Currahee!, Part 4

4 more finished, 4 on the painting table (about 60% complete)

Eyes are pretty good imho :-)

Band of Brothers, Part 3

Dear All,

I failed painting the eyes on the models below. One looks like a retard and the other one has no eyes...

I tried and i kept trying until i was satisfied, satisfied in the sense that nobody is perfect. Except for Scarlett Johansson.

A lone Sharpshooter...

This is not a tale of a lone sharpshooter, this is just to show what happens when one gets tired of waiting for some new paints to arrive and when one gets bored of painting SS Oak Leaf uniforms...

I was really fed up with painting those little 15mm guys in those annoying-to-paint uniforms so i took a small break. Since we decided to postpone our first 28mm ACW battle again, i'm gonna try to squeeze in my skirmishers. 14 figures to paint, one done, which was more of a tester.

The most famous of Union Sharpshooters is of course the 2nd US Sharpshooter Regiment led by Colonel Hiram Berdan. They had all green uniforms payed for by Hiram Berdan and the rifles they used was the Sharps Rifle. Some men brought their personal rifle with them. They fought on almost every field of battle in the East and became famous while defending Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Enjoy my little "tester" :-)

Faugh a Ballagh!

“Your soldier’s heart almost stood still as he watched those sons of Erin fearlessly rush to their deaths. The brilliant assault on Marye’s Heights of their Irish brigade was beyond description. We forgot they were fighting us and cheer after cheer at their fearlessness went up all along our lines!”

General George Pickett, writing to his Fiancée.

"The boys that wore the green" was their nickname, the famed Irish Brigade. Part of this brigade was the 69th, or as General Robert E. Lee nicknamed them during the fighting at Fredericksburg; "The Fighting 69th".

I modelled them after the scenes from the movies Gods & Generals, in greatcoats assaulting the Confederate defences at Fredericksburg. The regiment was almost annihilated during this assault. The figures from Redoubt Enterprises are hell to work with, but after cleaning and of course, painting i think they look alright! Not all negative, a good thing about these Redoubt figures is that they come with seperate heads, so you can add some variation to them.

The grass tufts are late fall tufts from Silflor.

Currently i'm working on the 2nd Wisconsin Regiment, part of the Iron Brigade. Another positive thing about those Redoubt figures is that they paint nicely and pretty fast. Also, the casting of those Iron Brigade models is alot better then the ones with overcoats. Probably a popularity thing ...

Oh yeah, before i forget. Merry Christmas and of course ... a happy newyear. Don't drink and drive.

Advance the colors! Advance the colors! Charge!

"I doubt whether it had an equal, and certainly no superior among all the regiments of the Army of the Potomac."

The next regiment is ready... The 5th New York, one of the most famous units of the American Civil War.

  I've done the basing and tufts the same way as the previous regiment, only for the flags I tried some tips from one of my followers. To be honest, it didn't work out like I have hoped :-( But many thanks for the tips, MiniMike!

  They turned out pretty good i think, while finishing these i had some ideas for the 6th (and probably last) regiment. I'm thinking to go with the 1st Minnesota Volunteers. They entered hell at Gettysburg and few returned from it, only to receive eternal glory.

"Not only were men wounded, or killed, they were riddled."

  For some good history on the 5th NY, check out this site. It has everything you need to know about these colourful troops. Here are some more picies, enjoy!

20th Maine to the front!

  Finally! My first 100% completed ACW 28mm regiment! Remember when i said that i still needed to flag and base all my figures? It's an ongoing process at the moment...

  Part of V Corps, Army of the Potomac. These guys became famous during the Battle of Gettysburg, defending Little Round Top and finally charging down the hill almost destroying the 15th Alabama. Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain became famous after the charge. Historians are still arguing whether he ordered the charge not.

  Anyway, here are some pictures of the entire completed regiment. I'm not to happy with the flags to be honest, you can see some parts of the flag not being glued well together. If somebody has some tips how to do this properly, let me know! Otherwise, all in all, i'm pretty proud of myself. Never tought that i could paint like this...

 

Marching through the fields of glory...

  I really got to make some kind of schedule because my initial planning always seem to get fubar'ed. I was hoping to start my Berdan Sharpshooters or my Iron Brigade but thanks to an eager gaming buddy I started basing my first 3 ACW-regiments. He really wants to play some ACW and I still have so much work to do... I need to paint up one more regiment, base about 30 trees, alot of Renedra worm fences need some paint and what's a battle without artillery... right, i need to do those too. 

  I'm quite happy with the basing of my figures. Working in a lab has some advantages, like... sieving sand to different fractions. 1mm, 0.5mm, etc... no need to buy those overprices basing grit packages! I use Vallejo White Pumice flocked with some small and medium sized grit. Basecoat is Vallejo 872, Chocolat Brown, then a heavy drybrush of Flat Earth 983, a medium drybrush of Light Brown 929, light drybrush of 914 Green Ochre and then some touches of Iraqi Sand.

  The Grass Tufts are from Silfor, they are summer tufts. The single colored ones and the 2-color ones. I also used some summer-flowers. For my Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg i'm gonna use Late Fall tufts, long and medium sized ones. A pictures of that one will be up shortly.

Crazy weekend and other things...

Well, what can i say? Crisis was ... crazy! it was great & awesome, it was spectacular and most of all, it was good. I had a small budget to spend on mini's. The list was long but i got most things that i wanted.

First off, i bought me a new can of Vallejo Matt varnish! Yay! Second, bought 2 second-hand Osprey books about Trench Warfare in World War One. Hoorah! Third, i bought some Battlefield-in-a-box desert hills for FoW and after that ... i payed a visit to the Redoubt Enterprises booth to pick up my order :-)

Irish Brigade, Iron Brigade, Garibaldi Guard, Berdan Sharpshooters, 54th Massachusetts, 13inch Mortar, limbers for my 'Napoleons' and an Ammunition caisson. Also on the list was a Union artillery command. I was in heaven (for a while)!

To be honest, i was a bit disappointed when i checked the Redoubt miniatures in close-up. After reading alot of positive posts on tmp about their ACW range i have to say they have good detail but are so badly casted they will need hours of trim-and-file work. I think they really need to check their moulds. But maybe i'm just spoiled after painting those Perry Zouaves, which, too say again, are absolutely beautifully casted!

I finished 4 of the Irish soldiers already, i couldn't wait to see them painted. They turned out nice i think, but again, they could have been alot better if it weren't for the bad castings.

On a funny note, i was checking the Irish regiment in the display case at the booth and told the vendor that after seeing the movie 'Gods & Generals' and seeing the pictures on the website i just gotta have those, he told me with a big smile that he modeled them after seeing the movie.

My Perry zouaves are half done, 16 more to go. But here for your viewing pleasure (ahum) are some hardened 69th Irishmen in overcoats advancing on the stone wall at Marye's Height, Fredericksburg. Maybe they have more 'luck' in our future wargames then they had back there!