Kapiti Fusiliers: Battles of Rusty Creek and Gettysburg

This weekend marks 150 years since the Battle of Gettysburg, the iconic battle of the American Civil War.  

To commemorate this historic engagement, you could re-visit two old postings about my time as a Confederate soldier during the massive 135th reenactment event way back in 1998, first here and then more photos here.

Or you could read the following one of my resurrected postings from the old Kapiti Fusiliers website describing a Civil War game. Originally posted on September 2005 by Fusilier Paul Crouch, who had recently moved up to Auckland, it describes a spectacular game played on John Berry’s 14′ x 6′ table …

We played an American Civil War game. There were four on each side, so eight of us all told, including all my old wargame friends from many years ago. Fusilier Mark Strachan was along there too.

The rules used were a set put together by the group up here. They really do work well and capture the flavour of the American Civil War and the ebb and flow of battle.

John and the boys certainly put on games ‘in the grand manner’ and there was no lack of troops on the table. It was a magnificent sight. As you can see from the photos we reckon there were up to two thousand 25mm figures on the table.  They were mainly Dixon, but Wargames Foundry were in there too.

I tried to focus as many as possible of the photos on John’s buildings to let you get the feel of them. Hopefully you can see the work he does on them. The close-up of the forge (below) is brilliant.  He scratch builds a lot of the stuff you see in these pictures. Also the limbers and wagons in the photos are all John Berry originals.

The game was a fictional encounter somewhere in Georgia called Rusty Creek, late in the war … a last desperate attempt to throw the Damn Yankees out. I fought with the Johnny Rebs, and held the left flank with two brigades of infantry and artillery.

I was attacked repeatedly throughout the game – in fact my flank was under pressure from the word go. I had three brigade generals killed during the day, a battery of artillery smashed to pieces, and one of my brigades shattered – but they all died gallantly for the cause!

Above: My own Confederate troops make a guest appearance on the left flank. Under pressure for most of the game, and suffering heavy losses, they held the flank with honour.

Above: Brewer’s Farm, the centre of the Confederate position.

Above: Confederate troops mass around Brewer’s Farm.

Above: Through the cornfields come the Rebels under the command of our host John Berry, on their way to prop up the left flank. This shot reminds me of a scene from the movie Gettysburg … stirring stuff!

Above: Union troops – loads of artillery. Note the wagons that John Berry has made.

Above: Reb cavalry under Forrest move out on the right – almost to a man these brave lads were wiped out before the Reb infantry arrived.

After the smoke died down it was decided that (as in all these large games) a fighting draw was the outcome. The Union hadn’t really coordinated their attacks, and the Rebs had defended stoutly in the face of the blue tide.

Sharpe figures by Alban

My eye was caught by the following two new figures on the rather spartan Albans Miniatures blog. I’ve always fancied a good figure of Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, the wily villain in some of the Bernard Cornwell books. And this one, coyly renamed as Sgt Shakewell by Alban, is just the bee’s knees. I like the way he is looking at the picture of his mother in his shako, as per the books.

Sgt Shakewell and Corporal Hammond
http://albanminiatures.blogspot.com/2011/02/sgt-shakewell-and-corporal-hammond.html

Alban figures are sculpted “anatomically correct”. No, not THAT type of antomically correct! But the type of anatomically correct that aims to get human proportions right. In the past, I have found this looks odd, as the heads look too small. But having got used to the similarly-sculpted Minden Minatures figures, the style is starting to grow on me.

The above figures will match well with the following pairs from Alban’s range, to make a nice Sharpe-themed set.

• Chosen men
  BR17 Harris and Hangman
  http://albanminiatures.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-chosen-men.html
• Sharpe and Harper
  http://albanminiatures.blogspot.com/2009/08/sharpe-and-harper.html

Ta-dah! First Minden French company painted

One third of my battalion of Minden Miniatures French is now completed, and held its first parade today.  This battalion is not based on any real historical unit, but on the French regiment depicted in the Stanley Kubrick movie Barry Lyndon.

Here are all the French figures I’ve painted so far (click on the photos for a closer view):

• Three drummers in French royal livery – one drummer will be assigned to each of the three companies I plan to have in the battalion.
• Eighteeen fusiliers/grenadiers – each of the three companies will have eighteen rank and file figures.  One company will be made up of grenadiers, the others of fusiliers.
• Three officers and NCOs – in this case, a company officer, a standard bearer carrying the Flandres flag as depicted in the movie, and a sergeant (seen to the right of the fusiliers).
• A battalion gun manned by four infantrymen.

As you can see from this still from Barry Lyndon, the French have red facings, whereas in real-life the Regiment de Flandres had blue facings.  The facings are bit pinker in the movie than how I have painted them, but as I am not a stickler for accuracy, and as I had Foundry’s standard three-step  red paint on hand, I was happy enough with the colour.

I’ll be basing the eighteen rank-and-file men in each company on three 45mm-wide bases, each containing six men in two ranks of three (thus each man having a frontage of 15mm).  I’ll put the drummers, officers, standard-bearers and NCOs on individual bases.  This basing system will provide flexibility to split the battalion up  for varying rules, but will allow me to display the figures in large formations like those depicted in the iconic wargaming book Charge! or how to play wargames.

There’s something simple and unfussy about French coats with no turn-backs.  I also like the way Minden have equipped these men with linen packs and the archetypical large leather-covered cartridge boxes.

My method for painting the white uniforms is rather simple and impressionistic, but has worked pretty well, I think. The trick is to do the white before anything else.

1. Using black undercoated figures, block paint all the white uniform areas in Foundry’s arctic grey (or a similar light warm grey colour) and let dry.
2. Dry brush the entire figure with white paint.
3. Paint the highlights of folds with white paint.
4. Now carry on and paint the rest of the figure, using GW devlan mud wash where necessary to re-define the edges of any areas that have been lost in the white dry-brush.

I’ve given the unit a battalion gun.  As such guns were manned by men assigned from the regiment, they wear the standard white infantry coats rather than the blue and red French artillery uniforms.  The gun is actually a small Napoleonic cannon by Minifigs.  But with a lick of red paint, it vaguely resembles the little Swedish-style cannons used as battalion guns during the period.

Here’s an action shot of the brief scene in Barry Lyndon in which a battalion gun is featured.

My previously painted British battalion waits eagerly for their opponents to be finished!  With each battalion having more than sixty figures, building this army is going to be a very slow process.  In fact, I’m relying on a fellow gamer who is collecting similarly based Minden figures if I’m ever going to get a game with them.

A parting shot of my first company of French on parade. I’m particularly pleased at how the faces turned out … and they weren’t too difficult to paint at all:

1. Cover the whole face with light flesh paint, and let dry.
2. Cover the whole face with GW sepia wash.
3. Pick out the forehead, nose, cheeks, chin and ears with the light flesh paint.
4. Put a dab of GW devlan mud wash into the eye sockets and inbetween the lips.
5. Add a tiny amount of GW black wash into the sculpted eyes.

Progress on Minden SYW British

Well, I’ m halfway through painting my Minden SYW British regiment.  This is the biggest unit I’ve ever painted, so is quite an undertaking.  Yesterday I allowed the regiment to go on parade, even including the remaining batch of recruits who still need to be uniformed.  My understanding is that the mounted colonel was very pleased with his new men, and the officers and NCOs had the recruits marching like veterans already!

My unfinished Minden regiment on parade, under the watchful eyes of the mounted colonel.

The GMB Design flags really look good, too.  I chose the colours of the 47th Regiment of Foot, but this unit will actually be portraying the fictional regiment in the movie Barry Lyndon, which also has white colours.  The movie regiment has a name, as I recall, but I have not yet stop-started through my DVD to find it.  Anyone who knows the name offhand, could you please post a comment and so save me a job! 

As you can see, I am still currently working towards an organisation of three companies (one being grenadiers) of 16 men each.  I’m still inclined towards eight-man bases (four plus four), so two bases to each company.  And I’m thinking that all officers, NCOs, standards and drummers will be on separate bases so they can be re-arranged to match the regiment’s formation.  While modelled on Charge! or how to play wargames,  this organisation will be aimed at no particular set of rules, so is purely based on just how I want it to look … and what could be a better reason than that?!

The grenadier company leads the way.