ACW – My Toy Soldiers & Me

6mm Parcel of odds and ends…

Wow!

Just when I wanted a bit of quiet… that parcel arrives… and with it a series of questions opens up (as always).

6mm stuff, the one scale I use for wargames with a bit of perspective… It was meant to be the one parcel and order to end several collections, let’s see: the 93rd Crimea Highlanders (the original thin red line) for Balaklava (OK I will add the flags and show again in the near future); A couple og guns for my Gunboat (Omdurman); Small units of ACW Cavalry it would be too long to digress about them and why I needed them badly… maybe some other day!; The already shown on the Blog model of Rorke’s Drift (by Daniel Hodgson from REVEILLE!) but with the Baccus minis I finally was tempted to get! (have to work out some bases for the unbased painted minis); Artillery for Isandlwana; and of course when you are at it enough 24th to do both… Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift!

But maybe I am tiring you!… there are also mounted colonial Officers to repaint a bit (TO CONVERT)… and that would be it…

Now, where is that web page for PENDRAKEN MDF bases… have to advise Leon to use a fastest method of shipping…

Enjoy!

Maybe the last one… I don’t really know.

Much needed ACW Cavalry smaller units or subunits… IF you want to do Brandy or Trevilian Stations…

ACW Cavalry Battles Books. (Wittenberg & Others).

My efforts to wargame cavalry actions of the ACW needed a lot of reading before implementing… if you ask me they were quite confused affairs and a lot of advancing and retreating. But I just love Cavalry (blame John Ford!) and the need of a lesser scale of trying to emulate with, even in 6MM because you need regiments not brigades. Hope you understand what I mean (In popular 6MM wargames rules POLEMOS – ALTAR OF FREEDOM and the like a Brigade of Cavalry is a stand with 9 figures!… too small to properly do it…).

Those two first books (even if a lot Southern biased… or it seems so because the North wrote the History embellished like everybody else… Winners usually get this chance… losers do not care too much at least when the thing is over because they have to learn to cope with it…) are a must read to understand a bit the real thing… no way (or very difficult) to simulate a raid though… dust, blown horses, Union killing unfit horses to do not let them to the CSA) thirst, hunger, constant skirmishing, lack of sleep, bad comms, mistakes… etc.

A fascinating period to study but not to fight in the XIXth! (seriously it was brutal enough).

Cheers.

Probably a draw overall but definitely not an Union victory.

Interesting but lefts out other outstanding commanders like Hampton, Merritt etc

Scott Lesch’s ACW in 54MM.

Followers of this webpage, Blog, or whatever this is knows it is my favourite period.

Strangely enough I do not have a single 54MM Toy Soldier figure myself in my collection.

I have a Military Modeling one in 54MM (John Wayne in USA Cavalry uniform… but it can be a much later period… aka Indian Wars 1876… She Wore a Yellow Ribbon like… but could have been THE HORSE SOLDIERS with a black hat too! I think I have already shown that pic several times so…

Enjoy!

Gettysburg Museum Diorama Pics. Part II

Definitely worth a visit if I ever cross the pond.

Enjoy!

Gettysburg Museum Diorama Pics. Part I

I found those pics (as usual) in facebook… I did not knew this diorama existed at all… I was fascinated!

There was a time when I did specific Posts on anniversaries… you know: 18th June Waterloo; 25th of June LBH; 1-2-3 July Gettysburg… etc…etc…etc… found that highly irrelevant nowadays because everybody else does!… so I prefer Posting when something gets my fancy… and prefer “quality” (my subjective opinion) to “quantitie.

The captions or pics do not need explanations or comments at all. (Quite the last moments of Pickett’s charge)

Enjoy!

Arrival of a GREG’s Parcel! (6MM). (Part I)

It’s a real fest!… they do not come every day of the week you know… it had been a long wait due to initial hesitation on my part… no clear objectives… lack of suitable proxies (in my head)… and what not!… as it was the parcel had in it The Crimean Heavy Brigade of Cavalry using proxies (1854); a couple of ACW Brigades; and some Colonial Troops (Egyptians and Sudanese for Omdurman) and Gurkhas for the North Wesr Frontier… (the later from Heroic&Ros)… the bulk of it from Baccus.

I started buying painted 6MM Baccus from Greg (Robert Jackson) many years ago… to my everlasting satisfaction!… he is constantly very good on the periods I fancy and even if crossing emails with him is sometimes an exercise of laconism (mainly his) communications are also very good and he understands my needs (sometimes overcomplicated)

You must be a collector/wargamer/old-hand to understand fully the mixed emotions!

So I will give you a bunch of first pics now and a second when flags added to the ACW Rebels (lol) and a touch here and there from my hands and pleasure!

Try to enjoy as much as I do!

Gettysburg Minis in 28MM

For those tired of my 6MM ACW Collection, wargames, and pics… there you have it… Gettysburg in 28MM.

Someone must have a very very very BIG wargames table… LOL

I did that with 25mm MINIFIGS eons ago… in fact First Bull Run/First Manassas… and it was “cramped” in my wargames table…

One of the reasons I went 6MM… that and the better quality of for example BACCUS minis.

Enjoy!

My Union Army of the Potomac (6MM)

It took me years of painstakingly collecting and even painting some things myself, but more than 90% the work of Robert Jackson (Greg) rgjackson100@gmail.com and Daniel Hodgson did the Ammo Wagons (Reveille chopperboydan@hotmail.com (Daniel did also all the Real State, terrain and Woods)… see ANTIETAM/SHARPSBURG Posts.

Not much to add, there are even engineers in shirtsleeves…

Enjoy!

PS: By the end of the ACW the Union Cavalry alone had more men that the whole Confederate Army… so… better refight 1862-1863

Detail (mainly Baccus but some Rapier included for variety)

Division Generals (POLEMOS and Altar of Freedom do not use them… but I do)

My Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (6MM).

You have recently seen them in action in the ANTIETAM/SHARPSBURG reenactment-wargame (SOLO).

I guess they are a bit difficult to photograph… one do his best believe me!

There you have the Infantry Brigades on the lower centre of the pic (by two different painters of minis), Artillery on the right of the pic, plus Cavalry mounted and dismounted, Division generals and Corps Commanders, and Robert E. Lee. There are also Cavalry fording a river (blue base) and even a stand with foreign observers.

Even if I used painting services, I added painting details here and there, and put the flags myself. At 71 I could not wait to paint them myself… lol

The standard recommended Infantry Brigade in some sets of rules are the two rows of 12 minis with 4 skirmishers in front… I did that or organize them that way until I realized there were a lot of possibilities around and the minis in the stands could add more feeling to the army. So then I did designs of my own mainly understanding that you do not need skirmishers behind earthworks and other circumstances… I hope you can zoom in on the pics. I do include one myself to make the point.

Cavalry is represented “charging” in line, but also in more conservative stances dismounted and in column of squadrons.

Some special stands to cross bridges and pontoons and of course supply wagons.

Hope you like them.

Enjoy!

Infantry Brigades (Ortodox) by Turbil Miniatures.

Much more variated use of minis in the stands by Robert Jackson (Greg)

Detail and example of different ways to enhance your units (Robert Jackson’s)

ANTIETAM/SHARPSBURG 1862 in 6MM (XI and last!)

Some of you have been patient enough to follow this reenactment/wargame until the end. I will add some pics (final… you must be tired!) and then will give you my “conclusions”.

A.P.Hill’s Division arrives after a forced march from Harpers Ferry… to save the collapse of the Confederates right flank. Yes he is wearing his red shirt there in the background.

Confederates are retreating everywhere… finally Burnside is advancing with a meaning…

General view of the situation when A.P.Hill arrives…

Confederates retreating into Sharpsburg facing off!

I was surprised that with minor variations the action or battle went so smoothly well (and not The Bolshoi Ballet syndrome at all). It was my first try of home rules ACW which I will not bother to explain in detail (and if I ever do… they will be downloadable for free as my book). The fact of introducing limits at what Brigade and Divisions could do before getting tired/spent/out of ammo and for how long was a success, the idea of throwing a dice per brigade stand to see if they engaged the enemy when close to it (there when the thing matters) was also a box of surprises but went quite well too. Minor things were the survival of Mansfield, the performance of the Irish Brigade (Union), the fast crossing of Burnside’s bridge… but overall quite “historical”.

I have had doubts before it, but now they are clear to me… I have more fun with the real characters of the ACW than with imaginary generals. For a solo wargame it went well and to my taste (HOW NOT?).

That one can have pleasure reenacting America’s bloodiest day is only a matter of perspective… no one died… my toy soldiers will live to fight another day… Brandy Station, Gettysburg and Trevilian Station are projects on the near future. Cavalry did nothing but to find a ford in the present one… and Stuart was an spectator. And after all I have all those Cavalry Brigade stands…

The ACW is for me the last of the “old wars” and even “romantic” to a point… morals were different back then… some protagonists were deeply religious… and some had been too much exposed to Walter Scott’s novels. I try to keep it that way a serious affair but with a bit of taste thrown in.

Enjoy! (some will enjoy the end of the series… lol)