It does a little. That's more or less what I had told him, but it helps to have my educated guess verified. Did the British abandon the buttonhole lace as the war dragged on?

You can have that nickel when you pry it from my cold grey fingers.

I think they probably did and not just among the officers. That said, the Provincial regiments were supposed to be "lace-less" but several of the more prominent corps certainly did - mainly as a distinction in multi-battalion regiments. And then there's the Continental regiments from the three southernmost States...... :doh:

Yeah, bit they still had lace on them thar buttonholes, sunny. I suspect it was to distinguish the cold (blue) bits from the uniform coat.

Others worshipped John Wayne, Randolph Scott, and Burt Lancaster. My Western heroes were Slim Pickens and Walter Brennan (I know, I know; I'm still in theraopy and walk with a limp). Give me Rio Bravo over El Dorado and Rio Lobo, every time. Yeeeeeh haaa, pardnur. :clap: :D :mental:

I wasn't a big fan of westerns, but I did occasionally enjoy a John Wayne film: The Horse Soldiers; She Wore A Yellow Ribbon; and similar. Actually, he's fairly watchable in most any of his westerns. And Jack Elam was a hoot. I liked Walter Brennan too, but Slim didn't do much for me. Did you folks ever get Gunsmoke?

Erm, so does anyone else have an opinion about which is harder to paint -- British or Continentals?

From my slight experience there are two factors: Continentals - a more varied uniform can be more interesting to paint, but can drive you mad finding different shades and trying to come up with sufficent variety. British - a singular uniform can be faster to paint, but boring and the lace can be fiddly. it depend sto a large extent on the painter's preferences - an industrious grinder will like British, an indecisive flibbertygibbet will like Continentals. So far, I like Continentals :)

I've not painted any Perry AWI but I've done a few of their ECW and about 100 Sudan an although this comment is true to all figures I've found it especially true of the Perry casts: When I began them they drove me absolutely mad to the point that I simply couldn't work out how people put whole units let alone armies to their models together. However, some way into my Sudan project I can positively crack though them now I've 'learnt' the figures so to speak. However slow your initial start may be don't give up – my first 30 Sudan models were very slow and I shelved the project for over a year before trying again.

Are the Perrys still making new AWI sculpts? They don't seem to have much that reflects the early war uniforms for the British, and zero Continental cavalry.

Alan Perry made early war Brits and Continental cavalry for his Foundry range, so no need to revisit those particular troop types (although there are occasional rumours that he might at some stage, maybe, do some more Continental cavalry). I have seen masters of new northern-state militia, but I think Alan wants to make some more packs to build up a decent release, which could take some time given the extent of the company's other projects at the moment.