The Tim Reese Gallery

Military Miniatures Artist of the Month

Tim Reese, artist.

Tim Reese, born on Guy Fawkes Day, Inkerman Day, 5 November 1947, lives and works as a military artist in Burkittsville, Maryland, USA, about 40 miles northwest of Washington, DC. Prior to his career in the Art of Wars, Tim Reese worked as a museum exhibits specialist (graphics) for the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Tim Reese started painting miniatures about age 7. By the time he reached high school Tim was painting war game and show figures (54 mm) for everyone in his club. Accrued proceeds largely paid for his first year’s tuition to commercial art school, which also marked the end of Tim’s figure-painting days in deference to earning a full-time living.

While he no longer owns any miniatures, Tim Reese has literally painted Zillions of military miniatures until he had to do artwork for a living. Asked, which historical period he preferred, Tim Reese told us "I am an unrepentant Victorian Brit freak, but from the purely artistic viewpoint I have yet to meet any subject which does not intrigue -- any country, any period."

Tim Reese’s interest in the miniatures hobby was inspired by Duke Seifried, a legend in the 1960s US wargaming world. At the time he lived only about two miles away in Kettering, Ohio where Tim Reese grew up. "We both belonged to the Dayton, Ohio club which on occasion staged large Napoleonic games with the Chicago club, using a fully landscaped, two-car garage floor and thousands of 30 mm figures no less. Two-day battles with up to a dozen combatants which required eating and sleeping close by the arena. Those were the days!" Jim told us.

Having devised his own digital artwork technique, Jim Reese now works to illustrate a broader range of military forms for which he could never find suitable reference in the past. He says, he’s fortunate to have fifty years accrued knowledge and experience of a wide range of military subjects: "The learning process never ceases. I have published three books, but vastly prefer artwork to writing". Details and examples of Jim Reese’s work appear on his web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~tjreesecg/. Feedback for future CD subjects is always welcome.

Hesse-Cassel Infanterie-Regiment von Trümbach

This example of Tim Reese’s work shows the Hesse-Cassel Infanterie-Regiment von Trümbach, which served in the American War of Independence. The regiment arrived in America in August of 1776, and returned to Germany in 1783. The Trümbach regiment received a new Inhaber while in America, and changed its name to Infanterie-Regiment von Bose.

Comte de Rochambeau

This plate shows lieutenant général Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau who commanded the French expeditionary force in America from 1780 to 1782. In September of 1781, French and American troops under Rochambeau and George Washington defeated the British, Loyalist, and German defenders of Yorktown under Lord Cornwallis. Rochambeau later beame maréchal de France.

Watch this page for upcoming photos and feature articles of Tim Reese’s artistic work. Readers of Military Miniatures Magazine are welcome to nominate talented miniature artists who deserve their own Military Miniatures Gallery section within our magazine.

Military Miniatures Gallery