Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Paint on the 6th Wisconsin


It has been great to see a nice little surge from the Guns of April team members of late, post pics of their WIP and finished units. I'm sure as things get closer to April we'll see an even bigger increase in the quantity of posts!

Anyway, on the Union front I've finished putting paint to model for my 6th Wisconsin unit (pictured above) and painting up a firing line was a nice change from the marching pose of the 2nd Wisconsin. I'll be doing all the basing once I've completed the two units pictured below.


Here is the first shot of the 24th Michigan regiment. For this unit I used a mix of Perry miniatures, almost all of them wearing frock coats (so there was no need to sculpt them). The models were lacking, however, the Hardee hat made famous by the Iron Brigade (aka the Black Hat Brigade), so a solid number of this unit are now wearing them. I decided these boys would be the 24th Michigan as I think the mixture of heads and the variety of equipment gives them the feel of a rough and ready unit a bit late to the game, fitting the regiment from the wilds of the hand-shaped state that was the last to join the brigade.


And here are my 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry unit dismounted. I've modeled them so they will be behind a white, picket fence (from the Perry/Renedra sprue), but I've left it off for ease of painting.

Hopefully my fellow Union players are cranking out their models and will have something to show us very soon.

Cheers
Dave

5 comments:

  1. Damn it! I had a similar idea for JEB Stuarts dismounted cav! That's ok... they shall square off! Like minds ;)

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  2. Dave,

    Those finished plastic converted & painted models look superb! That was a lot of work that the casual observer will not appreciate. They will think, 'Oh he bought them and just painted them'. That's a shame.

    When you said, "the variety of equipment gives them the feel of a rough and ready unit a bit late to the game, fitting the regiment from the wilds of the hand-shaped state that was the last to join the brigade" about the 24th Michigan I assume you mean Detroit was a wild place? That's where they came from for the most part, not so much backwoodsmen. :)

    Don

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the praise on the plastics Don, I'm fine if not a lot of folks notice ; )

      As for the boys from Detroit, do you think I should switch them up to be the 7th Wisconsin or 19th Indiana? Obviously none of that is set until I slip the colors into their hands.

      Cheers
      Dave

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  3. Dave,

    Nope don't switch unless YOU want to. By Gettysburg they probably all (the whole brigade) looked the same, campaign worn. The 24th was the 'newest' regiment of the brigade but that was a thing of the past by Gettysburg. Like all soldiers after a good and hard campaign (or less), they had all notions of parade grounds looks to get beaten out of them. On campaign very few regimental officers ever enforced a strict 'look'. In a long camp stay it might be a different story. The officers knew over time and experience when to crack down and when not to. Besides, even with best intention soldier blew out their trousers, coats, hat etc and needed to draw replacements when they were available. That means soldiers might have to wear the generic Government Issue as replacements for a particular regimental uniform.

    I did some research on the Union brigade in the 3rd Corps at Gettysburg, Burling's brigade (3/3/III) for my big scenarios. They wore Frock coats instead of the Sack coats as a rule. After the battle the brigade quartermaster put in a brigade requisition report to order Frock coats, lots of them (among a huge list of other items). I bet they either wore their Frock coats into tatters and/or had to wear Sack coats and he wanted to replace them.

    Rejoice in their campaign attire! They look great and that's what counts.

    Don

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  4. Nice looking. I like the use of the fence. I love he Wisconsin hats.

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