The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 3

It is obviously a distinct advantage to have architectural drawings to work from when constructing a scale model. The originals were blown up to the correct scale for 28mm, then cut out and traced onto mdf.

The mdf was then cut out to form the rough template & the windows were drilled out. The model was then taped together to make sure everything fitted correctly.

Separate roofs were constructed from lightweight wood. The internal view shows where the house was glued and strengthened.

The inside was painted a dark brown and the small porch room (cellar entrance?) was added. The porch iself was added, but not glued. This porch was later replaced as another photo shows the stonework actually runs under the porch. The stone (textured plasticard) was added, followed by row after row of wooden boarding.

Day two. The work in progress. Note the boards on the rear of the house, with a central join as per the real building. I think I will invest in some wood effect plasticard. Gluing the boards one by one was simply too time consuming. The wood will look better when painted though.

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 2

Another image of the Leister House, originally from an engraving from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, December 5th 1863, republished in 'Farms at Gettysburg' by Thomas Publications using Adams County Historical Society images.

Interesting to note the first floor window (above the ladder), which was not visible on the previously posted wetplate images. The window is also present in the 1935 architectural survey, but has now been removed from the building itself. Again note the dark door.

I can only assume this window was added between July and December 1863. Perhaps one of the shell holes (described by Leister herself in a later interview) was carved out and a window frame inserted?

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 1

The Leister House, or Meade's HQ as it is now often called was the home of the widow Lydia Leister, located a mile from the centre of Gettysburg down the Taneytown Rd.

The photo above, now in the Library of Congress collection, was taken only days after the battle, as the horse carcasses that litter the field bear witness. This image will be invaluable in an accurate representation to scale. Note the dark window frames and door.

This second image shows the house in better detail. According to the photographer it was taken during the battle itself, although the density of foliage on the trees doesn't seem to compare with the first image. Note the faded clap board on the near side, and again the darker window frames. I assume the outbuilding is the smokehouse mentioned in period descriptions.

On my last trip, I took a number of photos, which I could compare with these period images and the scale drawings from the LOC website.


The house today, which has been restored to its original appearance. Note the window frames are now painted white, and I am not sure as to whether the porch window (left of photo) is present in the earlier wetplate images.

This view from the rear of the house (taken between 1874 and 1888) shows another larger extension, added in the 1870's. Strangely when Leister sold the property to the Battlefield Memorial Association, she removed the extension and attached it to her new house.

These changes over time show the difficulty in returning the property to it's original state. However, by using these sources, it is possible to form pretty complete picture of how the place looked in 1863.

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 :(