





The construction of 17th and 18th-century European fortifications were revolutionized by the writing of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the French military engineer and author of A Manual of Siegecraft and Fortification. His formal star-shaped forts of the era defined military and city defensive architecture throughout Europe and in overseas colonies.
North American wilderness warfare of the French and Indian War often called for more hastily-built backcountry defenses. A paper by Military Architecture of the American Frontier, made available online by the National Park Service, provides an overview of how Vauban’s and other writings of the period influenced fort building in a very different environment. Blockhouses and stockades were common, and some reconstructed examples like Fort Necessity and Fort Ligonier can be visited today. Given even less time and planning, dirt, plentiful trees, and woven gabions filled with rocks could be used to create a somewhat formidable defensive position by throwing the strong backs of soldiers and hired civilians into the effort. While some Vauban-style grand forts of the period like Fort Niagara and Fort Ticonderoga still stand centuries later in the United States, countless small, temporary fortifications have been long lost to time.
A plan of Fort Ligonier, Pennsylvania from “A Set of Plans and Forts in America. Reduced from Actual Surveys” by John Rocque (c. 1750)
My local club Metropolitan Wargamers in Brooklyn, NY has hundreds of pieces of terrain in multiple scales spanning many historical eras. Some of these pieces are decades old, once belonging to members who have long since moved on. They reflect different wargaming modeling techniques of the past and some bear the markings of manufacturers long gone.
I’ve taken it upon myself recently to rebuild and refresh some of these pieces, particularly a number of 28mm buildings and scratch built terrain models appropriate to 18th-century scenarios of the French and Indian War era. With this in mind, a large, banged-up and dusty wilderness fortress piece recently caught my eye on the club’s shelf and I set to work making it usable again.
A decades-old scratchbuilt piece of terrain in need of repair
Mounted on a piece of quarter-inch plywood measuring about 8″ x 18″, this hefty model features three canon positions on a plaster raised earth mound surrounded by resin-cast wicker gabions and sharpened wooden stakes. The years had not been kind to the model. Original trees had snapped off long ago, several breaks in the plaster were evident, grass had worn off, fences were broken and overall, the whole model had taken on a drab appearance.
Some initial repairs and a fresh coat of paint
The first step was to clean the model of the layers of dust accumulated over the years, remove remnants of broken trees and trim off flaking and broken bits of plaster. Next, I filled cracks and missing areas of plaster with lightweight wood filler. All the earthen areas then received a fresh coat of dark brown paint over which I dry brushed varying layers of browns and gray paints.
With the base repainted, I made small glued repairs to broken fencing. I also added a few spare sticks and a barrel to bring some detail to the model as if repairs were an ongoing part of the fortification’s use. From there, the logs, fence, sharpened stakes and gabions were repainted and weathered using more dry brushed coats of browns and grays.
New trees are glued to the model
With most of the new painting done, I turned to adding new trees. I drilled and glued nails into the trunks of pre-made trees from Woodland Scenics which were then glued into holes in the base at the rear along the fence. The trees added textural and vertical interest to an otherwise flat model and also provided some additional color to the overall earthiness of the terrain.
A layer of new groundcover is applied over the model
Further texture and color was added with my favorite Adirondack Blend from Scenic Express. This material contains grass of varying color and texture along with other larger bits of scattered twigs and wood chips which give a highly detailed look that reflects the ground of the North American wilderness. To attach, I heavily brushed white glue on a section at a time all around the base of the fortification and then shook a thick layer of the grass over the glue. Some areas around the logs also received a bit of grass to break up the sameness of the main battery area. Once dry, I lightly tapped the excess grass off the model, carefully scooping up the extra for use again. Finally, a couple small bits of clump foliage were glued around the trees and in random areas along the model’s base. With everything dry, the model got a matte spray coat to hold on the grass and seal the new paint.
In less than a couple hours work, the whole model popped back to life after sitting unused for years. The fortress also has a look more consistent with some of my other terrain pieces, allowing for a more unified look on the table. The project has inspired me to have a look at rebuilding other long-ignored pieces of terrain at the club, bringing them into a new century of miniature wargaming for hopefully years to come.
In the early 1700s, Scots from clans loyal to the British ruling government had been recruited into local law keeping forces and later as more formal militia. Allowed to dress and employ traditional Highland garb and weapons, Scottish forces would serve the British military cause from the European mainland to Egypt to the Caribbean to India over the next two centuries. Three Highlander regiments — the 42nd, 77th and 78th — would distinguish themselves in service of the Crown’s rule in the first major 18th-century conflict of British North America, the French and Indian War (1756-1763).
The Highland Regiment Exercising on Glasgow Green, 1758 (artist unknown)
The 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot set sail for North America in January of 1757 and landed in April. During their time in the colonies, these Scotsmen would participate in many key battles of the FIW, including the Battle of Carillion (1758) and the capture of Fort Ticonderoga (1759). After the war, the 42nd Foot spent time in Pennsylvania at Fort Pitt and Fort Ligonier before fighting in one of their most famed battles during Pontiac’s Rebellion at Bushy Run, Pennsylvania in August 1763.
Aside from a general collection of FIW books, I turned to a copy of Osprey Publishing’s Highlander in the French-Indian War, 1756–67 by Ian Macpherson McCulloch. The book focuses on three Highlander regiments of the period, including the 42nd Foot I’ve chosen to model. The historic background, period illustrations and contemporary plates make this a great foundation for anyone wanting to learn a bit more about the Highland regiments of the period. One plate in particular portrays detail of uniform and equipment of a typical c. 1756 private of the 42nd Foot — just the inspiration I needed as I worked on fielding my very first Highlander models.
I managed to score a half-dozen Highlanders from North Star Military Figures at half price during a recent close-out sale. Sadly, North Star is mothballing their FIW line of models for the time being as Studio Tomahawk works toward a future second edition of the popular Muskets & Tomahawks wargaming rules. I had previously painted up some of their French Canadian miniatures and I still have some of their Indians in my painting queue, so I was glad to add a few of their Highlanders to my collection while I could.
The 18th-century is fun to paint for the diversity of uniforms, weapons and mode of dress, and these Highlanders were no exceptions. This was my first go at tartan kilts, so I sunk some time into watching how-to videos online. I went with a simple technique of dark blue undercoat followed by layered grids of varying greens and greys to approximate the signature tartan of the 42nd Foot. Close-up it looks a bit pointillistic, but at arm’s length on the table I was pretty satisfied with the results.
The rest of the figures were a bit more straight forward with red jackets and blue bonnets (or “tams”) with red balls on the top and red lacing at the brim. The officer also got some fancy stockings with an angled cross-hatched plaid of white and red. Having just six of the North Star Highlander models completed, I wish I had bought more before they became impossible to get. That said, I’ll be tracking down some more from other manufacturers so I can better field a large force of the 42nd Royal Highlanders.
Having some French and Indian War British Regular Infantry from Blue Moon Manufacturing under my belt, I turned to them again to build out more of my French Canadian forces. Their FIW 28mm figures line called “Drums In The Ohio Valley” has a box of twenty figures named simply “The French” and is themed as part of Braddock’s Defeat.
Blue Moon’s box of irregular French includes an officer and 18 figures in varying poses loading, walking, aiming and firing. A big bonus with these models is their cast round bases, giving them a nice heft and no need for any additional basing. My one pet peeve is the inclusion of a (for me) unnecessary casualty figure.
Aside from a minor complaint about one of twenty models, these Blue Moon miniatures scale nicely with my other Canadian Militia from North Star. I particularly like the various firing poses and two command figures gesturing orders to their men, ready to attack in the 18th-century North American wilderness.
When British General Edward Braddock launched his campaign through the Ohio Country to Fort Duquesne in the spring of 1755, the call went out for wagons. With some 2,000 soldiers at his command, Braddock was a typical commander of the French and Indian War era whose plans rested heavily on the support of local civilians willing to port the tons of supplied needed for a planned siege some 110 miles away.
After initial appeals were largely ignored by a population not particularly pleased with existing British colonial governance, appeals by Benjamin Franklin to his Pennsylvania countrymen finally yielded the needed transports for the campaign. An excellent 1959 publication from the Smithsonian Institution by Don H. Berkebile, Conestoga Wagons In Braddock’s Campaign, 1755, provides great detail on the supply train in Braddock’s campaign. Some 150 locally-provided wagons combined with Braddock’s own to form nearly 200 transports carrying powder, ammunition, food and other goods necessary for such an undertaking into the relatively untamed wilderness. Additionally, Braddock also had five six-pound guns, four twelve-pound guns, three coehorns and four howitzers in tow with the design on breaking French control in the region.
Map of Braddock’s Road (John Kennedy Lacock, 1912)
Cutting trees, clearing brush, fording streams, blasting rock and transversing the steep hills and mountains of Western Pennsylvania, Braddock’s miles-long force moved along a 12 foot wide path at just two miles a day. George Washington, then a young British Colonel, had cautioned his mentor Braddock against reliance on wagons in the rough wilderness and advocated the use of pack animals instead. Braddock’s column certainly contained dozens of horses and scores of cattle, but the majority of supplies rode on wagons in a European style uniformed by the roughness of North America’s backcountry. When the advance force of Braddock’s line was ambushed at the Battle of the Monongahela by the French and French-allied Indians on July 9, 1755, the soldiers and civilian supply train was thrown into chaos. By the end of the day, the disordered column was in hasty retreat, Braddock was dead and Washington was forever changed after having witnessed the death of his role model.
Farmer John Shreiner and his Conestoga Wagon, Lancaster County, PA, circa 1910
As Berkebile’s article points out, the exact number and make-up of the types wagons mustered for Braddock’s campaign is unknown. There is no doubt conestoga wagons, invented in Pennsylvania in the 1730s, made up some part of the supply column. State of the art for the era, conestoga wagons became icons of the American frontier for their multiple ton capacity, wide wheels and ruggedness. Other transports such as tumbrels and powder wagons supplemented the carrying load for Braddock.
For my FIW transports I’ve gone with a number of models from Perry Miniatures. Cast in metal and resin, these hefty models are cast with great detail and each are accompanied by civilians who provided the skill needed for the campaign. With five wagons completed, I have plenty of transports ready to represent Braddock’s or other FIW era armies heading into the wilds of the North American wilderness.
Conestoga wagon by Perry Miniatures
Two horse lumber with six pound gun by Perry Miniatures
Four wheeled ammunition wagon by Perry Miniatures
Two wheeled tumbrel by Perry Miniatures
Two wheeled powder wagon by Perry Miniatures
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