Dropped into Gettysburg (15mm Fire and Fury - Second Edition)

Getting back to normal, of sorts. Popping by and catching up with some old friends at their wargame pad as they are refighting Gettysburg in 15mm using Second Edition Fire and Fury. It was good to get out and see some old friends and exchange pleasantries over "deadly and galling musketry" (see below, the Iron Brigade sitting atop a ridge blocking the way to Gettysburg town, while the Confederates mass for a charger):  

Part of the reason for the "waiting" was the massed Confederate artillery on the opposite ridge was waiting to "speak" to the Union Iron Brigade (see below, sitting under a massed artillery battery is one of the more unpleasant aspects of Fire and Fury. The jury was out with respect to the balance of artillery in the game rules, is certainly was "harsh" when three or more guns got together!):   

In this game Buford has a Cavalry brigade in the town of Gettysburg supported by regular line brigades "moving up in support". The town is certainly crammed with "Blue" (see below, Buford is wearing down the Rebels at a ratio of 2+:1 which is proving to be a thorn in General Lee's plans of operation):  

More worrying is the fact that the Union reinforcements have appeared and preparing a counterattack on the Rebels flank (see below, Buford's delaying tactic have worked a treat and there is no place to hide for the Confederates, it is either face massed musketry or face massed artillery and charging Union troops): 

The battle is still on Day One so there is all still to play for!

Oh When The Saints .. EPIC Warlord Games ACW .. "off the sprue"

Well there certainly is a lot of them (see below, but the nice thing about the stands is that they seem to have an amount of "gravity" and "believability" about them - they are "marching into battle"): 

The three pieces of the sprue - infantry, artillery and a commander - look good next to each other (see below, I do want to see how "good" they look "in mass" together):  

From one sprue .. this is a lot (see below, five infantry regiments, one artillery and a commander per sprue - and there was twelve sprues a side [Union/Confederate]): 

These look perfect for Bob Cordery's "The Portable Wargame" rule set and Neil Thomas' "One Hour Wargame" rules. I am putting off painting them and concentrating on getting them cleanly off the sprues (they come off really cleanly but I am trying to be patient, the only issue I have hit is with the artillery and my "fat fingers"), I keep getting this heretical thought - "Do I really need to paint them?" Even if I do "paint them" - then to what degree? A spray can, a wash and a little bit of flock. I know the artists at Warlord Games have done some fine painting - but why wait, through these chaps into a game asap? Black Powder does not look like a simple set of rules to pick up .. why not throw them at a simpler set? 

And it came to pass that "A very BIG box of EPIC scale ACW came from Warlord Games" arrived with a 'thud' on my doorstep!

Yes, I am one of those "happy mad ones" who pre-ordered at Xmas. There was a knock at the door (see below, spare a thought for the Postie - if there were two or more wargamers on his beat or street they were doomed):   

It was then opened (see below, layers of "epic scale" stuff - as it said on the tin over 2,500 figures): 

Both armies albeit looking very similar apart from the colour of the sprue (see below, it also has to be said that figures for General Meade and General Robert E Lee also came in the box):  

Exciting as this was, the "bonus" was the A5 Black Powder Rules Book which means I can justify other Powder Era (Napoleonics, AWI, Malburian, Colonial) 28mm long standing purchases as "waiting for this time"! Ancients and Pike and Shot are still slightly awkward to justify .. but I have "adaptable" rules for those. 

ACW 20mm Project the Union Army Update

With the Rebels (Confederate) Army now done (well enough units required for the One Hour Wargame rules army size) it is time to move onto the "Boys in Blue", the Federals. So, how do you paint them? Clearly there is some experimentation required here. The first stop is to my stable Vallejo Game Colour range - could these be the colours I am looking for? (see below, the Vallejo Game Colour "blue" range - Imperial Blue, Magic Blue and Electric Blue - I have my doubts about the last one as it is too light, maybe even a bit of black is needed to add to the mix - time to play):

The first attempt at a Union unit looks a little too bright blue, "too French" in my opinion, I could see them more on a Franco-Prussian War battlefield than ACW (see below, they seem to say "Here I am - shoot me!"): 

The solution is to reach over for the mysterious jar of Citadel Shade, marked as "Drakenhof Nightshade", and liberally apply it all over the blue uniform bits, letting excess settle in to the folds (see below, a resulting dampening of the blue colour was successfully achieved, but still more dampening IMHO was required): 

So a second coat was duly applied. In my conversations with fellow wargamers possessing ACW Union Armies a variety of recommendations came back to me, "almost black" and "Vallejo Oxford Blue" were the two most prominent (see below, for me I think I am heading towards the "almost black" end of the spectrum): 

The rest of the painting scheme (light blue trousers), bags, backpacks, blankets, muskets and water canteens is straightforward, so they all get a dab of paint (see below, a base layer having been applied to each area): 

A highlight (lighter colour) is then applied to these same areas (see below, the unit has or rather is starting to "come together", next painting the base to be addressed): 

Make the base a standard green with a bit of Tamiya Deep Green to make a uniform looking base to add flock to (see below, the lighter green colour brings out the uniform nicely):  

Now time to put some powder-sawdust flock on, which incidentally obscures most of the green I just painted but some is still showing through - so it makes it all worth while, can you tell I am fussing too much over this paint job (see below, looking a little 1970/80's wargaming standard to my eyes): 

Add a bit of static grass and the the transformation is quite remarkable, especially as the two tone of the powder flock extends very close in to the figure. The static grass rings outside the figures whicj I think is pretty cool (see below, looking very plush now, I am happy): 

Not at all bad. Here is the second regiment/brigade, standing to attention, complete with Union Flag (see below, yes I have pulled all the "standing figures" into one unit, which kind of works - thinking they are "waiting in reserve"): 

So two regiments/brigades (delete as appropriate) standing side-by-side (see below, that just leaves four more to recruit): 

Now looking down the line and I think they look quite impressive, 20mm plastic figures do have a certain wargame friendly character, not perhaps as animated as their big 28mm pristine sculpt big cousins - nor as dense in formation  as the 15mm boys but when all is said and done I like them - some folks call me "ginger" because of that 20mm affection, but that is fine by me (see below, I certainly started off in wargaming on a diet of these 1/72  scale plastic figures so why not end their too): 

Bring on the next regiment .. currently in its shade colours .. the thought of painting "number three" seems to a bit of a chore and remember I need six! (see below, as you can see by the T-35 in the background I have other projects on the go too): 

It is a case of "bring on the next regiment (or brigade) quick "while there is still paint in the pot and there is also a will to paint left in the painter (I feel a little or a lot of "ACW painting fatigue" coming on). Watch this space!

The Painting Tray .. A couple of Months ago ..

I pulled together rather a random collection of wargaming toys to "keep me going through Covid" and the Painting Tray in general ticking over. A 15mm Achaemenid War Tower to flesh out a Cyrus the Great DBA army (I have have this years) and the last of three Orc Dakka Dakka Jets from Aeronautica Imperialis - a relatively new 2020 acquisition (see below, I have actually completed that Orc Dakka Dakka jet in quick time and have subsequently moved onto the two-man [rear gunner] Orc Fighta Bomba aka Me110 look-a-like):  

Continuing on the Aeronautica Imperialis theme I also undercoated the two Imperial Marauder bombers .. although I must confess a real lack of enthusiasm to complete these "big birds" (very WWII Mitchell/Marauder look-a-likes). More interestingly are the Revell ACW 20mm Union troops that I intend to pitch against their Confederate brethren (see below, the painting "mojo" is slightly [very] waning on the ACW front, but little bits every day is the key to progress - the One Hour Wargames is still the intended wargame rules set - although Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame is also interesting for this period): 

Updates (and deviations on projects) on progress to follow shortly ;) 

Table Battles Game System - ACW Gettysburg Scenario

Perfect for Zoom wargames, no measuring, a clever combat system, very good for group participation and a narrative or running commentary of events compared to the historical battle, laughter as proceedings develop "not to plan" (see below, a rather abstract configuration of "The Battle for Little Round Top" at Gettysberg): 

Plenty of other scenarios out there too:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/230650/table-battles

Bob Cordery's Review: https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2020/09/new-edition-of-table-top-battles.html

The Blue and the Grey

Rummaging about in the loft for me invariably involves moving boxes about and then this usually means opening them up out of curiosity to find out why they were so annoyingly heavy in the first place. Then yes, I get completely distracted by the contents until a querying voice from downstairs inquires what I am doing.

In the most recent foray I discovered my long lost ACW 20mm collection of Revell plastics purchased in about 1992. I acquired quite a lot of these as a model shop was selling off a lot of fire damaged stock (the unopened boxes were sooty). Approximately 20 boxes were purchased all told, 10 Union and 10 Confederate infantry, which roughly gave me 500 troops a piece.They seemed a bargain bumper at the time but alas for the majority of the soldiers the best I did was to get as far as basing them according to a rule set entitled "Stars and Bars". I still have these rules, but no I have not read or played them once in over 20 years of ownership. My ACW outings were always 15mm Fire and Fury (F&F) based and I could not summon up the stamina to consider re-basing the 20mm (and I seemed to be the only one who dared consider using this cake for ACW).

However in 2014 they (potentially) have 'come of age' and have hit the painting tray (see below, for my Conferates):

A relatively few stands (about here dozen), three figures on each, were painted to my "one-colour does it" mid 1990's uninspiring standard. (The three colour technique of  shade, base and highlight was unknown to me then). All told I have two dozen "base primed" Confederates stands (72 figures) and about a dozen Union stands (36 figures). In addition to the basic troops I also acquired Revell's "artillery" and "cavalry" but more of them in later posts. I think these Revell figures can be purchased from IMEX now.

I decided then and there in the loft that they deserved a better fate. Given a recent purchase of a "Vallejo brown dipping wash" I decided to use these troops to experiment on. As the figures were already based on long strips I could not do the full dunk, but more of a heavy uncaring large brush "wash". I decided to "wash them twice" for good measure and highlight, gloss varnish and then matte varnish. The six stands that were just at the undercoat black stage received a PVA gunking to strengthen them (I didn't fancy doing that on the painted ones).

To be continued ...