Fredericksburg update II

Just a quick post on the progress made so far. With getting the figures earlier than I expected I have managed to complete all of the infantry I need for the confederates as well as 2 pieces of artillery. They all still require basing, that should e done over the next couple of days.

Rebs awaiting basing

Next up I need to prep the 8 bases of figures for the union troops and then I have all of the minimum troops I will require. I have even put in another order with Warrior for some extra command stands and artillery. I'll paint the command stands for the above infantry if I have time. Just so the bases match even though I already have spare stands, The artillery though would be nice to get done as I need a further 8 pieces to represent the Corps artillery for the Rebs. Should keep me bust for the next 2 weeks

Fredericksburg update

Those nice chaps at Warrior miniatures really excelled themselves this time. As per my last post I put in an order on Saturday. The figures arrived on Tuesday. Cannot beat that for service.

Order arrives

With the figures now here I've already made a start. Both confederate brigades have been prepped, one of which I've already painted and just need basing. Now got to keep going on the others.

Battle of Fredericksburg

I have the good fortune of being invited up to Micks for a re fight of the Battle of Fredericksburg. It was fought December 11 - 15 1862 between Lee's Army of Virginia and the union forces of the Army of the Potomac under Burnside. However Mick has asked a couple of us to supply some of the troops as this is a rather larger battle. I have been asked to provide rebels for Jackson II corps and union troops for Reynolds I Corps and Smiths VI Corps. So it was on to sorting through my collection to see what I had. The brigades for this battle are much larger than those for Gettysburg, but I didn't think that would be a problem. Imagine my shock when I realised I am short of figures. I need figures for 2 rebel brigades or 19 stands and 1 union brigade of 9 stands. I need to make an order and quick as I have limited time to paint them up. My figures of choice would normally be Peter Pig, however for delivery time you cannot beat warrior miniatures, so order made, confirmation received they will be dispatched by Tuesday. Hopefully the figures should arrive by the weekend which gives me 2 weeks to get them done....sorted I think

AWI 3rd Virginia Continentals

I'm making more progress on my AWI project. This time I've completed the 3rd Virginia Continental regiment. I picked these as I liked the idea of pale blue coats and dark blue turnbacks. Not sure if I got the pale blue right but I'm happy with them. The figures are a mix of Perry plastics and Some spare Foundry figures I picked up from EBAY. The flag is from Maverick Models.

To add a little fire power to try and hold up the British assaults I have added a second Artillery piece. This time a 3lb gun from Perry's.

Next time I will need to concentrate on adding some more militia and riflemen to the force. I have been looking at the Warlord Plastic boxed set, but want to see them in the flesh before i make a purchase. Luckily Tom has picked up a set so hopefully I can check them out on Thursday.

AWI artillery

Just remembered I hadn't posted about this. I eventually got around to painting up an Artillery piece for my American forces. I chose the 6lb piece from Perry's as it features in the majority of the scenarios from the rulebook.

6lb Artillery 

6lb Artillery 

I chose buff for the turnbuckles on the crew instead of the more common red. However I will revert to red when I get around to painting up the 3lb piece I've ordered.

AWI Kings New York Regiment

To add to my loyalists, I decided to paint up the Kings New York Regiment. I opted to go with red coats with blue facings. The figures are all from the Perry plastics. The flags were picked up from Maverick Models.

Kings New York Regiment 

Kings New York Regiment 

Kings New York Regiment 

I've also got enough plastic figures left to put together another Loyalist regime,  likely North Carolina. I can also put together a 3rd Base for my British Legion infantry to bring them up to full strength. After these it will be back to the rebels. I've another Continental regiment to complete as well as a 3lb Artillery piece and some mounted state troopers. All that will be left is to pick up some more militia.

Making trees

In one of those moments of madness, I decided to have a go at making a few trees. Since the downsizing of the club, these are the one item of terrain we are lacking, particularly for 25/28mm games. So a quick gig around in my useful terrain box I located a couple of barbecue skewers, some left over florist wire and a half empty bag of clump foliage.

First off I cut the skewers to a suitable length and then twisted various lengths of florist wire around it to look like suitable branches. I then glued everything in place and attached it to a small mdf Base and left for about an hour to dry.

Basic tree frame

Once the glue had dried I gave the whole thing a quick paint using a suitable dark brown. Once again left for an hour to dry. Then taking the clump foliage I glued suitable amounts to the branches, somehow sticking more to my own fingers. You can then add more or less foliage to meet your own tastes. Once finished it was a simple matter of basing the finished models.

2 finished trees

Trees with 28mm figure for scale 

Not to bad for about 20 minutes work not counting drying time per tree. I've now built 3 and ordered some more florist wire as I now want to build a few more.