J's Miniature Civil War

Redoubt Confederate Casualties and Skirmishers

2012-01-14T06:41:00.000-08:00

I'm really enjoying painting these figures. The sculpts are really nice and the figures are full of character. I'm also enjoying taking my time and painting these 2-3 at a time with no hard deadline to finish Regiments, etc.

The casualty's musket is a simple conversion. I bought an extra pack of loose muskets and just super glued it so that it appears to be suspended mid air.

Two more- not much to comment on.

Next up will be a few posts on other Civil War ancestors, and maybe a few Revolutionary War (American War of Independence) ancestors. If you haven't checked them out, I've added a few pages as well.

"Ragged Reb Wounded and Stragglers"

2012-01-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

These are from Redoubt's "Ragged Reb Wounded and Stragglers" set. They are really nice figures and were a lot of fun to paint. They are really shiny but when I base them they will get a spray of matte coat.

First post of 2012! Redoubt Casualties

2012-01-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Here are some casualty figures from Redoubt. Hopefully what I'm lacking in quantity I will make up for in quality. I've put a lot of effort into improving my flesh painting, and it seems to be paying off. I've also starting using some more washes for ACW. Games Workshops 'Ogryn Flesh' to be exact. I've been reading a lot on the Civil War lately, including a lot of actual first hand accounts, and I'm starting to lean towards making them DIRTY!

Here is another figure for the 146th NY. I'm slowly but surely finishing the Regiment.

This puts me on pace for 365 posts this year! Now let's see if I can keep up the pace!

Redoubt Confederates

2011-12-31T20:45:00.000-08:00

Well what do you know! I'm posting actual miniature related content! I have actually been painting a small amount but with our continued computer problems I haven't really been uploading/posting anything. I'll try to get some more up soon and in a month or so we'll have a new computer so posting should resume to a normal level.

My secret project that I was working on for a Christmas present will now be a "sometime in the spring present" for two reasons: I didn't finish in time, and I won't see the recipient for a month or two anyways as they are in another state. But I decided to post a few pictures of some of the miniatures that hopefully won't give away any secrets if anyone is snooping around.

These are all from Redoubt Enterprises. This was the first time I've painted any of their miniatures and I have to say they are really nice. At first I wasn't thrilled about having the heads separate from the bodies but now I'm sold. I'm really glad I ordered a few extra pack of heads, it gave me a lot of freedom to customize them.

Thanks to all of my followers and readers for sticking with me through my posting droughts! I appreciate all the views and comments.

More to come soon!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T11:39:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Paintings on the Stones River battlefield markers

2011-12-03T07:41:00.000-08:00

In a previous post I mentioned the paintings on the markers at the Stones River battlefield. I couldn't find the artist's name so I e-mailed the park and after a few days had a response! The artist is Andy Thomas and the paintings were commissioned specifically for the park. You can view his website here. Now to find out where I can buy a print!

Stones River National Cemetery

2011-11-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

Adjacent to the Stones River battlefield is the Stones River National Cemetery, final resting place to 6,850 soldiers.

Click to enlarge if you'd like to read the marker explaining the history of the cemetery.

Position of Loomis' Battery, 1st Michigan Light Artillery, during the battle. They were engaged on December 31st, 1862, and January 2nd 1863.

Pvt Henry B. King, Co. F, 3rd Kentucky Infantry (US)

Pvt William H. Simmons, Co. A, 4th Tennessee Cavalry (US)

Pvt William R. Breedlove, Co. H, 82nd Indiana Infantry

Pvt David Martin, Co. A, 10th Ohio Cavalry

Sgt John Martin, Co. D, 4th Ohio Cavalry

Pvt Clay C. Martin, Co. B, 21st Ohio Infantry

Unknown soldier marker.

Cpl Joseph Martin, Co. K, 6th Ohio Infantry

Grave marker for 7 unknown soldiers.

Grave marker for 3 unknown soldiers.

I'm thankful for a patient wife, who walks countless cemeteries with me, but far more thankful for the hero's buried there.

Stones River Battlefield. Part 2: The Battlefield

2011-11-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

After visiting the museum, we did the driving tour of the battlefield, and stopped and walked around at several locations. The battlefield itself is huge and would take a couple of days to see on foot. I took a lot of pictures and I'll just post a few here to give a sense of the battlefield. Above is the Chicago Board of Trade Battery.

My favorite thing at the battlefield were the paintings on all of the battlefield markers. If anyone has any more info on these I would be interested to know. Please comment or send me an e-mail.

View from the Union defenders position on the first day of the battle (December 31st, 1862) as they rally and stem the tide of advancing Confederates.

Closeup of the painting.

Position of Batteries H and M, 4th Regiment, United States Artillery (Regular Army) on December 31st, 1862.

Marker for "The Slaughter Pen".

It was a little intimidating to walk through the rocks of the slaughter pen, knowing that it was on this difficult ground that such a violent struggle took place.

Here Sheridan's Division stood when the rest of the army fled, and held it with heavy losses while Rosecrans could rally his disordered command.

As a bit of an Orphan Brigade connoisseur, I was extremely excited to see the site of their heroic charge from the 3rd day of the battle (January 2nd, 1863).

I would love to get a print of this painting!

Under horrific fire, the Confederate attackers had to cross the Stones River...

...and climb the rocky banks.

Once across the river, the orphans were faced by massed artillery just beyond those trees.

On this hill stood 57 Union guns.

Stones River Battlefield. Part 1: The Museum

2011-10-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

The obligatory picture of myself, to prove I was there... This was not my favorite battlefield museum, but there were some great pieces and several that were connected to specific individuals, which added to their interest a great deal.

Private Sylvester N. Winchester carried this fife into battle and was killed on the first day.

The picture does not do this diorama any justice. It is a great blend between the painted background, the miniatures, lights, and sound effects.

There are a lot of "dug" artillery projectiles...

The wax soldiers were quite scary... as were the tourists!

...And now for something completely different. There was a random pile of shoes in one corner with no marker at all. I'm not sure what it was for but for a Civil War nerd such as myself it was as entertaining as the most well planned exhibit.

I REALLY wanted to get some good detail pictures of this, but due to an extremely old and cheap camera, poor lighting, and a bumbling photographer (I shouldn't have let my wife hold the camera) these are the best I got.

It's so incredible to be able to see these kinds of things up close.

This was an especially moving piece, a letter to Mrs. Hall in regards to her sons death:

Manchester, Tenn. Feb. 9th, 1863

Dear Mrs. Hall.

As an opportunity offers itself to send a letter through to you. I conclude to write you feeling it a duty to give you information in regard to Henry, who you have doubtless been informed met his fate on the field of Murfreesboro.

He was killed almost instantly by a cannon ball passing through both thighs, severing his legs from his body, on Friday the 2nd of January. It being almost dark and us being compelled to retire from the field, I am sorry to say his body fell in the hands of the enemy. I did not see him myself after he was killed, we was separated during the battle.

I heard he was killed before the battle was over and tried to recover his body, but could not find it. I was very much grieved to leave him on the field, but under the circumstances it could not be otherwise. Henry and myself have associated together for several years and I always found in him a kind and faithful friend.

You can imagine, Mrs. Hall, how much I am grieved for him, but we should not morn now he is dead. The hand of God has cut him down, and I hope, taken his soul from this world of sorrow to Himself above, where he may enjoy eternal bliss.

You must not grieve for Henry, but only think of the thousands of mothers in your condition made so by the implacable enemy who seeks to destroy our liberty and enslave us. Your son died a martyr, nobly laying down his life for his country. He was a good boy and a good soldier. He will ever live in the memory of his comrades, whose fortunes it may be to survive this bloody war.

I will close as I believe I have written all of which I know of the subject, painful as it is for me to speak or even think of. Virgil was wounded slightly, but has recovered entirely and is in good health.

From Yours Truly

H.F. Nuckols 4th KY

Another sad letter on display:

January 14, 1863

Mrs. Lieutenant Nix,

It becomes my sad duty to inform you of the death of your husband and our much esteemed friend and comrade. He fell on the 31st of December while repelling an attack of Rebel forces and died like a true soldier doing his duty to his country.

He was shot through the body and was taken to our Hospital which was soon after, taken by the enemy, who held it until the evacuation of Murfreesboro. He died on the 5th or 6th and was buried by Lieutenant Chase of our company with military honors.

I have his effects in my possession and shall forward them to you the first opportunity. I have his revolver, sword and money and other things belonging to him. You have lost your best friend of Earth, and we deeply feel with you in this sad bereavement, for we too have lost an Esteemed Friend and true soldier.

He did his duty up to the time he fell and was loved, and his true Qualities were appreciated by all that knew him. His name and his deeds will always be held in sacred remembers by me and the members under my commend.

Yours Respectfully,

Captain A. Philbrook

(The museum also has his sword, but I failed to get a clear picture of it)

Lieutenant Christian Nix's headstone from his initial burial on the battlefield. He was part of the 24th Wisconsin.

More artillery shells... these were found inside the Hazen Brigade monument in 1985.

This was an interesting piece: The Medal of Honor earned by Private Joseph R. Prentice. He received this award for a brave attempt to save his commanding officer's life. He was one of twelve men to earn the Medal of Honor at the Battle of Stones River.

Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Stones River by David R. Logsdon

2011-10-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

I own three of the books in this series (Perryville, Franklin, and Stones River) and they are all excellent. I just finished this one and wanted to recommend it.
Mr. Logsdon does an outstanding job of compiling eyewitness accounts and presenting them in a manner that is clear and compelling.

There was one account in this book that really struck me as unfathomable and I wanted to share it here.

[Describing the scene at the Stones River battlefield, January 2, 1863]

"Going into the field of corn stubble, just fought over and trampled by both the charging rebels, their repulse and retreat, followed by our lines of blue charging them in turn, leaving the earth strewn with dead and dying. At my left I saw one of four men in blue stooping over a dead rebel. The awful feeling toward the ghouls who rob the dead on the field of battle...flashed through me; riding close up to him he looked up, startled by the tread of my horse, and holding up to me an open letter that he was just reading, before I could say a word he blurted out 'Oh, sir, this is my brother. I thought it was when we charged them, and I got leave to come back and see, and this is a letter from our mother.' And the tears ran down his cheeks as he sobbed and tried to clear his eyes with the back of his hand. A lump came in my throat as I turned away...A BLUE and a GREY of Kentucky regiments and who knows but that he had shot his own brother..."

Chaplain William H. Smith, 75th Illinois

(Copied here without permission)

Old excuses and new projects

2011-09-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been quiet post-wise but still lurking around. The summer is definitely a hobby killer! I've painted a small amount but thanks to continued computer problems (USB port issues) I've been unable to upload any pictures.

In other news I got a big order of ACW miniatures a few days ago from Redoubt Enterprises (for anyone interested it took 3 weeks from order to arrival from UK to US). I bought a few things for me but mostly miniatures to make a few themed diorama's for some friends to give as Christmas presents. Sadly I won't be posting any WIP pictures as I want it to be a surprise, but I'll take plenty of pictures and post them after the holidays. So it will continue to be relatively quiet around here. But I hope you stick around!

General Braxton Bragg

2011-09-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

Anyone else ever think this?

McGavock Confederate Cemetery, Franklin, Tennessee.

2011-08-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

Near the Franklin battlefield is the McGavock Confederate Cemetery, the largest privately owned military cemetery in the United States.

Each state represented in the cemetery has a monument with the number of soldiers resting there.

Most of the stones are simple such as the two above. Sadly a large number of them are marked unknown as the temporary wooded headstones used for the soldiers first burial faded or was used for fire wood by poor people before they were reinterred to the plot donated by the McGavock family in 1866 and the stone markers added in 1890.

Several had more information and I've added notes where known.

C.N.B. Street, Sergeant Major 33rd Mississippi Regiment

Killed November 30th 1864 at Franklin Tennessee

L.R. Townsend of Carroll County, Captain Co. E 4th Mississippi Regiment

Killed at Franklin Tennessee November 30th 1864, aged 32 years

W.D. Stone, Co. I 19th Regiment South Carolina Val

Frank Gray and John Russell, 6th Arkansas

C.A. Begbie July 12, 1826- January 13, 1902. 5th Kentucky Cavalry

W.B. son of John Early, 1832-September, 22 1894

Co. F 4th Tennessee Cavalry CSA. Twice wounded

There are 1496 Confederate soldiers buried here, it is maintained by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The internet has been a huge help for me as I research my ancestors and I hope that maybe one of the headstones I've posted here can someday be that exciting piece of history someone is looking to find.

Franklin, Tennessee Battlefield.

2011-08-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

How's that for a teaser shot? Sweating and smiling like an idiot! The Franklin battlefield was my favorite part of our whole vacation. It's a little surprising to stumble across such a bloody battlefield in the middle of a suburban neighborhood but that's exactly what Franklin is. What it lacks in size it makes up for in quality and rich history. The park was very well kept, the museum was excellent, the gift shop had a great selection of books, and the tour was well worth the $15 charge. I took a lot of pictures and I'll post some of them here with some notes. Hopefully my commentary isn't too confusing!

At the heart of the battle was the Carter House, and it is now a monument to the grisly fire of the engagement.

Here is the front of the Carter house. The tour was through the house and then across the property, it focused a lot on the Carter family, and their actions during the battle. The house was used as a federal headquarters prior to the battle, and shielded the family during the conflict.

A few yards away from the house is the farm office (on the left) and the smoke house (on the right)

Note the damage to the farm office. It is widely considered the most battle damaged Civil War structure still standing.

A close up of the damage.

Here is a shot of the scarring to the smoke house.

A shot of the farm office and smoke house from the steps of the Carter house back porch.

The back of the Carter house on the right, slave quarters on the left.

Bullet holes in the Carter house on the back porch.

Gun marking a federal battery.

Another gun placed next to the smoke house.

The view along the second line of Union fortifications. Standing by the artillery positions next to the smoke house, facing northwest down the federal position.

Standing behind the second line, the straw bales mark the main line.

Further northwest down the line, facing west.

The beautiful wife, braving the heat for her overly excited husband.

Plaque for the 183rd Ohio, facing the confederate approach.

North of the Carter house, from this position Opdycke's Brigade counter charged the rebels as they broke through the Union line and stemmed the breakthrough.

From the front of the Carter house facing south. A well known pizza chain, sitting on the site of some of the bloodiest fighting of the battle, the cotton gin.

There are a few preservation groups working to acquire this property and rebuild the cotton gin and restore the ground to it's historic condition before the 140th anniversary of the battle.

Plaque commemorating the struggle for the landmark.

Cleburne park, commemorating the place where General Cleburne was killed.

Plaque marking the confederate approach to the federal left.

Another shot.

One of the sad stories of the battle is that of Todd Carter, who after 3 years at war returned home with the 20th Tennessee and was killed a few hundred yards from the house he was born in, he died there a few days later.

Nashville National Cemetery

2011-08-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

Our first day in Nashville we got a little bit turned around and accidentally found the Nashville national cemetery.

The first soldier was buried there in 1864 and it was established as a U.S military cemetery in 1867. There are over 33,000 interments from all wars, of which over 12,000 are Union soldiers from the Civil War.

There are over 4,000 unknown soldiers buried there.

While I wish I could share every soldiers grave and give them the honor that they deserve, I'm unable to so I've noted a few of them here. You can see all of their names on the cemetery's website.

Augustus Reif, Corporal Co D 50th Ohio Infantry, died December 13, 1863.

Tillman Ford, Private Co C 1st Tennessee Artillery, died March 3, 1864.

Marson Mack, Private Co L 8th Tennessee Cavalry, died February 8, 1864.

Noah Holloway, Private Co I 10th Tennessee Cavalry, died April 7, 1864.

S. B. Adams, Lieutenant, TN, died February 2, 1864.

Thomas Nolan, Private Co I 103rd Illinois Infantry, died April 9, 1864

Edward Reynolds, Private, KY, died August 15, 1864.

Harrison Summers, Private, KY, died July 12, 1864.

This statute in the cemetery was dedicated in 2003 to all of the soldiers of the U.S Colored troops, of which almost 2,000 are buried there.

Lee Humphrey, Private U.S.C.T., died June 16, 1864.

Reuben Thornton, Private Co I 12th U.S Colored Troop, died February 14, 1899.

146th New York work-in-process 2

2011-08-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lack of posts as of late. The summer has been busy and we just got back from vacation in Tennessee (pictures of the Nashville National Military cemetery, Franklin battlefield, McGavock Confederate cemetery, Stones River battlefield, and Stones River national cemetery will be posted soon!)

Over the past month or so I have managed to paint a humble group of 11 zouaves... I am hoping to finish the rest of them this month.

If you ever get a chance to visit Franklin Tennessee I highly recommend taking it. The better half even loved it as the battlefield is not too much of a hike, and there are a lot of shops and restaurants to spend money... er to enjoy. But more on Franklin later...

Civil War Ancestry Research and The Official Records

2011-07-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

I stayed home from work today with a pulled muscle in my neck, so I ended up reading a lot of 'The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies' and researching my ancestor; Pvt William Henry Stiner of Company E, 2nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry (US). You can learn more about him here. The Official Records are online here thanks to Cornell University. So far I've found 24 pages worth of records and correspondence regarding the 2nd Tennessee. I'm pretty sure my wife thinks I'm secretly writing a book.

Pvt William Henry Stiner

As noted in my first post about him, he was captured at the battle of Rogersville TN. Below are a few excerpts from his Regiment commanders report of the battle:

No. 2

Report of Major Daniel A. Carpenter, Second Tennessee (mounted) Infantry.

Knoxville, Tennessee,

September 14, 1864.

Sir: Having but recently been released from a rebel prison, I have the honor to embrace the earliest opportunity to submit the following report of the affair which fled to the capture of a large part of the Second East Tennessee Mounted Infantry on the 6th of November last: ...

...By this time Colonel Garrard arrived; he had lost his hat and was, seemingly, very much excited. He stated the rebels were coming from Rogersville, and ordered me to move with my regiment in that direction, to the edge of the Woods, and advance two companies as skirmishers. Colonel Garrard accompanied me, pointing out the position he wished my regiment to occupy. He requested me to tie my horses and put as many men in the fight as I could; that we would not try to escape, but whip the rebels if possible; ordering me to hold the position assigned me at all hazards until further orders from him. I ordered Captain Cariis to move forward with companies C, G, and B as skirmishers. He did so, and soon met the enemy and commenced a brisk skirmish, driving them back some 300 yards. I then ordered Captain Cams to return to me.

At or near this time the rebels charged and captured the two guns east of Creek near the house of Mr. Russell. They then moved toward our camp. The Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry was formed near the camp and supporting the two guns yet remaining in our possession. Colonel Garrard sent me orders to send three companies to support the two guns. I started three companies under command of Captain Cams; when he got in sight of the point ordered to, he discovered the rebels had taken the guns. They (the rebels) raised the yell and commenced advancing from every direction on my position. I sent an orderly to inform Colonel Garrard if he did not assist me I would soon be completely surrounded. By this time Captain Cams returned; he had been cut off from me by the rebels, and very nearly the whole of the three companies captured. Captain Cams informed me that Colonel Garrard and the whole of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry had left the field, and were across the Holston River...

...When the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry left the field they, the two companies and 50 detailed men, were compelled to fall back to my position. A number of them were captured in returning. At this time I did not have more than 200 men who had ammunition, and was completely surrounded by at least 4,000 rebels, who were within 75 yards of us, demanding a surrender. They had already possession of my horses, and were killing and wounding my men at a fearful rate. I summoned the officers of my regiment and consulted with them as to what measures best to adopt. All instantly agreed that a surrender was the only thing possible, so I at once surrendered myself and command. William Russell, of Company A, was shot and killed after we had grounded arms.

The officers and men of Captain Phillips (Second Illinois) battery discharged their duty nobly.

We were marched the whole of the night following our capture. During that night a number of the men effected their escape...

Mounted British Waterloo Colonel from Victrix

2011-06-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

Here's my first foray into Napoleonics. Not sure if this will ever turn into a full blown project but I'd like to paint a few just for fun because the uniforms are so interesting and colorful. I used the picture from their website as a guide so I hope it's close to being accurate.

This is the first Victrix miniature I've painted, and I was really happy with it. It is from the VXP0002 'Mounted British Waterloo Colonels & Foot Pioneer' blister. All of the figures were well cast and clean of almost all flash.

This one is a little bit blurry. Maybe one day I'll get the whole photographing miniatures thing down. This miniature isn't this shiny, it's just the flash.

Thanks for looking!

"Bullet Pens"

2011-06-21T20:47:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to show off two AMAZING pens that my friends Dad made for me. He made them by hand and let me say that the pictures do not do them justice. The top one is a 50 cal pen, and the bottom is a Civil War bullet pen. You can see more of them here. (Pen posts are labelled "pens")

Here it is compared to an actual 50 cal bullet.

I think the next few pictures came out best. (Except for the glare from the flash)

Test figure for 146th New York Volunteer Infantry

2011-06-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

I've started painting the 146th New York, which is my first Zouave unit at this scale. I'd like to fix anything now before I paint all 20, so I did a test figure first. Any suggestions or tips?

Below are some of the pictures I used as reference and inspiration. The figures are all Sash and Saber.

"Into the Wilderness", by Keith Rocco, depicting the Charge of the 140th and 146th New York Regiments at Saunders Field in the Wilderness, Virginia, in May of 1864.

As a side note, blogger seems to have fixed their problem with the hit counters going wild. But I do appreciate the 250 hits from Dean at http://wabcorner.blogspot.com/ and the 125 hits from Miles at http://lairoftheubergeek.blogspot.com/ this month! What great guys!

Computer problems...

2011-06-12T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm still unable to upload any pictures from my camera to my laptop. So that has limited the amount of posts I've been able to put up. I have gotten a fair amount of painting done, and I will hopefully be able to upload them somewhere else and have a few posts worth of material. But I do apologize for how quiet it's been around here!

100th Post!

2011-05-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who reads, comments, and follows!

This and that..

2011-05-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through three straight weekends of weddings, hopefully now I can get back to somewhat of a normal schedule! The past few weeks I have gotten a small amount of painting done. I've painted a few Games Workshop Lord of the Rings miniatures (I can hear the groans now as everyone rushes to un-follow my blog!) for a few games with my buddy. It is a Dwarf Ballista, and Banner.

I also based a Union Officer that I had painted a few months back and made a little battlefield clutter. I also plan to use it as a marker- I always like to throw in a few objectives and need markers that don't look completely out of place.

And lastly I repainted this Officers pants and hat to fight for the Union! Now he awaits his Regiment to be mustered(painted)!

I apologize for the lack of posts as of late, life has been crazy.

1962 Topps "Civil War News" Card Set

2011-04-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

Apparently Topps put out a "Civil War News" playing card set in 1962. I love finding obscure things like this. You can see them all online at Authentichistory.com. Thanks to US Military Railroad for the link! Definitely something interesting to look at.

Johnny Reb's finished!

2011-04-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

It's finally finished! It took me a lot longer then I'd expected, but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. You can click on any pictures to enlarge them. I apologize for the photography, I took these inside with poor lighting (it's been raining ALL week) with a cheap camera. The shine is from the flash.

I limited my pallet somewhat to help create cohesion, but I think I need to limit it even more. I don't want them to seem too "ragged". One of the things I also did was to paint all of the canteens and haversacks the same colors, which seems to tie them together a bit too. My next confederate Regiment I will probably cut out the blue pants and limit it to 5-6 different grays, tans, and browns.

The quick among you may have already noticed that the standard bearer, Officer, and drummer are all on different bases... Well, I've come to accept that I'm more of a modeler/painter then a gamer, so I used some artistic license and moved them around a bit. My thinking it that the Officer would not always be positioned by the Regimental flag, and that the drummer would be one of the first towards the rear once they were engaged, so he is based on one of the single bases (which can be removed for casualty markers). Let me know if I am way off in my thinking...

I love the expression on the soldier in the middle with the blue/red striped blanket roll. Kudos to Sash and Saber for a great sculpt and casting.

I've still yet to designate my army, so this Regiment was given a generic Confederate battle flag. This was handmade and hand painted by me, so it's a bit sloppy, but from a tabletop distance it looks great! (In my opinion at least...)

I spent a little bit of extra time on the basing as well. I need to go back and put another coat of paint on the edges, but other then that I am pleased with how they turned out.

Some pictures from the rear...

(Sloppy edge...)

Here are some closeups of the flag stand.

And then closeups of the other stands as well.

I'm still not entirely happy with this stand. I still can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but this will probably get some color changes in the near future.

Here are the individual bases that can be removed as casualty markers.

This is one of my favorites from this group.

Wasn't sure if the orange was accurate, it doesn't seem to stick out too much so I will probably just leave it.

In column...

Any comments and criticism are welcomed, I'm still looking to improve and so any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

All figures are from Sash and Saber.

Up next? Well, I'm nearing my 100th post so I'll probably play things close to the vest and save up some great content for a special 100th post!

Johnny Reb's (8)

2011-04-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

I've finished painting the last seven figures for this Regiment. It took longer then I'd liked, but I made it!

This weekend I'll be painting their flag and basing them. I'm still undecided what Regiment to make them, I haven't decided if I want to start added flags to all my units to make them a specific Brigade/Division or if I should just make them generic units.

I also painted another officer since I wasn't completely satisfied with the first one I painted.

Here they are side by side. Which do you like better and why? (I probably won't start basing these until tomorrow so opinions are welcome!)

All miniatures are from Sash and Saber.

Next post should have them all finished up!

Johnny Reb's (7)

2011-04-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm almost done with this Regiment, and I know I've already posted pictures of all of these, but while I'm finishing up the rest of their comrades I thought I'd post a few group shots I had taken a while ago. Please forgive the glossiness and bad photography.

I'm not a huge fan with how the Officer turned out, I may replace him with another figure...

Any suggestions for improvement?

Johnny Reb's (6)

2011-04-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

Here's the next little group I've finished. This Regiment is definitely taking a long time to finish, but I've made it a point to paint them to a higher level, so I'm hoping that once they are all completed and based that it will be worth the extra effort.

This standard bearer is one of my new favorites!

The last week or so of work...

Private David Rogers Beeler, Fifer Co. C 8th Tennessee Infantry (US)

2011-03-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

This is the husband of my second cousin, three times removed- He was a fifer for Company C, 8th Tennessee Infantry (US). He enlisted in Union County TN on February 1st 1863 when he was 22 years of age.

The 8th was part of the 1st (Reilly's) Brigade, 3rd (Cox's) Division, of the XXIII Corps for most of their involvement of the war. They were engaged in the Knoxville Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, the Battles of Franklin and Nashville, and then finally in the Carolinas Campaign before being mustered out on June 30 1865.

Here he is later in life, I've tried unsuccessfully to identify his lapel pin. Any information anyone can provide would be most appreciated! He lived until 1936.

This last picture, surprisingly enough was found online while researching the 8th Tennessee! It is from the 8th Tennessee Reenacting group's website. I've tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with my relative that provided the picture to them but have yet to hear back from the website or anyone from that group. If you are affiliated with them or can point me in the right direction please get in touch with me. I'd love to be able to get connected with my relative and share what I know about our shared ancestor.

Many thanks to the Tennessee and the Civil War website, and my relative who worked so hard on our family's genealogy.

Union Cavalry in 15mm

2011-03-27T06:09:00.000-07:00

I just finished up a Brigade (based for Fire and Fury) of generic Union Cavalry in 15mm. I think the manufacturer is Musket Miniatures, they were given to me by a friend. These are to a war gaming standard, I was just trying to get them table ready as quick as possible, no highlights or washing or anything.

Here's a closeup. Click to enlarge at your own risk!

Next I've got the Brigade- mounted and dismounted all together for a family photo. The downside to Cavalry is to do it right you end of painting a whole lot of figures to have them mounted and dismounted, and in American Civil War they rarely even make it on the table.

And here is a closeup of the dismounts. Flags were both hand painted, quickly I may add, nothing special!

I'm starting to build up a decent little bit of Cavalry for both sides, I think it's time to start looking for some Cavalry heavy scenarios. Brandy Station comes to mind... Or, there was a bridge about 8 miles from my house that was contested by John Hunt Morgan on one of his famous raids, maybe I should write my own scenario with a little bit of a local allure!

Johnny Reb's (5)

2011-03-25T22:39:00.001-07:00

Top Ten Things On My Wish List!

2011-03-09T21:33:00.001-08:00

10. M1114 Armored Humvee's from Irishserb's Miniatures.

I'm not really into modern gaming, but these are some great miniatures and I'd love to model my platoon from the old war days.

9. Mixed tents from Renedra Limited.

Picture is from Architects of War. Again, no real need for these, but I do love to make the gaming table visually appealing, and every battlefield needs some lovely tents!

8. Nebelwerfer Platoon from Battlefront.

This is the GE592 21cm NW42 rocket launcher pack. These are one of my favorite guns from WWII (right up there with 88's) and I've been wanting to paint some up for quite a while now.

7. Fearless Federalists from Architects of War.

Architects of War is a relatively new company with a great new line out to support their American Uncivil War skirmish game. They also have great terrain, and carry several other major lines. Although I would love to have just about all of their line, this is the pack that I want the most, thanks to the two miniatures below.

Sniper with scoped Henry rifle.

Soldier throwing Ketchum grenade.

6. Confederate mounted Commanders from Perry Miniatures.

No explanation needed, these are just gorgeous!

5. Federal Infrantry Skirmishing Regimental pack from Sash and Saber.

I already have about half of their 28mm ACW line, and I've been consistantly impressed with their quality, and how easily they paint! The Regimental pack includes all 4 packs I've shown here.

4. Lieutenant-General Ambrose Powell Hill from Redoubt Enterprises.

I have an idea for a diorama for a dear friend who is a huge admirer of A.P Hill, I hope to get it started this fall and completed by Christmas.

3. Caisson's from Old Glory.

I am wanting to paint a bunch of these up and base them individually to add visual appeal behind my batteries. Because let's be realistic, I won't ever be able to paint full teams of horses, caissons, and limbers.

2. Union Artillery running up piece from Perry Miniatures.

No one captures movement in their sculpts like the Perry brothers do.

1. Everything from the Old Glory 2nd Edition ACW line.

Above is the Union Infantry Marching Shoulder Arms boxed set. While my ACW collection is mainly Sash and Saber with some Perry mixed in, I have been eyeing this line and hopefully will be able to get my Old Glory Army Card and make a pretty large purchase sometime soon!

All pictures used without permission.

Johnny Reb's (4)

2011-02-27T21:39:00.000-08:00

I'm slowly making progress on this regiment. I've now got 11 figures painted and waiting to be based. My painting time has decreased significantly with a 5 month old, but I've still been able to get a little time to myself which is great!

These figures are the always great Sash and Saber. They are a mixture from the Regimental pack of RCS1 "Confederate Infantry Advancing (right shoulder shift)". At $40.00 for 40 metal figures you can't beat them!

15mm Union Cavalry WIP

2011-02-26T22:57:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a Brigade pack of Musket Miniatures Cavalry for the past few weeks or so. Not a whole lot of variety in poses, but painted to a gaming standard they look good on the table. I've got to finish the remaining 24 or so mounted troopers and then I can base these.

I've been painting the mounted troopers in batches of 8 with the same shade of color for the horses. So once they are all finished I can mix them through the Brigade and have some variety.

The command stand.

Dismounts.

Horse holders.

They look kind of rough now, still glued to cardboard fresh off the painting table, but in a few weeks they'll be done and I'll post some finished photos.

Comments and criticism is welcome as always!

WWPD Shirt

2011-02-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I received my FREE shirt from Steven and the guys at What Would Patton Do. It is a really nice shirt, and the logo is awesome. Thanks again guys!

Civil War Silliness

2011-02-14T20:07:00.000-08:00

I was going through some old pictures and found these of my best friend Ethan and I playing Civil War as boys. I think they are hilarious so I thought I'd share them. Here we are defending Virginia(the back yard).

Here I am in the infamous "trench" that we dug on the back edge of their property. Only recently was this filled in by yard scraps and it was a day of great sadness for us. We spent many days eating deli meat roasted over candles and hardtack, all washed down by some warm water from our foul smelling canteens.

Here is my friend Ethan relaxing after what was most likely a hot battle. I'm sure the neighbors all got a kick out of our glorious charges against those dreaded Yankees which always included dramatic woundings in which we'd clutch our wound and fall to the ground with a dreadful yell.

And even though we are hardened veterans, we break rank and smile for the camera.

Quick update

2011-02-12T07:27:00.000-08:00

I'm still alive and kicking! I still cannot figure out the issue with my USB ports, so I am unable to upload any pictures unless I do it on a friends computer. So needless to say, uploading pictures has been scarce!

I have however, been painting a fair amount. I'm about halfway done with a brigade of 15mm Union Cavalry from Musket Miniatures. Not the greatest sculpts in the world, but they look decent on the gaming table once they are painted.

I've also got a few more 28mm Sash and Saber Confederate Infatry in various stages of progress.

The plan is to finish as much painting as possible while my wife and daughter are visiting friends in Florida this weekend, and then do a big photo shoot later in the week and have 3-4 posts worth of miniatures to share! I've also been researching another Civil War ancestor and will post that is well.

I won something?

2011-01-24T20:13:00.000-08:00

The guys over at What Would Patton Do did a contest for their followers and drew my name to win a free WWPD T-shirt! I am super excited so I thought I would give them a quick shout out! If you haven't been there already, check them out. They've got tons of great Flames of War content, battle reports, and an awesome podcast. Thanks guys!

Pvt Peter Franklin Stiner Sr. Co E 7th TN Infantry (CSA)

2011-01-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

This is my Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. Pvt Peter Franklin Stiner Sr. This top picture is not a Civil War era photo, but I think it is the epitome of a grizzled Confederate Veteran! The next photo is from 1856 and gives a better idea of what he looked like during the war.

He was 33 years old when he enlisted in April 1864 as a Private in Company E of the 7th Tennessee Infantry Regiment (CS) at Bristol Virginia. The 7th was part of the Tennessee Brigade, Heth's Division, A.P Hill's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia.

He fought in the battles of The Wilderness, Spottsylvania Courthouse, Cold Harbor, and the Siege of Petersburg.

On January 3rd 1865 he deserted from the picket line. See below muster rolls.

He took the oath of amnesty on January 8th 1865 at City Point Virginia and was given a pass to Knoxville Tennessee.

Next is a Confederate $1 bill that he brought home from the war and has been kept in the family.

Here he is again (on the left) later in life.

Finally, this is the foot stone placed at his grave.

As far as I know, no one in the family knows for sure why he deserted. I have two theories, but it could also have been a combination of both.

The first theory is that he had just received news from home that his 3rd child had died in infancy 14 days before.

The second theory is that he was just demoralized, and realized the war was coming to a close anyways. In February 1865, a deserter from the 7th TN reported to his Federal captors that the Regiment was down to 60 men. Perhaps the siege was too much to bear.

It's also interesting to note that he was the Uncle of William Henry Stiner who was fighting opposite him for the Union. It gives great perspective to the division caused by the war.

EDIT: 2/20/11
I was re-reading some of the family history and came across a comment about Peter Stiner that I hadn't noticed before, it was said by family members that "Peter was never the same after the war". I do not know who the quote was taken from, but it seems that it was common family opinion. Interesting, but sad.

Johnny Reb's (3)

2010-12-30T20:29:00.000-08:00

I was REALLY pleased with how this guy came out. Especially his blanket.

Here is a group shot. We just finished moving into a new house so hopefully this week I'll be able to jump back into painting and get this regiment finished.

More Johnny's

2010-12-29T17:56:00.001-08:00

Johnny Reb's

2010-12-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

Still no miniatures?

2010-12-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of miniature related posts. I STILL cannot upload any pictures from my camera. Words cannot express my frustration!

Pvt William Henry Stiner Co E 2nd Tennessee (Mounted) Infantry (US)

2010-12-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

This is my 2nd cousin 3 times removed (or my Great-Great-Grandfather's Cousin). William Henry Stiner, born around 1843 in Claiborne County Tennesse. He enlisted as a Private to fight for the Union in Company E, 2nd Tennessee (Mounted) Infantry on June 1st, 1863 at Somerset Kentucky.

In July 1863 the Regiment was part of a force chasing General John Hunt Morgan through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. In August the XXIII Corps was reorganized for the invasion of Eastern Tennessee and the Regiment was placed in General Shackelford's 3rd Brigade, of General S. P. Carter's 4th Division of Cavalry. After several skirmishes in Eastern Tennessee the majority of the Regiment was captured at the battle of Rogersville on November 6th, 1864 when they were were surrounded and captured by the 4th Kentucky Cavalry (CSA). Casualties for the regiment were 5 killed, 1 wounded, 20 officers and 474 men captured. The prisoners were sent to either Andersonville prison, or Libby prison.

William Henry Stiner arrived at Andersonville on February 18th, 1864 and was admitted to the prison hospital on April 7th, 1864. He died of smallpox on April 28th, 1864. He was approximately 22 years old. Here is his casualty sheet from Andersonville.

And here is a photograph of his tombstone from the prison.

Thanks to my relative Mary Lynn for doing 99% of the research on this and producing a wonderful book of Stiner geneology. Also, some information was taken from http://www.tngenweb.org/civilwar/usainf/usa2inf.html.

Still alive!

2010-11-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well I'm still alive, I probably won't get any new pictures up for a little while. Something is messed up with my laptop and my USB ports aren't working so I can't upload pictures from my camera. And wouldn't you know it my desktop crashed at the same time! I guess it's not the worst timing because I haven't been painting that much anyway. But things are starting to get back to normal and I have great plans for this fall/winter!

I'm assuming that anyone that follows this blog has at least a mild interest in the Civil War, so I guess I can stray a little bit from wargaming and post a little more historical stuff. I've been researching some of my ancestors that served in the Civil War, and I might do a few posts on that while I get my computer issues cleared up.

Perryville, Kentucky Battlefield. Part Two: The Battlefield

2010-10-24T21:44:00.001-07:00

After the museum we walked the battlefield for about 2-3 hours. The battle was fought on October 8th, so we were just a few weeks off. And it was also fought during a drought, which we are currently enjoying in Kentucky. With those two factors it was easy to imagine that what we were looking at was close to how the battlefield appeared in 1862 when the battle was fought. Click the pictures for full size images.

It is covered by worm fences. They may be a little short, but they were cool to look at. One thing that stuck out is how the wood weathered into a gray color. I guess I need to repaint some of mine that are brown...

The biggest terrain feature for the battlefield is that it is just a huge series of hills and slopes. It must have been mentally exhausting for the Confederates to push the Union soldiers back in the early part of the battle, just to see them fall back and reform on the next hill! This happened several times and just walking the path of the assault was a little tiring.

One of my favorite parts of the battlefield the Open Knob, now called Parson's Ridge, named for the Lieutent who defended it with an 8 gun Battery before being overrun by men from Cheatham's Division.

Here is the view of the ridge from behind the marker.

Here is the view of the ridge from behind the fence line that the Confederates stopped briefly behind, before their assault up the hill.

Jaret wanting to "charge" up the hill. It was actually a very educational experiment. He struggled with 12 year old energy and tennis shoes! It made us appreciate the Confederates who made the charge in wool uniforms with heavy equipment.

This is the view from the crest of the ridge. It is terrifying to imagine what it must have been like to charge up that ridge into the fire from all 8 guns, plus the crossfire from the Brigade of Infantry that was supporting it.

The retreating Union soldiers moved through what was at the time a cornfield.

The attack continued West to the position of Starkweather's Brigade, supported by 12 guns. It's interesting that every time the Confederates were able to push the Union off of a position, they went down the back side, and then up the next hill and reformed on the new high ground.

We found this halfway up what is now known as Starkweather's Hill. Battlefield relic or discarded garbage?

Another view from Starkweather's position.

This picture and the next few are just a few random pictures showing the general landscape and feel of the battlefield. I didn't keep really good notes and to be honest a lot of the pictures are always mixing together in my mind. I'm planning on another trip in the next few months and I'll try to get some good pictures of another part of the battlefield. We really only covered a small portion of it, and there is a lot left to explore.

The path of attack for the Confederate center...

That's all for now, thanks for looking!

Perryville, Kentucky Battlefield. Part One: The Museum

2010-10-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

My Mom and two of my brothers visited from Ohio this weekend so I took the boys to Perryville. Here are a few of the pictures I took in the museum. Click the images to see full size versions. I apologize for the lighting and blurriness, I had to turn my flash off and it messes with my camera's zoom.

Here is the outside, nothing too impressive but really nice on the inside!

Here are a few of the exhibits, I didn't get pictures of everything, just a few of the basic things and whatever caught my eye or was unique.

I wish I would have taken the time to read all of these, there was just so much stuff that you just had to skip over some of it just so we could get out to the battlefield! (And we also watched a 28 minute documentary about the battle that they had playing)

One of two original flags- you can see part of the other one in the next picture.

Really cool 6 pounder.

And a side view.

I thought this was interesting...

...And also this!

Here is the right half of one of the weapon displays.

And the other half. I tried to get close ups of a lot of these but when I uploaded the pictures I found out that almost all of them were blurry...

Oh, how I'd like to break the glass and take this home!

They had quite a few canteens, a few that were confirmed from the battle too. I took a picture of this because of the red strap, I will now have to paint one of my canteen straps red!

This was kind of unique.

It's only fitting that I post this here, given that we share a name.

Is it a little disconcerting to anyone else that he referred to the war as "the game"?

Here's Jaret with the 6 pounder. Like a kid in a candy store!

And last but not least- Jordan.

Overall, it is a lovely battlefield museum with a nice little gift shop. They have a wealth of good books along with the expected souvenirs, and also some overpriced/underpainted miniatures! (I wonder how I can get my hands in that business?) The museum is well worth the hour and ten minute drive from my house, and I am already planning my next trip! Next up is Part Two: The Battlefield!

Who am I kidding?

2010-10-17T19:38:00.000-07:00

Well I can definitely say that my life has changed. I was hoping to get at least a little bit of painting done these last few weeks but we've been so busy with family visiting and adjusting to having a little girl. Hopefully things will slow down this week and I can get back in the swing of things. Here is my short term goal list:

1. Finish the unpainted Flames of War mini's I've gotten
a. Finish painting my first of two 25 pounder platoons (with transports)
b. Paint a 3rd Rifle/machine gun platoon
c. Base 4-5 platoons

2. Finish at least a few of my 25mm ACW regiments
a. Paint flags
b. Dullcoate

3. Start on some 25mm ACW terrain (mainly some hills and fences)

Priseis Rose

2010-09-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a little while, I've been a little busy with a brand new baby girl! She got a Greek name so maybe she'll get into Ancients!

148th Anniversary of the battle of Sharpsburg

2010-09-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

...or Antietam as those dirty Yankees call it!
We had a game planned to refight the afternoon part of the battle where Burnside attacked Longstreet across the Antietam creek. We had some family things come up and had to cancel, sad times. Hopefully we can get a game in soon. And I've almost got enough 25/28mm ACW figs painted to put on a small game with some home grown rules.

25 Pounder Platoon WIP

2010-09-12T21:39:00.002-07:00

I had a productive day on these, I got the two remaining guns and limbers assembled, all of the crew painted, and the second of four trucks painted. I've got a decent amount that I need to base but I can't remember what paints I used for the rest of the army. I guess that's something I should have written down!

Dismounted Union Cav.... slowly progressing...

2010-09-12T21:39:00.001-07:00

Slowly but surely these are getting finished, I put 3 solids coats of paint on these to prevent warping since they're so heavy, and then when I was almost done glueing these down I realized I was out of super glue, so the basing will have to wait a little bit longer!

8th Army Update

2010-09-10T20:24:00.001-07:00

Well now that I'm done with my Orphan Brigade diorama, it's to the grind for Flames of War, I'm trying to finish my MW British 8th Army Infantry Company. Here is where I am so far, I still need to buy a few more things to build up to 1500 points (a third rifle/mg platoon, and another four 25 pounders, jeeps to tow my AT, and probably some better tanks to give me some more options.)

Orphan Brigade Diorama Finished!

2010-09-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

Orphan Brigade Diorama WIP 2

2010-09-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well I'm waaaay behind schedule on this. I've still got to finish about half of the highlighting, paint the flag, base it, stain the base, and make some sort of "label". Work has been kicking my butt so I'm stopping for tonight and I'll be working on this all day tomorrow (My deadline is 5:00 PM!) Here are a few closeups. I should have finished pictures tomorrow.

Last Cavalryman painted!

2010-08-28T20:04:00.001-07:00

I finished painting the last Union Cavalryman today, so that means it's on to finishing my Flames of War army right!?

Wrong!
Plans kind of got changed a little bit, I had talked to my wife about doing a diorama for her brother and with a surprise 30th birthday party in one week I thought I'd better go ahead and start on this now! Being a Kentucky boy he's proud of the Orphan Brigade, and since I'm in the middle of reading William C. Davis' book "The Orphan Brigade: The Kentucky Confederates Who Couldn't Go Home" it seemed like the perfect time!
I was hoping to use a lot more miniatures for this for a grander effect but I thought 10 figures was a more reasonable project given that I have a pregnant wife that is on bedrest and only a week to complete this! Anyways, enough rambling and on the the pictures!

I've got the figures cleaned, basecoated, glued to the base, gravel glued, and I am almost finished with the base coat.

As you can see I've got a lot of space to fill on this, in hindsight I wish I had a smaller base for this, but I'll just have to make do!

Dismounted Union Cavalry Tutorial

2010-08-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

Alright, I started out with the always lovely Sash and Saber miniatures, cleaned the flash, glued to a piece of cardboard, and undercoated black.

Next I painted the flesh with Games Workshop's Kommando Khaki. I always paint the exposed flesh first because it give the firgure some "life" if you will. As a side note, all paints used will be Games Workshop unless otherwise noted.

Then it's on to the base coats for the main parts of the figure. Regal Blue for the jacket, and Ultramarine Blue for the pants. I'm not really concerned about neatness at this point, just getting a good base down.

Next up I start adding color for all of the details- the yellow piping is kind of a hassle, for some reason every yellow paint I've ever gotten has been thin and runny! The one used here is Reaper's Sunlight Yellow (you'll probably need a couple of coats to get good solid coverage). The rest of the details are filled in but I intentionally leave some black in between colors, this will save some time when I blackline a little later on. The stock of the carbine is Scorched Brown, the metal is Boltgun Metal, and the sword hilt is Burnished Gold.

Now that I've gotten a basecoat on everything, I go back and touch up all of the black leather, and then "blackline" the entire figure. This can be very time consuming if you are trying for perfection, but as you can see for average painting I don't concern myself with perfect lines. After I start highlighting I'll touch this up.

Next I highlight all of the exposed flesh with Elf Flesh, being careful to leave plenty of the base coat in the recesses. I basically hit all of the high points.

I rushed through this picture so it is blurry, but you can still see how I've highlighted the face. I'm basically painting basic shapes for the nose, chin, cheeks, lips, ears, and forehead.

Now that the skin is completed I start highlighting the pants and jacket. I don't really have an exact method for this, I start hitting all of the raised folds and wrinkles, and then just fill in shapes to give the impression of more contours. The pants are highlighted with Ice Blue and the Jacket with Ultramarine Blue. I also touch up the yellow piping during this stage as well.

Almost done! I highlight the carbine stock with Graveyard Earth, any metal with Chainmail, and the buttons and beltplates with Burnished Gold. Final step before basing is a coat of 'ardcoat to protect all the hard work put into these figures once they hit the battlefield!

I don't have any illusions of being a great painter or anything, but I like to think my figures have somewhat of an impressionist style and they definitely do stand out with the bold highlighting and blacklining. Hopefully this gave you guys some inspiration to get those brushes out and start painting!

Proposed Casino at Gettysburg

2010-08-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard, a group of investors is yet again trying to get approval from the Pennsylvania Gaming and Control Board to build a casino less then a mile from Gettysburg (with it's main route of entry being the Emmitsburg road right through the heart of the battlefield). This is such a disgrace and should be stopped. This isn't a local tourist attraction- it is a national treasure and a sacred ground. I don't normally wax political on this blog but this really ticked me off. You can read some more about it here and speak out here.

Dismounted Union Cavalry WIP

2010-08-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well I'd hoped to be done on these by now but getting the babys room ready has turned into a fulltime job and instead of assembling miniatures I've been assembling cribs and dressers!

I've got to paint the 3 horse holders and these are ready to be based! Here they are with the undercoated horse holders with them- these bases are going to be HEAVY!

And then here's a picture of just the horses.

I don't know that I want to do any more cavalry for a while, because these took forever and realistically I can only use the Regiment as mounted or dismounted, so I basically painted the equivalent of 3 Infantry Regiments just to have one mounted/dismounted Cavalry Regiment!

The plan is to get the horse holders painted this week and these based, then I am going to tighten down and finish up my Flames Of War army. I've got a British 8th Army Infantry Company from North Africa that I've kind of stalled on, and I want to get it finished so that I can actually get some more games in!

More Union Reinforcements

2010-08-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

I based the dismounted Union Cavalry, and now I'm working on the horses and horse holders. You'll notice that I've been focusing a lot on my Union forces. I always try to have the Yankees outnumbering the Confederates whenever I play games. It's only fitting seeing that most of the time they had huge numerical advantages.

I painted up this Union Brigade Commander too, I didn't put the 2nd highlight on his horse and you can definitely tell the difference, I may go back and fix that when I base him.

I'm painting the horses in assembly line fashion, here is the first group of four. I'm pretty happy with how these turned out, and they painted up really quickly.

Here's the next batch that's getting painted. These will be the more unique horses, the last batch will be similar shades of brown with varying white socks and facial markings.

Old Family (Military) Photos And Letters

2010-08-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

When I was little my Grandma gave me a bunch of old pictures and letters of family members who were in the military and a few days ago we were cleaning out my closet and found them so I thought I would post them. I don't remember who most of them are but I'm going to take them with me the next time we go visit so I can get more information. Even if I can't identify all of them they are still a small piece of history and cool to have.

I believe this is my Grandpa's cousin.

This is a postcard of the USNS General Simon B. Buckner sent from my Great-Uncle to my Great-Grandparents. If I remember correctly he served on this ship.

And the back (Dated August 10th 1952)

Unknown

Aparently my Aunt Doris was quite the popular girl getting featured here with letters from two different men!

Unknown

This is really interesting, on the front it's just another letter...

...but on the back is an old grocery list! (Wouldn't want to forget the lard, cig, and veal!)

Unknown

After finding these I'm really anxious to find out more about who these people were, and see if I can figure out where/when they served. I've also got some ancestors in a family geneology book that served in the Civil War that I will post pictures and info on one day, I'm waiting to recreate their Regiments and I'll share the history and photos then.

As far as actual miniatures go, I'm working on some Sash and Saber Union dismounted Cavalry horse holders and horses. Nothing too exciting, just an assembly line of browns and beiges- but I'll try to at the very least get some WIP pictures up.

Dismounted Union Cavalry

2010-07-28T00:24:00.000-07:00

Well these are kind of still a work in progress but I am ready for bed so I just wanted to post these real quick.

Here is my command stand plus an additional stand. I have to point out that these are the absolute favorite figures I've ever painted. I guess I shouldn't have rushed through them! I can't say enough how impressed I am with the quality and detail of S&S. They just have so much character.

Two more stands. Note that I've laid this Regiment out so that their are 9 Cavalrymen fighting and then there will be 3 holding the 12 horses. (So they will fit nicely with the 12 man mounted version of these!)

And finally the last two single man stands. I love the NCO! What can I say? Guys with big mustaches pointing just get me...

These will get based tomorrow and I'll post updated pictures when the horse holders and horses are all painted and based as well.

I am already thinking of painting some more so that I can do a first day of Gettysburg inspired scenario!

Test Roman

2010-07-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

I painted up one of the Romans soldiers as a test piece. These are going to be more for wargaming then display so I'm not super worried about how good they look. (I just realized I didn't even get a face shot- oops.) I like the white but I think I'm going to maybe do a red stripe on the bottom of his tunic and then make the plume red as well.

If you click on the picture for the larger version you will notice that the shield has paint glopped on it. This is what happens when you try to paint at 3:00 am!

Any comments/criticism are welcome.

Romans Assembled

2010-07-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well all 48 miniatures are assembled, it only took about 4 hours which was much longer then I expected, but it was pretty enjoyable (thanks to The Marx Brothers and The Office). They are in three 16 man "battle groups" and I will probably paint them in three batches because I don't think I have the dedication to do a 48 figure assembly line.

The first group are all throwing/thrusting their pilum. There wasn't a lot of room for variety when it came to the angle of their weapon arm so I did a few conversions with leftover gladius armatures. They're plastic so it wasn't too hard- cut the pilum from the arm right at the wrist and then replace the gladius hand with the pilum hand. Of course I didn't plan ahead and take any pictures- sorry!

The next group I gave a combination of thrusting gladius and gladius "at the ready".

And finally the third group has their pilum "at the ready". I also cut off their plumes. They're sitting(standing?) on some GW small square bases because I wanted to get a feel for how they would look.

Bad news, I discovered that there was only 1 shield transfer sheet in the box instead of the 2 that are needed to do all of the shields. So I'll either have to buy some or handpaint them all. Oh well! I'm sure if I handpaint them they'll turn out a lot better and stand out from everyone else that has this boxset but I can only imagine how long it will take!

Next up I want to take a quick break from these and finish my dismounted Union Cavalry. They are already basecoated and washed so they just need highlights and basing.

A quick trip to the gaming store for a brush...

2010-07-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

...and this is what I come home with!

I dropped off Lee and Reynolds(who I found out is posing as Meade!) off at Pet Shop Comics yesterday and my intent was to just get a new brush and a pot of GW's clear coat but instead I left with 2 brushes, clear coat, an ACW Cavalry Brigade blister, and Field of Glory's Caesars Legions boxset! Rick was ever so nice to give me the ACW Cavalry, and I spent my vacation sushi money on the Romans! I've been eyeing them for some time, and my friend Luke has some Celts so I went ahead and took the plunge!

I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon prepping the Romans- I do have to say that it took forever to get all of the sprues cut up and the bits all cleaned up. After about an hour and a half this is what it looked like...

The figures do look great for the price and I am really anxious to paint them up. I've got a third of them already assembled and I will post some more pictures this afternoon once they are all assembled. I still have to figure out how I am going to base them because we haven't decided on a rule set. So they'll probably just get temporary cardboard bases while they get painted.

As I mentioned in an earlier post I am on vacation this whole week so look for lots of updates and pretty pictures!

General Lee and General Reynolds

2010-07-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

I painted these for my friend Rick. I'm not a huge fan of the Reynolds sculpt but I am really pleased with how Lee turned out. Mini's are by Conte'. I'm not sure what scale these are (54mm?), but they are huge!

Vacation coming up!

2010-07-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well I've been really busy with work and getting ready for the baby, and so my painting/gaming/blogging has suffered as a result... But! Next Friday I start my vacation and I've got a lot of projects that I'm planning to finish, so I will try to post a bunch of new stuff that week. And we're also going the Bardstown Civil War museum so I will post pictures of that as well. It's also time to start making some flags for my 28mm ACW armies so I am determined to get a few of those done too, I've decided to go ahead and paint them by hand. I've also got some WWII and LOTR stuff I need to get finished so there will be something for everyone!

Gettysburg 147th Anniversary

2010-07-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

Today is the 147th anniversary of the third and final day of the battle of Gettysburg. I should have watched the movie in honor of the anniversary but I didn't plan well and watched the movie last weekend, so today instead I watched Gods and Generals and painted some dismounted Union Cavalry. Hopefully I'll have them finished and posted by next week.

1st Regiment for the Iron Brigade

2010-06-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

Still needs some flags and a dullcoat- but don't they all! Figures are the always lovely Sash and Saber. Click for larger images.

On the painting table: Dismounted Union Cavalry, and the Panzer IV H Boxset.

Generic Iron Brigade Regiment WIP

2010-06-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well something is wrong with my camera, and I can't upload any pictures, so until I figure out what is wrong this is all I've got to share. I'm just about done with this Regiment. I just need to touch up a few more things and highlight all of the pants (I need to run to my LGS to get some paint first), and then they are ready for basing.

After I finish these I will probably resume work on the Panzer platoon, which is sitting undercoated on my table. And then I've got a few Civil War diorama's I want to make for a few friends.

Panzer IV H Platoon WIP

2010-06-05T13:05:00.002-07:00

I finally made it back up to Ohio last weekend and my buddy Ethan and I exchanged Christmas gifts (a little bit late). He got me the Panzer IV H Platoon box set (GBX10) from Flames Of War. So I've been putting these together the last few nights. These really are time consuming to assemble, the schürzen especially are tricky. You have to attach 6 mounting brackets for each tank, and then the mounting rail for each schürzen. Although it is great fun to experiment with different sections missing. I used some of the extra sprue pieces to reinforce the schürzen, something I learned from some great articles here and here.
I wanted to take some pictures before I undercoated these to show the different pieces that all come together to make these. And I also did a little bit of conversion work. You'll notice the schürzen are only sticky-tack'd on, I am not going to glue them on until after painting.

The platoon commander is the right tank, I took a few close-ups but they didn't come out too well. The sculpt is amazing for the tank commander!

This is the biggest conversion I did- I hollowed out the drivers hatch, added the drivers head, and rebuilt the hatch with some carboard from the box.

Included was a little sprue of stowage. So this tank got loaded down with some extra gear- although I wouldn't want to be near this tank if stuff went down! I don't think the Jerry cans and fuel barrel would be very safe with bullets flying nearby! But they look pretty cool so I had to use them for at least one tank. If you click for the larger version you can see it on the left tank.

Same tanks from a different angle.

One of my biggest mistakes is looking through pictures of other people's Panzers on the Flames Of War forums before assembling these. I had extra pieces of track hanging all over the turrets. But after looking at a couple of hundred period photos of Panzers thanks to World War II Zone I realized that almost all of them had extra track on the top and underside of the front slope, but none on the turrets. So I had to snap off the pieces I had already glued on some of the turrets, and in the process of doing so, I ruined a little bit of the Zimmerit. Lesson learned!

Finishing up here's a shot of the platoon. Next up: undercoating!

Appomattox Courthouse, Appomattox Virginia

2010-05-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we were in Lynchburg Virgina for my wife's graduation, and we were able to go to Appomattox courthouse, where as you may know, is the place that General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia following the battle that took place there. Even while driving there I was preparing my wife telling her how "this probably won't be that big or anything" and I was thankfully completely wrong! This is a really nice site and there are 12-15 rebuilt period buildings and most of the ones we toured were decorated in period. You could probably take your time and spend 4-5 hours just seeing everything. Here we are sitting on the porch of the visitors center (Reconstructed county courthouse)

(Click on pictures for full size image)

The next group of pictures are all from the inside of the visitors center. Here are some nice "dug" muskets.

This is a really nice collection of artifacts from a single soldier, including his parole papers from Appomattox.

The main entrance has dozens of pictures of men who were at Appomattox for the surrender.

The next two pictures are a few display cases full of all kinds of great artifacts. What I wouldn't give to have some of this stuff!

Next is a nice collection of local dug bullets.

Here is the first of two really nice flags.

The first of some really nice jackets.

Stack of arms, I really didn't look that closely at these, we were too distracted by the sign (which I didn't get a picture of) warning of the electronic alarm that would go off if you touched these!

Confederate frock coat.

The 2nd of two flags.

Union Jacket.

There were so many thing that I didn't even see- let alone get pictures of. After about 30 minutes everyone was waiting for my father in law and I to finish up so we had to skim through a lot of stuff quickly. I would definitely love to go back and spend a lot more time looking at everything and reading all of the descriptions.

Next, on to the Mclean house! Where the actual surrender was signed.

View from the front of the house.

Here is a replica of the desk General Lee used to sign the surrender conditions.

Here is a replica of the desk General Grant used to write out the surrender conditions.

I believe that both of the original desks are in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

One of the rooms in the Mclean house.

Another room in the Mclean house.

Finishing up, here are some pictures of a few of the outbuildings (aka terrain inspiration/reference)

A nice little grave site.

Although it's not a major battlefield, I would still highly recommend visiting this if you ever get the chance.

I've hit a wall..

2010-05-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

As I said in the title, I've hit a wall. I haven't really painted more then an hour or two total in the last three weeks. Work has been kicking my butt, and taking care of my prego wife has turned into a full time job! I am starting to have concerns about how much time I will actually have to paint/play once the baby gets here!
I'm still about half way done with another Union Regiment, I've got a three day weekend coming up and I'm hoping to get that knocked out. I'll try to post some pictures then.

Rebel Reinforcements!

2010-04-12T17:33:00.001-07:00

Not much to talk about, figures are Sash and Saber, click to enlarge, comments/criticism welcome.

North African Village

2010-04-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

I finished this little project. I now have four buildings and eight wall pieces complete. All together they make a nice little village. I took a few shots of them all together but the pictures came out blurry. Foiled again by my piece of crap camera!

The picture below shows the test building, and ironically enough it came out to be the best painted. I think I rushed the dry brushing and got a little impatient between coats on the other three.

Nothing like seeing a tank appear from just out of view!

This was a nice distraction for me, instead of painting five shades of blue and gray I got to paint five shades of brown and tan! (Maybe I should start a Napoleanic project? - I shouldn't joke about that, I've already been eyeing the Perry plastic French Infantry boxset!)

ACW Brigade Commanders

2010-04-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

I posted these a while back but I just based them today so I thought I'd post a few more pics.

First up, the still un-named Union Brigade Commander.

Next, my currently anonymous Confederate BC. I love this sculpt, except for the fact that he seems to be looking way up in the air, but that may have just been the angle that I mounted him on his horse.

I couldn't help myself, I just like to play with toy soldiers! Here is an "action shot"

I sort of took a break from painting my first Regiment of Iron Brigade black hats to finish up a few things, aside from basing these I based the most recent Confederate Regiment, and built a bunch of North African buildings and walls for Flames of War. I will post pictures of those tomorrow or the day next and hopefully be finished with the next Union Regiment by next weekend.

North African Building

2010-04-05T20:55:00.001-07:00

I wanted to start making some terrain for North Africa games of FOW, so I built a test building. The plan is to knock out some more buildings and some walls, just enough to have a little village. Hopefully one day I will be able to create a full table and have lots of movable terrain.

Different projects

2010-04-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few weeks, I've been working on a lot of different things lately but lazy when it comes to posting pictures. What I'm currently working on:
1. Basing another Confederate regiment that has just been finished
2. Painting a Union "Iron Brigade" regiment
3. Making some building and walls to use for FOW in North Africa
Pictures to follow!

Project Update

2010-03-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

I don't have a planned ending to this project, I guess I will keep working on it until I get distracted by something else or run out of table/storage room.

Either way, here is my progress so far. The empty bases represent the lead I already have purchased and is waiting to be painted.

Here is my first Union Brigade, I need to paint up the last regiment and base them (With the Brigade Commander), dull coat everything, and add flags.

Next is the second Union Brigade, as you can see I still have a lot of work to do on this and will need to buy some more figs too. Front to back will be the Brigade Commander, an Infantry Regiment, Cavalry Regiment, the same Regiment dismounted and finally the back row will be the horse holders.

It was difficult to only pick out 9 of the dismounted Union Cavalry from the Sash and Saber lot because they were some of the best figures I've seen by them. But I wanted to equal the same amount of figures (12) as the mounted version. (9 Dismounted + 3 holding 12 total horses.)
I will probably add 2-3 more Infantry Regiments to this Brigade.

Up next, the Confederates! The first brigade is nearing completion. Nothing to really write about. I am considering basing the partially painted Regiment the same as the Union Regiment in the long grass.

And finally the second Confederate Brigade, at this point just the one Infantry Regiment and the Brigade Commander. I am considering providing the Rebels some Cavalry to counter those Yanks, but I'm not convinced the effort is worth it, since I like to paint the dismounted versions as well. Not to mention the time consumed painting all of the horses twice!

I think I am going to have to quit procrastinating here pretty soon and start working on flags. There's just something appealing about the ACW flags that really look great on the table. I thought that if I left them until I had a bunch to do it would be easier but now it's looking like a daunting task!

Any requests for Regiments or flags to be represented shoot me a comment or e-mail. At this point I don't have any picked out.

Plugging away..

2010-03-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely I'm making progress. Here's a few more completed.

Uruk-hai Berserker

2010-03-21T19:30:00.001-07:00

What? Something other then ACW???
I know that I've been on a huge ACW kick lately but I actually do paint and play some other things. Lately I've been playing a fair amount of GW's LoTR with my Uncle Luke- no relation, just an honorary title. I've bought a few blisters recently and I painted up a Berserker today.

Nothing too difficult on this, a quick base coat and then a dry brush for highlights. If you take out the dry time between colors its only a few minutes. My painting standard for Lotr is pretty low, a worthy sacrifice to have all painted armies on the table. Nothing irks me more then playing with a shiny metal or all black sprayed army. The basing on these is unusual, kind of a mountain of Mordor/ lava theme.. not really fitting for Uruk-hai, but it ties them all together and looks pretty cool.

Future wargamer

2010-03-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well I've been a little absent lately, thing is my wife and I just announced this month that we are having our first child and so things have been a little crazy!

Now I'm dreaming of having someone to play toy soldiers with! (or someone to build a dollhouse and miniature furniture for!)

US Officer

2010-03-13T19:09:00.000-08:00

Here's the Union counterpart to my last post, he will command the Brigade I am working on.

Of course it still needs based and dull coated, but I've found it's a lot easier to paint up a whole lot and then start a production line to get them all based. Plus I can get a more consistant basing doing a large amount at once.

Thanks for looking.

Confederate Officer

2010-03-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

I took a break from the grind of painting whole regiments to paint one of the officers I just got in the mail. This is from the Sash and Saber pack "Mounted Federal General Officers" but he got recruited to serve the South! I am really happy with how he turned out and he will look great commanding a Brigade.

I changed things up a little bit with the horse, I started with black, then a basecoat of GW's Scorched Brown, and then starting a pallette of cheap brown paint and kept lightening it. I am really pleased with it but I am anxious to improve this technique and also get some good quality paint in tubes or bottles rather then in pots so that I can mix different shades easier.

Here is my "to-paint" pile.

I ordered these on a Thursday night, and when I got home from work on the following Monday I was pleasantly suprised to find them sitting on my counter! I have nothing but good things to say about my experiences with Sash and Saber.

What I've been working on this week...

2010-02-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well here are some of the mini's I've been working on for the last week or so.. This is my last regiment of 28mm ACW until my new order comes in. I am hoping to finish up the remaining 12 guys in time to touch up a few things on some stuff and get started on the flags. I think I am going to go ahead and hand make/paint all of them so I don't want to rush through them, but I am anxious to get a few of them done. Anyways, enough rambling, on to the pictures! (Click pics to enlarge)

I really love the poses on these... except maybe not the hunchback guy, but the rest are really full of character and a joy to paint.

I put out all of my completed regiments this week and I noticed that my Confederates don't look very gray, so I am trying to make this regiment more uniform and grayish.

I really like this NCO, I can just imagine him yelling orders!

My biggest complaint with these miniatures (from a VERY short list) is that the skirmishing/firing line packs have a mixture of standing and kneeling poses, and one of the Confederates (see picture) is even laying on his back reloading. Well I didn't know if I should base all of the kneeling soldiers together or mix them in... so I mixed them in and tried to make the bases seem natural. I think next time I am going to base all of the "kneelers" together.. We'll see.
But as for right now I have to figure out how to base these- the soldier laying down is giving me problems. I think I may put a log or bush or something for him to be laying behind.

I spent some extra time and painted this guys blanket roll as a quilt. Is it worth the effort? To be honest without a close-up I don't even know if it is noticable. Maybe if I use white between the shapes instead of the black?

As always any comments or criticism is welcome!

Update

2010-02-27T05:22:00.000-08:00

Well I'm not gone.. merely hiding. I have painted a bit lately but haven't had a chance to take any pictures. I did place another order with Sash and Saber which I am very excited for! And just in time, because I am working on my last regiment right now. Although I do want to go back and touch up a few mistakes on the Union Cavalry and dull coat everything and then add flags. So technically I have plenty to do but I was just itching for more lead! Here is my order:

(1) RCS1 "Confederate Infantry advancing (Right shoulder shift)"
(1) OCS1 "Gen. John Gordon"

(1) US8 "Dismounted Federal Cavalry command"
(1) US9 "Dismounted Federal Cavalry"
(2) US10 "Horse holder and 4 horses"
(1) CS10 "Horse holder and 4 horses"
(1) OUS20 "Mounted Federal general officers"
(1) US13 "Iron Brigade command"
(1) US14 "Iron Brigade advancing (Right shoulder shift)"
(1) US16 "Zouve Command"
(1) US18 "Zouves skirmishing-firing line"

I do love some of the Perry Miniatures ACW line and I think after these I am going to save up and get a huge order from them. I need to find a US supplier though because the shipping costs are killer!

Union Infantry Regiment In Wheat Field

2010-02-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

Against my better judgement I decided to base this Regiment advancing through a wheat field, or unmowed hay field or whatever you want to call it. Either way, I think it looks pretty good but I'm sure it will look ridiculous once it's on the gaming table. Which in all honesty shouldn't bother me because these will probably be more display figures then gaming. But I see it all the time, miniatures that are based with an urban or winter theme, and they look so awesome, but then when you throw them on the traditional green wargaming table they stick out like a sore thumb!
Worst case scenario, I decide to rebase these, and I've worked out a great looking technique to make these fields and can make some portable ones or even better build that huge board I've been dreaming about!

On to the pictures!

Uh-oh, someone's got a bent musket!

If you look closely you'll see that the standard bearers for this Regiment are converted riflemen, the command pack comes with 2 officers, 2 drummers, 2 standard bearers, and 4 misc NCO's. So I just grabbed two of the riflemen, clipped off their muskets and drilled/filed as necessary. Problem solved!

I have another Confederate Regiment to paint, and that finishes up my order from Sash and Saber, not too bad, 80 infantry, 2 guns, and 20 crew in about 3 months. I need to place another order with some dismounted Cavalry, Command, and 2-4 Infantry regiments for each.

Confederate Infantry Regiment

2010-02-06T21:24:00.001-08:00

I finally got around to taking some pictures, here is the Confederate regiment that I posted WIP pics of. Click for larger images.

Here is the command stand, looks like they have been rolling around in the grass! I'll have to hit them with my... er my wifes old hair dryer! I love the poses for all of the mini's on this stand, I have to once again recommend Sash and Saber!

Another closer shot of a few of the stands..

I really like how this guy turned out, not the cleanest paint job when it's this magnified but I love the sculpt, and it all came together well.

Union Inf, Union Arty, and Conf Inf WIP

2010-01-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't really been posting, but by my standard I've been painting a lot! I am going to finish my last 3 Regiments from my most recent order before I worry about flags, but for the most part these are done.

First up, my second Union regiment, still unnnamed.

I like being able to remove miniatures as casualties instead of using casualty markers or dice, so here is a close up of some of the figs which also show how I can remove some of them individually.

Two Union batteries.

And finally, another near completed Confederate Regiment.

Short and sweet, hope you enjoyed the pics, click on them for a larger version, all figs are Sash and Saber, which I HIGHLY recommend.

Confederate Artillery

2009-12-30T19:58:00.001-08:00

Well I finally finished some more stuff. I am working on another Confederate Infantry Regiment and I will try to post some finished stands later this weekend.

Here are some closeups-

Christmas in November!

2009-12-08T16:19:00.000-08:00

Well a few weeks ago I got my order in from Sash and Saber!

I've been pretty busy but I've managed to start on the Confederate Artillery, here are a few work in progress pictures.

I am really happy with these figures, they have great character and the castings were very clean. It took me maybe 30 minutes to clean and trim over a hundred figures which was a pleasant suprise! One of my favorite things is that there is a huge variety of facial hair with some massive beards and mustache's which really give that Civil War feel.

Blanket rolls & touchups

2009-11-21T12:37:00.001-08:00

Well I am still waiting on my figs from Sash and Saber to come in, and so I thought I would touch up a few things I'd seen in a few of the pics. And I've also been looking at some other people's stuff, especially here and I wanted to try my hand at a few blanket upgrades. I just did solid brown or gray for these at first but it makes a lot of sense that they would have home made blankets and whatever they could scrounge up. It definitely adds some more color to these.

Sash and Saber order!!

2009-11-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

I just placed a big order tonight with Sash and Saber. Eighty infantry and four 12 pounders with crew.... so once those arrive I will be posting a lot more!

Workbench

2009-11-07T10:43:00.001-08:00

Nothing special, just a few little things I've been messing with this week.

I'm trying to keep momentum going with my Flames of War, MW 8th Army Infantry Company- although it's difficult to keep painting dozens of stands with a 10 color desert pallete!

I was at Hobby Lobby one day and saw a box of AWI British soldiers on clearance for a few bucks, so of course I bought them! No real future for these other then just looking good! But they are a nice little break and an excuse to paint something with colors other then blue, gray, or tan!

19th Indiana

2009-11-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

I painted these up a few weeks ago. The 19th Indiana, part of the Iron Brigade. I really like basing them en masse like this. I think it has a better look then the neat little lines.

Union Cav

2009-10-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

Alright, these are pretty much done... of course they still needs flags and matte spray (I blame the weather and make excuses but I think I'm just scared to death of spraying them and it frosting them!). Click to enlarge pictures.

Here is a group shot, again these are Perry Miniatures (ACW Cav plastic boxset).

Closeup of the first half, Command stand on the left.

Closeup of the second half.

And some closeups of individual stands-
I went Hollywood and gave the commander a white horse!

I just liked how this horse turned out.

I was pleased with the overall look of this guy.

The great thing about these plastics is that they scream for you to do some conversions. I took one of the extra firing arms from the Infantry boxset and cut the musket out of the hands, then glued them to the Cavalryman's body and gave him a carbine. Pretty simple but a little tricky. I should have taken work in progress pictures but alas I am lazy! Maybe next time!

And another view of him.

A Lost Cause Game

2009-10-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

I went to my LGS's Annual Gamefest last night to play a game of "A Lost Cause", my friend Rick's ACW rules. We started at 1 AM and the store was still packed with all kinds of tournaments going on.
We wanted to do a Union assault on a prepared Confederate position. As much as we wanted to put EVERYTHING on the table, we only used about a fourth of Ricks mini's. Anyways, here are some pictures from the game (click to enlarge).

Chris, my morale support.

A view from behind the rebel position.

I was the Union attacker- here is my right on setup..

..left..

..and center. The plan was to move the center up the road through the town and combine it with the left to assault the Confederate middle while the right charged straight ahead into the rebel flank. This quickly got stuck in the mud as my commanders couldn't convince their troops to move in any coordinated effort and the massed Confederate artillery quickly started to pile up the casualties.

The confederates massed artillery on their right. This mutilated my left assault.

Rick and Jeannie, the owners of Petshop Comics. Notice how Jeannie is laughing as Rick ranges in his artillery on my center assault!

The right was the only assault to reach the fieldworks as my command rolls kept coming up 1's and 2's. About halfway through the battle we realized that we hadn't deployed enough Union troops to even make it possible to push the Confederates off of their fortifications. Oh well, we still had a great time pushing around big piles of little metal soldiers!

Not the best shot but you can make out the whole table in this picture. The HUGE game that we had earlier in the year was played on this table, except we used the whole thing for that game instead of just the third used for this game.

It's always cool to get Artillery in a wheat field!

At this point it was almost 4:00 AM and it was becoming obvious that it was indeed a lost cause for the Union attackers and so we called it a night. The great thing about when Rick and I play is that we don't really care who wins and it always ends up being us doing what would be historical or fun. (Although he usually ends up winning since he wrote the rules!)

Union Cavalry Teaser

2009-10-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted anything new in a while- but I've been really busy painting up my Union Cavalry. It is the Perry ACW plastic cavalry boxset- once again, great choice of options and lots of detail. I just finished painting these today, and I will be basing them in the next few days and then I will do a little photo shoot and post some decent pictures.

Next up: An order to Sash and Saber, a few Regiments of Confederate Infantry, and a couple of Union Artillery Batteries. Then some flags from flag dude! This is quickly going from a "Vacation Painting Project" to an entire gaming size/period... The slippery slope that is miniature wargaming!

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

2009-10-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

A year and a half ago I built some custom models for a "Seven wonders of the ancient world" custom model railroad layout. They couldn't find models for three of the wonders and so I built models of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Babylonian hanging guardens, and the temple of Artemis.
The Mausoleum was my favorite and so I thought I'd post a few pictures on here....