Thursday 21 February 2013

Middle Eastern Building and Irrigation Ditch.


My first attempt at making a basic Middle Eastern building. I wanted to see how it turned out before making more complex buildings.  I plan to use these for my North West Frontier, Modern Afghanistan and Sudan collections, they should also see action when Perry Miniatures bring out their 8th Army and Afrika Corps range of figures.
I have also made some irrigation ditches which I copied from 'Dougie's wargaming blog'. Dougie has made a much better job at making ditches and I recommend visiting his blog.

The building was made with foamboard, glued together with PVA, balsa wood and pieces of card for door frames and brickwork. Once assembled, I smeared tile grout over the walls to give it some texture.
The building was glued to a hardboard base, which was then covered in glue and sand. Cardboard hinges glued to the back of the door so it could be opened and closed for skirmish games.




The building was then painted in dark brown household paint and when dry, lighter shades were drybrushed on until I got the look I wanted.















     

Saturday 16 February 2013

Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill) Part Two.



Following on from Last week, the second and final part of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

PICTURES 30 – 32
Stark’s front rank opened fire, the Light Infantry were unable to deploy, so pressed on but were met by another hail of lead and eventually retreated leaving 96 casualties on the beach.






PICTURES 33 – 37
Meanwhile the Grenadiers in company columns were climbing a fence some 90 yards from Knowlton when they came under a premature fire and immediately returned it. Eventually the 5th and 52nd caught them up and as they crowded together the attack lost its momentum and the British pulled back out of range to reform.










Howe reformed his troops, rethought his plan and renewed the attack on the rail fence and fleches. The artillery support never materialised from the 6 pdrs as they had the wrong ammunition for the guns for some unknown reason and the attack once again failed with heavy casualties.

PICTURES 38 and 39
Meanwhile on the left flank, Pigott’s force made a feint against the redoubt, whilst the 47th and 1st Marines moved around the South flank.





PICTURES 40 and 41
Prescott ordered his men to hold their fire until the British were within 30 yards. This action supposedly gave rise to the absurd order, ‘Don’t fire ‘till you see the whites of their eyes’.





PICTURES 42 – 44
The defenders unleashed a volley that forced the regulars back out of range to regroup.







PICTURES 45 and 46
The flanking party also withdrew after running into some Massachusetts detachments driven out of Charlestown by the fires, and who had fortified a stone barn and surrounding farmyard.




THE FINAL ASSAULT

PICTURES 47 and 48
The surviving Light Infantry engaged the defenders of the rail fence whilst the 6 pdrs would advance, their right protected by the Light Infantry, and enfilade the breastwork.




PICTURES 49 – 51
At the same time the 5th would attack the fleches and the Grenadiers and 52nd the Northern half of the breastwork.






PICTURES 52 – 56
Pigott’s right (38th and 43rd) attacked the Southern half and the front of the redoubt. The 47th and the 1st Marines would sweep between Charlestown and the redoubt to attack its South and West faces.








PICTURES 57 and 58
The 6 pdrs now had the correct ammunition and the end was nasty, brutish and short, as they swept the breastwork and fleches.




PICTURES 59 and 60
To the South the Marines and 47th swarmed over the ditch and into the redoubt, overwhelming the defenders.




Prescott and the remaining defenders fell back from Breed’s Hill to the larger Bunker Hill and after heavy firing from the Glasgow and Symmetry retreated across Charlestown Neck.
Howe ordered a halt as his force was too depleted even with the arrival of General Clinton and his reinforcements.
British casualties were extremely heavy – 226 dead and over 900 wounded, almost half of those engaged.
The Americans lost between 400 and 600, mostly in the retreat.
                                                                                                                                                                    

The figures are mainly Perry, Foundry and a couple of Front Rank and OG. The flags are by GMB and the buildings are either Hovels, Grand Manner (stone cottage) or scratch built. Trees are Last Valley and the terrain is scratch built by myself.

I had originally done the same sort of thing as above, with Concord and Lexington but I seem to have lost my file with the images, so at some point in the future I will re-take the pictures and submit this historical engagement on the blog.

Two other famous battles of the AWI that I plan on doing in a similar style will be 'Guilford Courthouse' and 'Trenton'. I need to paint more figures to represent the actual units that fought in these engagements, especially the Hessian's and also I need to decide how I will make my snow covered terrain for Trenton. So these projects are a little way off in the future.
          

Friday 8 February 2013

The Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill)


Back in December 2010 I put this article on the General de Brigade Forum but decided it would be a good idea to have all my work under one roof, so apologies to anyone who may have already seen this.

BUNKER HILL (BREED’S HILL)
17th JUNE 1775

Having read the excellent Osprey Campaign Series ‘BOSTON 1775’ by Brendan Morrissey, I was inspired to recreate the battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill) in miniature.
I have attempted to tell the story letting my camera do most of the talking, taking pictures in sequence of the battle as it unfolded. Any inaccuracies will be down to my miss interpretation of this book.

BRIEF BACKGROUND.

During the American War of Independence, the British army, which was being besieged in Boston, had to act fast when an American Council of War ordered Bunker Hill on the Charlestown Peninsula to be occupied. This site would allow the Americans the ability to set up cannon to bombard the British in Boston.

General Gage, the Commander in Chief, on hearing of the peninsula being occupied, ordered General Howe with a force of British regulars to cross Boston Harbour and drive the enemy off.

The British arrived in several waves, disembarking on the North East of the peninsula at a place called Moulton’s Point.

PICTURE 1
Looking West across the Charlestown Peninsula from the East. Outskirts of Charlestown on the left, Moulton’s Point on the right, Breed’s Hill straight ahead.


PICTURES 2 – 8
Redoubt/Breastworks/Fleches/














PICTURE 9
Trevett’s battery.

PICTURES 10 and 11
The British deploy their 12 pdr battery on Moulton’s Hill to cover the initial landings and to bombard the redoubt at Breed’s Hill.




PICTURES 12 – 14
owe organised his force into two divisions with the heavy guns remaining on the hill, the lighter 6 pdr battery advancing with the infantry.
Howe leads the right division ( Light Infantry, Grenadiers, 5th and 52nd) against the rail fence, whilst Pigott on the left ( 38th, 43rd, 47th and 1st Marines) would attack Charlestown and the redoubt to pin down their garrison.






PICTURES 15 and 16
Pigott arrives with the 38th and 43rd along Moulton point road.


PICTURES 17 – 23
As Piggott’s men deployed, marksmen in Charlestown opened fire. Howe ordered the town to be burned and by 1600 hrs, it was blazing fiercely. (The British Navy’s ‘Lively’ bombards Charlestown starting fires in the town)














PICTURES 24 and 25
Stark filled the yawning gap on Prescott’s left where he joined Knowlton at the rail fence and spilled down onto the beach where they built a wall of stones.




PICTURES 26 - 29
Howe’s Light Infantry advanced in column along the beach to outflank Stark’s rail fence, unaware of the recently built wall on the beach.








As this is only halfway through and already rather large, I will post the second part next week.

If your reading this, I would just like to say hello and thanks to Tango01 on TMP and all the chaps over there who have been following my posts. As much as I would like to, I don't post on 'The Miniatures Page' as I already spend too much time on the Internet, which takes me away from painting my figures.

Thanks once again Tango01 for your time and effort posting various bits over on TMP , much appreciated.

Pat.

My apologies for the small writing which had been cut and paste.