On to Richmond/Washington select your favourite option

Apologies for anyone waiting on this battle report, the whole game has been delayed , most of my spare time recently been taken up by irritating minor health issues, organising a Victory at Sea demo at Asgard Games using my collection GHQ ships , Quickly finishing Stargrave figures to play some actual games with people again at Asgard   and via that falling down the hole that is Infinity. I am hoping to have a go at this game at the end of August!

On laying the table out I decided the felt roads I had( they are about 20 years old) looked crap so decided to purchase ( the club will re-inburse me at some point) a bit more brook to stretch it across Table and a couple of road sets ready flocked from Kallistra to match the Hexon I had. I ordered it Thurs and it was in letter box on Mon. This did mean some changes to layout  as I no longer need to raise the level for the bridge as the roads are slightly raised and stopped it floating in the air  , but the hex nature meant hills had to be adjusted accordingly   but I think the overall layout looks way better  plus the roads now lead of table.

Above shows some of the dispositions as the Confederate Scouting force of the 1st Virginia Cavalry arrive on table, much to the suprise of the bivouac-ed Union Forces on the Justeen Turnpike( Justeen’s the name of this little hamlet which bestrides the turnpike) . You can now plainly see the Warrens Run Brook running Parallel to the road.

Slightly out of postion is a 14th U.S Artillery on the hill overlooking the Turnpike.

Rapidly trying to deploy into line on the East of the River, on a small Hill above the Gerrysburg to Freetown Road is the 6th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade.

Finally the 7th Michigan Cavalry and 63rd Pensylvanian Infantry are marching towards the Bridge and Turnpike  on the Gerrysburg Road West of the Warrens Run.

Well I now have enough painted to attempt my 1st Battle with Black Powder. I have recently changed my painting schedule which was one Confederate to one Union Regiment  but as I want to finish Brigades has switched for a while to mainly Confederate so I can finish of the Stonewall Brigade and a Brigade of Confederate Cavalry  . This means that for the 1st Battle The Confederate s will have the advantage in numbers with 7 Battalions of Infantry , 2 Regiments of Cavalry and 6 guns  to 6 Union Battalions of Infantry  1 Regiment of Cavalry and 5 guns.

With this in mind the Union will start the game participants deployed on the table on the hills overlooking the road that crosses the small River known to the locals as Warrens Run.

The scenario is that a small Union Force is in camp at by Lloyd House on by the Warrens Run Bridge to defend the road leading from the Rail Junction at Johnasus to the small town of Gerrysburg to the West of the map.

Ignorat of this fact Confederate force under General Jubediah Cornpole is marching North to launch a mini raid Invasion of Northern territory and raise support in Maryland

A while back on Sundancers Unofficial Hobby Hangout, Gerry wondered if I would use any of Kallistra’s 12mm ACW range to bulk out my Army’s.

I actually did want to vary my Artillery types from the Napoleon guns depicted by the Warlord Plastic Guns. Figuring that I would be less likely to differentiate any difference in scale with Artillery. As it happens they are a match in height with the Kallistra being slightly bulkier.

The Kallistra gun sets give you a selection of barrels for Napoleon’s,  Rifles and Parrot Rifles   below is a Parrot with Warlord cannon.

For anyone wondering what the Difference is  Napoleon Guns were basically smootjbore cannon which had changed little since the Napoleonic Wars hence the name.

Parrotts  Rifled Cannons .were manufactured with a combination of cast and wrought iron. The cast iron made for an accurate gun, but was brittle enough to suffer fractures. Hence, a large wrought iron reinforcing band was overlaid on the breech to give it additional strength.^[3] There were prior cannons designed this way, but the method of securing this band was the innovation that allowed the Parrott to overcome the deficiencies of these earlier models. It was applied to the gun red-hot and then the gun was turned while pouring water down the muzzle, allowing the band to attach uniformly.^[3] By the end of the Civil War, both sides were using this type of gun extensively.

The 3-inch ordnance rifle, model 1861 was a wrought iron muzzle-loading rifled cannon that was adopted by the United States Army in 1861 and widely used in field artillery units during the American Civil War. It fired a 9.5 lb (4.3 kg) projectile to a distance of 1,830 yd (1,670 m) at an elevation of 5°. The 3-inch rifle was not as effective in firing canister shot as the heavier 12-pounder Napoleon, but it proved to be highly accurate at longer ranges when firing shell or shrapnel. There was only one reported case of a 3-inch ordnance rifle bursting in action. This was in stark contrast to the similarly-sized cast iron 10-pounder Parrott rifles which occasionally burst without warning, inflicting injury on the gun crews. The Confederate States of America lacked the technology to manufacture successful copies of the 3-inch ordnance rifle. However, the Confederate States Army respected the weapons and employed those captured from Federal forces.

On a whim I looked on Sarrisma site for ACW Terrain and saw they did 15mm Ironclad and…….

With the build and painting probably took little more than an hour. Whilst the base and framework painting dried, I sprayed the armour parts Leadbelcher.

All I did post build was coat all those same parts Agrax Earthhade.

To minds whether to darken the upper deck works and Bridge roof (letters on a post card).

Also need to put a hole at rear for Union/Confederate Flag.

For those who have no idea on the Naval Actions of the American Civil War, the model is a pretty Generic Ironclad, a general design used by both sides during the war.

For instance for the Union it is similar to the River Monitors such as the  ones used to force the forts along the Upper Mississippi.

The Confederates used similar designs for such ships as the C.S.S. Richmond  and C.S.S. Arkansas.

I actually have a large collection of ACW shops in 1/600th painted many years ago which I will show in a later update.

Nearly halfway through the Confederate Army, so here is a shot of progress so far.

Hoods 4 Texan Regiments are on the right and the 1st 2 Regiments of the Stonewall Brigade on the left.

My Hobbying on this project has slowed down a bit, mainly as its getting near the end of month and need to wait till payday to restock some essentials for painting.  Even so I have managed to even things up wit a Regiment of Union Cavalry.

The Techniques  and paints used are pretty much as previously described. For these I used all apart from officer figures with Kepi for a more Union Uniform look. Which leaves nearly all slouch hats for the final unit from the Brigade box which will be Stuarts 1st Virginia Cavalry for the Confederates.

To fit with the Update these are the  7th (Michigan) Cavalry.

Well if you were like me you know nothing about this Brigade.

I had heard of it, mainly because a friend used to have a Regiment of them in his 15mm Union Army  that he fielded against Dave Bickley (figure designer Matthew Bickley dad) back in the 80’s, plus the odd line in ACW ranges. With Warlord releasing a Brigade box I thought I ought to learn more so as part of my Background reading purchases brought:

Consisting of Five regiments:
2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment
6th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment
7th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment
19th Indiana Infantry Regiment
24th Michigan Infantry Regiment

Raised from Western States of the Union they had a distinctive Uniform of a longer Frock Coat and the Hardee hat as used by U.S Army Regulars Regiments.

They gained a reputation for hard fighting and heavy casualty rates down to just 800 effective post Gettysburg,  when Eastern Regiments were amalgamated with it diluting its uniqueness.

Again metal Figures but painted well using pretty much the same techniques as the plastic Union  , but they do add a little bit of variety.

Having ben brought up as a Nipper on John Ford and John Wayne Cavalry films, it was only awaiting the release of Warlords Cavalry Brigades that has stopped me already having some.

Anyway in an attempt to have two sort of all round starter armies I broke away briefly from the mountains of Infantry to do some Cavalry.

Must admit the one peice figures are nice, being single horseman, you can separate the figures to have on Reg in Kepi, one on Slouch hats and one mixed   I Imagine if you buy 2 you can separate them and say have all Kepi for Union and all hats for Confederate or visa verses.

Initially for my 1st Confederate Regiment I went mixed , though the 1st Union will be all Kepi.

The Horsemen were just a variation of the scheme used for the infantry.

The horses were done various GW contrast Brown’s with a few left in the base grey and a few in Black Templar, Mains and Tails were Generally done in a darker shade than main horse.

So here we have the 1st Regiment of Cavalry ready to make J.E.B. Stuart proud I hope.

Having Finished the Texan Brigade , next is the Stonewall Brigade, for any one interested it consisted of the:

The brigade was formed by Jackson at Harpers Ferry, April 27, 1861, from the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33rd Virginia Infantry regiments and the Rockbridge Artillery Battery of Rockbridge County, 1 unit recruited in or near the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

For thes I decided to add a bit more of the Butternut colour of Uniform jackets (also seen in the Stonewall Brigade Osprey) . I did try this on some of the Texans  with GW skeleton Horde but it was possibly to brown, so experimented on their last Regiment with odd figures using a mix of GW Iranian Yellow and Skeleton Horde. Which seemed to work, so went a bit more to town with the Virginians

And now in the Traditional Blue Peter Style here are some I did earlier.

Whilst watching you tube which has a plethora of videos on the American civil war, I finally found what the name of the march was at the beginning of ‘The Outlaw Joseph Wales’ , which you also hear briefly in ‘Glory’ and ‘Gettysburg’.

It is called Old 1812, so here it is in the form I originally heard it.

Tried downloading but site wouldn’t except it so try

1976 The Outlae Josey Wales HD

Then I thin out Gulliman Flesh, and liberally coat the faces and hands.

The Final stage before the overall wash is gun metal for the Rifled musket barrels and a little stage picking out the couple of water bottles in grey.

Now is time for an overall wash of thinned out about 50/50 with water of GW Agrax Earthade,

This takes a bit to dry  do I use this point to finish of bits on the Gun Crew and Commander.  I could have left them and done them as separate units to the Infantry  but have been doing them as I do each Regiment.

I have Tended to do Union Gun Barrels in Gun Metal and Confederate in Bronze.

Once the way has Dried  I adder a bit of brass to belts and muskets, paint the base GW Death World Forest( it was the only mud green I had) then add flock to base.

Then its only a matter of adding Colours  in this case for 63rd New York, part of the Irish Brigade.

This is actually the 5th Union Regiment   as I forgot to take photos as went along on previous 3!

So after the base Grey Seer spray   I give them an over coat of Tallasar Blue that I used on some of the Confed troops.

Then I mix  GW contrast Levidian Blue and Basilicum Grey about 4/3, then thin it out with water for the darker upper jackets.

From here a lot of the steps are pretty much the missing steps used for the Confederate Regiments. I next do the bedrolls,  which historically could be as varied as Confederate Uniforms  but have decided to stick to one main colour for each Regiment   in this case GW steel Legion Drab, but I have used Blue, Brown, Various shades of Grey on others.

Then I did the rifled muskets, in this case GW contrast Snakebite leather, but I have used Wychwood, and Gore Gunta Brown, partly to represent the different manufacturers of the wpns be they Springfield,’s Enfield or the Austrian model , but mainly it is decided by the brown closest to hand.

Next is a stage that is Union only, I go over the faces  and hands in Corex white,  I had tried carefully painting around them at the jacket stage above, but found it more of a pain than re painting them.

Then its the bit that is the most tedious, boots, kepi peaks and belts  all done in Mp paints dark umbra, I use this rather than black as it allows for a bit of shading on the wash stage..

Some have put white or canvas for the forage nags , tried this on one Union Regiment  but found it a pain to do and it didn’t really add much to the finished figures  so didn’t bother on later Regiments.

Right now I have two  Regiments done as a base how to;

I’ll now do a stage by stage shots , more as a guide fo myself in the future as anything .

Confederates

Grey Seer base

Then a overall coat of GW contrast Gryph charger Grey

On doing a little bit of research after an Osprey shopping spree, and finding the Stonewall Jackson picture for the project blogs header, I had got the idea that the Rebs trousers were all blue wrong , some did wear them but they tended to be captured Union gear.

With this in mind I just picked out afew on each strip and gave them a thinned out coat of GW Contrast  Tallasar Blue.

Then I decided to pick out some with GW Contrast Skeleton Horde, for those who’s uniforms had the butternut effect  some the trousers, some the jackets

Noticing that the grey base could vary a bit I then did the same with trousers and jackets on some of the figures in  GW Contrast Basilicum Grey

I then started block painting belts in an MP paints Dark Umbra( it allows a bit of shading in the wash stage) .

Rifles are done in  GW contrast Gore Gunter Brown  though for the original  Regiment I used GW contrast Wyldwood, to some extent to reflect the varied sources of supply that the Confederates had in wpn supply. Its funny that the figure strips don’t look right till this stage is done.

The block painting stage is also the bit were I forgot to do Lloydy style photos of each stage  .

On the original Regiment I phaffed with basing  I thought a static grass base would be a bit overwhelming,  I tried putting on texture paint,  but made the mistake of  sticking king the strips to the base  and it was awkward trying to get the brush between the strips  . On the Union I stuck on one strip and then tried adding the textured paint  still a pain  and the end result looked patchy despite all the effort, so I tried adding static Grass  more out of desperation than anything and found it didn’t overpower the figures and actually looked quite good as can be seen in my initial photos.On one strip I tried to see if I could just put the Flock straight on the bases  but found the thinned our pa glue wouldn’t adhere and pooled, so just gave the bases a green overall paint, apart from thin strips left bear for the plastic glue to adhere too when sticking the figure strips on

This now epic project (one for Llloydy here) nearly raised its head the moment wargames Illustrated put a preview sprue in one of this years issues.  I  looked at it, thought cool idea and then it put in a possibly to do box and forgot.

Anyway looking at the latest list of releases for June decided to jump in and buy the starter box. Whilst waiting for it to arrive and while my enthusiasm  was at its height I decided to have a got at above sprue to see what I had let myself in for .

With the a national predeliction for lost causes I decided to paint above as Confederate ( they were grey plastic, you get the sprues in blue and gray in the starter, with green bases for those who dont want to paint Warren).

Funnily enough I watched the gane questions and answers on You tube a few days back, and the whole idea for epic battles to some extent came from the old Airfix ACW boxes where you had confederates in Grey, Union in Blue, can’t remenber what colour the Artillery was but Remember the Cavalry was in Dark Blue, I was a nipper about 8 when I got my box of Cavalry , which I brought more for bashing Indians (pre pc) than anything . remember could never find a glue that lasted any time when trying stick the horses to the bases with that soft plastic.

Remember during the 1st years of Alumwell Wargames club a couple of guys did a all day Sunday game using the Airfix figures , stuck in massed ranks to green bases, even unpainted it looked good.

I sprayed them GW Grey Seer as a base , and then gave them an all over coat of  GW contrast Gryph Charger Grey to start with.

Now as a starter regiment I decided to paint them as a. n other Regiment ( its a state to the South of Georgia and north of Florida sort of on the border). Hadnt got much research material on Civil War Uniforms so decided to do them based on the old Timpo confederates I had as a kid and did all the trousers blue so gave the trousers a thined out coat of GW Tallassar Blue..

Reading up a bit on the variation with the buttercup colour as the grey dies on uniforms, went over odd tunics with Skelton horde, which seemed to work.

Faces and hands were done in  GW contrast Gulliman flesh . with beards and moustaches occasional picked out in various browns

Boots and belts were done in MP paints dark umbra .

All then given a 50/50 GW agrax Earthshade coat to give them a bit of the rebs grubby look.

This seemed to have worked well but looking at the picture I pulled for the cover of this topic think I can go bit more to town on variation on  the next regiment.

With the arrival of my starter box I decided to balance things with a Union Regiment ( I was sorely tempted to paint all 24 Confederate but wasnt sure if I would find anyone else doing it)

Having sprayed them Grey Seer as the confeds

I tried a couple of methods on a couple of strips at a time, 1st do the jackets basiclum grey and wet blend tallisor blue, then Levidian blue , both with Tallso blue tousers, both looked pathcy and were fidly to do so finally based a bit on the W.I  suggestions

Went do the lot Tallasar Blue, Jackets Levidian Blue, a home brew gray for bed rolls ( if I dont get right shade each time I do them it wont matter)

Faces Gulliman Flesh

Boots and belts as the Confeds, likewise an over the top Agrax Earthshade 50/50 dilution with water wash

I used a an MP paints cream to lightly dry brush the faces for hightlight and

viola!

For anyone interested since these guys were painted I gave them a Texas Regiment set of Colours.

So my 1st Confederate Brigade will be Hood’s  Texas Brigade.

For anyone Interested its orbat was:

• Battle of Seven Pines (May 31 – June 1, 1862); assigned to Whiting’s Division; Brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. John Bell Hood
  • 1st, 4th, and 5th Texas Infantry regiments
  • 18th Georgia Infantry Regiment