2nd Wisconsin Completed!

Finally, we can show you a truly finished regiment (note the basing and flags are in place, unlike some of those scruffy Rebs). This is the first regiment of the Iron Brigade, the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteers.

I'm very happy with how the conversions and painting has turned out. Fairly simple yet very effective stuff. Thanks go to Don Effinger for his notes on the Iron Brigade's blue piping on their collars and cuffs, as well as the blue hat cords. You'll note I haven't painted the piping or hat cords on all the models, as no doubt some wore replacement coats and had damaged hats.

Another thing to note is their haversacks/bread bags. I've painted mine in a dirty canvas color, which is not at all historically correct. History shows that these bags would have been black (although a few regiments did apparently carry white bags). I chose this warmer canvas look to add some color and warmth to the dark and cool colors already dominating the models. Purely a painters choice.

The lovely flags are from GMB Designs who do a great range of beautifully rendered banners. The only slight disappointment is that the side of the Stars & Stripes that has the regiment's battle honors stitched on to it is "covered" by the regimental flag and can only really be seen from the back. Not GMB's fault at all.

Anyway, before my colleagues start asking about the colors for the basing, here they are:

Basecoat: Vallejo Charred Brown
First drybrush: Vallejo Beige Brown
Second drybrush: Vallejo Dark Sand

Paint the edges with Vallejo Beige Brown

The grasses on top of the bases are a mix of Late Summer Buffalo grass from Silflor, Jungle and Highland Tufts from Army Painter, Meadow with flowers Assortment (also from Silflor), and then patches of static grass (I used a 50:50 mix of GW's Scorched Grass and GF9's Static Grass: Green).

I hope you like them, only another four regiments of the Iron Brigade to go ; )

Oh, and don't forget to donate to our Guns Of April Movember team as we try to raise money for raising awareness (and solving) men's health issues. You can donate at my Movember page here.

Cheers
Dave

Movember is Coming!

It has been a little quiet on the Guns Of April front, as some members switch jobs and move to other states, and some members forget they're supposed to be painting up 120+ models for next year's big game! Well, things are about to change. You'll see a lot more posts on the blog here, and some of them may even have toy soldiers in them. The rest will be about our fun-filled foray into the world of masculine facial hair.

That's right. A number of the Guns of April team have decided to sign up, grow a mustache, and raise funds to fight prostate cancer (and other assorted men's health issues). Here's a link to our team page on the Movember website, where you can find out all about this great (and mildly venerable) annual institution.

We currently have six of the GOA team participating and you can find links to their individual pages here:

Brien Dulaney - Confederate
Dave Taylor - Union
Jamie Welling - Confederate
Dave Pauwels - Union
Rob Chandler - Confederate
Alex Akers - Confederate

The basic idea is this: 

We all start clean shaven on Movember 1st, and then grow our mustaches over the following month. There are to be no beards, goatees, chinstraps, or mustaches linked up to sideburns allowed. We'll take photos of our progress, upload them to the pages above (and this blog, I guess) and you all help out by donating money and telling your friends to do the same : )  We will even have a poll at the end of the month to see which one of us you think has the best 'tache!

You can donate via our team page, or via our individual pages (all the donations go to the same place). Take note, however, that the side (Union or Confederate) that amasses the greatest combined total of it's participants will get to go first in the big game at Adepticon next April.

And to get you in the mustache mood, I leave you with two beauties from the film Gettysburg.

Buford, played by the excellent Sam Elliot, sporting a fairly reserved yet very full top lip caterpillar.

And Chamberlain, played by Jeff Daniels in his best role before Newsroom, sporting the mightiest walrus I have ever seen!

So, what are you waiting for? Get your wallets out and donate!

Cheers

Dave

7th Tennessee done!

Hello all! My name is Robert Chandler. I just want to start by saying I am very thankful and excited to be a part of the Guns Of April  project and hope I can contribute to this project with the energy and skill as the rest of the team. For my contribution, I have decided to go with Archers brigade from Heth's division which belonged to A.P Hill's Third Corp A.N.V

These are photos of the 7th Tennessee Vol. Inf. there were 5 regiments in Archers Brigade which were the 5th and 13th Alabama along with the 1st, 7th and 14th Tennessee volunteer infantry regiments.

I've decided to use miniatures from Sash and Saber castings. I was rather impressed that they offer 40 man units in white metal with each miniature in a different pose. I know most of us have gotten used to the fact that if we want to use white metal for historical projects we get 4-7 poses and have to deal with the repetition of sculpt in each unit. Having the option to chose from 40 miniatures to create the 30 man units was a welcoming option.

This is the first of five regiments. I must say that so far this project has renewed my passion for the hobby and I cannot wait to dive into next installment. Next up I'm going to start on both Alabama regiments and have decided to do both of these in firing/battle lines verses marching units. The regiments will be from Sash and Saber as well. Okay, until next time, keep the paint flying! - Rob