Friday, January 24, 2014

1st Virginia Continental Infantry Regiment


It's been quite some time since I last painted up anything for my AWI collection, but I wanted to build it up some more again. This is for three reasons with the first being I acquired a large British army through a local forum and need something to fight it and second I really like the game Maurice and want to game this period in it and lastly I just really like the period and miss it!

This is the 1st Virginia Continental Infantry Regiment in their early uniform of hunting shirts, before later adopting the typical Continental infantry coat of blue with red turn backs. I choose the hunting shirt as it's simply my favourite uniform from all sides during the war, but as simple as it may look it's time consuming to paint all the frills, but worth it. A distinctive trait of the 1st Virginia hunting shirts was their use of a red trim on their collars and cuffs of their hunting shirts which I think gives it a little extra nice factor. Since I'm a firm believer that it was rare for an American unit to be perfectly uniformed during the war I mixed up the colours a little on the uniforms using some different shades of white and mixing in some browns and changed the sacks and pants to give my impression of  what the unit possibly looked like. That said, I didn't want to go overboard with the mixing so as to retain their look of a regular infantry regiment and not militia unit. I did this by dominating the unit in an light grey off white hunting shirt and left some other details the same.

The first Virginia was raised on July 17, 1775 in Williamsburg,Virginia as a state Militia before entering service in the Continental army. The regiment fought well in most of the battles in the North including Great Ridge, New York, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony Point, before moving south only to unfortunately have to surrender at Charleston after a siege. Another interesting fact was that George Washington himself as a younger officier commanded the earlier incarnation of this regiment in the French and Indian Wars.

I'll be doing some northern campaigns, but generally speaking I prefer the southern campaigns so I'll of course be using these as regular Continentals when fighting in the south as the regiment itself took little part other then a few left over companies not captured that were grouped with other newly formed units.

The figures themselves are Perry miniatures and my preferred choice for the period in spite of the clean up required on a few of the figures and the difficulty in painting some of the fine lines. That said, the Perry AWI range is both beautifully sculpted and extensive in scope and well worth the effort. The flag is from the very nice Flag of Wars range of AWI flags.

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures



59 comments :

  1. Looking good! Whites are darn hard to get working well and you've nailed it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely paint job on the hunting jacket. The color scale of the unit really comes together nicely.

    ReplyDelete
  3. For AWI in 28mm, the Perry range is my first choice too. Your results are exquisite!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those are the best looking hunting shirts that I think I have ever seen. Lovely brush work.

    Fritz

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Fritz and that's really kind of you to say that!

      Christopher

      Delete
  5. never seen the old flag before

    ReplyDelete
  6. They are seriously impressive Christopher, bravo.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautifully painted unit Christopher, and wonderfully done on those hunting shirts, all round terrific .

    ReplyDelete
  8. Outstanding work my friend! Looking forward to seeing them in the flesh.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Christopher:

    This unit is another masterpiece from you. When the image opened up I actually did a jump back in my seat - they look so good. Your photography is very crisp and clear too - and make your brushwork all the more impressive! Best, Dean

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Dean I really do appreciate your very kind feedback!

      Christopher

      Delete
  10. Fantastic painting, sir. And the ground-mat works very well with the bases.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Utterly fantastic, Christopher! Painting, basing, choice of colours - everything is superb. What a wonderful unit to have.

    Best wishes

    Giles

    ReplyDelete
  12. Really splendid - love the complete look.
    Dan

    ReplyDelete
  13. Fantastic paintwork Christopher! Lovely shading and basing.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Impression paint work on the 1st Virginian's What size is your bases? Looking forward to what your going to post next

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you kindly Gary. They are 36mm x 50mm which is what I use for my AWI.

      Christopher

      Delete
  15. Great to see you painting AWI again Christopher. The different blends of white and brown look superb.
    Cheers,
    Pat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Pat. It's good to be back on it again.

      Christopher

      Delete
  16. Yes, it's great to see you back to painting AWI! I'm also a fan of the Southern Campaign. I have a lot of 15mm AWI, but really need to do the period justice and paint everything again in 28mm. I love the hunting shirts!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you kindly Cory and it's indeed nice to be back!

      Christopher

      Delete
  17. Beautiful painting Christopher! You've really done those Perry figures proud.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Great work there and lovely painted troops on display

    ReplyDelete
  19. Excellent painting Christopher! Nice mix of colours.

    ReplyDelete
  20. That's an awesome unit Chris. Each one is of painted to great quality and the colour choice works perfect for the unit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Michael I really appreciate that.

      Christopher

      Delete
  21. This is a brilliant looking unit (again). I like the mixture of the shades of white and light brown very much. Very very cool.

    Cheers
    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  22. These are fantastic Christopher! Reminds I need to get back to work on AWI!
    Rod

    ReplyDelete
  23. Beautiful work Chris. Superb tonal qualities.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Your work is simply stunning! I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  25. How did I miss this? The hunting shirts are killer, as is the whole unit. When you get to play Maurice, it will be mouth watering gorgeous to look at. I do wish I lived close enough to drop by and play!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Monty! I wish you did live close enough to have games then I would have a chance to play all your SAGA warbands and 15mm armies!:-)

      Christopher

      Delete