Hanoverian Pontooniers

Another week in February, another small Challenge post from me.  This period is my heaviest work wise but the end of the tunnel is in sight.  Of course it would help if I didn't have 7 projects in various states of completion on the workbench, all of them started since the Challenge began.

The six guys who do all the work and the blowhard who watches them.

I have a group of 6 Hanoverian Pontooniers from the Seven Years Wars for the engineer  Drumpf to order around.  I gave the lace work of the light dragoons and highlanders a rest for a bit and worked on some support troops with less detail required.  

It need to be a YUGE bridge boys, the best ever!

These figures are from the Perry AWI range and packaged as American Drag Rope Men, meaning that they are infantrymen and civilians drafted in to do the man handling of artillery pieces.  I am continuing to mine this excellent range of figures and morph it to fit my Seven Years War needs.  I partiulary like that these chaps have obviously been doing some seriously hard labour and are taking a well deserved rest. 

There appear to have been no rank and file engineer troops like sappers and miners in the Anglo-Allied army I am modelling.  However, Hanover maintained a corps of Pontooniers which makes sense given the large rivers in the Electorate.  I figured that these could be used as a group of Engineers for my Sharp Practice games.  Also the ropes that these lads are carrying would fit with the job of build a pontoon bridge or various other engineering tasks.

I am loving these period Hanoverian illustrations.  Pontoonier flanked by Engineer and artillery trainman.

Uniform wise they wore the lovely blue coat that they shared with Hanoverian artillery along with a blue waistcoat and buff breeches.  This is represented in the centre figure from this period illustration.  The Perry figures come in various states of dress suited to heavy work.  Two are in waistcoats and tricorns and the rest in shirt sleeves, and all have discarded their gaiters.  Furthermore, three of the figures in shirtsleeves are wearing floppy hats which I have painted to represent straw hats.  I figure that I can use the four figures in shirt sleeves as civilian labourers as well.

I got your YUGE bridge right here!

What does this idiot want now? I am late for my yoga class and I really need some downward facing dog.

With the white shirts and buff breeches, painting got rather monochromatic so I used heavier shading on these figures.  I also figured it gave the impression of sweat and dust stained clothes from heavy lifting and shifting.

Drumpf is a pre-existing condition, so that's six foot figures for 30 points.