Hancock Arrives to take Charge

This great painting really inspired me, I had the figure of Hancock from Dixon already. I also placed an order for a couple of mounted standard bearers from them too and ordered a mounted command group from 1st Corps miniatures. The standards are from Battle Flag. They produce the standards for the entire Corps, including artillery HQ on one sheet for £10. Very useful.

I do love all the Corps flags and insignia of the Army of the Potomac. They are very tempting to do but they can limit you when it comes to playing certain battles. I’ve decided to just go for it and have created an Army Corps command stand. This is General Hancock with his 2nd Corps. Once you start with the Corps flags, do you go down the rabbit hole of Brigade standards etc... well I suppose one or two wouldn’t hurt. I know the Irish Brigade will get their 2nd Brigade standard... rude not to.

 

Union Sharpshooters

Having slept on it for a night, I decided to thin out some of the denser bases. They had lost their skirmish look, so I took some off to create another base. I have to say I much prefer the more spaced out look. 

I have given them a woodland vibe with the dry leaves after finding a fantastic image on line. The Flock box wouldn’t  really work over them so I stuck a few tufts on instead.

 I have given the leaves a wash of watered down wood glue to fix them in place.

I love this image and the brown leaves add a lot of atmosphere and character, so I thought I would try the same look on the bases.

The leaves work particularly well on the boulders
 

Future plants from Tkmaxx

Hello hello hello, what ave we ere then... quick grab it. It’s not reduced but still cheaper than woodland scenics. Should be able to get four or five nice trees out of that. 

US Sharpshooters WIP 2

I think I will use this as a guide for basing... time for the flock machine and the 4mm grass!

Well I have finally finished the painting and given them a shiny coat of floor varnish. I couldn’t wait for the matt varnish and have based them in advance. I over did it with the painting which meant I could put four on a base, five on the command base. There just wasn’t as many loading poses as I would have liked, by the time I had added some the figure count had gone up.

Here is the full unit, five bases and two skirmish bases.

Everyone’s very shiny at the moment, once the glue is dry I will give them a coat of matt varnish. Looks like the captain still needs his black good year rubber buttons added.

A rather confused command base, with the officer talking to the bugler. Probably about to order a retreat in the face of a determined attack. They are covered by a screen of riflemen.  

 This company ended up being mostly sack coats.It looks like they are having a hard time of it.

US Sharpshooters WIP

Recently I’ve been painting up some Berdan’s Sharpshooters. I bought a pack of 1st Corps sharpshooters a year or so ago. I thought they were rather good, even though I already have some nice Redoubt ones. Anyway, I decided I would get some paint on them to see how they look. I thought as skirmishers they were rather limited in poses so I had a rummage around in the spares box and grabbed a few more poses. There was such a mix of uniforms in 1863 that a few blue sack coats in the mix should look good. 

Below is a figure from Crusader miniatures, his advancing pose should make a good sharpshooter when painted up.

After all that research a few years ago, I thought I would try these Foundry colours for French cavalry. I think the colours work well, although I did add a tiny amount of Miniature Paints’ Dark green to add a little pep to the final colour. This final shade is used sparingly as a extreme highlight. So I basically add a tiny amount of it to the ‘C’ shade to make it slightly brighter.

The unit is well underway with all their base coats nearly done.

 I having fun coming up with some figure choices to create the unit. A nice officer choice was taken from a 1st Corps ADC figure. He comes pointing with binoculars and I thought he would make a great Sharpshooter captain. Another officer figure has been given some plastic binoculars taken from a German plastic sprue that came free with a magazine.

Also in the unit are a few Dixon Sharpshooter figures, I chose these because they had the sack coat but also have the Prussian backpack of the USS. They should look different once in the mix.

I am basing them for Bonnie Blue Flag rules, so a Sharpshooter unit consists of four bases. I will probably add a couple of skirmish bases to the unit too. The main bases will have three figures on them, the skirmishers, two.

I have come up with a cunning plan to base all my Sharpshooters on 50mm round bases. This way they are not much bigger than the normal infantry bases, but can turn 360 degrees. This will work great for the Confederacy, so it will be clear in the mass of grey and butternut, who are the Sharpshooter battalions.
 

KR Multi Case

I’ve resisted these foam cases for many years, but with a big house move coming up I decided it was time to bite the bullet! I had a whole bunch of  sci-fi 15mm stuff based on one pence pieces and I wasn’t sure how to store them. Also, all my 28mm sci-fi marines were beginning to stack up with nowhere to go. It had to be a job for a foam case!

After a browse on eBay I stumbled on these cases from KR. The 15mm one was bought new but the 28mm one was second hand and had some slight damage. Well, they certainly do the job and the figures are snug and safe in their new homes. It even made sense to store the unpainted figures in there too to keep them all together.

The foam trays are backed with a stuck on foam backing Piece and there is also a foam ‘lid’ to go on top of the stack.

The newly boxed figures join the trees and other scenery bits and bobs.

When they arrive you have to pluck the cubes from the trays.

28mm Colonial marines and bandits settle in to their new sleeping cells.

 This tray of 15mm figures has sat on my paint box for around three years. Now at last, I can safely move them and pack them away. I’m very happy with the cases, I should have done it earlier, but I got there in the end.

Future Foliage

I used a number of flocks, leaves and scatter to finish these bases.

I gave the plastic plants a wash in brown ink, just to bring out some of the detail. The trunks were dry brushed with a lighter  colour, not sure if this really made a lot of difference but I suppose it all helps. I found these fallen leaves in a forgotten tub at the bottom of my scenery box. Looking at the effect on here, they’d be great for my Elven fantasy bases.

Green tufts were scattered around in various places, I think they matched the look quite well. I shy away from these on historical bases because of their hue, but they work with these desert plants.