*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 28, 2024, 02:29:55 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 1686490
  • Total Topics: 118102
  • Online Today: 857
  • Online Ever: 2235
  • (October 29, 2023, 12:32:45 AM)
Users Online

Recent

Author Topic: Nick's new ACW project  (Read 57376 times)

Offline Grimjack

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 376
  • Z List Wargames Industry Celebrity
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #45 on: September 12, 2018, 09:03:58 AM »
I'm really liking this thread Nick, and its making me want to dig out my 28mm ACW for an actual game. 15mm is great, but 28's always have that visual impact!

I'm also going to dig out all my unpainted and unbased figures as well, and put them out for painting after my WW2 Desert War. Like you, I bought figures with 'character' from a host of ranges, designed to show early and late war uniform 'oddities'. I also used a fair few Reboubt heads just to replace those on the Perry plastics (I like my toy soldiers to have some expressions!).

I've used Warbases four figure bases, sized to accept 25mm squares. I didn't want to commit to one type of basing for one set of rules, but your four figure line looks better than my square 'clump'.

I've also got a whole bunch of Perry British Intervention Force infantry painted up by GW Wayne, so a bit of 'what if?' is also possible.

So, when shall my force of Federals get the opportunity to Longstreet your Rebs?
Remember: the dice are not your friends!

Offline nicknorthstar

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2647
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #46 on: September 12, 2018, 10:45:36 AM »
Just name the day.

I've 13 regiments and 2 guns ready to go.

Offline Mindenbrush

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Mastermind
  • *
  • Posts: 1287
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #47 on: September 12, 2018, 12:52:10 PM »
Nice work Nick and very quick  8)

My order for 3 unit deals just arrived in hot and humid Montreal, they will be added to the existing figures I had for Brother Against Brother and everything rebased for F&F Regimental.

Cheers,

Graham W
Wargamers do it on a table.
YNWA - It is not a badge, it is a family crest
Montreal Historical Wargaming Club

Offline Romark

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Galactic Brain
  • *
  • Posts: 4472
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #48 on: September 12, 2018, 01:05:08 PM »
Lovely looking units the 12th are my favourites :)


Offline Grimjack

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 376
  • Z List Wargames Industry Celebrity
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #49 on: September 12, 2018, 02:00:50 PM »
Just name the day.

I've 13 regiments and 2 guns ready to go.

How's about, a week on Thursday? We can show off Cigar Box Battlemats again, then we just need trees, fences and a farm - I wonder where I could get that sort of terrain from?

Offline nicknorthstar

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2647
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #50 on: September 12, 2018, 03:06:32 PM »
I wonder....

Yes, lets do it.

Offline vtsaogames

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1511
    • Corlears Hook Fencibles
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #51 on: September 12, 2018, 06:19:32 PM »
Last part of the turn sequence: take photos.
And the glorious general led the advance
With a glorious swish of his sword and his lance
And a glorious clank of his tin-plated pants. - Dr. Seuss


My blog: http://corlearshookfencibles.blogspot.com/

Offline nicknorthstar

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2647
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #52 on: September 12, 2018, 06:35:07 PM »
26th Alabama Regiment. Rodes Brigade. DH Hills Division.
Commanding Officer Col. Edward A. O'Neal.

Here it is, the fifth and final regiment in Rodes Brigade at Antietam September 1862.

I decided to have a play around with this regiments uniform. There are all kinds of stories of Confederates wearing captured Union clothes during the Maryland Campaign. Some, like AP Hills division which had just captured a Union supply depot at Harpers Ferry, it seems quite likely they had replaced their worn out uniforms with Union gear. Others maybe not so much, but I chose to add a narrative to the 26th that they had come across a supply of Union uniforms. So some of the soldiers have replaced their trousers and caps with Union blue. Some others have taken Union jackets to replace their worn out coats, but being aware of the rumour that the Union shoots any prisoner taken wearing their uniforms, they have just repaired their worn out trousers and kept their old caps.

So the 26th have a right old mix of uniform colours. Alabama grey, Grey gone to butternut, some civilian gear and Union Blue.

The standard bearer is in Alabama grey, and I've painted NCO stripes on this figure. All the standard bearers ought to have them, but I laid off the earlier figures. Again, he has his issued belt and socket for the flag, and carries a 2nd Bunting Battleflag of the Army of North Virginia with the Seven Pines battle honour sown on.

Colonel O'Neil lived to ripe old age, getting promoted to General before the end of the war and going on to be governor of Alabama in the 1880s. The photos of him show him with grey hair and beard. They are probably of him as Governor of Alabama, but in the absence of a picture of him in uniform, I've followed the photos as his grey goatee and sideburns make him a distinct figure.

That's it for Rodes Brigade!

I've got a Perry Mins officer to paint up as Brigadier-General Rodes, then I take a picture of him and his five regiments all together.

If the painting bug stays with me, I'll move onto the other Brigade holding the Bloody Lane, Andersons' Brigade of North Carolina regiments. I've already started researching, the question of flags is quite complicated, the uniforms as debatable as the Alabama's and there's a lack of photos for the officers. Hurrah!

Offline nicknorthstar

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2647
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #53 on: September 12, 2018, 06:45:35 PM »
As a foot note, and to show off some excellent painting, I got these beautifully painted Confederate officers from our own Mr Cubbin. 

I thought about using the chap in the cap as Brigadier-General Rodes


But following my 'sash' enlightenment, I realised the figures are in Red Sashes, not the yellow gold of a General. I really don't fancy painting over a Cubbin, so I'll do a Perry figure myself instead.

Offline Grimjack

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 376
  • Z List Wargames Industry Celebrity
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #54 on: September 13, 2018, 01:58:34 PM »
I wonder....

Yes, lets do it.

If we use Longstreet, I can muster 8 regiments of 5 bases each of Union Infantry, 6 bases of cavalry and 2 artillery batteries of 1 base each. Just need to paint some Federal gun crew.

I've also dug out all my unpainted 28mm now, re-discovering my 54th Mass., my oddly armed Confederates and a whole load of Boothill Miniatures Mex-Am War I intended to be a Confederate regiment or two in non-standard uniform (buckskins, Raccoon skin hats, militia-type uniforms and more).

And yes, I will be arming some of my plastic Perry Confederates with AK47's, just because Mike says I can't!

Offline vtsaogames

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1511
    • Corlears Hook Fencibles
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #55 on: September 13, 2018, 07:06:17 PM »
...And yes, I will be arming some of my plastic Perry Confederates with AK47's, just because Mike says I can't!

How naughty.

Offline nicknorthstar

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2647
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #56 on: September 14, 2018, 10:59:29 AM »
Artillery.

Have you seen the pre-painted ACW range from Perry Miniatures? I've bought a Confederate gun from them for my project. I think a little work on the face to look like the figures I've painted and based in the same way, this'll fit in nicely.

Offline nicknorthstar

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • *
  • Posts: 2647
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #57 on: September 17, 2018, 09:49:09 PM »
Knowing I'm in full enthuse mode for the ACW, my chum Dave Ryan lent me this book, 'Before Antietam'

It's very good. By co-incidence, the Brigade I've chosen to make, DH Hills Brigade, were on the frontline at the Battle for South Mountain. After studying them so closely, it's like reading about old friends.  :)

The point of this ramble is thinking outloud about the look of the troops in the Maryland campaign. Every eye witness account of the Rebs marching into Maryland is of how filthy, smelly and ragged they look. (in Butternut, though one account describes the butternut colour to do with the dust and filth caked on their uniforms. But that was just one account). I read a while ago that the descriptions of the Ragged Rebs was where the Marylanders saw the Texans, a famously ill-supplied bunch, but in this book it clearly describes the 14th North Carolina:
'They look hard, clothes in rags...no uniforms at all...half of them barefoot.'
Darn it. The North Carolina are next on the painting table, and like the Alabamians, I'd read how good their uniform supply depot was, even getting new uniforms to their troops in August '62. I'll have to think about how to do them now.

Barefoot into Maryland.
This question has vexed me since the beginning. Even this very book contradicts itself. This book repeats what I'd read before about Lee insisting barefoot troops do not cross the Potomac. This led to the frustration of officers seeing shoes thrown in ditches by the soldiers unwilling to march to war, and so getting a barefoot ticket to stay out of the campaign. But then, we get eye-witness accounts like the one above about seeing bare-foot Confederates in the towns of Maryland.
A bunch of bare-foot Johnny Rebs in the painted regiments would look very good, but I'm loath to do the conversion work for something that might not have been a reality on the battle-field.

Last note about the book, the description of the battles is super detailed. If I was to refight the battle of Fox's Gap, I know what crop was in each field and whether it was bordered with a stone wall or rail fence. Amazing.

Offline zippyfusenet

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 420
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #58 on: September 18, 2018, 01:50:41 AM »
Nick, clothes and shoes wore out quickly on the march. Lee started the Maryland campaign on September 3, 1862. The battle of Antietam started September 17. A soldier who crossed the Potomac wearing shoes could wear them out in two weeks of marching, and maybe not find another pair.

In every era it seems that soldiers in the field were often dirty and ragged, that parade uniforms were worn in camp and garrison, not on campaign. An accurate model of the ANV at Antietam would be a bunch of sweaty guys with dust all over their clothes. That would be a lot of boring painting, and a dull 'moving diorama' for your wargame, so paint 'em how you like. We all do.
You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

Offline vtsaogames

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1511
    • Corlears Hook Fencibles
Re: Nick's new ACW project
« Reply #59 on: September 18, 2018, 05:35:30 PM »
There's also the question of what they meant by "naked" and "barefoot" back then. Did it mean that people just weren't fully clothed in the style of the time - no jacket, just a shirt, for example. or shoes that obviously were wearing out, toes showing, no socks, etc? I don't know but suspect that most of these soldiers would pass for clothed and shod these days, if not clean or fashionable.