American War of Independence - Will McNally's rules - 2nd Canadian Regiment at Brandywine, 1777

With another rainy day I managed another quick unit finished. The 2nd Canadian Regiment was one of the best units General Washington had at Brandywine. They were one of the few units who stood firm while the Continental line at Birmingham Hill evaporated, including De Borre brigade to which the Canadians belonged.

Because of this bravery I modelled them with charging positions using Airfix, Revell and Italeri figures.

As most of the figures have one foot in the air I glued it with  hot glue to the stand making the figures more solidly fixed to the base.



American War of Independence - Will Mcnally's rules - 24 hour units(sort of British Minutemen quickly arriving at the shelves)

                        

These two British regiments - the 37th and 46th line regiments - are probably my fastest build ever. I started to glue heads and drilling the hands of the colour bearers yesterday around mid afternoon and finished everything today around dinner time.

 

 

What is necessary for this fast built and paint:

 

- A very cloudy easter day;

 

- The kid on a friend's house;

 

- Wife entertaining herself while making home made soap;

 

- Lunch and dinner magically on the table, well, like everyday.

 

(they are not really finished, as you can see from the wet paste I use as foliage and non existant final varnish spray, but of course no one needs to know that, right?)

                           

                                

The only changes in the figures are the fur bonnets from the Airfix grenadiers on the Revell sapper and  drummer.

 

The two regiments have yellow facings which also speeded up painting. Once again these are the Austrian Revell 7YW figures. They make nice British for AWI in a classic pose contrasting with the Revell figures for the conflict which have a more dynamic look.

 

 

American war of Independence- Will McNally's rules- 4th VirginiaBrigade at Brandywine 1777.

The Virginian uniforms for the AWI are not the most well documented. Sometimes this lack of information is good as you are allowed a broader range of paints for your units. After some research the most logical option would be blue uniforms with red facings. Instead, I used mostly grey, with green facings for the 4th Virginia and red for the 8th Virginia regiment. Some figures use the hunting shirt while others use a blue surcoat for some 'american' colour.

I also painted some more Brigade and Division (with extra ADC on foot) commanders for both sides. You can also recognize the Austrian and Prussian Revell officer figures as well as the drivers of the Austrian artillery train here promoted to the rank of General. Not bad as a career!!

American war of Independence- Will McNally's rules- British LightInfantry

For the Brandywine battle the British light infantry is seen apparently sporting some closed jackets with short tails. From illustrations of the time, 1777 seems to be the year from which the tricorne was also transformed into slouch hats with a pinned side and feather in true jäger style.


No such figures in plastic exist so some more transformations were necessary.


The basic models came from the old Esci Napoleonic British infantry. The figures were scalped from the shako up and a hat from the Revell AWI americans was glued. The feather was a bit enlarged with GreenStuff and after a proper paint job (necessary to hide small flaws) they are ready to help Cornwallys win the Birmingham heights.

American War of Independence - Will McNally's rules - 3rd VirginiaBrigade at Brandywine, 1777

Stephen's division formed the first line at Birmingham hill when this all Virginian division rushed there to stop Cornwally's flanking manoeuvre.

Top: 11th and 15th regiments. 

Bottom: 3rd and 7th Virginia regiments. 

They are mostly the usual Revell and Airfix with some changes. The 11th regiment are those bold middle age guys and other with raccoon head dress from Revell wearing hunting shirts. All of them received hats and tricornes and are ready to face the British light infantry which are next in this blog.

The flag bearer and drummer from the 11th Virginia are made out of the same figure, the Revell British figure standing casually.

American War of Independence - Will McNally's rules - British 33rd infantry line regiment and some commanders.

This regiment is made almost entirely from figures out of the Revell 7WY Austrian infantry box. The poses are quite "regular" and I think they suit the British nicely. The figure biting the cartridge is one of the best ever! The cuffs are a bit too large for 1777 British infantry but the figures represent well most of the armies of the period.


The pioneer on the second row has its mitre cap enlarged with GreenStuff and the drummer is from G.Washington Airfix box with a grenadier head. The officer  is from the  Revell 7YW artillery box. There is also one Airfix kneeling firer per stand.

The officers are again a mix pot you can probably recognize from Airfix, Revell and Imex. The British officer from Airfix has a body from the infantry box and a grenadier head. The bigger base represent G. Washington itself while all others are Brigade commanders.


The Divisional commanders will have an officer on horse and another on foot.

American War of Independence - Will McNally's rules - Brandywine historical houses

Now for some freshly painted Brandywine houses. The Gettysburg houses still on the wargame table can finally be replaced. From left to right. Chad's House (opposing Knyphausen division), Birmingham Meeting house (place for the local Quaker meetings and of the most furious fighting of the day) and Benjamin Ring's House (Washington HQ).

I also painted the Hessian Jägers just to keep pace with the many units yet to be built. These are Revell Prussian and Austrian SYW with muskets shortened to look like rifles and the cartridge pouch moved from the back to the waist.

  

Benjamin Ring's house from the back with a view to the well.

The way my houses are built: just card, wood from icecream sticks and Styrofoam. Some basic calculations and good and plenty Internet pictures makes the rest.

American War of Independence - Will McNally's rules - Guards Brigade atBrandywine

Last units to be made are the two units of Guards present in the big flanking monouever made by Cornwallys's division.

Only one in each six is really a plastic Revell miniatures the other five are resin copies made in silicone masters. Of course this is a secret information which is better not to reach internet!

This kind of standing position is the best to duplicate and in fact the only one my short-run home-made technology managed to produce.

The command stands are a bit more lively. This officer comes from the Austrian SYW Revell box and a different paint job makes it look like a British officer.

In the other command stand the drummer is that Revell figure in a relaxed pose holding the rifle on the ground. An arm bent, a new head from Airfix and a  plastic cylinder of unknown origin makes the rest. The NCO is another Austrian Revell  figure.

American War of Independence - Will McNally's rules - Brandywine Wargame table so far.

This is my Brandywine table up to now. The table is made of twelve 60cm X 60cm squares for a table of 180cm X 240cm total.

Most of the historical houses will have to be made from scratch as they are represented here by Gettysburg ones.

Still lots of units to be done. I only managed to make some 15 regiments both British and American from the 70 + present on the day.

The battlefield seen from the west (Knyphausen approach side). The area closer to the camera (phone in fact, but 'camera' sounds more professional!) shows Brinton's ford to the left and Chad`s ford to the right in a more or less complete part of the battlefield terrain. 

The battlefield from the south. 

Opposing Chad's ford is the high ground defended by Wayne and Greene's  division with Chad's house to the left and Proctor's battery close by. Chad's house is in fact Codori house of Gettysburg fame. Proctor's battery still doesn't have its redoubt built. The majority of the American defenders, namely the reserve are still absent hopefully not for being voting in Trump ('Trampa' in a direct translation for portuguese. Look for the meaning and you will see I'm right).

Wistar woods, were the Guard regiments got lost, are featured in the top left corner.

The roads are cut from some old plastic 30cm X 30cm tiles turned up side down that my parents used in the 80ies for some works in the kitchen.

The Hessian division still with only Von Donop's regiment finished and the artillery. The Brandywine River is  from Frontline Wargames.

Moving to the Birmingham area, the ground is more or less finished with another Gettysburg house (Thompson's house) instead of the Birmingham Meeting House.

The main features are the orchard on the north slope of Birmingham Hill, the Widow's Davis house ( an Irregular Miniatures model)  in front and the wheat field to the right.

The woods on top of Birmingham Hill are the new polystyrene trees I showed you in the last post. Others are spread all over similar wooded features. 

Still lots of British and Hessian units missing from Howe´s/Cornwallys's flanking manouever  namely cavalry, two battalions of Hessian grenadiers, Hessian Jagers and British line and light infantry regiments.

The hasty american line of defence still only has the 2nd Maryland clumsly manouevering in front of the British grenadiers thanks to De Borre's lack of talent for such a thing but also due to a tricky road that lead the 3rd division there.

The snake fences are also ACW and I suppose they are not from the AWI period which I always see with straight fences. Anyone knows something on the subject?

View from Birmingham Hill. Battle Hill and sandy Hollow can be seen to the right and Dilworth town to the left.

- We're doomed... There are thousands of'em...

- Yeah, and they even have tanks, good lord!

- Hey, but they look ours. There are Grants... Priests and Shermans . We're safe!

- Are we? Didn't all that crap fought on both sides in WWII? 

At the moment I'm painting the Guards regiments but I'm tempted by France 1940 again after receiving  a few boxes of the new A-9 Cruiser from PSC a few days ago. So may be I'm about to start the battle of Brrandivine. Bah, alors, dis donc!...

American War of Independence - Will McNally's rules - Trees for Brandywine

I've been thinking for long about a process to make cheap trees. Of course the available trees in the HO scale train market are much better but they are also stupidly expensive. 

This Brandywine scenario requires a lot of them and so I tried my favourite material to work with: hard styrofoam (Roofmate). 

First you cut cubes (or whatever shape you want) from styrofoam 4cm plate, the one you use to isolate the roof or walls of your house. 

Then you glue them together with a hot glue gun. Don't forget the tree trunk. Barbecue sticks or old paint brushes, I use them all. 

The most important part comes next while you use a soldering stick to open holes and crevices all over the styrene until a tree like shape is obtained.

As it is winter you get a nice warmth but also a stinky smell, so forget winter and do it in an open area! 

Finally you use some cheap modelling paste and stick it around the end of the trunk to simulate surface roots.  While the paste is drying you can carve the small roots in it. 

Finally glue to the MDF base some loose bits of carved styrene all around to look like boulders. 

Now painting: paint everything black mixed with PVA glue to strengthen the acrylic paint. No spray as it will damage the styrene. 

Then apply greens, yellows and browns according to your taste. 

Another advantage of these trees is that you can make a large group like this one just in a few hours all along maybe two or three days allowing drying time.

These trees are cheap and you can't make two alike, like in nature. 

I'll show you soon how my Brandywine table is going and you will see that these trees goes well alongside the commercial available ones (I hope...😰).