....is this Sharp Practice 2 force currently being assembled and prepared for battle (I bet some of you thought I was making it all up, didn't you!). They represent the 71st Foot in the Southern campaigns of 1779-1782, supported by units of the 17th Light Dragoons and Royal Artillery. The figures used are either Perry or King's Mountain Miniatures.
- Deployment point crew.jpg (115.48 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
Deployment point - the Scottish officer from the Perry interrogation pack (who is based on a real person, known to some of this group - Giles Allison) as is the artillery officer leaning on a stick (Dave Brown of the Loutish Stroke Force), and a couple of likely-looking lads from the Foundry packs as guides. Currently based on 2ps - haven't decided if I'll keep them like that and get someone to make me a four-slot sabot, or remove them and mount them straight onto an mdf base.
- Mounted officers.jpg (119.7 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
Currently, there are three mounted officers, who will be level 3 leaders if solo, or a level 3 and a level 2 if paired. Two are KMM and one is a Perry figure, whom I have converted to be Lt Col John Maitland, ex-Marines and former CO of the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion, until he was wounded in the New York campaign (he is missing his right arm, which he lost in the SYW - and no, I don't know if he's checked to see if it's down the back of the sofa).
- Junior leaders and musician.jpg (208.8 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
Next we have the junior leaders - subalterns and sergeants; the front two pairs will command the linear groups, the chap waving his bonnet and the two converted former ensigns (arm twists and muskets from the plastic sets), all with belly-boxes added, lead the skirmishers.
- Wounded leaders and shock markers.jpg (204 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
Wounded leaders (five) and shock markers (one per group); I think it helps to have figures to remind you when a leader is reduced by a wound, or whatever. Plus I had the figures anyway, so it seemed a shame not to use them. The chap holding his head is a converted Perry, the others, including the lazy buggers lying down, are all KMM.
- The four linear groups.jpg (257.43 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
The linear groups (currently four, well four-and-a-half) will eventually grow to six when I get some more marching Scots from Alan Perry.
- The four skirmish groups.jpg (253.62 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
The four skirmishing groups (two firing/loading and two moving); I'll probably only use two of them with the four linear groups, but throw them all in once the six linear groups are completed. These are KMM figures and have some nice poses.
- 17th Light Dragoons.jpg (143.8 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
Currently one group of eight 17th Light Dragoons, with a level 1 leader (a sergeant); I have an officer and trumpeter in a box, so a second group is definitely on the cards. The shock marker, which still needs a little work, is a casualty from the Perry British plastics; he'll have a carbine amputated from the sergeant, and cut down to look like it's mainly lying under him, and greenstuff boot tops to go with his belly-box.
- 3-pdr and crew.jpg (127.89 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
I thought an RA 3-pdr would give them a little more punch, but not so much that it dominates the battlefield - five crew plus a leader (corporal) and a driver, gun in limbered and unlimbered format (no wheels on the limber, as it's a light gun), together with a wounded leader figure and shock marker. Figures and gun are all Perry, the chap on the shock marker being plastic. You can see that most of the bases have been coated with sharp sand, but I tried some pumice gel from the local art shop on this guy - and it didn't work. The mdf absorbed all the liquid, leaving him looking like he had a rough night out in Brighton and wound up sparko on the beach!
- Artillery and carts.jpg (134.87 KiB) Viewed 4202 times
FInally, some wheeled supports - an artillery ammo cart (with the ridged roof), an infantry ammo cart (with the three boxes), and a water cart (which I'm looking at crewing with some Perry gun team helpers with forage caps converted to kilmarnocks). All Perry, except for the water cart - not sure who makes that, might be Warlord?
Next instalment when something is actually painted.
Kein Plan überlebt den ersten Kontakt mit den Würfeln. (No plan survives the first contact with the dice.)
Baron Mannshed von Wreckedoften, First Sea Lord of the Bavarian Admiralty.
