10mm American Civil War Project Update

This week finds me in the middle of painting another batch of Confederate Infantry. This batch consists of 8 packs (240 figs) of Pendraken’s RM8 (Union foot, marching). Since, Pendraken’s Confederate Infantry only come wearing slouch hats I thought I would mix in some union infantry wearing forage caps to get a more historically correct mix of headwear.

I’m hoping to have this batch of 240 figures completed in a couple of weeks. After that I will mix these with my first batch of Confederates and base them.

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My technique for painting ragged Confederate Infantry

When I first started this project; I knew that painting my entire Confederate Army one shade of grey would not do it for me, even though this would be the easiest way to do it.  However, I want my Rebs to look ragged. For inspiration I browsed through my collection of ACW reenactment photos and came up with these:

I took these photos at the 2007 Down In The Valley reenactment at Cedar Creek Battlefield. Even better this was a campaigner only event. Campaigners pride themselves on accurately reconstructing the soldier’s life during the Civil War. In short these photos should make very good references. After examining my photos and doing some research online I concluded that the more shades of grey and butternut I use the better. For those who don’t know what the color butternut looks like it is described as the color of the Confederate uniform after the gray has become faded and dirty. The easiest way to represent butternut is by mixing a drop of brown with your grey paint.

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After cleaning, mounting on nails, and priming my figures, I evenly arrange them into rows on Styrofoam boards. For this batch I arrange them in 15 rows of 16 figures each. I then take my first shade of grey and paint all the coats in the first row (working down). After painting all the figures in the first row I then take my second shade of grey and paint all the figures in the second row. I continue the same process until all the coats have been painted. The image below shows this batch of figures after I have completed painting all the coats. Also on the bottom of the page I have placed a chart that lists all the colors that I used.

The next step is to paint the britches. I follow the same process as described above but this time instead of painting down the rows I will paint across. After completing all the britches I split the batch into three parts and paint all the details. Once complete I will have 240 unique Confederate infantry men. Nice and easy.

10mm American Civil War 150th Project (Phase 1)

I began this phase of the project back in October 2010 with the goal of building large enough Union and Confederate 1omm armies to refight the battle for Henry House Hill. I plan to use the Regimental Fire and Fury rule set to refight this battle. I chose to focus only on the fight for Henry House Hill because the number of figures required to refight the entire battle of Bull Run in regimental scale is very large.

 After completing phase one of this project I plan to continue with additional phases that will enlarge and diversify my armies in preparation to refight other battles. I will post weekly updates here to track my progress, so be sure to check back.

 Project Details

•  Phase one goal: Build armies to refight the battle for Hennery House Hill. (Including terrain)
   
•  Deadline: July 2011
   
•  Rule set: Regimental Fire and Fury
   
• Figure Scale: 10mm 1/144
   
•  Basing: will use the 15mm basing specifications listed in the F&F rules. Ex) Four infantry figures will be based on a 1" X 1/2" base. This base will equal 40 to 60 men.
   
•  Figure manufacture: I will primarily use figures from Pendraken. Old Glory and Perrin will be used to fill in the Gaps.

 Current Project Status

312 painted confederate infantry marching (All Pendraken)

A closer look at my completed confederates. I’m very happy with how these turned out. I will take more photos after I get them based.

Painted Union infantry. Marching and advancing poses. (All Pendraken)

Painted Union infantry. Zoomed in view.

Union infantry command. Includes commanders, drummers, and standard bearers. (All Pendraken)

Union infantry command. Zoomed in view.

 

Key Words: Pendraken Minatures, American Civil War, ACW 10mm, Civil War 10mm.

The Conquest of Fort Niagara 250th Anniversary Gallery

On Fourth of July weekend 2009 Old Fort Niagara commemorated the 250^th anniversary of the siege and fall of the fort. This event featured a wide varirty of French and Indian War related activities including reenactments. Over 2,500 reenactors came together from the U.S. and Canada to recreate the events leading up to the fall of Fort Niagara. The highlight of the weekend was the real time recreation of the battle of La Belle Famille and the final assault on the fort. Throughout the week I attended several of these recreations and took many photographs.

Select a Gallery

1) Battle on the Beach

2) First Bombardment

3) Battle of La Belle Famille

4) The Final Assault

Calling all Central New York wargamers

If you live in Syracuse, New York area and are interested in wargaming then the Salt City Wargamers are your answer. We meet at Walt’s hobby shop every Monday night. For more info please check the Salt City Wargamers web site. http://saltcitywargamers.wordpress.com/

Hello and welcome to my new Blog!

Hello and welcome to my new Blog. I will use this blog to share my past, current and future wargaming and battlefielding adventures.

Background

Wargaming- I entered the Wargaming hobby approximately nine years ago. The vast majority of my time up to now has been spent painting and repainting miniatures. I primarily use 10mm and 15mm scale figures and my main area of interest is 18^th and 19^th century American wars. I would classify my painting skill as slightly above average and I would describe my painting style as simple and neat.

Battlefielding- For the last 15 years traveling the countryand visiting historic military sites has been my number one passion. I bought my first digital camera in 2002 and since then I have taken over 40,000 photos of Battlefields and related sites. Overtime I hope to s hare some of these photos here.

Reenactments- My passion for attending reenactments goes hand in hand with Battlefielding. The first “big” reenactment that I attended was the 225^th anniversary of the Battle of Saratoga (2002). Since then I have tried to get to one or two reenactments a year. Over the next four years I plan to attend many of the American Civil War sesquicentennial events.

Thanks for taking the time to read my Blog

-Bryan Olson