OK, so I've painted all the AWI infantry and mounted officers. Just the artillery to do. I've stuck them all on bases with the following sizes:
- Close Order - 20 x 30mm - 2 ranks of 3
- Loose Order - 20 x 30mm - 2 ranks of 2
- Open Order - 40 x 30mm - 4 per base
Light infantry are based as Loose Order, but when in skirmish order are placed at roughly twice the frontage. Open Order is for troops who only skirmish, such as riflemen, jägers and Native Americans. The following pictures show the different formations.
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2 regiments of Redcoats in Loose Order, Lights skirmishing with Rifles, followed by Continentals and Militia.
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American riflemen in open order. Behind to the right are Continentals in Loose Order and, left, Militia in Close Order.
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British Lights skirmish with the American riflemen.
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British line infantry offering cold steel to the rebels. They don't like it up em! Horse Guards would be horrified - battered and worn hats, cut down coats, stripped of regimentals (the ladies of Savannah pay handsomely for the lace) and such loose files as would give conniptions to a Prussian Feldwebel
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Next step is to texture the bases and add the flags. Now then, I wonder if the riflemen look too bunched up as based. I'd value your thoughts on whether I should thin out the rifles.
For what its worth, I think the riflemen are fine , there's a bit more space around them but not too much, you've got a lovely finish on such small figures too!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Cheers Iain. I’m never quite sure how spaced out skirmishes should be. Slow loading weapons must mean they need to be fairly close I guess.
DeleteThe sculpting makes the job easier because the detail stands out. It does make them chunkier so they occupy more space than is proportionate to the height.
If the riflemen will be "Skirmish Only" then your basing looks good to me too.
ReplyDeletePersonally I have less skirmishers/light infantry on my bases to give a more open and space out feel. I think your riflemen look OK as is. You could try 3 or 2 figures to a base to help you decide, if that's easy to do?
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve. That was my hunch. As ever I over analyse things. I went for 4 as that creates the same number of men per company base in the regulars - head ruling heart but it left a nagging doubt after I glued them down 🤦♂️. But it’s not an insuperable problem.
DeleteI think they look great. Once you get foliage on the base, there will be a lot of obvious space between them in contrast to the other bases - and the effect will work well re. irregular spacing.
ReplyDeleteGreat work.
Merci M. le Duc. I intend to use clump foliage and logs or rocks like I did with my Continuation War figures. Hopefully that will crest more of a sense of space. It works on all the gardening programmes 😄. If it looks too crowded I can easily cut the odd figure off.
DeleteI think they are spaced out just fine, so to speak. Leave them as they are . This is all coming along very nicely indeed and the figures are coming up really well. What are your plans for the bases in terms of greenery , wee pebbles etc?
ReplyDeleteI normally sprinkle the bases with Chinchilla dust (that’s sand, not ground down chinchillas!), paint it dark brown, then have 3 successively lighter highlight shades, before finally sprinkling with flock. For the American theatre I’ll do as I do for my Continuation War figures and use less flock and more small pebbles, twigs and clump foliage. The riflemen will get more of the rocks and bushes on their bases which means they get to move their cover around with them 😆.
DeletePS the full process can be seen on the Baccus painting guide.
DeleteI would base both skirmish and open the same - landscape style rather than portrait, and just differentiate between the two by putting 3 figures on an open base, and 4 figures on a skirmisher base.. but that's just me as I like standard base widths! :o)
ReplyDeleteThat’s a good point Steve. The rules I plan to use work on ‘company bases’ and it doesn’t matter what size base they’re on.
DeleteActually, from a pragmatic point of view, I probably didn’t have enough 20x30s to accommodate all the riflemen. I have plenty of 40x30s leftover from my ECW foot.