Reviewing New Recruits (2): Infantry, part 1

 Regular readers will know that I have recently acquired a nice lot of vintage Minifigs 25mm 7YW/AWI figures, whose former owners were members of the Whitehall Warlords club. I've been going through them ( there are twelve boxes full!),  making notes and taking 'mugshots' of each unit.   So far I've gone through seven boxes of infantry  ( I showed some of the cavalry in a previous post );  and I'll give a quick run-through of the first four boxes here. I am reasonably confident of what is being represented in most cases, though there are a few mystery men -  I'd welcome any opinions on what they might be! 

Box 1 was sold as  Bavarians:  there are two 'regiments'  ( that's what I'm calling them, at least ), one with red facings, the other yellow facings,  each of two battalions. Each battalion has a 'company' each of what look like Grenadiers and 'Light Bobs'  -  I have not checked on when that battalion organisation might have been introduced, but feel it might be later than 7YW.  

They have fictionalised French-style flags, so I suspect these are leaning towards an 'Imagi-nation' setup. But they are nice, and there's some mounted officers and a couple of regimental  gun crews too, all potentially useful. 

Here's the 'red' regiment with officer and gun crew.. 

  .. and the 'yellow' regiment in close-up 

 

Box 2: described as 'French and Swiss' :  

First a battalion of (judging from the flag) probably Picardie regiment :

( I have my own Regiment Picardie from Garrison figures, so I will probably change the flag on these to another unit with similar facing colours ).

also a  battalion of  'Santorge' regiment :

 ..and two battlaions 'Vaubecourt' regiment, with their Colonel : 

 and some  'Swiss' : I have not delved into what regiment they might be representing, and they don't have flags, which can be the easy way to identify them! Need to look into them a bit more.. 

 Box 3 and it all gets a bit more esoteric :  AWI  Americans and Native Americans! 

The American  units are conveniently labelled under the bases, so I know what they are intended to be,  and we'll start with '3rd New York' :

 

  and '1st Continental'  :

 then '3rd Pennsilvania' 

and the rather interesting-looking 'Glovers Marblehead' with splendid snake 'Don't Tread On Me' standard! 

  various riflemen/militia,  

 

and an assortment of drummers on a single base - a sort of amalgamated band? 
 

A very minor point, but that last one is a good example of some pretty unusual basing that has been used for some units - they are on an aluminium bases, which have clearly been specially cut by someone with access to fairly serious machinery! Maybe the former owner knew someone with a metalwork shop.. Serious 'old school' basing, anyway, and as the chap selling them said, the only problem is that they can't be used with magnetic paper in storage boxes!  You'll notice there are several basing styles going on here, because there were several different owners/painters involved. There are a few rather ragged cardboard bases that will need replacing, but  I'm inclined to keep them as they are as far as possible, partly because re-basing is just tedious, and partly to reflect the history and 'heritage' of the figures - which are probably 30 or even 40 years old, some perhaps even older. I think the ones on Aluminium bases may be hard to remove, anyway!  

Next the Native Americans, in what look to be three distinct 'Warbands', if that's appropriate. The first one is led by a British officer and features a few red coats, so I think we can surmise  their allegiance:  

 

 and the third is a real curiosity, with those red facemasks! 

 I'd be quite interested if anyone can suggest what tribe or faction these might be representing... 

 

We'll finish with Box number 4 : oodles more French, and a lone Hungarian unit.  the French are labelled with their former owners' designations, so easy to identify. Starting with Royal Italien Infanterie: 

 Touraine Infanterie: 

 Soissonais:

and Bourbonais:

 ..and finally the wild card,  'Hungarian Fusiliers'  

That's enough for now, I think! Plenty more boxes to come, though - I am still working through them, identifiying units and taking pictures.  I have clearly got the makings of a decent French army, to start with!  I'm quite pleased with that, as I was just starting to try to add a French contingent to my collection. I'm going to need to add some cavalry for them - I have some dragoons awaiting painting, and I will look into acquiring some more of the basic types. 

The Americans and Native Americans  are a completely new direction for me, but I'm quite pleased to have them - topical too, with the 250th anniversary upon us. I have a copy of 'Rebels and Patriots', and I can see some games of that being possible ( no British yet, but watch this space - or the red-coated Swiss might stand in!).

Bavarians and Hungarians interesting too - the former can be a small allied contingent, traditionally to the French, but Imaginary campaigns can allow all sorts of 'what-if' alliances. And the Hungarian unit is a nice addition to my existing Austrians, whose infantry units  are currently all 'German'.  

More to come - as a teaser, I can say Box no.5 is full of Russians! I will continue sorting through them  and show more pictures in future posts. I am rather enjoying the process of all this -  is it  a rather extended example of Bob Cordery's 'sorting the button box'?   I also need to plan a campaign, clearly..!  So, more to come in the next post or two, watch this space. Meanwhile keep well, everyone.