From My Workbench: 28mm Confederate Infantry

I'm happy to have finally finished these chaps, from UK manufacturer Redoubt Enterprises' brilliant 28mm American Civil War range. Acually the command stand are from Wargames Foundry's now defunct ACW range - they've been painted for some years and were just waiting for troops to command.



The banner is a slightly oversized Mississippi state flag that I picked up in, well, Mississippi, actually, from an obscure line called Flags for the Lads, bought in a hobby shop in Hattiesburg, MS, during a visit to my wife's family.









One of the challenges of painting confederate troops, I find, is that they require an individual look to be authentic, especially in the later war period when regular uniforms were either worn out and replaced with civilian clothing, or distributed haphazardly. I liked the checked shirt effect I managed on this fellow:



The 21st Mississippi's Colonel, standing cooly watching his boys load and shoot while the minie balls fly around his ears. He's brave, not smart.



This gets my rebel infantry up to a respectable six regiments of four stands each - I have at least another regiment's worth close to the front of the queue (a second regiment of the Union Irish Brigade is ahead of them, however) - a lovely set of reb skirmishers from Renegade.

Battle Report - American Civil War Game

One of my Christmas presents to myself was the set of American Civil War miniatures rules, They Couldn't Hit an Elephant, published by Too Fat Lardies. Like other TFL systems, these rules emphasize command and control and the friction of battle through command points for leaders and cards that activate units and leaders in a somewhat random manner.

For this game, my son John and I put my entire ACW collection of 25 to 28mm figures on the table. We used the TCHAE random leader generator for 1865, and managed to get a bunch of second rate leaders (John says his leaders were worse than mine). We had two brigades (five regiments total) and two 3 gun batteries each. Probably we had too many leaders (two brigadiers and one divisional commander) and were so spared some bad command and control headaches. We each took two real blinds and one dummy, though John chose to use his dummy blind to group his two batteries of rifled cannon together.

In our little battle, John was represented on the table by General Jebediah Smith, an Inexperienced commander, and his two subordinates, Brigadier Whitewall and another guy so forgettable that his name is already lost to history. My CinC was General Thaddeus P. Cornpone, a Cautious Inexperienced commander, General Lone Star, an Inexperienced commander, and General Stanley McWhiskers, a Professional commander.

John's Union forces enter the table under blinds. My confederate commanders would do a lousy job of spotting them.



John spots the Mississipi brigade of General Stanley McWhiskers (named in honour of our newest cat) advancing in column of march. Once a force on a blind is spotted, it must be deployed on the table.



The cards favour one of my brigades, the Texans under General "Lone" Star, who claims what will soon become a strategic hill.



John spots the Texan brigade and they are deployed on their hill. A Union blind is coming up fast against them - it is a dummy? I haven't been able to spot it yet.



The Texans prepare to hold. The figures are mostly Old Glory - the artillery commander and the chap on the horse in the background are Dixon figures.



John reveals his brigade from its blind and throws it into battle. The lead regiment are painted as the Union Iron Brigade and are a mix of Wargames Foundry and Old glory figures. The lovely flags are from GMB designs. John lead with the men of the Iron Brigade and supported them with the Irish of the 69th New York. Like many Civil War commanders new to the battlefield, John found it hard to coordinate his attacks. At this point John realized that not allocating his batteries to direct support of his infantry brigades was probably not a good idea. The hill advantage to the defending Texans certainly worked against John's bluebellies.



Union troops storming up the hill, braving showers of close range cannister from the Confederate battery (second rate smoothbores but still deadly at close range).



"Hold 'em, boys!" General Star anchors his two regiments of veteran Texans. He would lead a charmed life in this game.



In the centre of the table, John's massed Union battery comes of its blind and engages the skirmishers screening the advance of McWhisker's Mississipi brigade. the artillerists are Wargames Foundry - the Union infantry in the background are ancient Minifigs figures I started painting back during the first Gulf War. One of the rules we forgot was the ability of commanders to use their command pips to direct the fire of artillery more effectively. We both had commanders to spare and they might have made the artillery fire more effective.



John's other brigade, two regiments of average Union infantry, comes off its blind facing McWhisker's brigade. With his next card, John would adroitly move this brigade to completely flank McWhiskers.



On the hill, the Iron Brigade has been thrown back with heavy losses, interpenetrating and disordering the 69th NY which was supporting its attack. Lone Star seizes the moment to throw the supporting 4th Texas down the hill and into the Irish ranks. Isn't that little outhouse in the background the cutest thing? Another thing we forgot was the rule whereby victorious units have to test to see if they will pursue routing units. There were several charges and routs in the game where pursuits might have made a difference either way.



Meanwhile, disaster on my left flank. The Union brigade is lucky with its cards, and hits the leading two of McWhiskers' three regiments in their flank, routing them towards the Confederate centre. Those Yankees may be old Minifigs, but they're deadly in a flank attack.



John's luck runs out. The next card favours McWhiskers, who countercharges with his one intact regiment of Mississipians. They stop the Union brigade and throw it back towards its artillery.





On the right flank, John's Yankees are busy skeddadling. His general tries to rally them with cries of "Think of your mothers, boys, what would they say?" but to no avail. Lone Star drives the routing bluebellies off the board with his Texans. In these rules, once a unit falls below half strength, it's pretty much toast.



In the center, Genl. Cornpone was able to rally McWhiskers' routing regiments, while John had rallied his boys, and so a standoff developed on the left flank. However, the battered but victorious Texans were now threatening the Union batteries in the centre, forcing them to limber up and, says John, "strategically redeploy" rather than retreating. However, sadly for the Union, once limbered they were attractive targets for the Confederate gunners, and within minutes half the Union guns were knocked out. At this point, we called it a day. Jebediah Smith would withdraw and write a report to Abe Lincoln citing "unfortunate circumstances" as the reason for his delay in subduing the rebel forces and asking for immediate reinforcements. General Cornpone would send a report to Richmond simply saying "We whupped 'em good. Good fight. Too mussed up to chase 'em though".

Here the happy generals, clad in Dad's civil war reeneacting gear, pose for the newspapers.



Concluding thoughts - we both liked these rules. They were simple enough to be playable and they gave us a good game. We both felt some of the frustrations of the civil war battlefield. Even as I write this, new figures are being painted for the rematch. Will Jebediah Smith be able to turn the tables on Cornpone and drive him back to Richmond?

Work in Progress - 25mm ACW Rebel Infantry

These chaps have been kicking around my collection for several years. Started them, did a rubbish job, laid them down in disgust, moved twice, and now I've got a major jones on for the ACW again and I'm getting them finished ASAP. Most of them are Redoubt, which makes a yummy ACW line, and a few, the tall thin guys with the packs, are Old Glory. The Redoubt figures are in various skirmish postures. They'll look great behind the stone wall sections I have coming from Hovels in the UK, via the Michigan Toy Soldier store.

Personally I find painting rebs a pain. I can't just paint them grey. I've spent too many years in ACW reenacting to do that. There is too much variety in uniform, various shades of grey and brown (the famous butternut) plus some captured Union gear plus civilian shirts, blankets, hats, etc. It does slow down the job of painting, but the work is more interesting, I suppose.

You'll have to click on each photo to see the complete image.

Some Terrain Efforts

Some of the more recent things off my workbench.

First, an idea that's been kicking around my head for a while - a way to make cornfields for American Civil War 25mm collection. I drilled holes in a sheet of
1/4" pressboard, trimmed lenghts of artificial Christmas garland, and voila. Ms. Padre things they look more like they belong in a Vietnam jungle then they do at Antietam. She's probably right, but for now they serve a need and I'll probably make more of them:



In a different vein, I recently finished these these three plaster ruined buildings in 15mm scale for my WW2 collection, bought when I was at the Hotlead game convention in Stratford, Ontario, last year. I have no idea who the manufacturer is. I thought at the time they all looked suitable for my Normandy project, but on closer inspection, two look like they belong in Italy. No matter. I can use them too, somewhere. I just have to paint my Battlefront mid war British infantry company as Canadian 1 Division, buy some German paratroopers, a lot of armoured kit for them, and ... my God, someone shoot me.

The NW Europe style ruin:






And the two Italian jobs:

From my Workbench: Lord of the Rings and ACW figures

It's been three months since I've been able to sit at my workbench and and produce some painted miniatures. Finally a chance over the holidays, and here's the result. Most are from the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings line, designed by the Perry brothers (whose own lines of figures are worth a plug as well). Expensive figures in lead, relatively cheap in plastic, and gorgeous to paint.

This big fellow, the Isengard troll, was hired to bolster my Uruk-Hai army, which regularly gets demolished by my son John's dwarves. As usual, Blogspot is squashing the pics I post to the right, so click on each image to see the complete view.









Three veteran soldiers of Minas Tirith from the Osgiliath garrison, intended to be an anchor for my Minas Tirith army, waiting to be painted. I liked the patchwork and threadbare look of these old campaigners:





Shagrat, a dreaded and crafty captain of Mordor, He too has an army waiting to be painted to follow him into battle:





Finally, these two figures from the Redoubt American Civil War line - I painted them some years ago but never based them properly. They are part of my Irish Brigade project. General Thomas Francis Meagher, in his self-created green uniform:





The Irish Brigade's famous chaplain, Father Corby:





Corby and Meagher together;



Hopefully I'll get some pics of my troll squashing dwarves when my son and I drop the gloves next time!

From My Workbench - WW2 British Infantry swap for Rohan House

Thanks to the email listerv for the Too Fat Lardies Wargames group, I bumped into Stephan Milan, a chap in the UK who can't paint miniatures any more due to carpal tunnel syndrome, but who enjoys making model buildings and can apparently still wield a mean exacto knife. I like painting and I suck at scratchbuilding models, so it seemed like a beautiful friendship.

In July I received this lovely model of a house, copied after the Rohan halls and dwellings in the Lord of the Rings movies, and scaled at 28mm to go with my Games Workshop figures from their LOTR range. My son John pronounced it "way cool" and I was definitely impressed.

(Remember to click on the images for a larger view):







In return, Stephan sent me a platoon of AB Miniatures lovely 20mm World War Two metal figures with the very specific request to paint them up as members of the 1st Hampshires Regiment, a British battalion from the 50th (Northumberland) Division which landed on D-Day. Stephan also requested that they be painted in a greenish battledress (British serge wool battledress varied in colour).

I was quite nervous doing so many figures for someone else, but looking at Stephan's lovely house gave me my inspiration to bash on. It was a busy summer with a lot of chaos, but I got them done in early September and mailed them to Stephan, who was kind enough to say they looked good. Here they are.