend of the elbow, La! three different officer figs.

 

Next up - the State militias. This one is uniformed as the 2nd Connecticut.

The Command - another man to take up two slots with a challenging flag to boot! This is the well known Join or Die motif.

Reds and yellows - 2 difficult colors over black - I think I just had Polly S in these days. Maybe some Armoury or Ral Partha. I don't recall specifically having trouble on these but they are pretty flat compared to what I'd do today. Pretty sure that's Demon Deep Red in there as a base coat.

The Virginia Regiment and a mounted officer to command the three militia units.

These are comprised of two packs of: SYBR19 Seven Years War British in Canada: Militia in Uniforms and half a set of militia command.

I clearly surrendered on doing a flag for this unit. It's a beautifully embroidered design, intricate, complicated, multi-colored and neatly tucked under the folds. In all likelihood, it was nothing a Virginian would recognize.

Nothing like a railroad scenic stump to add interest to a base.

The third of the militia units - barely got a decent picture of them but there you go.

Random shot of the "portrait studio" so you can get perspective on the size of these guys - they are closer to true 15's - bulky yes but not tall.

Round up:
1 General
2 big Line Units  -I can add the Grenadiers back in if needed.
1 Field Piece and crew
3 Light Infantry Units
1 Militia Brigadier and
3 Militia Units
All told about a 170 figures and a gun.

Since all this was painted up I've acquired a lot more - not least of which are the Highlanders as well as frontier folk, and several Indian bands from Minifigs too to flesh out the poses a bit. So while it's a gameable side this is probably two thirds of it (the Highlander units are HUGE).