Starting the Irish Brigade

 Hancock arrives and takes charge with his 2nd corps.

 Following a knee jerk impulse, I started the Irish brigade at last. This is the first batch to be blocked in then painted with Army painter Dip. Due to the strong tone being a bit ‘thick’, I tried out the soft tone instead. I actually think it works better on the light blue trousers.

 I gave some of the Irish brigade grey trousers as beloved by illustrated uniform books, just to cover myself. However, the majority will be the standard sky blue colour. Likewise with the uniform, I have scattered a few shell jackets in there for the New York side of things, but most will be the standard sack coat.

 I wanted these veteran fighters to be quite dynamic so opted for skirmishing poses from Redoubt, the heads are from Steve Barber models and are his Irish heads. I quite like them because they have box wood and harps etc pinned to their kepis. Not quite sure if they did this for the three days at Gettysburg but it does make them stand out from the rest of the army and gives them some nice Irish character.

By the time of Gettysburg the Irish brigade was the smallest brigade on either side, having been decimated in earlier conflicts. Armed with smooth bore muskets, firing buck and ball, these tough fighters would push on to take the Stoney hill at Gettysburg in the battle for the wheat field.