On a somewhat more serious note, here are the last historical figures to come off the paint bench this year. The American Civil War dominated much of my work this year. These figures are from a batch I purchased in 2014. It’s taken me a while to get around to them. F&G are one of my new favourite companies. Based in France, they do very nice work at the high-end of quality and price. They wouldn’t be the mainstay of a miniatures army, but they do make for great accent pieces. This is their pack depicting the command group of Brigadier General Solomon Meredith. The flag is of the First Brigade of the First Division of the First Corps, which Meredith commanded at Fredericksburg and on the first day of Gettysburg, his last battle.
I attempted a dapple pattern for Meredith’s horse. I’m not sure how successful I was, but it made an interesting change from brown, red brown, and black.
I decided to put the four figures on separate bases. I tried grouping all four figures on one base, and it looked way too crowded. With separate bases, I can either put them together to show a brigade or higher level headquarters depending on the scale of the game,
“There, major. That IHOP across the highway. We’ll have breakfast there. The men fought well and they deserve pancakes.” A lot of what aides do is look in the direction where the boss is pointing and try to look alert, while hoping that they aren’t going to have to ride through the night carrying a confusing dispatch to a grumpy general.
The group includes a corporal bugler and a sergeant guidon bearer. The flag is from GMB. Forgotten and Glorious has a deal with GMB allowing you to buy flags from them along with the figures. Handy.
It’s interesting to me that the corporal and sergeant wear standard infantry accoutrements, including brogans or bootees rather than proper riding boots, and the frock coat and Hardee hat of the Iron Brigade. I suppose this would be accurate,
Coming in 2016, soon I hope, will be an entire infantry regiment of F&G minis to round out my Iron Brigade collection.
That’s it for this year’s painting totals.
These figures bring my 2015 totals to:
28mm: Foot Figures: 85; Mounted Figures: 19, Artillery: 2, Vehicles: 2, Scenic Pieces: 2
20mm: Vehicles: 1; Artillery: 1, Foot Figures: 6
15mm: Armour/Vehicles: 5; 15mm Scenic Pieces: 5
6mm: Scenic pieces: 7
Beautiful command stands, excellent job!
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil! Very kind.
DeleteEven more! How you spoil us Michael.
ReplyDeleteYou deserve spoiling, Michael. Many thanks.
DeleteVery nice work Padre! :)
ReplyDeleteHNY! :)
Cheers, Tamsin. HNY to you too.
DeleteFirst Brigade of 1st Division of I Corps - a.k.a. The Iron Brigade of the West: 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana and 24th Michigan - was designated 1,1,I in February 1863. But apparently there was an earlier Iron Brigade (of the East) that was also designated 1,1,I much earlier. This comprised NY regiments plus a sharpshooter unit.
ReplyDeleteNice figures, Michael - worthy of such a fine Brigade.
Thank you Ion. You are right, there were two Iron Brigades which were both, at different times, 1 Bde, 1 Div, I Corps. I have been slowly collecting the Iron Brigade of the West, aka the Black Hats. Quite different from the Eastern chaps.
DeleteI don't as a rule collect elite units but the Black Hats were such distinctive characters in the ACW that I had to go there.
Nice stands, Padre. I always like it when (as you have) painters make a special effort to put appropriate models together - so people are looking where the general is pointing for instance.
ReplyDeleteI like the dappled effect - I suspect it's one of those ones that looks even better from a distance, like using squiggly lines to represent text on a flag or map.
Thanks mate. Really good to see you here again.
DeleteExcellent work Padre! Here's wishing you and yours a Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThese are lovely and definitely look to be well deserving of pancakes and eggs. No grits tho, that would be too southern.
ReplyDelete