As many folks probably know, we have a bunch of 28mm Napoleonic plastics on the way!
First up, pictured above, are a few of the upcoming Perry Miniatures 28mm plastic French. Now, I have an entire army of Perry French, and they are BEAUTIFUL; Perrys are my favorite. This set will include 42 figures, which includes skirmishers and officers. Can't WAIT!
Also there is a new company, Victrix Limited, which will be releasing 28mm Napoleonic Brits! This is an army I might have to buy! The sculpts so far look fantastic; they are shown to the left and right. I'll post up more when it is released, but for now, do check out what they have so far.
Thanks to Memorial Day weekend (and the wife being away) I was finally able to get my 15mm ACW game finished!
If you recall from part one, the game ended with battle about to be joined. The Federals were attempting to send reinforcements down a road that was held by entrenched Confederate troops. However the Federals outnumbered the southern troops greatly, and would have to rely on the greater numbers to push the CSA troops back. The Confederate defense was centered on a small hill, with an artillery piece to help, and men taking cover in the scrub at
the base of the hill. The Federals plan was a three pronged attack, with cavalry and infantry attacking the Confederate left, infantry attacking the center, and infantry attacking the right.
The Irish Brigade lead the attack on the Confederate right, at the turn in the road. The Irish, rather than get dragged into a long firefight, charged headfirst 
into the southern troops gathered around the small white house. Following closely on the heels of another charging Federal regiment, the Irish were able to avoid taking too much fire and crashed right into the confederate troops. After a fierce and bloody fight, the southern troops fell back, leaving the bend in the road in Federal hands.
However, this was a dangerous position to be in, as there was another
Southern regiment on the flank of the Irish, in the fields to their left, and a third regiment behind them on the hill. The Federal officers quickly made a decision, realizing the southern troops on the hill were otherwise occupied, and swung the 69th New York to face the confederates in the field. Quickly the two regiments turned and prepared to fire...
"FIRE!"
The officers screamed and the roar of the muskets was deafening. Through the smoke the Federal officers tried to see how much damage they caused...
Amazing! Thanks to seven 6s rolled out of only twelve dice, the Confederates fell like wheat, and many more turned and fled. The Irish cheered mightly... and in fact may have cheered for too long, as it took their officers almost two full turns to get the New Yorkers turned to face up the road and at a newly arrived regiment of Southern reinforcements...
Meanwhile, the Confederate commander was concerned with his left. Federal cavalry had appeared there, and
so another unit of boys in grey was brought up to reinforce that side, which was at the time only held by a single piece of southern artillery...
Meanwhile the Federal attack in the center had swept away the southern regiment at the base of the hill (bushes can only do so much to stop minie 
balls!) and were now preparing their lines to attack up the hill. However, attacking an elevated position with no cover was a proposition that the Federal officers did not relish... they quickly brought up an artillery piece, which deployed on the road, and began to rain shells down on the Confederates on the hilltop.
Seeing the Federal attack at the road stalled as well (the Irish possibly enjoying a celebratory drink, after their annihilation of the southern troops in the field) and Confederate reinforcements coming up the road, the Federal commander also redeployed his skirmishers from the center to the Union left. The sharpshooters, who moved through cover quickly and easily, made their way to the far Union left and began to pick off troops in the last Confederate regiment on that flank, which had formed into line to meet the Irish and the other troops who were coming up behind them.
And in a sudden move to win the day, the Union General also quickly redeployed his entire center attack. Realizing it was too dangerous to go straight up the hill, he used his cavalry to hold some of the reb reinforcements in place on the hill and quickly got his regiments at the base of the hill into column, making for the road at double time... after all, his orders were not to take the hill, but to get reinforcements down that damned road! Despite
the artillery shells crashing down about them, the Federal troops quickly made for the road...
The Federals and rebs exchanged a few volleys at the road before the Union 
General ordered the charge. With a great cheer the Irish and their supporting regiments plunged down the road at the beleagered rebs, some of whom began to turn and flee when they realized how outnumbered they were, and in the end only a single stand of Confederates was left to absorb the charge. The Federals crashed into the southern troops, whooping and screaming, bayonets flashing, and quickly slaughtered the boys in grey.
The Confederate general, realizing there was no point in holding the hill if he failed to keep the Federals from
getting down the road, quickly began to redeploy his men from the hill in a desperate attempt to stop the other flank from collapsing. As his men began to move, the Federal cavalry advanced, keeping up a harassing fire the entire way...
However, it was for naught; the Federal troops swarmed up the road, going to reinforce another, larger attack which was key to the defeat of the Confederacy. Victory this day belongs to the North!
Hello all!
Very sorry for the long gap in posting; a very good buddy of mine came into town, and between that and a tough week at work I had no time to work on the blog!
However, here is the latest installment of the current army; another unit of 15mm American Civil War confederates!
Like the last unit these guys are done in a wide variety of greys and browns, with some other colors thrown in at random. I like the look, although it is clearly best for late war, and when compared to my Federal troops it really stands out.
This unit, like all my other 15mm ACW units, features a few dead scattered in it. I wanted to try something new with this army (I started this right after the 25mm Nappy French) and thought some dead might be neat. In the end it does look nice; I generally stick toaround two dead per unit, which is enough to look cool but not an overwhelming number.
The officer in this regiment is actually modeled on a reenacting buddy of mine.
When I saw the figure it reminded me of him, with the jacket unbuttoned and everything, and so I thought I would paint him up to match! It took just a tiny bit of work (namely slicing the jacket up with an exacto razor to fashion the pleats) but overall I think he came out nicely! You can see the commander to the above left, and the real life version to the right.
As with the rest of my 15mm ACW armies, these guys are all Battle Honours, with flags, as usual, from Rick the Flag Dude.
It has been awhile since I played a game, so I thought that tonight I would play a quick one.
The Federal objective; march eight stands of infantry (the equivalent of two units) off the board along the road, to supply reinforcements to a nearby battle. The Confederate troops had to prevent this from happening.This game involved two different
deployments. The Confederates would begin in position and with an artillery piece and an officer already deployed, but with only a few infantry units, holding a vital portion of road. Two units deployed in the cover of fences and bushes, ready for the advancing Federals.
The Federals began not in position but with their ENTIRE infantry compliment already deployed. They would, however, have to rely on reinforcements to provide the support troops they would need. Would the Federal officer hold up the attack to wait for artillery and cavalry and the superior officers? Or would he press forward quickly and try to take the road before more southern units could deploy?
The Federals on the road slowed their advance and began to spread their units into an attack line. Rather than press forward piecemeal, the commanding officer felt that it was worth the time to position the attack properly and with enough support. However, the Confederate artillery was merciless, pounding the Union troops as they advanced in column and chewing the most advance regiment to pieces, forcing them to cover in the buildings at the crossroads and huddle behind trees. Around them the rest of the Federal attack deployed.
Meanwhile the second Federal column advanced towards a large field, ready to cross it and head straight for the small unit of Confederates gathered around the base of a small hill. Atop the hill, a single Confederate artillery piece kept up a steady fire on the Federals on the road.
The Confederate piece kept up its fire as the Federal army advanced. Soon a Federal colonel galloped onto the field, followed by an artillery piece that made a mad dash for a nearby hilltop, hoping to lend some support to the imminent Union attack. The Federals on the road deployed into line, still taking fire from the CSA cannon on the hill, while the rest of the Confederate force waited, crouched behind their fences, a single unit of infantry in a mix of grey and butternut appearing on the road leading from the woods and double timing towards the junction, and a single regiment of dismounted cavalry doing their best to hold a very long, empty fenceline on the Confederate flank.
And finally the two sides were deployed and ready to fire...
I'll post up the second part as soon as I play it!
Now that I have shown the command stands for my 15mm American Civil War Confederate force, it is time to start in on the troops.
First up is a unit of Southern infantry. For the vast majority of my southern troops I painted them a real hodge-podge of colors, with no real uniformity to most of the units. The infantry stands are actually mix-and-matchable; there
are very few "set" stands for any units (there are, of course, exceptions.) This certainly makes organizing the collection easy!
I painted my 15mm ACW troops in batches of ten, glued onto popsicle sticks and then undercoated. This made it VERY easy to paint them, as I could get to the hard-to-reach spots very simply. This resulted in very neat paint jobs.
The colors, as I mentioned, are pretty varied, but they are all a simple base coat with a pretty deliberate highlight. This is perfect for 15mm, as it is dramatic enough to be noticeable but easy enough to paint quick.
I included some shots of the individual stands so that you can get a good feel for what color schemes I used and how many of each color there was. This unit is a little heavy on the grey as it stands right now; the actual force is maybe a little more varied than this one.All of the figures are from Battle Honors. All of the flags for ALL of my collections are from Rick O'Brien the Flag Dude; his link is in my links section!
Fresh on the heels of my last 15mm ACW Confederate command stand, here comes the second one!
The first is a small scene of officers consulting a map and discussing strategy; that stand often looks best next to a house or a barn. This fellow, loosely modeled on General Lee, is a little more appropriate for the front! He is sitting on his horse watching his men advance around him and considering his next move. Next to him a southern soldier advances past the dead Federal soldier lying in the grass.
Like the rest of my 15mm ACW collections, these figures are from Battle Honors.
Here is just a demo shot of a project I am going to tackle in between painting 25mm Napoleonic Russians; namely, re-basing my 15mm WWII Germans. The stand on the left (and both in the background) are my original basing, where the sand was painted green and small tufts of grass were added. I am now going to change them up to match the one on the right; brown sand with flock, the same as my other collections. I think it looks much nicer! I put up a poll on the lefthand side of the page; do folks generally agree? Or do you think the left one is better looking in 15mm?
I'll post more of these when I get to the 15mm WWII Germans, which will likely be immediately after the 15mm ACW Confederates.
Since folks have basically said they don't mind the food entries, here is another.
I was really in the mood for some ribs. The only ribs they had at the local mart came in 6lb packages, but I figured what the heck. Found a great hickory and brown sugar BBQ sauce that was remarkably subtle, and threw it on the ribs. Basted and turned every 6 or 7 minutes. They turned out GREAT. Lots and lots of meat on them, too; I could only finish FOUR ribs before I was stuffed... the normally baby backs, I can eat 12 or 15 at a sitting. These things were brutes. Delicious brutes. Had them with some red beans and rice, a nice salad, and a delicious loaf of bread.
Next on the menu; some nice chicken in yogurt and curry kebabs! Below is a shot of the ribs marinating.
Here is the latest project on the workbench; I have finished the Russian general, and now am now back to working on the rank and file.
In this case, the next project is a unit of grenadiers. While I went with brown overcoats on my regular line infantry, I am going with the grey and red cuffs/collars for these guys. It will make them stick out a little, but I think it will look good and there seems to be ZERO debate that grenadiers had grey coats, as opposed to the regular line, where I have seen both brown and grey.
Here is a test figure that I finished; I think a unit of them will look nice.
As many folks probably know, we have a bunch of 28mm Napoleonic plastics on the way!
Also there is a new company, Victrix Limited, which will be releasing 28mm Napoleonic Brits! This is an army I might have to buy! The sculpts so far look fantastic; they are shown to the left and right. I'll post up more when it is released, but for now, do check out what they have so far.
