2nd Maryland Regiment command stand painted

Here is my first command stand completed painted for my 2nd Maryland Regiment. The highlights are a lot more drastic than I usually paint but I honestly believe they will look great on the table from the typical 3-4 feet distance that most players will view them from. I am currently considering my options on how I want to do my flags. I usually order my flags from the Flag Dude but I am reluctant to cut away the plastic banner and drill holes for the metal banner pole that comes with the flag. The nice thing about the metal banner pole is I will never have to worry about it breaking so I will continue to mull over the idea. In the meantime, I will continue my progress on the 2nd Maryland as well as some British light infantry, 43rd of Foot, 9th Virginia Regiment, and about 60+ militia. 

I am in the process of looking for a new home so updates and progress may slow down over the next month but I will continue to post when I have something to show. 

I am teaching myself how to make painting tutorial videos as well as rules tutorials which I hope to start posting after my move sometime in August. 

If anyone is interested in knowing what colors I am using I will be happy to share and will probably post some simple painting guides over the next few weeks. They will serve as a guide for any new hobbyists as well as a reminder for me so I don't forget how I painted units. :)

 

Prototype Continental Infantry and Militia

Progress continues on my starter armies for my American Revolution forces. I have been doing research and trying to find some unusual uniforms for my Continental force. Every force needs a handful of militia so one of the first elements I painted was a 3 stand element of militia.


For games that I plan on running using the Land of the Free rules, a 3-stand element will represent a medium element.

 

Here is the front and back view of my prototype for my 2nd Maryland Regiment. I saw a few drawings of the 2nd MD in brownish colored  'small clothes' so I opted for an ochre color. It may not be 100% accurate but I think it looks good.

 Another test miniature representing the 9th Virginia Regiment. I have always been a fan of Continental Regiments in the brown coats so I wanted at least one element of these.

I am hoping to do some real painting damage this weekend and get a few stands of infantry completed. I plan on gluing 4 miniatures per base hence the reason why the bases on the single miniatures above aren't done.

Progress Report - Test Miniatures

I have been cleaning and assembling a handful of the new Wargames Factory American Revolution plastics over the past few weeks but all of my writing assignments have kept me pretty busy. I finally got around to priming some and this past week I realized how much I enjoy painting. I managed to get about 16 militia fully painted and based and I will cover them in a later article. For now I wanted to show you my progress on some Continentals and British.

This light infantry soldier of the 43rd Foot is completely painted which gives me a nice test model to work off of. There is quite a contrast in each level of highlighting but I think they will look great on the tabletop. I thought I would honor one of the first regiments to experiment with light infantry tactics and they were present at quite a few battles during the war.

The back side of the light infantrymen.

Here is an officer and a drummer from the 43rd Foot. I wanted to show them in their 'raw' state. They are simply base coated and 'dipped' using the Army Painter wash. I hit them with Testor's Dull Coat before starting my highlights. Players wishing to field armies quickly could stop here but I want them to 'pop' on the tabletop so I will add 2-3 highlights for each color.

Here are a few Continental soldiers painted to look like the 9th Virginia Regiment. These have also been 'dipped' and dull coated. 

I wanted to show an example of some infantry after the Army Painter wash but not dull coated. As you can see they are pretty shiny. These soldiers represent the 2nd Maryland Regiment.

I am working on some painting tutorial videos as well as some painting guides to help those of you who don't know which colors to use. I primarily use Vallejo paints and there are equivalent paint colors in other ranges.

Ironheart Artisans teams up to create tokens!!!

We are moving closer to the release of Land of the Free and we have had a lot of exciting activity in the industry over the past few months. Wargames Factory announced their supporting range of 6 plastic box sets consisting of Continental Infantry, Colonial Militia, British Infantry, Native Americans (Indians), and 2 to be named later. I recently ended a Kickstarter, my very first one, which offered up a myriad of customized dice concentrating on the Colonial Period. If you missed your chance to pick up your dice, don't worry, because Wargames Factory will be selling dice sets along with their range of plastic miniatures later this year.

I have been working with Alex, owner of Ironheart Artisans, and we have been collaborating on a set of tokens that will not only work for Land of the Free but many of the tokens could be used for other game systems. The contents of each token set are designed for one player participating in an average sized game. Alex sent me a sample of the finished product and I took some pictures to share with you.

The first pack of tokens are the wound markers or 'hit' markers. Alex even spent time researching the print font that was used in the 1770s to create these wonderful, ingenious markers. They are designed with the 90 degree cut so you can place the marker on the back edge of element unlucky enough to suffer hits. These are great because it avoids confusion during a game trying to figure out which hits belong to which element. The size of the marker works very well for both 25mm and 15mm.

 The Wounded Acrylic Token Set pack comes with the 12 tokens below for the retail price of $12.00 USD

An example of an element of Militia that has the 3 Wound marker applied to it.

 The Morale Token Set has six different tokens for the different discipline affects an element might suffer during a game of Land of the Free. Elements failing an order, being pushed to hard by their commanding officer, or being hit by cannon fire are just a few ways an element will suffer a Disorder Marker. Disorder is cumulative so smart players will make sure to remove any Disorders before attempting the more difficult tasks in the game.

Shaken and Exhausted are Discipline levels that an element will eventually reach as it takes hits in the game. The marker has a reminder on them telling the players what type of actions it loses as its morale is decreased.

 The Morale Token Set comes with 18 tokens and retails for $8

The Game Accessories Marker Set has both setup and in game functionality. The set comes with deployment zone markers as well as a center of the table marker which could also serve as a wind direction marker or general compass.  There are 3 objective markers that are very useful for the Land of Free scenarios and could be used for historical re-fights. The 45 degree template is great because if you lay it against the front corner of your element it will give you a perfect 45 degrees every time. The set comes with the 9 markers seen below and retails for $12.

 

A Militia element checking its visibility with the 45 degree template 

A closer look at the objective markers

The deployment zone and center marker

The token set that caters to the Land of the Free rules the most is aptly named Land of the Free Token Set. In the pack you will find the markers for your commanders as well as markers for your elements when they perform particular orders such as firing, holding for a snap fire, or preparing for a counter-charge. The oval shaped markers with the Fleur-dy-Lys are command tokens that can be issued to commanders at the beginning of each turn.

There are four different levels of commanders in the game and these could be randomly determined at the start of the game or themed to represent historical leaders more accurately. 

 Elements may elect to use their orders to set themselves in a snap fire or counter charge posture. The markers make it easy to remember which element is doing what. The fire marker is used when an element has shot and is unable or unwilling to reload their weapons.

Below is the Land of the Free Token Set which retails for $20. (Please be aware that the picture shows 10 command markers but the set only comes with 9)