Union Field Hospital for Black Powder

One of the things I love about playing games in a large scale, such as 28mm, is the spectacle of it.  Our ACW Black Powder games have mostly been huge affairs that really draw in spectators.  For these large games there is a lot of opportunity to draw in gamers and viewers alike by the inclusion of details and vignettes.  Almost from the start I wanted to use actual casualty figures in my Black Powder games just as the authors suggested.  Naturally, the inclusion of these specialty pieces would bring a new dimension to our games but it seemed a shame to just leave them in a box off the table until needed.  After all, it takes almost as much time to paint a casualty as it does a normal figure.  I thought the perfect place for these markers would be a field hospital on the corner of the table so I set about building one.  Fortunately, Old Glory makes just about everything you need for this.  I bought all this stuff several years ago and the first phase was the casualties themselves.  They are the most important part after all.  Next I painted the surgeon vignette and I have already had this out for the last couple games.  The last part was the ambulance and the stretcher team.

If you are interested in building one for yourself this is the Old Glory Hospital Brigade set.  The casualty figures are also Old Glory from the Infantry Lying Dead with Command set.

28mm ACW Union Army Additions

A couple of years ago my friend Tom decided to liquidate his extensive 28mm ACW collection.  This worried me greatly as we used a large part of this collection anytime we put on an ACW Black Powder game.  Even more troubling was that I did not have any money at the time to buy even a portion of the collection.  The good news is that much of this collection went to local gamers so we have been able to keep using much of it for our games.

Today I purchased a large chunk of the Union from a friend who had bought it from Tom.  He had not been able to participate in games and the stuff had just been sitting so he decided to make it available.  I am very happy to add these figures to my collection as this nearly doubles my Union forces and means that I am just about done collecting Union ACW.

Union Corps Commander.  I believe the banner is for III Corps but I will use it for any senior commander required for a game.  I think these are Old Glory figures.

Union Division Commander.  This will be used for any senior commander needed for a game.  The banner is actually a Pennsylvania regimental banner but it looks cool.  The figures are Old Glory.

Union Brigade Commanders.  Each of these will command a brigade.  Old Glory figures.

Union Brigade Commanders on foot.  These will be used as needed for foot commanders.  A couple will likely be painted as artillery commanders.  These are Sash and Saber figures.

Three batteries of 12lb Napoleons.  These are Sash and Saber figures.

Three batteries of 3in rifles.  More Sash and Saber.

1st New Jersey. A larger 36 model unit.  All Sash and Saber figures with unit correct flags.

2nd New Hampshire. A standard size 24 figure unit of Sash and Saber figures.  The flags are correct for the unit.

3rd Maine.  Another standard size unit of 24 figures.  All Sash and Saber with correct flags.

57th Pennsylvania.  Another large, 36 figure, unit.  All Sash and Saber figures with correct flags.

63rd Pennsylvania.  Stand size unit like the others.  

68th Pennsylvania. Standard size unit of Sash and Saber.  This is actually the second unit in my collection flagged as the 68th Pennsylvania.  Looks like I need more flags to fix this.

This is a really nice collection.  I rarely purchase painted figures but for the size games we typically play it is unlikely I would ever have added this much with my own brush.  These, I think, were painted by Fernando Enterprises and work perfectly on a table full of troops.  You see, when there are 1000+ figures on the table no one is really looking at the paint on a specific figure.

French Napoleonic Army Update

Wow!  Six battalions painted and 2 guns for my French Napoleonic army.  I started this project nearly 5 years ago but in the last year I have made lots of progress.  I am working on the commander for this force and then it will be back to troops.

I plan to add 2 battalions of Warlord figures painted as Swiss.  These will be large units and I think I will add in mounted colonels.  I have some GMB flags on order for these units so they should pretty spectacular.  I will brigade the Swiss with the French so that will give me enough figures for t brigades for Black Powder.

After that I am going to paint 4 boxes worth of Warlord French as Italians.  This will give me a four battalion brigade for Black Powder.  These should be a breeze to paint as they are pretty much all white.  Once those are done I will be complete with my immediate plans for French and allied infantry.  Then it is on to either French cavalry or maybe Russians.

French 1/36 Infantry Regiment

Yet another battalion for my Napoleonic French project is ready for action.  This time we have the 1st battalion, 36th infantry regiment.  Named, as usual, for the flag I put on it.  These figures are Old Glory and are OK.  They are a little chunky in the sculpting style and they suffer a bit from the Old Glory wonky pose issue but are pretty nice when painted and formed up.  I have enough to build one more unit of these figures and I will get to them some day.  I doubt I will investing much more of the Old Glory figures as there are some many options for Napoleonic French.

Napoleonic French Artillery

Here are a couple of 6lbs guns for my Napoleonic French army.  These are from Old Glory and I think they turned out pretty good.  Not show winners but they will work on the table.  These took entirely too long to paint but that has been true of this entire project.  I am hoping to make some progress on this project over the coming weeks.

Reb Caisson

 This is the last bit of my ACW Confederate artillery for the time being.  This caisson does not actually have any real function in Black Powder but it looks really cool sitting on the table near the guns.

This is the Old Glory caisson model with an extra Sash and Saber artillery crewman.  Nothing fancy just a cool piece for the table.  Now I need to get back to building models and deciding what to paint next.

28mm French Napoleonic Figure Comparison

I have been assembling my new Napoleonic additions and though there might be some interest in a figure comparison.

Figures with paint are Victrix.  Unpaited figures are, from left to right, Old Glory, Warlord Games and Perry Miniatures

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Another Regiment of Rebs

Just a quick update.  This is the second Confederate regiment for my Black Powder project.  I now have a very small brigade.  Just a couple more units and a gun and I will be ready to get this stuff on the table.  I know I can have this on the table this summer.

This unit is comprised of leftovers from various manufacturers.  I know it is strange to start with leftovers but what can I say?  Most of the figures are some really old Old Glory odds and ends.  I added in a few Sash and Saber and Perry plastics to fill out the unit.  They strangely work well together.

True North Hurricane MkI 1/144

I finally finished the first of the True North 1/144 scale Hawker Hurricane Mk I's that I bought to support my British 8th Army. The lists all call for Hurricane II's but I don't think anyone can tell the difference. This is a nice representation for air support in FoW so no need to get all version crazy.


Since Flames of War 3rd edition no longer requires having three aircraft models I worked out a trade for this plane. It went to my friend Tom to support his British North Africa forces and I got one of his extra Shturmoviks for my planned Soviet army.

I still have two more of these models to finish. I will keep one and the other I will try and trade for something useful. Not sure what I will need.

Mexican Irregulars

These are the first 12 models for my Poncho Villa project. I am working on Mexicans for the 1916 US intervention into the Mexican Revolution to capture Poncho Villa. I was inspired to do this project after watching The Wild Bunch which is set in basically the same period. The plan is to use Legends of the Old West for most of the games but I might use a WWI or WWII set for larger battles.

These figures are Mexican Irregulars from Old Glory. They are from pack PIM-20 and are large 28mm. I really like the sculpts. I used a white base coat for the first time in many years. Doing this reminded me of why I don't use white as a base. They are just block painted and then "dipped" in Minwax Polyshades Antique Walnut. This is a reddish-brown stain and works well for a desert look.

These guys will see table time as bandits, irregulars, armed civilians and as part of Villa's forces.

Flames of War Late War Germans Part 2

I have finally finished the next unit in Tom's late war Germans. Here we have a platoon of Old Glory Sd Kfz 10/5 2cm AA guns. These are pretty nice models and like the rest of the project they came to me assembled. They don't look like they would be to bad to build.

Oops! What is that in the back-ground? No peeking, Tom. Now I just need to finish 15 tanks and this project is done.

Flames of War Late War Germans Part 1

This is the first installment of a LW German Panzer Co for my friend Tom. I am painting this as part of a trade for paint deal for a large collection of LOTR Dwarves. The infantry will be based by Tom so these guys are done.

More FoW Fallschirmjagers

Here is the first combat platoon and support platoon for my Flames of War FJ company.

More 8th Army FoW

I have finished up a few additional units for my British 8th Army Infantry Company for Flames of War. With these units I now have the ability to make my collection into an Infantry Tank Company.

First up are the Boys Anti-tank Rifle teams. These guys will give my infantry platoons some much needed AT ability. They are not great but they are something.

Next is a platoon of Scout Carriers. This recon unit has actually been in the army for a while but I just finished the paint. It turns out these carrier recon units are very pesky.

I have finally painted up the platoon commanders and the extra tank to give me two full Matilda platoons. These things are tough as nails and fairly useless against most German tanks.

The next unit is actually the company command for when I use my collection as an Infantry Tank Company. Eight Matildas on the table should be interesting.

The Boys AT teams as well as the tank commanders are Peter Pig figures and the tanks and carriers are Old Glory. The crew figures for the carriers are cut down Old Glory and Battlefront figures.

This pretty much finishes my Flames of War 8th Army collection.

FoW Fallschirmjager Company HQ

Today I finished the command section for my new Flames of War Fallschirmjager army. This army will be used primaraly for Tunisia and Sicily but could also do time for Crete and Italy.

First up is the Company command and the 2iC stands.


Next up are the 5cm mortar teams. These would be used for the earlier lists.

Instead of the 5cm mortars you can take the 8cm GW42 "Stummelwerfer" teams. This will be a standard unit for my army.

I don't have models yet for the standard ATR option. Below is the sPzB41 ATR team. This one will see time for Tunisia battles.

The other ATR option is the 8.8cm RW43 "Puppchen" rocket launcher. This thing packs a solid punch and will be used mostly for Sicily battles.

The figures are either Old Glory or Peter Pig.

Caissons

Time for some more ACW stuff. Here are a couple of ammo caissons for my union forces. These don't really have any game function, they just look cool.