I have been adding the odd unit base here and there and this little project is really coming together quite quickly. To date I have painted 14 infantry, 3 artillery bases plus mounted and dismounted cavalry and horse holder markers. I have deliberately tried to keep this project on a budget as I'm focused on building up stuff for my model railway project which even for a small N Gauge shunting type layout is pretty expensive. Rather than buy additional metal command strips from Warlord (£15 for 5 strips!) I am converting the standard infantry strips as required. By careful trimming away of rifles and replacing with dress makers pins heated and then glued I'm more than happy. A cut down pin also works as officers sword over the shoulder. You can judge the results from the photos. I'm also trimming down all the hats to kepis for my Union units, something quite easily done with a bit of practice using a scalpel.
As I had leftover Zouave strips I decided to add a unit of the early war Louisiana boys. I wanted to add a few straw 'boaters' which involved head swaps using suitable hats which in this scale was quite a demanding job I can tell you, I lost several heads in the process! I also wanted just the single standard bearer for all my Reb units so I cut a command strip in half and replaced the unwanted figures. I also trimmed away all bayonets so as to match the other units. On the whole I'm rather pleased with them I must say. Will be adding flags to all Reb units later today, the Union already have them fitted.
So far this project has cost me the grand total of just £42.00 and I still have Union cavalry and enough strips for another 6 infantry units left to paint. I will need some of the mounted personalities though.
Once again I'm enjoying myself with this and it takes me right back to my early Airfix ACW days, I still have my battered old copy of the 1971 Terence Wise book.
Tigers!
Standard strip converted to command.
Rear strip for unit designation and to place casualty marker.
Regular followers here will recall I'm sure the collection of 40mm Peninsular War Napoleonics that I purchased from Andy Copestake of Old Glory UK just after I moved to Spain back in early 2018. At the time I was looking forward to being able to enjoy the large scale as I had the space for them and once they arrived on the Costa Blanca in the boot of my Son in Law's car I started work on enlarging the collection. This involved my wife and family carrying heavy packages of metal soldiers through customs on a regular basis, much to the amusement of Customs Officers!
A couple of years later and we had decided that life in Spain was not for us and we decided to return to the UK. Lovely as it was living on the side of a mountain looking across the orange groves towards the Mediterranean twenty minutes drive away we had started to miss being around our family and to be honest I was quite homesick. I loved the Spanish people, the weather and the laid back lifestyle but I was missing Blighty. So again we sold up and thus ended what I refer to now as 'The Spanish Campaign'.
The now much expanded collection - over 400 painted figures - travelled back again this time in the boot of my car along with my wife the dog and the cat. When I eventually unpacked them it became clear that there was no way I was going to be able to use or even just display the figures as I had in Spain, so I made the decision to let them go to a new home where they would be enjoyed and played with.
I put the word out and was contacted by Daniel Peterson in the United States who was extremely keen to add them to his existing 40mm collection that he had acquired from Australia, and was more than happy to cover the high shipping costs involved. I agreed, but then found that the stress and worry of shipping 400+ valuable 40mm painted figures overseas, many of them multipart with separate heads etc was more than I cold cope with. I informed Dan, who understandably was not entirely happy but accepted my decision.
By this time I was in regular contact with Graham Cummings and Ian Smith (prolific 40mm collector). Graham was keen to buy my collection and the figures were duly packed up for the short overnight courier delivery which was a 48 hour fully insured service. Despite the time and care I had taken to pack them within a large container clearly marked Fragile they arrived with the box bashed in at one corner. Luckily there was very little overall damage once Graham had unpacked everything, a few lost heads and bent weapons mostly. I offered to supply replacement painted heads, ( I must admit I was somewhat devastated when Graham sent me photos of the interior of the container), and all was restored in next to no time. Graham, in his usual easy going way, just plodded through the minor repairs and was delighted to be the new owner with plans to expand even further. Shockingly Graham passed away a few weeks ago following a very sudden illness.
Last week I was surprised to receive an email from Dan in the States telling me that he had finally acquired the collection that he had tried to purchase from me several years ago. Dan had spotted them on eBay being sold by a Military Bookstore in York following Grahams death, and placed the winning bid, apparently there were very few bids on them. So the figures are now in the States alongside his existing 40mm Peninsular war collection, but the story does not stop there!
Sadly Ian Smith had also passed away a couple of years ago, again following a short illness. Ian and I had corroborated on a 3D print project to produce a set of resin RHA crew in 40mm scale and as a result I got to see lots of his wonderful collection. When Ian was planning his amazing Sharpe meets Hornblower display game (see video below) he asked me if he could buy my French 2nd Hussars. There were 16 of them beautifully professionally painted - not by myself I hasten to add - and as he offered me a straight £20 per figure for them I let them go. To be honest it was as much the thought of them being involved in that game as much as anything else that persuaded me to sell them. I replaced them with 16 Chasseur a Cheval that I painted myself and they were part of those sold to Graham. The 2nd Hussars can be seen thundering across the bridge in the video, Ian had replaced the swords and added a little more animation work before he passed away. The game was eventually put on as a memorial by his friends and won 1st prize, a fitting tribute.
So last week Dan also informed me that he is in the process of purchasing Ian's entire Peninsular war collection including the terrain boards and two waterline ship models that I know were his pride and joy from his Son. Dan's plan is to house everything in a permanent room and then to tour the game around the States to wargame conventions. So three 40mm collections will have shortly come together, one from Australia (Dan's original collection), and two from the Uk. I must admit we did have a joke about The Curse of the 40mm's but Dan said he will take his chances!
I hope you enjoy reading this and with luck you guys in the States will get the opportunity to see this in person in the future.
Below are a couple of shots from my collection including a couple of close ups of the French Hussars and a link to the Ian Smith memorial game at Partizan.
And those fine 2nd Hussars on the day they arrived to me in Spain, now part of the Late Ian Smith collection on the way to the States soon.
Really enjoyed painting these. Following on from the Reb Generals box set here is the Union Personalities box set, the 4 wonderful old Airfix US Cavalry, 10 Union Infantry ( ?) and 4 Russian Falconers. This is the March batch for John. Just waiting for a new varnish brush to arrive and to see what John wants me to do with the card bases with the names on.
Union Personality box set 35 figures.
Spot Custer and Abraham Lincoln!
Oh the nostalgia, takes me right back to childhood!
Epic ACW/ Battle Cry next, coming along, added a few more bases and started adding flags. Went with the Epic flagsheet as the poles are a bit short but they look OK. Also adding additional command by trimming away muskets and using dress makers pins for poles and officers sword across shoulder. All Union strips cut down to kepis.
First signs of Spring in the air here, the Crocuses are popping their colourful heads above the ground and it's warming up .... just slightly. I'm working out the months painting schedule and the plan is:
Old John Strelets mounted Confederate Generals set (x12), Strelets Union Personalities on foot (x35) plus assorted plastic Engineers and gunners, 4 lovely Russian Falconers and finally 4 Airfix US cavalry which are not on the order of painting list BUT I simply cannot resist them!
Geoff 2mm bases for half scale DBA. Now I'm back in the swing of things I'm sure I can get these painted as Geoff has been incredibly patient.
Noel The final 5 Epic ECW infantry sprues/regiments before we start on the cavalry next month. This will be a total of 21 Regiments of Foot each of 80 figures painted so far. This will be a solid couple of weeks work.
April will then begin with more US cavalry for Mark.
'Battle Cry' ACW side project. The above represents a comfortable amount of painting for me and still leaves me plenty of spare hobby time for the start of 'Twydall' shunting layout and the new side project using Epic ACW sprues. I have now decided that I'm keen to carry on with this but I don't want to go down the whole expansive terrain building rout again so I'm going to build it based on the simple 'Battle Cry' ACW board game using 60mm frontage bases and a printed 13 x 9 hex grid fleece mat from Tinywargames with 75mm grid. I'm sure this will keep me engaged for a good 6 months or so at least.
The Epic ACW's are coming along and I'm enjoying doing some again. Progress photo below. I'm just deciding which flags to go with as the Epic flags are on the small side. I think I may go with wargame Designs. I bought a box of Union Cavalry and Zouaves from Ebay for just £22.00 which will give me my Union and Confederate mounted and dismounted cavalry bases, a couple of skirmish bases (2nd Sharpshooters?) plus the two Zouave bases which is all I require. As the box includes 3 sprues each containing a command strip and 3 infantry strips there will be a leftover 60/80 figure Zouave unit going FREE is anyone doing Epic ACW can use it (Norm?).
Photos below show the fine Strelets Confederate Generals set. I noticed that the horses feature a mix of nosebands and non nosebands which seems to be born out as correct at the time of the Civil war by research, a nice touch Strelets!). The black undercoat and flat brown drybrush is my go to method now for ACW's (both sides) and the Pony Wars commission, in fact I even use it for the Epic Pike and Shot as it quickly establishes high light points and gets all of the tricky pikes and muskets/rests/ etc done from the start and an additional careful dry brush of Flat Earth gives a highlight. Let's just say that it works for me.
The great man himself!
Superb detail in these plastic figures.
John Bell Hood, Texas.
Tried to get variety into the Reb uniforms.
Just bases and varnish required.
Todays painting, Zouaves.
A great value set for £22.00! ( note, same set for Rebs just Grey sprues!)
The alternative to a wet palette, useful for dry brushing and horse painting etc.
Pure nostalgia, Decades since I last painted Airfix US Cavalry!
