AWI Updates - British Legion theme!

Working with a large group to a common goal, and keeping eachother up to date via this blog and the Facebook group, is a great way to power through a project, if I say so myself. It’s just that, over a long stretch of time, it can be hard to have something to say every week. Somehow, some people seem to already be done with their share, while others take breaks to devote some time to a new interest, project or shiny fling… On the other hand, it just sometimes happens that several people work on exactly the same unit, for different tables. Such seems to be the case lately. Peter already reported on his work on the British Legion cavalry, while Jeroen has tackled the entire Legion, and I am working on just the infantry.

Jeroen Stroomer: A shorter update this time. Last month, I painted the British Legion, comprising of a 18 man infantry unit, a stand of cavalry and a couple of commanders. Two of the commanders present at Hanging Rock, Captain Rousselet and Captain Stewart, were part of the British Legion. For these commanders, I used the models from the British Legion command blister, leaving the musician to join the troopers.

The uniforms of the British Legion cavalry are well documented. However, the uniforms of the infantry of the British Legion are subject to more speculation. This gave me more freedom to select the miniatures to represent them. As I think the Tarleton style helmets are typical for the British Legion cavalry, I wanted these as well for the infantry. I used the Perry miniatures ‘Lee’s Legion’  to represent the infantry. Although Lee’s Legion actually is a Continental regiment, I think they look quite good in green jackets, matching the cavalry.

Jasper Oorthuys: I too am working on the British Legion infantry, and equally puzzled about their uniform. I wanted to go for Don Troiani’s reconstruction, but there are no figures available with exactly this cut of uniform. In the end, I decided to go with the Perry AW173 (“American infantry in peaked caps”) set. The caps on those figures have a very pronounced bill, while Troiani’s is a lot more modest, so I filed and cut those back quite a bit. The feather was made from greenstuff - which proved remarkably easy to do - and I shortened the lapels with a sharp knife without equally shortening my fingers. The latter’s pretty much a miracle if you know me, so if you’re going to try this yourself: be careful. Other details I’m just going to add with the paintjob. I’m also mixing in some figures from other sets to make the hard-marching, and undoubtedly equally hard-wearing, Legion infantry a bit less regular than the actual regulars. The entire 18-figure regiment currently occupies the painting desk. They might have progressed further if I hadn’t let myself get distracted by a few Royal Highland Emigrants. Not that I need them for Camden, but oh well… I wanted a regiment anyway, so there’s a start.