Historical gaming

I've never played any historical tabletop games before, I've always been a GW player/painter, but over the last year my eyes have opened up to all the other options out there that don't seem to want to abuse their customer base with yearly price hikes and silly looking new kits. 7TV seems to scratch that itch, but it's been interesting reading something like Wargames Illustrated that caters for so many different systems that I'd love to give something like Saga or Hail Caesar a go. One day I must go and investigate some of the other gaming clubs around here and see if someone can run me a demo. Anyway, I seem to have wandered from why I started this post. While reading some forums on historicals, I came across a group of guys who are planning on having a large charity game at Triples 2014, Bloggers for Charity. These guys intend to try to recreate the Battle of La Belle-Famille, a large battle from the French and Indian War in 1759. I don't know much about the period, but it's very tempting to offer some painting services as I'm unlikely to ever buy that time period myself and it's always nice to mix things up every now and then with a challenge or two.