Friday, September 11, 2015

Lee's Legion Horse


I've had this unit sitting on my shelf all painted up ready to be based for months now and finally decided to finish them off. The hold up was a mix of deciding if I should paint a up a flag or wait until somebody does one commercially and just generally running out of motivational juice. As you can see I couldn't decide and went ahead and finished them until I can make up my mind on the flag situation before they collect more dust.

Lee's Legion (2nd Partisan Corps) was raised by Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee (father of Robert E. Lee) on June 8 1776. It briefly served with the First Continental Light Dragoons before forming it's own separate body of Horse and infantry called Lee's Legion. The unit first saw action in 1778 and was very active in the field in particular the Southern campaigns in both battles and raiding/guarding actions. They gained a reputation for ruthless efficiency and bravery throughout. They were disbanded on November 15, 1783.

The Legion horse is often depicted in the green short jacket and white linen leggings like their rivals Tarelton's Legion, but they also for a period had a cream/buff coloured jacket w/green trim and doe skinned leggings which I quite liked and opted to go with. Each cavalry troop within the Legion would also try to have their horses all of the same type  and I decided on "Dun " coloured for this particular troop.

The figures are from the new Perry cavalry releases and sculpting is excellent, but........the casting is well .....pretty sub par to be honest. I'm sorry folks but I feel compelled to say the Perry's need to have a little chat with their casters about the downward spiral of their metal casting process and insist on tighter quality control. The figures were noticeably thinner, plenty of flash and spiders, bent legs and swords requiring quite a bit of filing,bending,flattening and cutting. The figures are so well sculpted they deserve better casting. I bought these close to when they were first released so maybe this issue has been addressed?

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

54 comments :

  1. Beautiful brushwork Christopher! That is indeed a lovely looking unit.

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  2. Excellent painting Chris, I didn't realise they wore a buff coloured coat, makes a nice change from red and blue.

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    1. Thank you very much Ray. Yes, in the earlier years they did wear buff for a short period, before moving on to green.

      Christopher

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  3. Lovely Figures, and nice subtle shades of browns on the horses!

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  4. Wow ! Beautifull figures.
    And you did them in buff jackets as I also plan to do.
    Which paints did you use for buff ?

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  5. Very handsome! The horse work especially very well done. Check that. The horses are gorgeous!

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  6. lovely use of colors on great looking figures - marvelous!

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  7. They look stunning Christopher, the horses are just sublime.

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  8. Stunning unit and excellent brushwork

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  9. Skilled painting Chris, really like this legendary unit. Good choice taking them that last step off the painting desk and onto the gaming table.

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    1. Thank you very much BP and yes I'm happy to finally see them in my display cabinet.

      Christopher

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  10. Lovely additions to your collection Christopher!

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  11. Superb cavalry unit Christopher!

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  12. Fabulous stuff and I'm sure they'll fit nicely into your existing collection. Next time I come over I'll make sure to have a closer look. I'm completely with you on the Perry casting getting worse and worse. Thought about getting me some of their Fallschirmjäger but the bad casting made me think again so I decided against. Don't know if their policy of cheap casting will pay off for them much longer?

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    1. Thank you very much Nick. Maybe they already have made some corrections in their castings? We shall see as I know I still need more AWI and other Perry miniatures so I'll find out.

      Christopher

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  13. To think that you have waited all this time to base and show these off, madness.
    Superb painting Christopher and very inspirational. Likewise, I will go for this colour scheme when I get around to painting mine up, as the alternative is too much like Tarleton's Legion.

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    1. Thank you very much Pat. Yeah, it took me a long time as the clean up and painting was quite difficult so it sapped a lot of my motivation plus the indecision over what to with a flag.

      Christopher

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  14. The magnificent half-dozen.
    Good harmonize with the colors

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  15. Excellent work on them!

    The casting quality of Perry minis is really a shame. Sometimes just horribly grainy and a lot flash etc. Though my last order was actually quite good with little clean up required and a nice surface. Seems to vary quite a bit

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    1. Thank you very much Samuli! It either varies quite a bit or they have upped the quality control. Let's hope it's the latter.

      Christopher

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  16. Superb painting Christopher! Sorry to hear about the continuous problem with the Perrys' casting quality.

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    1. Thank you Jonas! Most the time I just say "oh well" and move along, but this on the cavalry it was really a problem so I had mention it.

      Christopher

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  17. Stunning brushwork on these, Christopher. Glad you decided to display them - quite an appropriate date too. I've noticed casting issues with some of their other lines too - mostly minor, but with Perrys high standard in sculpting one would think it could be better.

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    1. Thank you very much Dean. Exactly one would think that.

      Christopher

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  18. These are FANTASTIC. I like the choice of the less used buff coat. I may do the same with my own.

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  19. Thank you very much Allen.The coat idea came to me from one of Don Troiani paintings.

    Christopher

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  20. Very fine work there Christopher! Your comments on the low standard of Perrys' castings rings very true from my experience. Sadly they don't seem to care...

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    1. Thank you very much David! I think they care, but not enough to hire a more expensive caster is my understanding or at least what I've gleaned from rumours. Apparently the current casting is keeping the miniatures cheaper. Personally I'd pay a little more if the quality improved.

      Christopher

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  21. Stunning brushwork Christopher! Those horses are particularly fine indeed.

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  22. Again a masterpiece, coming out of your hands - I am deeply impressed. Wonderfully painted and coll atmosphere in the pictures!!
    Peter

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    1. Thank you very much Peter that's very kind of you to say!

      Christopher

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  23. What a beautiful cavalry, splendid job Christopher!

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  24. Love the buff faced green. Following your blog now...

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