Miles Keogh of Company I

The turned heads work well and provide some much needed variety. Sealed with their gloss coat of Kleer floor varnish, they will need a Matt varnish to finish them off.

Miles Keogh rides out in his new super glue gel buckskin.

 

The only living thing found on the field after the battle. Keogh's horse, Comanche. He was nursed back to health after being too badly injured for the Indians to take. He became a mascot for the regiment.

20mm arrows

I had a thought about using very fine bristles to make arrows. I first set out to find the dust pan and brush...this evaded me. Not giving up, I took to looking around for other bristled objects.

To my wife's degust I found the washing up brush in the sink. This I thought looked just the ticket.

Very slyly I cut off a section of bristles and tried them on some 20mm bases. They worked and looked more in scale than my previous ones.

I tried a couple of things with these new arrows, being plastic they could be flattened with pliers. This made a feather flight at the end, once painted this should look good.

The other technique was using a blob of gel super glue to make the flights, this worked too but I think I prefer the flattened method.

A stolen stash. These would work well for 28mm too and makes me sad I'm not doing a War of the Roses army. 

Being very thin plastic, they are remarkably tough and will spring back if crushed. Perfect for gaming.

 These brushes are a couple of pounds if that, not bad for hundreds of arrows.

Captain Miles Keogh

Another brush bristle carbine gets issued to this trooper. Although irregular miniatures 20mm infantry seems to fit with Newline Design, their cavalry troopers seem a bit small. It's a shame because the actual horses are a good match. These guys will end up on the mule train bases.

Sculpting with gel super glue. 

Two companies down, I now come to Company I, led by Captain Keogh. Keogh is another big name in the battle for he was in charge of three of Custer's five companies. 

I had always thought of him in a blue fireman's shirt, like Custer. However, after googling illustrations of him, a number show him in a buckskin. This should make him stand out and a major character like Miles Keogh needs to stand out.

Rather than break out the time consuming green stuff, I thought I would try the gel super glue. It's a lot more crude but it does have it's place. My thinking is I just need a small ridge to paint on a fringe. 

Well, the results were a lot better than I thought, this was done by teasing the drying glue with a pointed file. The glue could be stretched and shaped slightly, more than enough in 20mm to look like a fringed coat.

To mix things up on this new Company, I tried twisting off a couple of heads. These were glued back on looking in different angles.

I also tried using a bit of card to act as a neckachef. This could be placed sticking out away from the body, something you couldn't do with just super glue. The card also absorbed the glue and became rock solid and tough.

This ACW officer gets turned into a stand bearer with a fluttery scarf.

Newline Design, Irregular Miniatures 20mm, the last one is from irregular's ACW collection so maybe that is smaller. The plains war Indians were quite a good match with those from Newline.

 Captain Keogh shows off his new snazzy buckskin.

Keogh's companies get worn down and overrun. Surviving troopers scramble on foot to reach Custer and his two remaining companies. Only a few made it to Custer, the grave stones on the battlefield show the route, each one being placed where the bodies were found.

This last image is the one that I'm going to go with. I think the figure I've chosen is a good match for this guy. I can also use the other irregular miniatures officer in his buckskin for the dismounted version.

Well, here he is, a quick head swop and gun replacement and he's good to go.

UPDATE: A real breakthrough, to help the effect of the tassels, I went back when the glue was dry and scored them with a scalpel. I had planned to paint on the detail but this technique is much more effective.

The glue actually looks like tassels now and it's definitely a trick I will use again on these 20mm figures. I love it when a plan comes together!

Custer's Command 20mm

I decided to change Custer's base to include the regimental colours as well as his own. I had originally thought of sticking them all on a big round 60mm base, so it looked like a actual command base. However, I think this would have destroyed the iconic cavalry column look, so I kept the 40mm width and added 20mm to the length. This way Custer can still lead his men in person and have a bit more colour while doing it. 

I think it works better with the extra flag giving it a bit more presence. I did a lot of research to see if Custer actually took the regimental colours with him, but after watching the 1991 mini series 'Son of the rising star', I decided to add one. It was the first time the regiment had been all together for a long time and it makes sense they would have broken of the colours.

Custer swings his battalion left along the bluffs.

"Alexa play Gary Owen, volume 8."

I suppose the best thing about this new base is that it lets Custer ride out Infront.

Scenes from Son of the morning star showing the regimental colours.

When you see the whole column fluttering away in the wind I think it was a good choice to add it.

 What is done for the mounted troopers though has to be carried through into the discounted version too.

Custer's base is already crammed with desperate individuals, so Cooke got the honour of getting the colours.  Again, I prefer this to the casualty figure that was there before.

Both the new troopers are actually from the ACW range of Newline Design 20mm. In many ways they fit the 1876 troopers better than the actual Little Bighorn range do.