First of the British line

While conscious I probably should be concentrating on the next Soldier King army, I have found myself distracted by the French & Indian War......

Many years ago when up in Newcastle, I had eventually embarked on gaming the Seven Years War after a couple of abortive or half - hearted attempts (15mm followed by Spencer Smiths) in what was then 25mm scale.

While I really wanted to do Austrians, I found my opponent, Pete Foggin had British and some Austrians. We lacked Prussian, French and Russian armies. I therefore found myself building an army of the hated Prussians (using Pete's sculpted and cast figures - having to add command figures as Pete was too egalitarian to make any!).

Parallel to that, I contemplated French, but soon found myself straying from Europe to North America.....

Hence, although my French army had cavalry added, the infantry were the regulars sent to Canada. Native Americans were added, along with other bits. At some stage we refougt the battle of the Plains of Abraham (or Quebec if you prefer). The armies had been built for WRG 1685 - 1845 at 1:50.

I think for the battle we may have used an adapted version of Loose Files and American Scramble. While I had enough French line and we could scrape up enough British from Pete's figures, there were a few gaps that needed filling. I painted very quickly using washes, Canadian militia, Marine and some British light infantry (as Pete had none). I also had a sculpt from Miliput I'd made intending it to be a Native American. It turned out too tall and gangly so was abandoned. Discovering the figure when preparing for the game, I looked at it and started seeing a very close resemblance to General Wolfe......

A bit of work and a unique figure for Wolfe emerged. I don't remember much about the game apart from the adapted rules not working that well. The LI performed magnificently.......for the other side as I was playing Montcalm!

For years, the LI and Wolfe have been the only British completed; looking at the unpainted items, it seems I bought some British and Americans to provide opponents to the French. The recent purchase of the RSM / Pax Britannica 30mm and Rafm 25mm have added to the pile. However, I now have enough British to provide opponents (or will do once painted).

After much contemplation, it seems fitting to build the British around Wolfe's army at Quebec; 2 units with yellow facings, two with white, one each with orange, black and buff plus Highlanders, converged Grenadiers and a few Rangers.

The first 44 rank and file have been cleaned up.

While cleaning them up I listened to an audio book of Fennymore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans.