Tom Custer's Company 'C'

 It's been a while but I've finally managed to finish the painting on another 20mm cavalry company. 

As George Custer liked to have different horse colours to differentiate companies, it's nice to finally paint a chestnut colour after a barrel full of Bay ones.

Painting shirt sleeves helps to create a ad-hoc look for the units. 

Tom Custer was actually not with his command, so I haven't modelled him here. Tom was riding up front next to his big brother, he hasn't got a mounted figure but he's on Custer's dismounted stand.

To mix up the look of the limited range from Newline Design, I've mixed in some Confederate and Union cavalry. There isn't a lot of difference in the figures and it just helps to add some more poses. This company has a few Kepi's too. I think this makes the unit look a little green and new.

It's nice to get the horse brands on the mounts, it's just a little detail that makes me happy.

The bugler is mounted on a grey horse.

They are still glueing at the moment so the basing is yet to do.

7th Cavalry basing

Finally got around to basing these guys. On watching a lot of reference on the area of the Little Big Horn, I noticed a whitish bush on the prairie.

I ordered some white flower tufts and knocked off most off the flowers. This looks much closer to the actual plant and adds a little bit of variety to the dead grass on the bases. I think the plants are the renowned sage brush with it's greyish white flowers, although I could be wrong.

 

Company L, 7th Cavalry.

I've had to make a few tweaks to this company, mainly shopping out the spare officer to use in a different unit. Counting through my undercoated figures, I realised there were no more officers left, with company E still to do, this was going to be a problem.

Young Jed O'Neil came to the rescue and took the place the spare Lieutenant.

Now Calhoun rides with his full company of troopers towards his fateful hill.

The spare officer gets a bit of a tweak too. A canvas bullet belt is added to cover his civil war sash.

Update: Tom Custer's Company C trots into view. This is another nice unit to paint because they are mounted on light chestnut horses. It will make the company stand out amongst the others.
 

Foundry paint 'light chestnut' is the perfect colour for this, nice and easy.

Sorrel is the American name for chestnut.

Lt James Calhoun in 20mm

 Painting Company L of the 7th Cavalry. What did Lt Calhoun look like on the day of the battle? Well I thought the information boards dotted around the battle site would be a good place to start 

This latest batch of figures I'm going to make a bit more ad-hoc, with more shirts etc.

Update: The troop is now done and just need a coat of Matt varnish.

A Boar warrior makes for a good Victorian irregular. He fits right in with the rest of the unit, is he a scout or a newspaper man. My money is on a scout with that rifle.

I did the super glue trick on his coat to give it tassels.

Painting the odd figure with a waistcoat helps to give variety to all the blue. Straw hats were also a common site in the regiment to help fight off the vicious summer sun.

A white shirt makes for a great character and I need to do a few more grey shirts too. Grey shirts are the classic undergarment for the 7th.

Company L were mounted on bay horses but I chose to mount the trumpeter on a grey. Custer would of approved of this cavalry tradition for sure.

These Kepi wearing figures are from the Newline Design ACW range. They fit in well and help give character to this troop. You could use them to signify green or raw troops. Many of the 7th Cavalry were in fact very green and hadn't seen any action before the campaign.

Newline Design do sculpt great faces, even at this 20mm scale.

Lt James Calhoun rides to take up position on a rise above the Indian encampment.

The figure is the one who's arm snapped off when I was trying to bend it. It was remade using a brush bristle and layers of super glue. Now it's painted it doesn't look too bad and his cocked hat gives him the air of an officer.

7th Cavalry 20mm

This poor chap lost an arm while messing around in the river. So I cooked up an idea using my trusty brush bristles. Once a chunky bristle was shaped and stuck into place, I used Gel Super glue to bulk it out. It's crude but with a bit of paint he should blend into the ranks.

Two more Companies of troopers gather at the moras.

Sabres are cut away and replaced with Colt pistols.

I find that the ACW range from Newline Design make for better 7th Cavalry than their actual Custer figures. Much more variety and the equipment is not too far off either. 

The last two Companies are made up of Confederate and Union cavalry figures from Newline Design.

We have the technology to rebuild him...He arm takes on the look of ballistic gel with plastic bones visible inside.

 The metal is quite brittle and doesn't like to be bent. Once everything is dry I will shape the hand.