Dismounted Union Cavalry

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

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

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...

...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

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!

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

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.