War of 1812

[joroas]

I am considering Napoleonics, but on a low level than huge armies.  I am going to use Victrix for most of the British, but may well have to use Foundry for the US and odds, but they are grossly overpriced.  I have looked at Old Glory, nice range, but only available in huge quantities.  Any other sources or ideas?

[Calimero]

Have a look at this thread... http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=23963.0

[Gluteus Maximus]

I thought about 18mm War of 1812 several years ago, but the price and lack of figures steered me down the 15mm road. Still got loads of stuff in bags ready to be painted    Sadly, there still doesn't seem to be  uch of  a choice of dedicated figures, which is a shame as it is a fascinating conflict.

In case you hadn't seen them, The Perfect Captain does two sets of lovely free rules, at skirmish and company level:

http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/jonathan.htm
http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/jbull.html

Should cover everything you'd need.

[joroas]

TThanks for the feedback, folks.  I have decided to get the Victrix boxes for now, their Peninsula range covers Infantry, Highlanders and Artillery, with addons for Marines and Light Infantry.  Some Light Dragoons and Rifles from Perry and Sailors from Foundry will complete it. 

At least then I have a useful army that I can expand out t o face my Minifigs French (ouch) and then look for US on EBay.

Thoughts.......... 

[Gluteus Maximus]

TThanks for the feedback, folks.  I have decided to get the Victrix boxes for now, their Peninsula range covers Infantry, Highlanders and Artillery, with addons for Marines and Light Infantry.  Some Light Dragoons and Rifles from Perry and Sailors from Foundry will complete it. 

At least then I have a useful army that I can expand out t o face my Minifigs French (ouch) and then look for US on EBay.

Thoughts.......... 

Try looking in AWI ranges for some suitable Indians, backwoodsmen in fringed hunting shirts etc. Lots of the USA troops were militia so with some minor conversion other Nap-era figures might work. Winfield Scott's regular Brigade wore tail-less coats very similar in cut to ACW shell jackets, so with a bit of conversion some Perry ACW and modified British Belgic shakoes etc would do for them

[joroas]

Oh, gosh, I'd forgotten about native Americans.  I have loads of ACW in my shed, and the benefits of a plastics bit box suddenly come to the fore.

Napoleonics with a bit extra and small enough in scale to have a dozen units and still be accurate.  The lack of cavalry make this doable cheaply.

[Gluteus Maximus]

For the small numbers of British cavalry, Light Dragoons in Tarletons (for Canadian Militia) and in shakoes for British regulars are fine. The Canadians just need their fancy embroidery filing off to give them "shell jackets" (or possibly you could use Tarleton's "British Legion" from the AWI, with overalls added) and the British are straight out of the box. Buff facings, IIRC 

The Americans are slightly more problematical, but their regular dragoons are not a million miles away from the French version. A bit more of a complcated conversion, but with Perry plastics, certainly feasible.

You'd only need about a squadron for each side, depending on scale of game maybe only 5 or 6. As you say though, they are really not necessary, as they were mainly used in scouting etc due to the small number available and the generally close terrain.

Again, you're probably aware of this, but the various types of Canadian militia infantry were dressed exactly as the Regulars, but with some nice variations in colour, which makes for more "local flavour". The Glengarry Lt Infantry were almost identical to the 95th Rifles, except they carried muskets and they are certainly worth adding to your British/Canadian forces

If you need specific details, let me know as I have several good books - if I can find them after all this time 

I'm getting my interest for this war rekindled now and might have to dig all my stuff out!

[carlos marighela]

The Knuckleduster Yanks look really nice. Think I would go with them if I was doing this project. 

I contemplated it for a while, the British cemetary in Salvador conatins the mortal remains of at least one of the survivors of HMS Java's epic struggle against the USS Constitution and that caught my imagination for a while.