Guilford courthouse project

May 2009 is the date of the first photo I can find from when I started painting these armies. 12 years later I have finished. That is a rate of painting of approximately one 10mm figure a week over that period. Fairly slow……. even for me. I have now completed the full order of battle for both sides at a scale of 1:10 using the lists included in British Grenadier Scenarios Volume 3 (Which are heavily based on the research in Long, Obstinate and Bloody – Lawrence Babits’ fantastic account of the battle).

The Figures

All the figures in both armies are from the fantastic range in 10mm by Pendraken. In my opinion this is the finest range of American War of Independence figures in any scale below 28mm (and better than some of that size!).

Basing and Rules

My infantry are mostly based in fours on 20mm stands, representing – roughly – a company. This is also practical as I find 10mm to be too fiddly for lots of complex basing arrangements. Where the OOB doesnt quite fit basing in fours then I have just rounded up to make it easy. Skirmishers and cavalry are in twos on 25mm square bases.

This approach will allow me to using British Grenadier rules, although I am most likely to use Loose Files & American Scramble with some tweaks. The elegance of that ruleset in a two page magazine article is hard to beat.

Historical Accuracy

I’ve had a go at representing units with a level of accuracy – where it is known – but also make no apologies for going with what kept the painting interesting or styles that help identify units in the game (10mm is – really – small!) . So, the von Bose have stripey trousers, the Continentals have 2 flags and the militia just one, a British general is equipped with a tartan “rug” and General Greene appears to think he is George Washington. In particular pretty much all of the flags on the American side are made up based on available pictures and what I thought I’d be able to paint. There are a myriad other mistakes as well, lets assume they are all deliberate.

Lord Cornwallis’ Army

Greene’s Army