The Redcoats are coming

Here come the first of the British for the American Revolution, with Sharp Practice skirmishes in mind. There are two key British rosters in the rules, the early war roster made up of five groups of regular, line infantry and one group of light infantry skirmishers (a total of 40 regulars and 6 skirmishers, plus three leaders). The later war roster is made up of two groups of centre company men, two groups of light infantry and one group of light infantry skirmishers, plus their leaders. My plan is to have enough miniatures for either roster.

This first batch are Perry plastics and they make up three groups of regular centre company men. While ensigns and colours are not really part of the game, they do bring a group of figures to life and so I've painted up two ensigns and a drummer to add some colour to the unit. The flags are from Battle Flags and in this instance we have the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers) and the King's Colours.

The miniatures are based on 25mm round MDF, but for ease of movement during games I plan to have them on sabot bases holding four figures each. All the bases are from Warbases. This is the first time I've used sabot bases and the only thing I don't like about them is the thickness of the base itself, given it is in effect double thickness.

The original Warbases sabot base for four figures

So I have used the sanding mode on my trusty Dremel to round off the edges and give them a rougher, more natural look.

I then covered the base with PVA glue being careful not to get it into the actual slots, the glue was then coated with sand. Once dry, they were then sprayed with a grey primer.

They were then flocked just like my normal bases for individual figures.

The one issue with sabot bases is how to handle kill results, as a gaping hole in the base is always guaranteed to spoil an otherwise good effect.  I plan to do three things.  Using 25mm bases I will use dice frames to make markers to show shock. Once a base loses a man as a casualty these shock bases can replace the miniature. I also plan to create casualty figures to also fill these places. The Perry British sets come with two casualty figures and I plan to acquire some of their metal casualties as well. These will be mounted on a 25mm base.

Last, but not least, I will make up some blank 25mm bases with my normal ground terrain and flock. It's all about the detail!

Leaders are rated by number of command level and so in order to remember what these are I've mounted leaders individually and used rocks to record their command level.

Meanwhile on the paint table I have two groups of light infantry and they are mid way through painting. I plan to complete the British first and then get on to the Continentals, but in my spare moments I've been assembling and basing these. Once again they are the Perry plastics.