ACW Generals

 

My American Civil War collection has grown in size over the years from a Sharp Practice force in 2017 to being able to play some sizeable engagements with Longstreet and Picketts Charge of late, but my generals for both sides have remained rather bland single officer figures on 40mm round bases. 

I'd decided that this should change so when my parents asked what I wanted for my birthday last year I suggested some of the personality packs from Perry Miniatures and am giving the Union and Confederate forces some more impressive command stands this time around.

The first three completed represent Major General George G. Meade, Major General Daniel Edgar Sickles and Major General Abner Doubleday.

Major General George G. Meade

George G. Meade is accompanied by a staff officer from the mounted Colonels set. 

After cleaning up they are a lovely set of characterful figures to paint.

Major General George G. Meade

Major General George G. Meade

Major General Daniel Edgar Sickles

Daniel Sickles, is also accompanied by a colonel on a rearing horse from the same pack, the rearing horse gives a great sense of movement to the vignette, the galloper returning with urgent news of the developing situation.

Major General Daniel Edgar Sickles

Major General Daniel Edgar Sickles

Major General Abner Doubleday

Abner Doubleday is also accompanied by a mounted colonel discussing strategy. 

With the exception of Doubleday's horse, which is done in Citadel Contrast Colour, everything else is painted in Vallejo Model Colour with Army Painter washes. 

Abner Doubleday may, or may not have invented baseball!

Major General Abner Doubleday

Major General Abner Doubleday

More American Civil War generals to come soon.

Royal Navy landing party

For this years Painting challenge I wanted to complete the "Maritime" location. 

I remembered that in the pile o' shame were some Brigade Games Royal Navy Landing Party that I had picked up several years ago when I made this entry back for Challenge IX. 

The figures have languished ever since, but as this years challenge for me is really about clearing that backlog of lead and plastic and they were dug out for completion.

I decided to use Citadel Contrast Paints over VMC light grey surface primer on these and I think I may rue that decision as they have not come out with the best of finishes. 

Some close-ups of the chaps, lovely sculpts by Paul Hicks, but you can see where the Contrast Colours have not worked that well.

 They may never see a game, but at least it's some clearance of the lead mountain.

12mm WWII German limbers and AA guns for O Group

 

I've had a busy week, but decided to pull out the stops and add some more bits to the 12mm WWII collection that I started last year and recently added more US supports to.

Even in the later stages of the war, much of the German army was relying on horse drawn transports, so I decided that my German units for O Group would be relying on horse-drawn limbers for their supports rather than motor vehicles. I added four to my most recent order from Pendraken.

The horses were painted with Citadel Contrast paints, I think they work well for horse flesh at this scale, while the limbers themselves and the crews were done in Vallejo Model Colour with an Army Painter wash.

I also painted a pair of 2cm FlaK38 for close air defence of the forces. I wish that Pendraken did some additional crew packs, all these guns look rather sparse with only two crewmen.

I've only ever played one game of O Group, I really should try to get some more in!

Adding to the ACW Scenery

 

A couple of years ago I noticed that chum Richard was selling a Renedra ramshackle barn that had been sat in his pile of shame for a a few years so I purchased it from him, and as is the way with these things it just sat in my own pile of shame.

Over the break for the Holidays, enthused by the unit of Confederate infantry I was painting I decided it was time to break the barn out of the pile and get it sorted.

It was a very quick build and was soon ready for a spray of primer, followed by a coat of Contrast Wyldwood on the walls and Black Templar on the roof, I also added a liberal splash of Militaruim Green for mouldy patches. Once dry I added some brown shades to the walls and grey shades to the roof. 

The kit comes with some nice extras like an abandoned wagon wheel, a pair of ladders and a pair of pitchforks. I also added a base and some plant growth up the barn using Woodland Scenic bushes.

Suitably enthused for adding to the ACW terrain I ordered some fences from my local gaming store, which luckily for me is the gaming Megastore Noble Knight Games.

They had in stock one pack of the Renedra Cross & Rail Fencing which although are a pain to build they do take a relatively simple paint job well. A spray of dark brown primer then a couple of highlights.

I also picked up their last three packs of the Renedra Worm Fencing. These are OK but have some horrendous mould lines and don't fit together that well. As I was building them I decided that they would benefit from adding some uprights in the angles and also making some of the ends taper off. 

In the end, for the six pieces I did three "middle" sections, two sections that taper off at the left end and two sections that taper off at the right end.

WWII Tirailleurs Sénégalais (4)

 

Back in 2019 Crusader Miniatures released some Senegalese troops to their WWII French range and I placed a pre-order on Northstar and picked up at Partizan during a trip to the UK. 

These were bought back to Wisconsin and I painted a platoon plus some supports for our Chain of Command games. The initial troops are posted over on Scrivsland and here and here. Fortunately the first blog post contained my recipe so I was off to a good start with the colours I used on these.

I've played a few games with them, but although I painted enough infantry for the platoon, there never seemed to be quite enough infantry for flexibility in my forces, so, when Victoria asked if I had any ideas for Christmas presents, I let her know that Badger Games were carrying the range and a couple more packs would be great.

As always the Crusader Miniatures stuff is a delight to paint.

Some close ups showing these great sculpts.

Firing line of Virginians

 

My first figures done in 2024!

Over the Christmas and New Years break I managed to crank out a unit of Confederates between family time.

All the figures are from the Perry Miniatures range and are made up of a pack each of Confederate Infantry in ‘shell’ Jackets skirmishing, Confederate Infantry firing line and half a pack of Confederate Infantry command standing, more figures from that last pack in a future post.

I painted these in batches of four using the same palette for each batch with a "guest colour" in each of the batches to add a touch of variety.

The Virginia state flag is from Flags of War, although it looks to have frosted a little with the varnishing, so I'll have to sort that out!

The photos are not so good, I'll likely reshoot for a later post.

Bijleveld's Battery

A battery of Dutch-Belgian horse artillery has been added to the ever expanding 1815 Hundred Days collection.

Capitaine Bijleveld's battery of Dutch-Belgian horse artillery was one of the first units of the Anglo-allied army in action at the Battle of Quatre-Bras on the 16th June 1815 when they supported the Nassauers driving off the French cavalry advancing on Frasnes. Two days later they were again in action at the Battle of Waterloo in support of van Bylandts brigade. 

The figures are from the Perry Miniatures range and are very nice sculpts but do take a little cleaning up.

A final view from the business end!

Happy New Year to you all.