Forward the Iron Brigade!

 Well two regiments so far, the 6th and 7th Wisconsin. These are simply converted from standard Epic ACW strips and when I say simply I mean a fair amount of fiddly work was involved. The 3D printed figures ordered via eBay might still arrive, ( I received an email telling me that due to postal issues it would be at least 2 weeks before my order can be dispatched so we live in hope), and if they do they will be used to create a few early war units. In the meantime I decided to make my own based upon the wonderful recreation of the Brigade from the film Gettysburg combined with period photos that clearly show the Wisconsin boys in a mix of ill fitting sack coats and a smattering of frock coats with the famous Black Hats (1858 enlisted mans issue) looking decidedly misshapen and mostly unpinned. A few have lost their hats and wear the kepi.

The conversion.

There was a bit of cutting and separating the strips in order to remove most of the kepi heads. All of the hats were then built up using a tiny ball of green stuff worked with a cocktail stick. The frock coat fronts were added using Vallejo Plastic Putty which can be shaped when dry. The 7th Wisconsin have a converted line to command featuring 2 standard bearers and an officer with sword over his shoulder, as usual these involve careful trimming away of the rifles and replaced with heated dressmakers pins, I have done this so many times now it's a doddle! All in all I am very pleased with the results and will probably add a couple more units in time. I used a new scalpel blade for this work as usual so must add a word of caution if you are thinking of doing the same, always cut away from your fingers, clamp the figures and cut down.

The 7th Wisconsin Regiment of the 'Iron Brigade' photographed in Virginia in 1862. Note how different they appear compared to as often modelled.

1858 enlisted mans hat.

Cavalry.

I mentioned previously that I need more cavalry for Battle Cry scenarios and as I want to begin with scenario 001 1st Bull Run I need 2 Confederate units. I have turned to Kallistra which are nominally 12mm scale but a good match and very detailed. Yes, the horses are slightly small in the hind quarters as often said but as I intend to replace the Epic plastic cavalry with Kallistra all round this will not matter. I just could not justify the cost of the Warlord cavalry when such wonderful castings are available in metal at a fraction of the cost in metal if I'm honest. I have the first five undercoated in front of me and will be attacking them with some paint after my coffee.

Edit: One hour later :)

 

General 'Ozzy' in command!

This morning I managed to put everything so far in  the 'Battle Cry' project together for the first time. It sits on my folding card table right behind my painting desk and the game can be played sitting comfortably as intended. The PVC mat unrolls onto a foamboard base that fold in half for storage and I painted a black border on all four edges of the board. The entire game measures up at 110cm x 75cm when set up.

Grandson Oscar 'Ozzy' popped in on his way home from his half day at playgroup and his entire face lit up when he saw it! I just had to grab a couple of photos of him sitting there.

To be honest this is just about done now and my main focus will be on my planned railway Micro layout, but I will be adding more cavalry and mounted personalities from Kallistra plus the Iron Brigade as and when they arrive. Much as I had intended to keep this project entirely 'Epic' the price of the Warlord resin command packs just seemed unjustifiable when they work out around £3.00 each compared to 50p each in metal from Kallistra. 

All in all it's worked out rather well I think.

Looks like I'm going to be busy!

I spent a most enjoyable hour this morning opening up and exploring the contents of the three large boxes of figures that arrived last week from 'Old John' for me to paint. As you can see there is lots of variety and will be broken down into monthly lots in accordance with John's preference. Lists and reference material was also included which certainly helps me to organise and plan. There was also a couple of  N Gauge model wagons for my planned model railway shunting layout. Cheers John.

In addition to working on 40 more mounted Indians and another troop of 7th cavalry I have continued to add more bits for my Battle Cry project including some buildings from Battlescale, more 10mm circular casualty markers and some Victory Token markers using 20mm square MDF with suitable printed flags glued on and varnished.

Lighter horses for this batch.

Warlord Epic 'Iron Brigade' the hunt continues! 

I have been searching endlessly online for a box of these figures which are no longer available from  Warlord. These were metal additions to the basic range and I would love to be able to add some to my project. Aside from Iron Brigade they would also be perfect for early war units for both sides. I have trawled eBay, Amazon and every online retailer I can think of or find but sold out everywhere. I have contacted Warlord and put out an appeal on the Epic FB groups. I may have around 10 strips (5 per strip) coming my way from a gamer in Copenhagen who offered to send me his spares so I'm keeping my fingers crossed :) Meantime I have been looking into 3D printed figures and have ordered a test pack of the figures below printed to 13,5mm scale, if they scale up well then I will happily spend time working them into 10 figure strips by trimming arms etc. We shall see how things go.

Iron Brigade from Battle Honours 3D .  Ordered printed to 13.5mm Epic scale from the drop down menu  via Ebay. The company are based in Kent, UK. 

OK, this is the last time I shall mention Corn!

Rather pleased with the results though! You can see it in action (centre section lifts out for placing a base of troops inside) in the latest short 7 minute video on the channel. 

 

Corn Mk.4, Epic P&S for Noel and a small delivery from Old John!

I think I have cracked it at last (see below).

Here are a few shots of the latest batch of Epic P&S for Noel before I packed them up for posting. This represents the first 4 'cavalry' sprues which includes mounted and dismounted Dragoons plus commanded musketeers or Forlorn Hope. I suggested that the commanded foot be painted in varied coat colours to represent the fact that they were drawn off from different regiments and I think they look quite effective. I'm holding back the 6 cuirassiers as Noel wants a 3 deep regiment of 15 figures for the unit which will represent them well. Once again the Warlord Epic range proves to be great value.

I will just mention here the forthcoming Epic Punic Wars release of which there has been much hue and cry around the hobby sites recently. I'm sure you will all have seen the design of the Roman 3 deep bases which features a kind of 'blank' centre strip of heads and shoulders which I think is rather clever! I have no plans to go any further than my ACW but wold relish the opportunity to take on a future commission for this new range as I would love to see what I could do with them.

Currently on the May batch of 20mm Pony Wars for Mark, this time another 20 man Troop of 7th cavalry plus 40 more mounted Indians.

During the week a 'small' delivery arrived of figures arrived from 'Old John' for me to paint :) When John said it will keep me going for months he clearly was not joking. Will be going through the contents over the weekend, cheers John.

Finally Cornfield Mk4! The artificial Bamboo plant experiment proved to be a rather messy waste of time and ended up up in the bin. So, I went online to see what the world of model railways had available and invested in this fine little plastic kit for the grand sum of £15.00. I saw it and could not resist it, with luck I will get two fields (hexes) from this made in removable sections on 2cm square bases.

 

Yet more cornfield improvement and terrain tiles for Battle Cry!

During the week I decided that I was still not happy with the re worked Cornfield for the simple reason that it bore little resemblance to the real thing and looked more like my late old Nan's privet hedge. Much as I'm taking a stylised approach to this project I feel that more can be done. So I did a search for 15mm scale metal cornstalks thinking maybe the Model Railway world might offer up a few ideas possibly. The search threw up a video showing such made from individual plastic bamboo aquarium plants with corn cobs added. I'm going to have a go at something similar but based on 2mm drilled MDF removable sections and will try to achieve small cobs of corn more in scale. So, I have on order plastic bamboo stalks from eBay which should be arriving this week and I plan to have some fun with it! I'm honestly not obsessed with cornfields but it's a common feature of Civil War battlefields. 

Lets see what can be done with these!

Also been making more hill toppers as you can see and will now start to cut the 5mm foamboard hexes that will be sandwiched between 2mm MDF to form the 16mm tall hills. The edges will be textured with Vallejo earth texture and then painted or possibly flocked.

Sharpshooter on a hill.

Also planning road and river tiles, first standard 'rough road' experimental road below. 'Plank Roads' offer faster movement than rough roads in the variant rules so that will be another interesting modelling challenge.

Sharpshooter markers - The Battle Cry Sharpshooter card allows a player to select any enemy general on the board as a target when played. I want something a bit more specific than this so decided that when this card is played a sharpshooter marker may be placed WITH ANY FRIENDLY UNIT IN RANGE OF AN ENEMY GENERAL. The shot is then taken with a crossed sabres required to remove the general for a Victory point. This reduces the 'bolt from the sky' effect and of course will be affected by line of sight rules. Just a touch more realistic I think.

Couldn't hit an Elephant at this range!

I have been making labels for the rear of the unit bases and small casualty markers that will be placed on the strip to show casualties as current strength. The markers are fairly unobtrusive I think and I decided that for those units reduced to a single point a red marker would make it clear that the unit is at the point of wavering and about to break. A big part of the Battle Cry game play is to pull back such vulnerable units and replace them with fresh troops to prevent the loss of another victory point where possible. I discovered a nifty little old tin for the bits and pieces when sorting through some old boxes, it might possibly have been,  (Ahem), a stash tin at some point in the dim and distant past! It was a nice find and perfect for this project.

Finally an example of the labels. It's been a very long time since I have felt such a strong connection with units of model soldiers, somehow the label helps me to really identify with individual Civil war units and will I think greatly improve the narrative when battle commences.

Right then, next step will be planting some Corn.