American Civil War Battle, Bull Run 1861, all Union and Confederate forces assembled

 Time for a Grand Review!

More than 20 years in the making.

Union (left) and Confederate (right)

their 'comic' version

Just the Union command of McDowell

Beauregard's Confederate command

Each force contains at least one 'uniform confusion' brigade of a selected regiment from the command that wore tunics most often associated with the other army.

here Heintzelmann's 3rd Division of Howard's brigade
is seen in front of the Army of the Shenandoah

now Tyler's 1st Division of Keyes' brigade
is seen in front of the Army of the Potomac

I ought to be able to tell them apart on the tabletop, though still be able to use them as opposition forces if needed.

Then the new markers got put out to show I have enough for all forces to identify that they are fully loaded with first shot.  Spent and Worn conditions along with things like ammunition depletion.

little pins with green beads on them

that 'hook' over the unit id label
the pins are also metal, so they will be
magnetic and work with my other systems

comparison with unit IDs

... and without unit IDs

the forces are prepared

Much of the battlefield environment is already in hand, you can see the woods depicted in the images.
My next constructions will follow the urban environment, most of it already in hand, just needing to be constructed and finished.

the Sarissa Precision models railway
for 15mm has begun ...

Confederate Army for Bull Run 1861

 At long last the full force is completed.

Time for a photo shoot

General Beauregard commanding
all CSA forces - also the Army of the Potomac

General Johnston commanding
Army of the Shenandoah

the whole Confederate Army at Bull Run, 1861

Shenandoah artillery

a sepia image

Hampton's Legion

Jackson's brigade
the uniform is that of the 5th Virginia

some Zouaves under Bee
the 1st Maryland

 That completes the forces.

The eagle-eyed among you have spotted the start of the railway, more of it and other buildings are going to be completed soon.

Up next will be the grand parade for Bull Run ...

ACW forces building, Bull Run 1861, Army of the Shenandoah:

 With some distractions I was still able to get in painting time and have tonight finished the 5th major formation (roughly a division size each one) for the Battle of Bull Run, 1861.

 

This time round it is the Army of the Shenandoah under J. E. Johnston.

the painting process
top -bare metal
mid -black base coat
bottom -'wet' brush of upper surfaces

missing in these images, again due to my camera being unable to focus properly on the surfaces of the models, is the 'ink' stage, where a layer of brown ink was put over everything

top -main color layer
mid -flesh tones and mid tones
bottom -final highlights and special 'red' parts

This time around I also did a series of photos of the horses, command, and artillery section in the different stages:

after 'wet-brush' and before inks, came the
horses under coatings

here the ink is still only on the horses
you can see the ink layer on the blue coated zouaves
in the front left of the image

wet artillery guns

everything assembled prior to the matte coating stage

final stage before flocking

this time I did a few more photos of the minis just on the bases

before the flocking stage

then with the new mobile 'label' system in place

finally a comparison shot with the flocking drying

There it is dear readers, a 20+ year process coming to the end of the first stage.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I will do some more photos of the whole of the Confederate forces, then possibly some 'in situ' photos with both Union and Confederates to show off the 'grey and blue' units in each force.

Watch for those photos in the coming week.

For now it is on to the buildings that I have from Sarissa along with some supply markers and some extra 'casualty' markers to give away to a great game friend who helped make this possible.

ACW Forces assembly continues - Confederate Army of the Potomac for Bull Run 1861

 The assembly of ACW forces for the first battle of Bull Run continues.

This time the Confederate Army of the Potomac

P.G.T. Beauregard commanding

Again I have gone with some different uniform colors, so that the units have a slightly difference when comparing them so they can be told apart on the tabletop.

More subtle this time with the pants stripes and the blankets.

bare metal (top) then a wet light coat (bottom)
my black base coat photo did not turn out (out of focus)

base colors

inks done

mid-tones (top)
highlights and details (bottom)

all flocked
the photos of the base only did not turn out

force as seen from the flank (photo flash on)

seen from the flank (without photo flash)

Now all that remains is J.E. Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah, which will be started by the time this blog post goes out.

20+ years of delay are coming to a close ... by the end of February I hope to have played a game.

New Years Day: PIRATES!

 Over the course of the 2022-23 New Years Eve and Day Weekend of Games one player noted the Pirate ships and minis I had on display.

It was then decided that, while a few of the others played a new board game of Darkest Dungeon, we would introduce Blood & Plunder and get the minis and ships out on the sea.

this posting will feature more shots using the
little app that makes images 'comic' versions

We took some time to quickly go over the basics of force creation and broke out the cards to do up the forces:

This being done while the Darkest Dungeon took over the big table:

After some time, a Spanish ship "Gloire" was on the seas vs an English one: "Jackalope"

Gloire

Early on the Gloire used gunnery and the swivel cannons to inflict some hull damage and a number of crew casualties (though only enough for one strike point).

Jackalope was running short of crew to
man the guns, when the Captain rushed to
the gun deck with his personal squad
and maned the guns at close range

Jackalope very nearly collided with Gloire

Gloire had nearly exhausted all the firepower
it could muster ...

Jackalope completed the turn and delivered
a devastating full broadside volley at pistol range

Managing a number of critical hits
one of which turned out to be the 1%
devastation and Gloire exploded, broke in two
and sank immediately taking all hands

This was the first really good action that the player to took on the "Jackalope" command had all weekend, as he had been rolling poorly in the Napoleon in Europe game, the 40K and ShakoII games earlier.

This time it was a win - no question.

So we quickly re-set and went at the battle again.

another encounter between Gloire and Jackalope
ensued

this time Gloire's gunnery was even better
and Jackalope sank as they had taken 3 strike points
to the Gloire's 1

Both players ended up liking the fast pace of the game play and said they would like to go at it again - a tentative plan for late January has been organized.

There was also talk of the other Pirate game systems I have, along with some role-play potentials.  So much potential use for these minis!

Happy New Year everyone!