French and Indian War Provincials for Sharp Practice

As mentioned previously, a group of us have created an informal meetup for AdeptiCon 2017 where we'll be playing a French and Indian War engagement using Sharp Practice. We've signed everyone up and assigned forces - I've been assigned to the British side, heading up some Provincial troops.

I've chosen to go with the Virginia Regiment as my provincial troops. They're one of the more famous units that fought in the war, as they were commanded by George Washington. They also had some pretty striking uniforms and they took part in some of the more important actions of the war - Jumonville Glen, Monongahela, and Fort Necessity. They were also the first professional colonial unit that drilled regularly and had uniforms.

There are a number of sources for 28mm provincials out there. I first chose Eureka to check out because I really love their other minis for Modern games. They sell provincials marching, firing, in short coats, and in long coats. They also sell a George Washington model which is pretty great. Here are the models I purchased:

They're great sculpts, lots of character and definition. They're a little smaller and more realistic than other sculpts I've looked at. They came with a sergeant that can be used in SP as maybe a rank one commander.

I also picked up some Provincials from Galloping Major. I had actually backed their Kickstarter earlier this year before I had any plans to do FIW stuff - but those are Brits and they're not coming until December.

These dudes are pretty beautiful sculpts. They're a lot bigger than the Eureka dudes I have, and they dwarf the Minden Miniatures Brits I picked up as well. They are super characterful, with a number of different looks and poses, and the officers are great. I plan to use both sets of minis in different units so they will look different. I actually cut off their nub on their feet so they can be the same-ish height as the Eureka dudes. You can see a size comparison below:

From Jay's Wargaming Madness http://jayswargamingmadness.blogspot.com/2013/01/fiw-comparative-figure-size.html

I also picked up a Minden Miniatures artillery piece with crew. They're beautifully detailed, crisp, and realistic. They're a pretty good amount smaller than the rest of the models I've picked up, though. With that in mind they are artillery guys, so they won't be near my other guys, so I'm not minding it a lot. I wanted to use this project to paint a bunch of different manufacturers' models and this is a way to do it.

 I also picked up some Front Rank Miniatures. These guys are 'Wolfe's Army', which represent the Brits fighting in Canada near the end of the war. I like that they're different, with the round hats instead of tri-corns, but these are old sculpts. They're chunky, weird proportions, and the guns are way too short. I don't know if I'll use these. I have seen other Front Rank Miniatures that are really well sculpted for other time periods.

In terms of painting, I'm going to pain these troops with blue coats with red facings and vest. They did wear a red coat and pants at one point:

As also seen here in art of Fort Necessity:

But I'm choosing to use the later war blue coats to differentiate them a bit from the British regulars. 

I really like the look of the Blue coats and blue paints - it'll turn out great. Check back next time where I'm hoping to skip forward a century to the American Civil War and have my Confederate troops done. Thanks for reading!