Roman Auxiliary Cornicen & CS Firing Line WIP

Back to the painting table, with a day off! Unfortunately most of the time was spent undercoating and putting on base layers, which is not terrifically exciting. I did however, start to paint my first Perry plastic infantryman. In comparison to their Foundry output, the new figures are more slender & truer in terms of proportion. I will suspend judgement until I've painted a few, but I am a little concerned about some of the detailing, for example around the hands. I haven't started on the metal sculpts, but they look as good as their AWI output.

This miniature (from the Foundry Roman Auxilia command pack) has been in a semi painted state for a while, and I finally finished him off. Strangely the face was the last part I painted, usually it's the other way around. Black enamel undercoat, with the usual mix of Vallejo, Foundry, Citadel and Plaka paints. Note that in the photo, the wolf pelt looks slightly 'flat', but I have a feeling this is a side effect of the Dullcote being applied before the paint had actually dried.

The Cornu (horn) was interesting to paint, starting with old style Citadel 'tin bitz' and 'brazen brass', then Vallejo copper and Liquitex gold highlights. This didn't look quite right, so I used some brown ink to blend the metallics and give it more 'weight'. The ink was then wiped from the body of the horn to reveal the gold highlights. Having managed to finish this example off in a fairly short time, I'm tempted to paint up an entire unit of Romans to see how quickly this can be achieved. I certainly have enough unpainted legionnaires that need to exit the leadpile.

This CS veteran was also finished off today, and is one of my favourites from the Foundry range. The brown leather cartridge box and brogans help to break up the grey tones. This will be added to a firing line stand - with the remaining miniatures hopefully being finished over the weekend.

Battlefield visit

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days wandering around the battlefield at Gettysburg. Starting at the new museum, which is a lot larger than the old one, I sat through their new film (not recommended for anyone with any basic knowledge of the war) then went off to the Lutheran Seminary, walking down to McPherson's ridge looking at the position of Buford's defense on the first day. Unfortunately we didn't get to go into the Adams County Historical Society which is based at the Seminary.We then followed the path of the collapsed Union line as it retreated through the town towards Evergreen Cemetery, and ending the day at Culp's Hill observation tower.

Day two started from the museum again, moving towards the Leister House (Meade's HQ), where I snapped some photos in order to reconstruct it for the wargames table.

This is the rear view of the barn. Wow. I bet you wish your holidays were as exciting as mine :)

Amazingly, the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
has architectural drawings of many of the most important historical buildings on the battlefield including the Leister house and barn (part of the Historic American Buildings Survey) so there's no excuse for inaccuracy.

We then went towards the Pennsylvania monument where some re-enactors were doing a demonstration. These well fed federals, seen doing rifle drills above, were accompanied by their Rebel counterparts stationed by the Longstreet monument. Strangely, someone was actually getting married on the site, with a Confederate honour guard! It is always good to talk to these enthusiasts, as they always have interesting tales to tell, even if one felt compelled to apologise for one of their 'pards' who had brought along an 'authentic' 1860s deckchair for the Reb camp...

Onwards to Little Round Top through the Peach Orchard and Wheatfield, back up to the Virginia Monument and across to the Angle in the footsteps of the Pickett Pettigrew charge. A lot of ground covered, and some very sore feet, but I could have done another month without covering the same ground twice. This all too brief trip has given me a taste for a longer holiday later in the year.

As well as the new Perry miniatures that need to be glued together, the Leister House will be a first terrain piece. I'll leave the Seminary until later - that's going to be a project in itself! I should probably then do the McPherson barn. So many plans. so little time...

Salute!

I haven't posted in a while. I haven't painted in a while. However, I thought I'd do a quick update on Salute (the biggest UK Wargames show) & my thoughts on the prospect of painting the first Perry sculpted metal ACWs.

It has probably already been said that the Excel venue is like an aircraft hangar, with as much character. However, I wasn't there for the ambiance (or the £5 vege burgers!), I was there for Perry ACWs! Picking up the plastics (Infantry and Cavalry) from the Perry's themselves & delaying while I admired their demonstration game, I then went to pick up some metals from Dave Thomas. Unfortunately by the time I got there, all they had left were limbers! I picked one of those up, but then they found a Generals pack they hadn't sold. The day was saved(!)

I have seen a number of posts about the compatibility of the old Foundry range, and as I'm sure you can imagine, this was certainly an issue for me.

As you'll see, the fears were unfound(ry)ed. The Perry sculpt is on the left. I picked two similar looking miniatures to compare, and although the Foundry sculpt is slightly 'chunkier', they are by no means incompatible. The new Perry miniatures have more realistic proportions (horses do too!) and the detail if anything, is even finer than before, although this may be due to the respective ages of the moulds. Suffice to say I am very happy about these new models - and can't wait to pick up the rest of them. The artillery they had on display looked superb.

In terms of the models themselves, this pack is most suitable for the Union, due to the sculpted shoulder boards, although they were used down South (Wade Hampton for one). A needle file would sort them out, but I think I'll keep them as Blue Bellies.

Once I've painted some of the plastic horses, I'll do another side by side post, although apart from the benefit of more realistic horses, I don't see too many problems.

As for the rest of Salute, I picked up some bargains at the Foundry stall - 4 complete (and a few extras) ECW artillery crews plus guns for £5!

I also picked up the interesting Touching History terrain building guides. I'm off to Gettysburg in two weeks, so hopefully some of the tips will come in useful!

Fightin' Joe

For those Gettysburg 'what if' scenarios... Or Chancellorsville.

Currently a work in progress, I may remount him on a horse that's a better match for the one in the tintype. Correcting the relative scale of horse and rider may pose more of a challenge though...

The horse in the WIP is from the Crimean Russian Generals pack, with resculpted saddle blanket. I will use him for the General's staff when I find a better match.

Hooker himself is based on the Foundry Union mounted Infantry commander with the head from the CS Cavalry with Shotguns pack. The sideburns were added with greenstuff.

While I was on the Foundry site, I noticed the work done on Stonewall Jackson - his coat's painted grey! Jackson was wearing this coat - a black oil cloth raincoat when he received his fatal lead poisoning. It's still on display at the VMI. Their Little Sorrel looked a little off colour too :(

The start of a Roman WAB army?

This one's been in a semi painted state for a few months now, but I dug him out and finished him off today. I have a bunch of these Foundry sculpts and their Dacian adversaries, but they always seem to be on the 'to do' list.

Although they should be easy enough to paint in large batches because the colour schemes are quite basic (... by that reasoning so should the ACW...), the major problem is the shield. As this was a test piece to see whether I was inspired enough to do an army, I did this one totally freehand. The prospect of doing a hundred more is, however, enough sap my will to live. Although it looks ok, I will order some decals and paint over the top of them. Decals never look quite right on their own, but as a template they'll be fine.

It's a shame I painted this model and then attached the shield. I didn't realise the torso would be completely hidden until I attached it. I guess that would save quite a lot of painting time too ;)
Having looked at the tunic colour debate that seems to get the reenactors so animated, I was swayed by the 'undyed' option as for Trajan's army on campaign, resupply would be an issue. Just a shame you can't see it!

Sikh Wars conversions

Two Foundry Sikh Wars figures that will be painted up as part of a Union brigade. I wanted to have this unit charging forward, taking casualties as they ran. Because of the limited number of 'charging' poses in the ACW range, I have been scouring the lead pile for likely looking substitutes to add some variety.

Fortunately I found these two - the cast of the running figure was slightly misaligned, so the cap would have needed to be resculpted in any case. Easier to simply cut it off and give him a forage cap. As you can see the sack coat tails were added and the shoulders filed down. Bands were added to the rifle to make it look more like the Springfield. I'll probably paint these up over the weekend and post the results later. Yes - the rifle is on the wrong shoulder, but this is a one off, in the heat of battle.

Good news about the Perry's return to the ACW - although I have mixed feelings over their decision to use plastic. I have seen their LOTR plastics, and the horses are especially nice as horse legs can be molded to the correct thickness in this medium. However, I prefer the weight and durability of metal. I guess those 'drastic plastic' orcs put me off... The promise of metal 'extras' for this range makes up for an misgivings.

The idea of producing a 'generic' ACW soldier is great for an entry into the period, they may not satisfy the purist. Although kepis, slouches, sack coats and shell jackets were utilised by both sides in both theatres, it may be difficult to build historically correct armies from these packs in isolation. The price looks extremely competitive though, and I'm sure I'll be buying a number of packs even if they aren't all usable. The prospect of extra bits to use in conversions is an added bonus. Hopefully some separate rifles will be added to the sprue so they can be used in vignettes.

Hopefully the range will be compatible with the Foundry range - I'd be happy with the small differences observed between the respective AWI and ECW ranges. Can't wait for the release date!

The Relief of Lucknow

This one's been hanging around for a while and to celebrate our reconnection to the Internet (stupid wifi) here he is.

From the (very) old Foundry Indian Mutiny range, I think he's stood the test of time. This officer from the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders is painted in the brown 'boat jacket' they wore at Lucknow, covering their famous red tunics - they were, after all, the 'Thin Red Line' immortalised in Robert Gibbs painting.

Note the badger head sporran - worn only by the senior ranks of the 93rd.

Strangely I only saw the Osprey Indian Mutiny book (which I assume was the inspiration for this miniature) the other day, which was, more than likely itself inspired by "The Relief of Lucknow" by Ernest Ibbetson. Back to the ACW next post!