i have not posted or some time which is partly due to my being so busy with work and homelife but also an element of lethargy on my own part both with painting and then posting the results of this work.
here i have posted a collection of 3 small units of charging rebel infantry from the american civil war. these are a mixture of foundry and perry miniatures
the great thing about painting rebs is that you dont have to follow any particular dress code as the supply of these troops was so haphazard that pretty much anything goes. having said that i have painted them with the idea of representing Hoods division at gettysburg. the 3 regiments shown are the 3rd arkansas, 15th alabama and 4th texas
i have decided rather than painting random models and units of the civil war to focus on a particular battle or part of a battle and as such have picked the fighting for little round top on day 2 of the battle of gettysburg. the reasoning for this is that i have an affinity for this battle due to my being for several years a memeber of a reenactment society portraying the 20th maine regiment. anyway as usual with this conflict painting models for a particular battle does not preclude you from using them in any other battle that takes your fancy

finally the next post will be 2 continental regts from the AWI, wars of the roses infnatry, ACW artillery for the union and rebs and some holiday snaps of castles i intend to visit in northumbria next week, if the wife lets me :)

ECW saker

just a quick post as have been so busy with work recently
anyway this is a Warlord games Saker model with specialist artillerist lining up the gun
i like the ECW as nearly all units can be interchanged between both sides, as the uniforms were virtually identical. only certain flags and units are specific for particular sides

fort pulaski, savannah, georgia

back in the old UK now though so will endevour to unload more models as completed, next up for completion will be a brigade of confederate infantry and some AWI american riflemen and minutemen
on the american theme whilst on holiday in orlando, florida we were able to visit some relatives in savannah, georgia, only a 4 hour drive away. Savannah is a beutiful city which unlike nearly all the other US cities ive visited maintains a feel of the old colonial times, with the old mansion houses, cotton exchange and warehouses and helped significantly by the eerie feeling created by the spanish moss clinging to the trees

whilst there i was able to visit Fort Pulaski a fortification from the ACW era named after count casimir pulaski revolutionary war hero who was killed during the siege of savnnah in 1779. The fort was begun in 1829 and took 18 years to build was what deemed to be the height of military engineering. The fort was never garrisoned until the secession of georgia in 1861 when it was occupied by georgia state troops before being handed over to the confederate army.
the fort covered the only waterway approach to savannah sitting between the savannah river and south pass on cockspur island, therfore safe from infantry attack. as part of Burnsides operations along the coast to isolate the confederacy by naval blockade.
Col Charles Olmstead occupied the fort with 384 men whilst the Union forces led by captain Quincy A. Gillmore spent 2 months hauling 36 mortars and cannon (including 10 rifled cannon, 5 of which were 30lb parrotts) into 11 batteries on the nearby Tybee island before opening a bombardment of the fort on 10th April 1862. the bombardment lasted just 30 hours before a breech opened (the newer bricks in one of the pictures show were the extent of the breech) threatening the main magazine forcing Col Olmstead to sue for terms. Gillmore was breveted Brigadier General for his actions.
The destruction of a state of the art fort in such a short time highlighted the massive change in defensive tactics caused by the introduction of rifled artillery which allowed increased range and destructive potential (smoothbore artillery would have been effectively out of range due to the surrounding water).

French Turco Battalion

This will be my last post for a little while as too busy with work. Here again are some models i painted a while ago, these ones about a year ago.
anyway as usual this is a full strength battalion of 16 models (800 men) consisting of north african/algerian troops and ncos with french officers. The men are dressed in their traditional dress of baggy trousers, short zouave jackets and fez. The dress for the turcos and zouaves was virtually identical except for the colours used which were dark blue with red piping for the zouaves and sky blue with yellow piping for the turcos

Bavarian Artillery 1870

here are 2 bavarian guns i painted quite a while ago for my franco-prussian war collection. again they are foundry casts and i agree with matt that these are some of their best models. i dont have a lot of bavarians but i might get the few infantry i have painted up soon as well
anyway both guns appear to be 6lb guns although with the steel krupp guns its very difficult to spot any difference between the 6 and 9lb fieldguns anyway
the artillery crews are dressed in their dark blue uniforms which differ from the infantrys cornflower blue (i did paint 4 batteries of 15mm ones in sky blue once before i realised, presumbly this reflects the dirtier job these guns are expected to perform and theirfore keeping their uniforms more presentable

3rd East Prussian Cuirassier Regt

here are some foundry cuirassiers i painted back in June. I have painted them as the 3rd East Prussian Regt with their traditional white waffenrocks and sky blue facings. I chose this regt for no particular reason other than i liked the facings, simple as that. otherwise the cuirassier regts were all similarly dressed.
i have done a very minor conversion for the trumpeter model as foundry dont make any for the germans. I simply used a perry plastic trumpeters arm from their ACW cavalry boxed set
as stated previously i use a 1 figure = 50 men ratio. so this 12 model regt = a 600 man full strength regt
also i should explain how i base my models, i use a 50 x 50mm base for 2 cavalry men and 40 x 40mm for 4 infantrymen. i tend to glue my models to the base add the premixed plaster allow to dry, then i add sand mix and glue this on ebfore undercoating the whole in black. i know that this can sometimes make the finer details of uniforms difficult to get to but generally especially for 19th century models it is not a major issue and allows me to paint quicker than doing each model individually and then basing them

French Dragoons 1870

At last here are my first FPW figures in about 9 months.
i thought to get back in the swing of it i would do a relatively simple unit so french dragoons came top of the list.
i use the ratio 50 men to a figure for all my FPW units so a regt of cavalry for france or prussia will be 12 figures (600 men). A French battalion of 16 figs (800 men) or a Prussian battalion of 20 figs (1000 men)

The dragoons were quite easy to paint really although i must admit i hate painting cavalry as i really do find painting horses boring. although it is a necessary burden to get all those really nice units done. i havent done any socks or flashes on the horses mainly im sorry to say because i couldnt be bothered. i might add some at a later date if i feel like it.
a note on the models, these are foundry models which i quite like but i have t admit they are starting to look a little tired compared to some of the brilliant stuff that is coming out these days, especially from helion and the perry twins etc. i wasnt a 100 per cent sure whether the dragoon officer should have silver or gold epaulettes. i went for silver in the end based upon an old foundry painting guide but i dont know how acurate this really is
anyway it was good to do some FPW stuff again and i think i will have to put some more effort into some more, probably some prussian infantry and prussian hussars would be next.