Reporting in

Well, now.

I've been a bit quieter than I'd expected to be over the past little while.

We've been re-stumpung the front of the house this past week. Well, when I say "we" I really mean some extremely-well remunerated tradespeople. More power to them, says I - it's a filthy job.  This is being followed up by another gentleman taking up the weekend polishing our floorboards.

The sum of this activity is that very little painting of toy army men has been done, although I have received sufficient inspiration from watching "The Horse Soldiers" this week that I have managed to paint a dozen dismounted cavalry.

They are very nice figures that are not overburdened with detail and were really very quick to paint.

Photos to follow.

On painting, I took a while to adapt to painting these figures. As a true 25mm figurine, the Staddens (I think of them as 'baby Staddens') are more like painting 1:72nd plastic in terms of the fineness of the detail. Because they are quite small and also because I intended to take a lot of photos of them, I have chosen to take a quite "high contrast" approach to painting them to make the colours pop out. The induvidual figures don't really have elaborate paint-jobs, although I do elaborate what's done to the key figures as they are the ones most likely to be picked up and examined by casual passers by. I did do the trick recently though of amalgamating all my union and rebel troops into two super-regiments and they do look pretty spectacular if I do say so myself.

Photoshoot Today...

Confederate officers confer outside an old sawmill.

Brigadier General E. Northman seeing the wagon train to safety.

Brigadier General William T. Compton getting upset with a staff officer.

5th Alabama marching to a uncertain fate.

Confederate 12-pounders assaulted by three Union Regiments.

Union troops march past the unfinished(!) sawmill.

The Union forever!

We've reached a Milestone

The second of this project, indeed.
The first was the production of the rules. This, the second is that I get to say - at last - that I have completed my order of battle for "Sawmill Village".
I now have forces comprising three Union and three Confederate regiments, a battry each of field artillery and a pair of Brigadiers.
My Confederate Regiments are the 5th Alabama, 6th Virginia and the 13th North Carolina. The Union regiments are rather more generic, but will be no less hard-fighting, I am sure.
Today was a bumper delivery in the mail; I also have two more foor regiments to paint along with a two-regiment brigade of cavalry. I also have the two-dozen skirmishing figures I'll need to dismount my cavalry should the need arise.
Once painted this will give me a Union and a Confederate division of infantry plus a Union Cavalry brigade - my next milestone.
In addition to the toy soldiers, I've also gotten two doors which will be my new games table. It ought to be about 6'8" by 5'10", extensible to 6'8" by 7'9" if I get another door. I've spent the afternoon giving them a Phil Olley-inspired coat of gloss green paint.
I will be playing "Sawmill Village" next weekend.

Herewith a few pics...

...as a supplement the rather dry progress report of my previous post.

The Confederate 3" battery piles it on as the infantry advance.

The Union boys prepare to respond with canister as the Rebs close the range.

Forgive the spanner on the window sill in the background. Perhaps this is Mechanicsville?

The 6th Georgia and the 5th Alabama go in under the eye of Gen'l Lee.

I've begun my third Union infantry regiment and am now pondering my next order. If you had about a hundred and twenty pounds to spend (courtesty of eBay) at Spencer Smith, how would you spend it? The only constraint is that it must be on 25mm Union or Confederate Staddens.

Very quick update

Since I'm at work just now, just a very quick update.

I've nearly finished painting my 4th regiment now, some Confederates with gigantic beards. I've now two each for the Union and the CS. One more of each and barring a little terrain construction and I'll be able to to give "The Rules" a test drive.

What better scenario to take on than "Sawmill Village"?

I ought to be ready in about three weeks, I think.

From there I'll be moving to fill each side out to the "basic divisional" size and then add a cavalry brigade to the Union in preparation for eventually playing the first day at Gettysburg per my earlier post.

Oh, and I've acquired and painted a couple of Imex Conestoga wagons that look the part. Wagon Train anyone?

New Boys

5th Alabama

Union Troops and 3" Rifles

General Lee and JEB Stuart

The Lot.

I've just finished another union regiment and am painting up a couple of wagons before I go on with a Confederate gun crew and some brigadiers.

Gettysburg: The First Day

Well, the paint is now flying here in Old School ACW Headquarters.
All my recent orders of figures have now arrived and I'm getting going on painting the little beggars.
My Union regiment has now been joined by a Confederate one and I am about to start work on a second Union unit.
With our friends the Confederates I've made a classic wargamers accident/mistake/move insofar as I have painted up one Infantry regiment and also figures for Robert E Lee and JEB Stuart. Shades of the first regiment of the Imperial Guard commanded by Napoleon and Ney! Still, it was what I had to hand at the time...
Now, I want to talk a little about the first day at Gettysburg. This is the scenario reproduced from the Wargame Digest in The Wargame Companion and I want to take a look at how it matches up with the battle.
The two armies began to collide at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Buford, which was soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry. However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south.
As Grant has it, the Confederates are represented by 10 infantry regiments and three guns, while the Union has six infantry regiments, two of cavalry and also three guns.
He limits his battlefield to Seminary Ridge to the west, Cemetary Hill to the south, the Baltimore Pike and Culp's Hill to the south-east and east respectively and to the north the area past Barlow's Knoll.

The scenario calls for the Rebels and the Union troops to come onto the table at specific points on the game. Grant considers the length of the day to be 30 moves. Remembering that a brigade is two regiments and a division two brigades:
Start of the game:
A Union Cavalry Brigade and a gun anywhere on the board.

Move 1 - a Confederate Brigade with a gun enters at Cemetary Ridge.
Move 6 - a Union Division and a gun come on the table via the Baltimore Road.
Move 8 - a Confederate Brigade with a gun enters play from Cemetery Ridge.
Move 12 - a Union Brigade plus a gun comes on via the Baltimore Road.
Move 15 - a Confederate Division enters play (gun in tow) down the Carlisle Road.
Move 19 - a final Confederate Brigade comes on via the Harrisburg Road.

These deployments seem to match the timing of the main Confederate attacks so far as I can tell with my imperfect understanding. The relative sizes of the opposing forces also seem about right.
I think we have a fairly useable scenario.