Hood's Texans.

Here are some painted 28mm Old Glory First Edition ACW Texans I painted. The figs are full of character and have lots of nice details. The molds have seen better days though, and the wear can be seen on the castings. Still, they paint up nice and look good and ragged Reb when ranked up. I tried to paint them in a variety of uniform colors to enhance this ragged look. I know this ragged Reb thing is somewhat overstated to some degree and from what I have read Hood's Texans received new uniforms before heading West with Longstreet, which makes these good for the first part of the war before that. Either way, they are nice figs and I think will look good on the table against my Bluebellies.

Here they are looting Markey Farm on their way through Southern Pennsylvania...



Here's an up close shot:

Some Scenery.

Having started my Civil War project a while back, I found I didn't have any specific scenery to go with it. I had plenty of trees, hills, orchards, stone walls, and other generic type scenery, but I lacked any era appropriate buildings and the types of fences and walls for the period. WWII buildings wouldn't cut it. At the last Cold Wars I picked up a few of the old JR Miniatures 28mm ACW buildings. These would be the start of a Civil War era farm. To go with them I needed some snake rail fences, the ubiquitous fencing found all over America from the 1700s through the 20th century. And I needed a ton of them. From what I have seen of period paintings, photos, and other wargaming projects...these things were everywhere. They lined every road and field you could find. The problem is, I didn't want to pay for any custom built ones or buy the expensive pre-made ones...so I had to find a fast, easy, and decent looking way of doing them myself.

Fortunately, my wife is a good cook.

She was making kebobs a few months back and I found that the bamboo kebob skewers she was using were the perfect size. Plus they were cheap and came in a pack with tons of the things.

To make them, I made a template on a 1" wide strip of Basswood with a mark every 2". Then I laid out the pattern using this grid. After that, it was time to cut what seemed like thousands of 2" pieces. It took a long time, but once done, the fences came together fast by gluing down the rails using the template. My snake rail fences are 3 rails high, which I felt was high enough for my 28mm minis. I plan on next doing some rock and rail fences, but haven't decided how to tackle that yet...

Also, the JR Miniatures buildings are hollow, but the roofs don't come off. That is unless you take a hacksaw to them. Which I did. It was a pain, but now the roofs lift off so I can put minis inside. The interior casting is too rough to build interior details, but it will be ok for my purposes. I don't feel like making or buying 28mm ACW era furniture anyway. That would just be obsessive...

Here are the pics.

I am going to call my generic ACW farm "Markey Farm" after my grandparents family who came here in 1732 and had a farm in the York County area of Pennsylvania.

Markey Farm House:



Markey Barn:



Snake Rail Fences. I need about 100 feet more of these:

Pennsylvania Bucktails.

Work has begun on my Civil War Skirmish project. First up is a group of 10 Union soldiers of the 150th PA Volunteers Regiment (The Bucktails), known for their distinctive white tail deer tail pinned to their hats. This Regiment saw action from Chancellorsville all the way through Gettysburg, Petersburg and through the end of the war.

This is just the first of my Civil War units. Most of them will be bucktails, but I will also paint up enough generic Union infantry to be used in any theater.

Miniatures are all Old Glory 28mm. They are one of the few manufacturers I know of who specifically make this unit with the tails on the hats (Redoubt is the other). I like these figures. They have good detail, lots of good poses, and a lot of character. Old Glory even produces several packs of casualties so I should be able to put down one casualty per model during a game to give the battlefield a realistic look.

Here are some shots of the unit (plus a wagon).























Cookie and his wagon...



Detail shot.