It's Time To Base My Figures - Ick!

 

Pettigrew's North Carolina brigade (recently based)

Click on the pictures to enlarge the view

It happens to all of us, we accumulate our painted figures but we do not get around to putting them on bases and adding all of the terrain, static grass and tufts, etc. The unhappy consequence is that we finally reach the point where the dreaded basing of figures task can no longer be ignored so we just have to pitch in and do it. This happens to me frequently.

So this time I had accumulated 49 stands of figures that needed to be based and I knew that I couldn't put the task off any longer. It helped that I have another play test of my Pickett's Charge game coming up, so I wanted the newest units off of the assembly line to get their terrained bases.

I had finished painting 6 Confederate regiments of 30 figures each (5 stands per regiment), 2 Union regiments, 7 skirmisher stands of U.S Sharpshooters, and 2 brigadier general command stands. The amount of figures painted was done over the past month or so, although I had painted two Union regiments and the sharpshooters this past week in anticipation of the play test game. The play test game was originally scheduled for last Friday (yesterday in blog time), but the weather forecast was for six inches of snow at Keith's home town so we thought it prudent to reschedule the game for this coming Monday.

A week's worth of figure basing.

The US Sharpshooters:

US Sharpshooters have been attached to bases, the bases have been terrained,
but still require static grass and tufts to finish them. These figures are made
by Armies In Plastic.

I received another batch of seven Cigar Box Battle Mats a couple of weeks ago and I am keen to lay these out on top of Keith's three 6ft by 32ft tables (although we are "only" using 24ft of table length on the three tables) and get a better idea of what the terrain will look like for my convention games this year. Here is a link to the web store of Cigar Box Battle Mats. Highly recommended!

Cigar Box Battles

Here is a picture of a Confederate brigade (3 regiments) treading across a game mat by Cigar Box Battle Mats. I like the way that the mat and the figure bases blend in together.

A North Carolina regiment in Pettygrew's Brigade

So let's see what Old Fritz based this past week. First the two new Union regiments:

The 14th Brooklyn Regiment of the First Corps

A Union regiment. I forget which one, but they all look the same. It's probably 
a unit from the First Corps, which was shattered during the battle of Day One
on July 1, 1863. Some elements of the First Corps were deployed on
Cemetery Ridge at the time of Pickett's Charge on Day Three.

Buster Kilrain figure. You just know that some company would make a figure of the fictional character in the movie "Gettysburg". Buster reminds me of the Black Knight in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" in that in each scene of the movie, Buster gets wounded in a different part of his body and then he doesn't have the good sense to hurry up and die so that we don't have to hear him called Colonel Chamberlain "Colonel Darlin' " one more time.

Oh no, it's Buster Kilrain!

Buster Kilrain, as played by Kevin Conway in the movie "Gettysburg" which 
was based on the book "The Killer Angles".

Now before I get skewered with criticism, yes, I do know that the 14th Brooklyn regiment was not on Cemetery Ridge during Pickett's Charge on Day Three of the battle of Gettysburg. However, it is such a colorful looking unit that I just had to paint the regiment and add it to my Union forces. No company makes such a figure in 1/32 scale (54mm) as far as I know so I simply took some ordinary Union figures and painted them with red trousers and red kepis. I'm assuming that my version of the 14th Brooklyn is not wearing its gaiters. 

And now for some of the Confederates:

I really like the animation of these plastic toy soldiers from Classic Toy Soldier Company,
or "CTS" figures. That running/right shoulder shift pose is simply Fab.

Pettygrew's North Carolina brigade. They did not carry the state flag, but I 
wanted a little bit of variety in my Confederate regiments and I didn't 
want to have all of them carrying ANV Confederate battle flags.

Project Update

I believe that I am nearly finished with the painting of regiments for my Pickett's Charge war game. I have six Confederate brigades of three regiments each; and six Union brigades of three regiments each. That works out to 1,080 painted figures. This doesn't include the various mounted officer figures and extra artillery crewmen that I have painted thus far.

Upcoming Little Wars Convention

The lads will get their first "official" workout at this year's Little Wars convention April 18 - 21. 2024 at the Weston Lombard Hotel in Lombard, Illinois. See link below:

Little Wars Convention Information

Figures that I have commissioned from Speira

I have commissioned Speira Miniatures in Sweden to make these three Confederate prisoners in the iconic photograph after the battle of Gettysburg. I don't think that they will be ready in time to appear at Little Wars, but they should be ready and painted and on my game table at Historicon in July 2024. Presumably, the figures will be made available to the public on the company's web store in the near future. You can order Speira figures printed in almost any scale or size, including 15mm, 28mm, Perry scale, 1/32 scale and more.

Play testing the scenario

We have been play testing the Pickett's Charge scenario and purpose-made rules at the expansive man cave of Keith L. A lot of progress has been made on the rules that I will use at the conventions. The rules will be on one sheet (both sides) of a standard letter size paper and are designed to be easy to learn and fast to play in a convention setting. I don't like to have complicated rules for convention games because I want the players to be able to understand them quickly and get on to the task of moving figures and rolling dice. This way the players can focus on their tactics rather than trying to figure out the rules.

Our next play test on March 25th will have all 18 of my Cigar Box Battle Mats laid out on the tables so that I can get a better feel of what the game will look like at the conventions. I will post pictures of the game probably several days after the play test game.

British Brigade of the Guards in the AWI

 

The flank companies of the British Brigade of Guards, circa 1777.
Fife and Drum Miniatures

Flank companies of the Guards form up in front of the Savage Swan public house
somewhere in Pennsylvania in 1777.

On November 22, 2010 I announced the formation of a new figure range of American Revolution miniatures done in 1/56 scale, sculpted by Richard Ansell. On December 2, 2010 the venture was formally name Fife and Drum Miniatures.

The very first figures in the F&D range were the British Brigade of Guards because at that time, no other company made such figures in 1/56 scale (suitable for 28mm and 30mm miniatures). 

British Guards Announcement

Announcement of the Establishment of Fife & Drum Miniatures

Over the years a couple of other companies have added the British Brigade of Guards to their product ranges (notably the recent announcement by Perry Miniatures). However, since the FD Guards figures are now nearly ten years old, they have been forgotten by some of our customers and I thought that it would be a good time to remind people of the Fife and Drum Miniatures British Guards.

Fife and Drum Miniatures web store

The two pictures at the top of this page depict the flank companies of the British Guard. These men wore a cap with a front plate and front brim. The center company men wore a round hat turned up on the right side.

Brigade of Guards center company soldiers on the march.

The British Guards packs available include the following:

BA-004  Guards Command (6 figures)  $12.00

BA-005  Guards Center Company Marching (8 figures)  $16.00

BA-006  Guards Skirmishers in Round Hats (8 figures)  $16.00

BA-007  Guards Flank Company Marching  (8 figures)  $16.00

BR-003  Guards Regimental Pack (30 figures)     $52.00 (13% discount)

Guards skirmishers, firing and cocking musket.
The officer figure is from the Light Infantry  set of figures.

Overhead view of the Brigade of British Guards marching into a Loyalist village.

Beware of women wearing a bucket yoke. Advance at your own peril.

Screen Credits

This episode of my blog features a very nice table mat from  Cigar Box Battle Mats. These pictures feature the New Europe mat ( New Europe Battle Mat ) #510. This is a really useful mat for smaller skirmish games or you can pair it up with some of the other European battle maps in the Cigar Box product range. I use the "New Europe 2" mat #660 for many of my games and the road on this mat matches up perfectly to any of the roads in mat #510.

The water well is made by Grand Manner in the UK, but alas, the company appears to no longer sell unpainted resin products and so you have to purchase their products painted, which makes them a bit dear to one's wargaming budget.

Herb Gundt made all of the trees, snake rail fences and buildings that you see in these pictures.

Some of the civilians are from Blue Moon and Perry Miniatures, as well as from the Fife and Drum / Minden range of Civilian Figures. I believe that Bucket Woman is a Blue Moon figure from their Sleepy Hollow box.

Custumes were provided from the painting brush of Himself, der Alte Fritz.

Painting Prussian Artillery Crews

 

Prussian artillery battery deploys in front of a popular drinking establishment.

This week's fox is the painting of several sets of SYW Prussian artillery crew and matrosses to fill in some holes in my Prussian artillery park. I often use the Minden Pioneers figures as either the fellows who push and pull the cannons into place or as actual artillery crewmen who have taken off their uniform coat to man the cannon in their waistcoats.

The Prussian artillery deploys in the village square as the locals look on in wonderment.

Take a look and judge for yourselves:

This week's painting production consists of all the crew shown above. The cannons were painted previously.

My new Prussian artillery battery (L to R): 12-pounder, 10-pound howitzer, and 3-pound battalion gun.

Another view of the same artillery battery, but with the addition of a munitions wagon in the background  and some civilians carrying crates of ammo to the cannons.

Both the artillery crew figures and the Pioneer figures come with open hands and an assortment of tools that allow one to customize each figure. In addition, I sometimes give some of the figures a drag rope to hold in their hands - the drag ropes would be attached to the cannon so that the men could pull the piece back in to its firing position.  I make the drag ropes from bits of florists wire that I twist together to make it look like they are holding cabled rope. Other figures get a piece of wire to hold, which represents a wood lever to use to pry the gun trail off of the ground, or to use as one of the poles that slide through a pair of rings on the gun trail, which are then used to left the trail to move it by hand.

Some of the Pioneers in waistcoats are holding artillery tools such as linstocks, rammers, water buckets and worms, etc. This makes them look like crew men who have removed their blue uniform coats so that they can get to work wearing waistcoats.

Each gun model is mounted, unattached, on an MDF base (60mm by 100mm). I glue four crew to all of my medium and heavy guns, but only three crew for light guns. I also place a smaller stand (60mm by 30mm) with two matrosses that is placed behind the gun model stand. This is done mostly for "looks" to indicate some of the depth of "stuff" that is found behind an artillery piece. I would typically include a limber and team of four horses behind each medium (5-8 pounds) and heavy ( > 9 pounds) cannon model. Light cannon (1 to 4 pounds) generally do not get a limber team because I usually attach the light guns to the infantry battalions and so the guns move with the stands of the infantry.

The 3-pound battalion gun is detached from the rest of the battery and
placed by itself on the righthand side of the picture. The Winterfeldt Regiment (IR1) is
 marching down the road to provide support to the artillery.

All of the pictures are set up on a game mat from Cigar Box Battle Mats, which have become one of my favorite mats to use on my game table.  Link to the web site: Cigar Box Battle Mats. This particular mat is the New Europe Plus (6ft by 4ft) and I use it with the New Europe Two mat that creates a table surface of approximately 10ft long by 6ft wide. The width of the mats are closer to 5ft rather than the 4ft Plus advertised. 

All of the buildings shown in my pictures were made by Herb Gundt, who also made the corn fields and trees that you can see in the background.

Nearly all of the miniatures are from the Fife and Drum and Minden Miniatures ranges of figures. There are also several civilians from Perry and Blue Moon.

Next UP:

Prussian Winterfeldt regiment IR1