Nick's new ACW project

[armchairgeneral]

Great to see how this project has progressed.

[nicknorthstar]

I'm still painting away. I was going to stop doing the officer models, mostly 'cus it's just a vanity thing, you never see them on the table-top. But then I got to the 13th Alabama Infantry.

They have an unusual Battleflag. They'd sown on their battle-honour in the fly quadrant rather than the top like other regiments.



So I've copied that.

Then I saw the commanding officer, Birkett Fry, and his crazy hair do.



So I'm working on him now. Mixing the green stuff for that hair.

[DintheDin]

It is great to see you making face conversions again!
Eager to see how this one will come out! Cheers!

[Lord Raglan]

I do like how you are progressing this collection Nick, I intend using the same tactic on the Dutch Wars project.

[nicknorthstar]

Superb. I did the same to some extent myself with the 1672 range. I spent time trying to match up uniform colours with regimental flags, especially the French. The Scottish Douglas Regiment in particular took some research as I found a 30 Years War Flag before, and a 1680's period flag after, so it was finding out what they'd have had in 1672. 'Course photos of the officers might be somewhat tricky 

[vodkafan]

This is just the sort of extra interest for detail that keeps us going on a wargaming project, and makes it unique. Not that I would know really, I have never managed to finish a project yet 

[Lord Raglan]

Course photos of the officers might be somewhat tricky 

Well I was hoping to find some BBC interviews with the main characters of the period 

[nicknorthstar]

You say that...

I did find a really early BBC drama of young Churchill at the Siege of Maastricht, it was quite good!

[AKULA]

Great work on that conversion Nick

 

This is just the sort of extra interest for detail that keeps us going on a wargaming project, and makes it unique. Not that I would know really, I have never managed to finish a project yet 

Is it actually possible to ever truly finish a project?

[Lord Raglan]

Is it actually possible to ever truly finish a project?

Yes 

[nicknorthstar]

So here's the finished 13th Alabama Infantry, led by Fry.



The 13th Alabama, although part of the big project (which is finished really 'cus I've now got more figures than I field on the table-top of an evening.), it's a break away from what I was doing before.

I wanted to paint some of the new Crusader Miniatures ACW figures, a move from the 'right shoulder shift' pose into firing poses. I also wanted to experiment with the fences, to make the unit more diorama like.
I like what I've done with them, though column of march looks a bit odd.

I couldn't then resist researching the flag and officer. The flag is unusual as they had sown the Seven Pines battlehonour in the fly quadrant as opposed to the top one. So I hand painted that on. And Colonel Fry was such an unusual looking character, I wanted to do him bare-headed. I pinned a bald Viking berserker head onto an officers body, and 'greenstuffed' his unruly hair onto it.

Followers of this thread will know the idea was to paint up Confederate regiments at The Bloody Lane at Antietam 1862. The 13th Alabama were there, but they had been sent into the infamous Cornfield that morning by General Hill. It was actually only the shattered remains of the regiment, without their flag (captured by the 5th Ohio) and without Fry (he was wounded and taken off the field, but he survived both Antietam and Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg to see the wars end) that lined up on the far left of Bloody Lane.

Here's the write up with pictures I put on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/north-star-military-figures/13th-alabama-infantry/2597461670282719/

Cheers

[vodkafan]

Oh they are a great addition. Good job on Fry.
The new figures from Crusader really make it a good range now, am thinking about getting some.
Have just read The Bloody Ground by Bernard Cornwell about Antietam. I didn't know anything about the battle (not even who won) so it made the book exciting.

[DintheDin]

Convincing conversion with Fry and a very nice paintjob to the rest of the troops, I like the experiment with the fences!
(although they'll have to carry them for the rest of their life) 

[nicknorthstar]

A new recruit to the Reb force arrived today.

Cheers LAF Member.

[tuco74]

These are looking really good. I've gone back to ACW recently (which is what brought me back to painting 3 or 4 year ago) and it's become really addictive.