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| AWI recycled French. A nice paint conversion by an unknown painter. |
Currently I am sorting through my wargaming collection with the twin aims of inventorying what I have, and also to store it more effectively than it is currently. Recently I rediscovered some Airfix figures that I had acquired as part of a bulk lot. They had been painted well, but unfortunately with enamels. The original paint job was quite good, but had suffered a bit with time, with quite a fair amount of flaking on most figures. I decided to touch up the paint jobs and base them up as linear infantry stands using V&B basing system - 3" frontage by 1.5" depth.
Amongst the figures were a set of Airfix Washington's Army painted up as a unit of French troops suitable for use as US allies in AWI games. Once I touched up the figures I gave the now standard GW wash, and then based, flocked, and varnished them up.
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| I went with a move golf course look this time... |
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| I have always thought this set had a great deal of character. |
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| Rear view of one of the stands. Two guys helping a wounded guy results in a loss of three effectives... |
One of the interesting things about this group of figures, is that the horse is not the original one supplied with this set - it is actually from the Airfix Cowboys set - and has replaced one of the better Airfix horses with one of the worse. This set is one of my favourite Airfix sets, and was one that I made sure I snapped up during the wave of Airfix re-releases in the early 1990s.
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| If not George Washington, then perhaps Rochambeau? |
Currently on the workbench, from the same source, are Airfix Washington's Army - painted as Washington's Army, and some Airfix AWI British. I still have a few painted AWI Airfix French that I will be basing up too, once I sort out a few extra figures to use as gun crew.
One of my favourite sets as well. Usefull for french, americans and british. I was never so struck with the British grenadiers though.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to which figs you´ll use as a gun crew..and which gun.
Cheers
paul
I am planning on using guns from the Airfix French Artillery set, and conducting head swaps on some of the gunners to produce a few crew.
DeleteFor a long, long time the Airfix AWI sets were the only source of plastic figures for 18th Century warfare. Unfortunately, the 'Washington's Army' set came with just 22 useful musketeers, and for reasons best known to himself, the colour-bearer was trailing his flag in the dust. Not the most economical set. You can see what I made of the figures with a glance at my blogspot banner. The above made good use of figures that I regarded solely as a useful source of tricorn hats for my heavy cavalry.
ReplyDeleteThe Grenadiers had 36 useful musketmen (6 of 6 different poses. What I particularly liked was that 4 of the Grenadier poses were the same as those of the WA set, which then gave a uniform appearance to units comprising 1 grenadier and 3 line companies. The flag bearer was more easily modified (I almost never go with the original flag on any such figure). The only problem I had with the grenadier set is that it came with no subaltern officers on foot - though it did contain two mounted officers. The mounted officers' horses also had both feet on one side raised off the ground, a pose probably unrealistic, but, worse, made the horse very inclined to lean over.
All the same, the extra mounted officer bacame a handy source of generals.
If you want AWI cavalry, I thought that the team riders of the Airfix Napoleonic R.H. Artillery set would make fine light dragoons wearing the Tarleton helmet. You would need different horses, possibly.
Cheers,
Ion
The suggestion for converting some Airfix RHA into AWI cavalry is one I shall probably use. The painted Grenadiers will be recycled per normal, but the vast horde (two or three sets from memory) of unpainted ones will either be looted for the odd figure, or if I can find it again in the HaT site, get some paper bicorns made for them using the step by step guide.
Deleteor even tricorns.....
DeleteGreat to see these old boys Brian!
ReplyDeleteThanks - they are such a nice set, and the original painter did a very nice job with all his figures.
DeleteOldies, but goodies. Great work Brian.
ReplyDeleteWell, the hard yards had already been done by someone else! All I did was some retouching, washing, and basing. The original painter sold me a number of painted Airfix sets that I will refurnishing for CD and V&B use.
DeleteVery cool, nice to see some tricorns. I much prefer this era to nappies
ReplyDeleteAWI is a period that I also find quite interesting too. Tricorns do look cool on figures, but remember that early period Revolutionary/Napoleonic wars forces often worn bicorns that are pretty nifty too!
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