American Civil War – The Regiment from country roads West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River

A few photos from one of our previous end of the month game. The Confederates Advance to the mid board to confront the Union and a bloody battle ensues. My forces in the centre performed well with the lines moving back and forth the whole game; with the Confederate left flank prevailing and rolling up the Union line. Unfortuntely the battle ended there with the Union still in possession of their objectives (the buildings).

As you can probably tell I have little affinity for photography but it is hard to resist snapping such an epic looking scene. The above photos show the area of intense fighting on the outskirts of Kernstown. With Union infantry and Artillery on the hill being held in place by one brigade of Confederates and being outflanked by another. Out of shot a Union Brigade was being prevented from reinforcing by a small force of confederates and some bad dice roles from the Union commanders.

This was a practice game of the battle of Kernstown; with the aim of seeing what exactly we need to run the proper battle, mostly this will be more roads.

The rules and scenario used are from Blackpowder 2nd Ed by Warlord Games, using the secial rules from their Glory Hallelujah supplement,

The battle was a technical draw, the Union were harshly handled by the Confederates, with one Brigade routed after being driven from their defensive position on the hill . Despite this victory was not assured and a second fresh Brigade was bearing down on the town and a 3rd due to arrvive on the board .

A few shots from the confederates reforming outside the town drove of the Unions cavalry element and the Confederates were preparing to recieve the fresh infantry.

The battle ended prematurely as time was up and objectives had not been achieved by either side and it was anyones game.

It was a fun game and the scenario made it more interesting than our usualy line up and advance battles thus far. We now know what we need to complete the battlefield and make a few adjustments to the battlefield i.e. Kernstown was too far to the left-hand side of the board

Above is pretty much the contents of the Perry American Civil War army box.  This the start of two brigades of Jacksons Division at Antietam. So far I have half of the Virginian Regiments under Winder and half the Louisiana Regiments under Starke.

So far they have performed well on the field of battle against their Union brothers. The battles so far have been straightforward brawls but for our latest battle we did a test for Kernstown from the Black Powder Rule book. The test battle was so much fun, we added the extra rules, had a unique set up and while we did not have all the terrain we know what we need to do.

So with a practice in between, we have set the date for the full battle of Kernstown in all it’s glory set for two months time.

I’ll post some photos from our battles over the next few days.

Note to self: I better not be rereading this months later and not have posted anything!

The regimnet of Zouaves had been staring at me needing painted for months. I knew I wanted to do the Louisianna Tigers and would have to paint striped pantaloons. After painting most of my other regiments I took the plunge, but first some research.

Spending a few hours on the internet I found that my intial impressions of how to paint this regiment may have been wrong. Sources seemed to be contradictory about what colour the uniforms are. Everything from blue to brown due to poor quality dyes.

Another problem was which regiment they were talking about. I am writing this from memory months later but the Original Louisana Tigers were first a company, then the regiment took the name, then other regiments wanted to be Tigers. As well the 1st Louisana Regiment was the origins of the Tigers but then the officer in charge (Coppen) forms his own regiement (Coppen’s regiment), I was getting the impression that some of the info I was reading was mixed between Coppen’s Regiement and the new 1st Louisiana.

Anyway I didn’t have the time to untangle all this as I had already spent considerable time researching it. Ultimately I’m happy with my results. I want things to be accurate not perfect.

After a long hiatus of trying to keep this blog up to date, I’ve finally made time to bring this hobby project up to date.

I’ve been able to have a few games with The Giant’s Big Game Group based in Northern Ireland. we’ve been keeping to our commitment of a bigh game at the end of everymonth. A mix of Civil war and War of the Roses.

I’ve had a great time fighting for the South. The South mostly wining our battles and I feel like I’ve had an important role holding the line or turning a flank. So a good time all around, even our defeat felt epic.

See below for a few photos from one of our battles.

We have been using the Black Powder 2nd Edition rules from Walrord Games. We half the distances and ranges which gives us enough room to manouver on the 6×4 foot tables.

We have had anything from a four to a seven player game, allowing us to have epic conflicts with several brigades per side.

This rule set has been fun to use, it is easy to understand if someone teaches you but the rule book has alot of unecessary prose that makes the rules seem less concise than they are. I am currently in the process of condensing the rules to a spreadsheet with just the data we need, which I will share with our group.

This has been my first attempt at painting horses and I am pleased with the results. For these I have used Zandri Dust from GW and Mahognay Wood form Vallejo, with a thinned wash of Army Painter Dark Tone.

I have no highlights as I am dealing with quantity in this project and have lots more planned. I’ve found Dark Tone does not overly darken the miniature and settles well in the recesses, perfect for me wanting to skip the highlight stage.

I added a few spare infantry from my Perry starter set to the general’s base to make them more interesting. The bugler is a spare from the artilleryman sprue. The sharpshooter was a freebie with an order for a Black Powder supplement for the ACW.

Just a quick update. The next regiment I’ve completed was one from Louisiana. Again I wanted to keep it simple and have a uniform regiment, this time all in a light grey.

I later saw a picture of a Louisiana regiment re-enactment that was all in grey and read an interesting article that talked about how the lack of uniformity in the confederate army is over-exaggerated. So naturally i’m glad the decision I made to make things easier for me is also somewhat historically accurate.

Reading this and doing by my own research I’ve come to the conclusion that each regiment had a uniform, depending on where it was from that was usually butternut and/or grey with a few more exotic uniforms. It also seems that the regiments will start off uniform and will degrade over time as supply of replacement uniforms was hard to do, so soldiers supplemented/replaced theirs with civilian clothes or pieces taken from Union Soldiers. I’d also like to see more bare footed soldiers in the Perry Plastics as this seems a common condition on campaign.

Additionally the hats used seemed to be the preference of the individual wherther they used the cap, the forager hat or a brimmed hat.

Random fact I came across was the Union army standardised the sizing of mens clothes at this time and shoe size so that the factories making uniforms could tailor them to these standards.

I’ll likely explain the focus of this project, it will be based loosely around Antietam and Jacksons Corp on the left. I’m deciding on the specific brigades Im using and  what infantry and cavalry regiments and artillery batteries I will be representing in my project.

This past couple of months I’ve been on a painting binge, I’ve been painting a unit from three different projects on a rota to keep the momentum going and keep things interested.

I painted a second confederate regiment in a similar style as I’ve documented below.  For the third regiement I wanted to paint a more uniform look. This was for a few reasons, I just wanted a little uniformity and to paint what would be considered a proper confederate uniform, though different states and even companies within the state had different colours/shades of uniform. Another reason was speed and trying to get the Perry’s civil war box painted asap.

The regiment is TOTALLY finished. The basing completes a model. I’m not entirely sure that the tufts go with the grit, but I want to keep a consistent basing scheme and I want the added colour of the “Meadow Tufts”. I like the dirts showing through, the colour is a cheap burnt umbar art paint and I like how slight glossiness to the paint looks like wet mud.

Now that the project is over – though I will add photos of new completed regiments – if you want to comment please do.

When creating bases I try to do someting different and thematic for each army. With this one I wanted to give spackle bases a go. Partly this was to hide the base the figures have attached to them; and it would be more natural looking than hiding it with static grass.

I found the spackle easy enough to apply, a bit of water helps it manouver and adhere and any bits that touch the mini can be wiped away with a wet paint brush.

I avoided spackling around the feet so it didn’t look like everyone’s feet disappear into the ground.

The next step is to paint the bases brown, then add grit and flock, so another update then.

The two commands have been washed so the next post will be the regiment fully based on squares, matte varnished and a Virginia flag flying from the flagstaff.

I’ve been considering the historical context of the regiments I am building. Bull Run which I have an interest in is out as I don’t think my colour scheme entirely suits the Confederates during the first year. I also wanted to have Jackson and the Stonewall Brigade, Shenandoah was a possibility and Chancellorsville sounded interesting but I had read the Bernard Cornwell Civil War series and he did a really good job of showing the desperate violence of the fighting on Lee’s left flank at the cornfields and Dunkers church.

After a bit of research it was settled and I am themeing my units on the brigades that fought under Jackson on the left flank, of the Army of North Virginia during the battle of Antietam. Jackson will be my General and I’ll have a brigade of Virginians, Hoods brigade of Texans and Jeb Stuarts Cavalry. and there will still be room for extending. One caveate is I will unlikely be able to match brigades regiment for regiment and will choose 2-4 from each.

I intend to give an army painter strong tone wash (from the dropper not the dip) all over the remaining minis and use it to wash the areas I fixed the paint job on while highlighting. I don’t intend to add highlights to the command units as I don’t think it is worth the time spent. I’d be better starting a new batch of greys.

I’ll post these at some point along with the finished article. I will being bring this to completion so that will include a basing scheme (probably the one I used for my AoS Sylvaneth project – check it out – but with static grass instead of clumps). I have been storing an idea I had a couple years ago about using the flower tufts to differentiate units, so I may colour code my brigades.

There were a few addtions to the paint scheme when painting these, I used Vallejo Ultramarine Blue which is a rich purpley blue and seemed fitting for the leaders, they also get more grey uniform pieces as I reasoned they will likely buy their own snazzy gear. This also meant apply Vallejo Brass for buttons, flag staff and the european braid on the the sleeves of the officer coat. I didn’t have a yellow I liked so a good wash might take the metallic edge of the colour – if any asks; gold braid?

The officers detail is a bit soft and I think it is a belt he is wearing but I painted a broader band in red and am calling it a sash, which is matched on his sword scabbard to tie the two together.

This is my first Brigade command and will be based on a 40mm round base. The idea was this one was specifically for a brigade based around artillery battery’s. The colours are a combination of previously mentioned colours, a few points of interest being Vallejo Brass for the Trumpeter and buttons, GW Abbadon Black for binoculars and GW Rakarth Flesh for the Trumpet braid. I also used Vallejo Cold Grey to paint the hair on the officer.

So after a longer than intended distraction from this project I returned to finish painting the regiment. I started painting the command for the regiment – I will post this seperately – and finished the rest of the regiment with a highlight, which was just a re-application of the base colour, which also allowed a final fix of any mistakes or gaps.

The photos are not the best representation but the troops do look better at a distance with the highlight but I don’t honestly think it was worth the effort.

By this point I was happy with my colour choices and preceded to paint the main base coats, i.e, skin and cloth and the musket wooden parts and the canteens. I mixed match everything while still trying keep grey the predominat colour and I think this was achieved.

The next step was to paint the straps and details, so the metal musket bands, the cap peaks and trims and yes… even buttons. I was cotemplating painting the bag an off white then I saw a a documetary where the renactors had white bread bags and white straps fot the canteen and I thought that’ll do for me. For some reason with historicals the moment the straps are painted the model comes to life. The next step was a wash of Strong tone ink. This bubbled a little and has settled strangely on a couple of minis but the majority look well.

To finish the models I will reapply the base coats as a basic highlight. The one problem I have with the paint scheme is the length of time. 2 nights finished two coats of the main colours, 2 nights for the details, 1 for the wash and now another one or two to highlight and another to base (for 20 men). I’ll update when these are done. One night is about four hours painting which include tea making and flaffing.

I used the artillery crews as a trial for my colour scheme and I pretty much kept my original choices, one thing I added was a red just for the artillery crews hats. I also choice not to paint buttons… I know the horror!

The cannons I painted black mixed with leadbelcher metallic to for the rifled barrells and brass for the smoothbore. The red wheeled cannons I later found I had painted very similar to the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John cannnons from Jacksons Brigade as shown in the film God’s and Generals. So happy days! if anyone asks it was intentional.

I never enjoyed basing and usually stop at this point, but finally! I found a method I enjoy and like the look of. I base coat the bases brown and from OTT store I bought some grit and fine green flock and the result to me looks like beaten grass with a few rocks added for good measure.

A great way to kickstart your ACW army is with the battle box from Perry miniatures. This contains a horrendous amount of lovely plastic minis to build several infantry regiments, a cavalry regiment and artillery batteries with some terrain. These can all be used for both north or south.

Starting the ACW war I knew the colour scheme would need careful thinking. I wanted a mid war confederate army, perhaps Chancellorsville or Antietam as I wanted to focus on Jacksons forces to begin with.

To create the desired effect I needed a mix of butternutish browns, greys, blues and more “civilian” colours. I’ve added the paints I used below, roughly there is two shades of grey, brown, green, blue and then a red and tan colour.

After research I quickly realised like most periods the uniforms are not so uniform and there is every variation of shade under the sun. I then decided I was refusing to buy more paints as I have dozens of earthy browns and greens etc. so gathered all my paints and made my choices. The one thing I feel I am missing is a bluer grey so I might use GW spacewolf grey for this (don’t think thats what its called but it’s got wolf or fang in the name, you know the one).