15mm Essex (and Minifigs) French and Indian War - The French - Pt 1

The "Montcalm"       Like the British, the bulk of these were painted some 20 odd years ago - soon after they were released. There's a few exceptions that I'll point out along the way.

I don't think I got Osprey's Montcalm's Army until later so for much of these, I used the paint guides in Habitats & Highlanders (H&H).

A beastly big Ligne Regiment - Regiment de Royal Roussillon. With The Sword and the Flame as my rules, these units could hit hard and stick through a relatively long fight. Like all of these, I could easily split the unit in twain having a duplicate set of command.

It may already be evident that I didn't terrain these armies the same way - nor are individual units based the same. I wanted them to appear on the most likely terrain upon which they would find themselves so the line units got grassy open fields. More variants on that theme ahead.

Select figures from the Regiment de Royal Roussillon

Oh yes, I'll do eyes but not the fleurs de lis - even that was beyond my ability then - Now of course, I would make a more valiant attempt to do them.

Another monstrous Ligne Regiment Languedoc - this time in Summer attire - meaning in just the under coat without the heavy pearl outer coat.

Again it is splittable into two smaller units. Basing: grassy. I almost exclusively painted the landscape in these days. I wasn't happy with or skilled enough to use Turf and I dont think I discovered static grass until later.

H&H says brown and burgandy in the cantons though I see references to blue and brown in other sources. Again - no internet when I started this project.

Like the Brits, I added a fair amount of 5 o'clock shadow on various figures. I like the grizzled campaigner look.

This unit was done fairly late in the process so they look pretty solid relative to other units in the force.

One or  Two Compagnie(s) des Franches. I see there are colors for them but the command pack didn't have any standard bearers.

Clear evidence of being gaming miniatures, glossy bits, wear and tear on the bases. Black primed, no pre-washing of the minis.

I like these sculpts a lot.

The French Artillery - an even match against that of the Brits: a single gun, six crew, no limber.

On to the irregular forces: Surprisingly few Indians relative to the French Line - I've since bought many more that remain unpainted. I will probably not base many individually but in various sized washers since they don't ever need to rank up. Officers here are the Coureurs de Bois since there was no Indian "Command" from Essex. In a pinch I can strip out the 8 french from each unit and use the two Firing Indians as leaders for each unit.

Two distinguish one band from the other I attempted to do an Autumn forest litter scheme on one with paint. It's basically right but better when I got to the Mission Indians.

The coonskin and the skunk skin hats are the highest ranking officers for these units. Gotta get creative when they don't have suitable officer figs. Of the French, these are the first I ever painted - at the same time as Roger's Rangers as I recall it.

On the completion scale this unit of Minifigs Canadian Militia were the last unit painted from both armies. Very colorful unit - reminds me of a Summer salad, lovely greens and grays, with bright red caps. Like everything else, neatly divisible by two.

I think I will continue to paint the landscaping on the remainder of these armies rather than flock the bases. It takes a bit longer but I think it looks especially good here.

Yet one more angle because I like the look of them. The Minifigs FIW stuff is pretty good - I have British Lights and a lot more Indians from them to augment all the Essex stuff.

Here's the Essex Canadian Militia in Assorted Dress if I have it right. I liked a more uniform appearance back then - I probaly would mix it up more I guess these days. many more wonderful reference materials around now though.

Minimalist and random landscaping. I glue down railroad ballast of some kind and wherever it piled up after drying and dry-brushing, gets painted as clumpy grass.

Officer and rankers detail

Too dark on the 5 o'clock shadow but still ok.

The Mission Indians - historically the weakest links in this French force.

Still they are interesting figures, European command. Note the Fall foliage bases.

I like to have a shot with perspective - look at how small these guys are relative to the paints!

In sum:
Two huge line units
Two tiny Franches units
One field piece and crew
Two to three Canadian Militia units
Two medium Indian units
Two terrible militia units
That's just under 200 figures and a gun on the French side - plenty from which to draw units from for Muskets & Tomahawks. They definitely need more Indians though for bigger games.

Well, thanks for looking - Questions, comments and new followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm burnt out on actually painting at the moment but blogging is still a hoot. Much more to come both new and old.

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).