Custer Reference

My childhood toys have imprinted on me when it comes to uniforms...

CO. E= greys, sorrels are basically chestnuts.

Things of note; Lt Cooke’s white horse. Grey shirts on some troopers. The two colours on the trousers. Mix of hats and civilian gear.

Each troop had its own colour of horse, bays, greys and chestnuts etc. The Guidons were the star and stripes variety. 

 I decided to try out a little project to see me into the new house. I’m going to try to knock up a force to play the Little Big Horn battle. I’ve chosen 20mm figures from Newline Design as I thought it would give me a chance to put more soldiers on the board for less money. There are some nice 28mm ranges out there, but due to the amount of mounted figures on both sides, I thought a smaller scale would be a good idea.  The men who would be kings are the rules I have ear marked for this new venture.

I’m excited to be trying a new scale too, I first saw the figures at the Newark wargames show and thought they were great. If I had to start again with my ACW I would go with Newline’s 20mm range for sure. So far I have ordered a cavalry bundle leaving the Indians to last.

As a kid I grew up playing with Britain’s LTD toy soldiers, they had beige coloured hats. This imprinted on me like most of the colour schemes of the Britain’s toys, it has taken me this long to shake the fact that Confederates didn’t all have sky blue trousers. On researching the period more I have found that black hats were probably the order of the day. I will probably do a few beige ones just for old times sake.

I have been really enjoying researching the new period, I just thought Custer got surrounded by overwhelming odds and destroyed, but there is so much more to the battle. The drama of Reno’s failed attack and the chaotic retreat back across the Big horn river. The failure of Captain Benteen  to arrive in time to reenforce Custer. It reminds me slightly of the later battle of Isdanwana, where colonial troops with superior weapons under estimate a primitive force to they peril. Both commanders split their forces in the face of the enemy only to be swept away.

Another element to this project is the limited figure range and trying to think of ways to include more troop types through conversations. For example using 20mm Boers to act as civilian scouts with a new paint job and Indian scouts using head swops. Also I’ve been thinking about cutting some horses off their bases and bending their legs to make them look like casualties, maybe a trooper crouching behind one for cover.

 Let’s crank up Gary Owen on the stereo and get painting!.