Filthy, revolting Americans...and their law abiding neighbours

I never seem to play enough games using my American War of Independence collection, but that's never an impediment to accumulating more units. The 'filthy, revolting Americans' in question, are the rather excellent range of Ragged Continental figures from Eureka Miniatures. I acquired these last year and now they are finished.

As usual they have been put together with the Sharp Practice rules in mind. So, this has given me three groups of eight, plus an officer, an NCO, drummer and ensign.

From what I understand, the uniform items that were rarely replaced were breeches and small clothes, so I've tried to reflect that in the figures by adding some variety in colours, presuming the men had used civilian clothing as a substitute.

I've also assumed the officers and NCOs were similarly attired. 

I like the way the Eureka sets include different hats, or in some cases, no hats at all.

While their attire might not pass inspection on the parade ground, these represent hardened campaigners. The sort of men who fought at Cowpens and were not afraid to go face to face with British regulars. In Sharp Practice terms this gives me an additional three groups with leaders to add to my force of Continentals.

They will join my rather better attired Continentals, in this case from the Perry plastic figure set.

Their law abiding neighbours are, of course, Loyalists and in this case these are represented by the Queens Rangers. I've wanted to create a Loyalist force for my Sharp Practice games for some time and the Queens Rangers are one of the first units that spring to mind. Not least because Perry Miniatures have some very fine figures in their range. 

Initially, I bought a dozen of their riflemen with the intention of using them as Loyalist skirmishers. They were lovely figurers to paint and I was very happy with them.

However, as I've learned to discover with this period, things are rarely quite as simple as they seem, particularly when it comes to finding accurate depictions of uniforms. It turns out these riflemen were a good case in point.

Brendan Morrissey very helpfully took time to highlight some of the issues - "the starting point for confusion over the Queens Rangers is the painter Charles Lefferts, who mis-identified them as the same unit that was raised in the 1790s in Canada; this latter unit WAS entirely rifle-armed and many, many authors (and figure manufacturers) have followed this error since the Bicentennial in 1976, including Mollo/McGregor".

I have the Mollo/McGregor book and have found it a font of information, but they too have relied on work by contemporary and later painters for their sources, with the inevitable inaccuracies creeping in.

It seems no matter where you look you will find conflicting descriptions.

Having said all that, the Queens Rangers did indeed have riflemen, but only one detachment, with somewhere between 12-16 men. Good to know my efforts were not entirely wasted and I'm glad I hadn't bought too many of those figures, as I can pretty much do the detachment at a figure ratio of 1:1.

The Queens Rangers were raised early on in the war as a straightforward infantry battalion, with the usual two flank companies (grenadiers and lights) and eight centre companies. At this time, the whole battalion seems to have worn the same hat as the regulars. I used inspiration from various sources to create a fairly generic loyalist unit using the plastic Perry AWI sets with the uniform loosely based on the New York Regiment. As it happens these would pass as Queens Rangers centre company men, but only in 1780 (it seems there's always a 'but' when it comes to AWI uniforms) .

So, if I want a degree of accuracy and use the Perry figures, my unit needs to cover the period 1780 onwards, when the distinctive leather caps were issued. It looks like the centre companies and light companies will look similar in appearance and only the grenadiers and highland companies will have a more distinctive uniform.

With that I have put together four groups of eight figures that can serve as either centre or light company men. These are all from the Perry metal range.

 As the figures are to be used for Sharp Practice there are also the leaders and a trumpeter.

I have also added two groups of Grenadiers with an NCO as a leader figure, once again all from the Perrys.

That gives me options to field light infantry, skirmishers, centre company and grenadiers, or any combination of those.

The next mission is to get these on the table in 2026 with more frequency than I managed in 2025. Let's see how we go. Naturally, that's not necessarily the end of the force - there are highlanders, cavalry and artillery that could be added.....

More 20mm, means more Second World War

I found January a very productive period for a number of different projects, not least of which was more 20mm for the Second World War. I painted quite a few figures and, to give myself a change of scene, I made up a few plastic kits that had been sitting in the stash. Among those was a Marder III Ausf M from UM and a Jagpanther from Revell. The latter a bargain I couldn't resist at a Bring & Buy.

I have a few kits from UM and they can be fiddly at times, but no matter how frustrating, I'm always happy with the end result. The Marder III is no different and a crew from AB Figures sets it off nicely.

The Plastic Soldier Company Pz38t set allows you to also build two earlier versions of the Marder, but not the later Ausf M. It's noticeably different, because it involved a major redesign that saw the engine relocated to the middle of the vehicle, thereby allowing a proper sunken cab to house the crew and give them better protection. Here's the UM Marder next to the PSC version of the Marder III Ausf H (also with a crew from AB).

Here you can see clearly how the earlier Ausf H retains the original chassis of the Pz38t and simply replaces the turret with the new gun mounting and shield. Not the most secure of positions for the crew to work from if under fire.

Revell have always made good 1/72 kits and while the Jagdpanther is hardly a new kit, it produces a very fine finished model. Once again, I've added a crew figure from AB.

The kit came moulded in black plastic, a strange choice for a number of reasons but not least because it's an awful colour to work with. As with the UM kits, this becomes irrelevant once it's all come together and has paint on it.

I was able to fill out the US Marine force with figures and weapons teams that aren't covered in the Eureka range (which make up the bulk of my Marine squads).

To fill those gaps I've acquired figures from a couple of other ranges sold through Grubby Tanks - Britannia Miniatures and Kellys Heroes. This can occasionally be fraught with danger, as not all ranges work to similar sizes or sculpting styles, but I'm reasonably happy with how this has worked out. 

One of the issues with the Grubby Tanks website is that many of the ranges have no pictures of the figures. This was unfortunate because I placed an order for 50cal MG teams from the Britannia range and what I actually received were M1917 water cooled MGs. While they certainly look the part for a sustained fire MG role, they are not the heavy calibre of the 50cal, but they will have to suffice for now. Using the dedicated loader figures and a couple of others, I can make up a five man team.

If I have an issue with the Britannia Miniautres figures, it's to wonder why they've been sculpted with backpacks? I would imagine the operators would most likely have removed these in order to operate the weapons more efficiently. It's not a big issue, but it does seem a bit odd.

Originally, when I was ordering the initial batch of figures from Eureka, I didn't look too closely and made the quick, but incorrect, assumption that their mortar teams must be 60mm mortars. They are in fact 81mm M1 mortars. 

The lack of M2 60mm mortars has been addressed by using sets from Britannia Miniatures. The difference in size of the 60mm mortars from the Eureka 81mm mortars is a stark reminder that I should pay more attention when ordering figures.

I added a couple more bazooka teams, one from Britannia Miniatures (on the left), the other from Kellys Heroes (on the right). Once again, the Britannia figures are fully encumbered with backpacks, while the Kellys figures look more casually dressed and more fitting to a combat role.

A couple of figures with satchel charges will always come in useful. One from Kellys Heroes and another from Britannia Miniatures (I don't think I need to tell you which is which!).

Frankly, it's hard to imagine that someone wanting to move as quickly as possible to undertake a quite hazardous task would want to be weighed down with all that kit on their back. The Kellys Heroes figure (on the right), seems more appropriately dressed for the occasion.

To complement the men with satchel charges, I have added a few other figures carrying out engineering tasks. These are all from Kellys Heroes and include teams clearing minefields and barbed wire.  

One other specialist is a sniper figure. While 'sharpshooter' was a qualification attained for marksmanship, the actual role we might consider of a more traditional sniper was different and was sometimes referred to as a 'scout-sniper' or simply 'sniper'. It goes without saying that most snipers also held the sharpshooter qualification. To help differentiate the figure, I've painted this one in full camouflage, not just the helmet cover.

While the bazooka didn't make an appearance in the Pacific campaign until 1944, the 37mm anti-tank gun, which had become obsolete in other theatres, gave service throughout the war. It remained capable of knocking out most Japanese tanks and fired a very deadly canister round against infantry. The gun below is from an s-models set of jeeps. The crew are mainly Kellys Heroes, with one Eureka figure thrown in to make up the numbers. One nice feature of some of those Kellys Heroes figures is that they are wearing t-shirts which adds a nice mix to the appearance of the crew.

The only figures remaining to paint from this recent addition are crews for the LVTs. These are from the Britannia range and come with the figures standing on a pile of ammunition crates. While this brings them to the height they need to be to operate the MGs, they are a little too high for these particular LVT models. That involves trimming off some of those crates - in short taking a hacksaw and cutting through a chunk of metal. For that I need a vice, something I don't have, so that will need addressing in due course. Just when you think you're finished, you're not.