The War of 1812-1838

Yes yes, I know, I'm conflating two conflicts but its on purpose. I realize that there are those who feel that a game is not  a valid historical wargame if one unit has the wrong hat or the wrong shade of facing but obviously I am not quite so fussy. A few years ago I decided that I was building too many armies for very similar games, same weapons, tactics, troop types and terrain, different hats.

I started looking for ways to indulge the desire to paint such and such a uniform without building whole armies for each. One option is of course the fictional army route but another is to allow similar uniforms from different wars to be used together despite small differences in style of shako and the like. I had almost forgotten that decision as I started looking at what I have on hand for the War of 1812.

What there is and what will be.
40mm figures of various makes.

Once I had decided that I could live with the way existing units included officers and ncos in the ranks as fighting figures, I found that I have enough units on hand to fight most actions in proper uniforms and to fight the biggest games that I want to play with slight inaccuracies. I only need to paint 28 new figures, 12 of which are on hand, to  complete the basic force. At some point though I still want to add a troop of 1812 Light Dragoons and a unit of Voltigeurs. Without the optional wants I have 8 line infantry, 2 light + 1-4 Indians, 2 cavalry, 3 guns, a platoon of pioneers and an HQ group, 1 infantry, 1 light, 1 gun, 2 cavalry, the pioneers and the command group are from 1837 but close enough. I might actually try to sell the 4 chunky navy gunners instead of painting 2 more because I like the slightly later homemade ones better.  The unit needing the most new figures is the 49th Foot which is starting with 6 leftovers from the 89th Foot and 7 castings. Oh, there are 78 infantry to shift back on to washers.

I haven't laid all of the American forces out but it will come to 10+ infantry, 3 light, 1 gun, 1 cavalry and 2 militia. Obviously some holes to fill. Only 2+ of the infantry units are from 1837 but there is a stray unit of French converted to Mexicans to fit in as volunteers.  That's about 32 figures to  repaint and possibly re-convert. I do intend to add a troop of US Dragoons though and more gunners.

Not so scary after all. I'm going to start by fixing some broken figures then try to do a couple of figures each month until all units are up to scratch.