RFCM

After resting in a box for a lot of years, this pandemic Summer I've decided to revamp my old 15mm Confederate Army.
It had been built for use with Fire & Fury, so it was organised as per brigades - but now I'm planning to rebuild it on a regimental basis, because it offers me more variety chances, either looking at uniforms or at flags.
I'm taking the Confederate OOB for Shiloh as a guide, so choosing as a start one of Bragg's Corps Divisions - Ruggles' one.


I've started painting/repainting some Louisiana regiments, that allowed me the chance to toy a bit with uniform colours:


Prior to these, I had taken over another Louisiana regiment that I dressed as if strictly following regulations:


I also repainted my first Artillery battery:


And provided for my first brigade commander:


It will still take me some time to complete works on this army, because it's just second to another, more prioritary project - but will show you more as soon as possible. Hope you like them!

Lluís

Lovely work on your Confederates.

Cheers,

Helen

Hope you enjoy some games with Civil War Battles.

Now I have the three generals I needed for commanding the brigades my ACW confederate force is to consist of:


At current stage this is how my Confederate Army shows: http://soldadets.blogspot.com/p/guerra-de-secessio-americana.html (http://soldadets.blogspot.com/p/guerra-de-secessio-americana.html).
Each thumbnail picture leads to a specific article in my blog talking about the linked unit. Text is Catalan language only, but fortunately pictures there don't need any translation!

Today I've just finished another unit - showing this ASAP!

Lluís

Those are very nicely painted, Lluis!

Simon

Very nice work. Really like the general with the long white beard.

When you run a Confederate army, you can never enjoy enough artillery... so I've plunged into the task of providing some for my figures!



You will probably realize how many different origin figures I use in every army. The fact is that I actually enjoy trying to match figures from different brands when possible; I'm not always successful at doing so; but such mixes often give a good result, as in this particular set mixing sculpts from Essex, Old Glory 15s and Anthony Barton.

Single based battery standard bearers are of no known to me use - but I've thought that, depending on the ruleset chosen at a moment, they could be used as markers for whatever the purpose needed. And in any case, flags are a colourful add on a tabletop!

Also, limbered batteries are split in three separate bases, as you can see. This allows me to adapt them to eventual devious roads (which is aesthetically good), and also to conform their size to whatever constraint imposed by tight scenarios, rules or gaming mates preferences :)

Lluis,

Despite you clearly using the "wrong" (non-PP) figures in the first place  ;), those are lovely gaming bases. For some reason, I particularly like the drooping barrel on the limbered gun, which just looks right.

More power to your paint brush!

Simon

Quote from: Colonel Kilgore on November 14, 2020, 08:38:28 AMDespite you clearly using the "wrong" (non-PP) figures in the first place  ;)...

No worries, I'm already working on a PP zouave regiment ;)

Excellent - those should be fun!

Simon

I've got another unit revamped, after over a decade of oblivion (even a decade and a half!). This time I've devotedly respected the original painting job (a variety of grey, sand or 'butternut' shades; I still remember that these latter were obtained from mixing light grey with human skin tones); so I focused solely on reworking some washes and highlights.


This unit is intended to stand for the 1^st Florida Battalion, so it's been given a flag in accordance. Seemingly, the outer edge should be pink rather than white, because the flag was supposed to follow Bragg's pattern; but a sample drawing seen on Internet and my personal taste made me choose a white lining rather than a pink one. Apologies for the inaccuracy  ;)

More pictures on my personal blog: http://soldadets.blogspot.com/2020/11/1er-batallo-de-florida.html (http://soldadets.blogspot.com/2020/11/1er-batallo-de-florida.html)

Cheers,
Lluís

As usual the standard does look very high and tidy again.
Miles

Very nice!

I'm obviously shocked by the lack of pink lining,  and surprised you even dared confess to this heinous crime, Lluis 🙂

Simon

Brilliant! Lluis.

Guess I won`t be putting my ACW here then. :'(

Terry

Quote from: Colonel Kilgore on November 26, 2020, 12:41:23 PMI'm obviously shocked by the lack of pink lining,  and surprised you even dared confess to this heinous crime, Lluis 🙂

:-[  ;)

I've never been able to find out equivocally whether Bragg intended pink edging or whether the red dye bled into the border.

Quote from: Leman on November 26, 2020, 05:13:37 PM
I've never been able to find out equivocally whether Bragg intended pink edging or whether the red dye bled into the border.

Bleeding of the red dye is a possible explation, colour fast red dyes were very difficult to make and weren't widely available until the late 19^th century.

Best wishes,
Martin Buck

That certainly relieves me from guilt, for having depicted linings white...

Quote from: Spartacus on November 26, 2020, 01:09:36 PMGuess I won`t be putting my ACW here then. :'(

You shouldn't refrain yourself from doing so, @Spartacus. Sharing each one's work is always positive. Exchange of ideas, inspiration and/or tips can be useful to everyone here.

I totally agree with Lluis. I've learned so much from the contributions to this Forum over the last few years.

Simon

Terry, just post them here via a picture hosting service. like Imgur or another.

Its the beauty of this site it is based around RCFM, but not limited to PP models.

Surprisingly enough, I had not any confederate soldier in zouave garments in my collection, so I've been dedicated to mend such unforgivable flaw lately. For this I've chosen some zouave figures from PP (namely, refs. 02-13, 02-14, 02-43 and 02-44). My fragmentary information about the selected regiment did not clarify whether they wore zouave caps or kepis, so I felt free to choose what I wished; so some help from PP's "heads & odds" range and a screw was needed.

And here you have finally a brand new regiment for my collection, the 13^th Louisiana IR:


I feel quite fond of this newly incorporated unit, due to not only their colourful uniform, but also to their learnt history - because it was the only actually multi-ethnic regiment in their army (and perhaps the whole war); raised in New Orleans area, their rank and file was composed of Spaniards, Frenchmen, Irishmen, Italians and even Chinese! Another quite curious oddity is that command and drill voices weren't given in English but in French language (perhaps other Louisianan regiment shared this feature too?).

Hope you like it too,
Lluís

Very nice and colourful, Lluis!

And thanks for the details on the unit - this kind of thing really makes games come to life.

Simon

I like those Lluis

martin :)

Cajun boys presumably with the use of French.

Very nice work.  The flag looks amazing too.

Lluis great to see you have realised the error of your ways and finally got into Peter Pig models.

And they do look excellent in their very fetching zouave garments.

I'm afraid you'll have no other than getting accustomed to my loose criteria at this regard  ::)

As already stated somewhere here before, I tend to promote a jolly figure hybridization (promiscuity?  :o) in all my armies; true that for every range I use to adopt one brand's figures as a main source, but then I always seek actively for compatible ranges from other brands.

Such happens even with my 20mm SCW armies. Yes I'm a 20mm SCW figures and models maker myself, but my own SCW armies do include large amounts of figures and models from Bandera, Irregular, BUM and whatever else falling into my hobbyist avid focus  ::)

(And yes, there are PP figures all around  ;D)

Lluís

Now the turn for some cavalry.

Bragg's Corps, Ruggles' Division enjoyed a respectable amount of infantry (up to forteen regiments in four brigades), but just a couple of batteries and only one solitary cavalry battalion: that from Alabama under Capt. Thomas F. Jenkins, that I'm representing with the selection of figures below.


I've left this unit just as it was painted a decade or two ago, adding there just a few touches regarding faces and equipment (washes and highlighting not applied then), new rebasing and a brand new flag --taken from the historical 3^rd AL Cav.


More info and pictures in my blog: https://soldadets.blogspot.com/2021/02/batallo-de-cavalleria-dalabama.html

Those look great, Lluis - very full of character that you've brought out very nicely in your painting.

Simon

I agree with the above comment and really good to see the dismounted version as well, vital for scouting and holding operations.

After a lot of time devoted to other projects, lately I've been able to retake my Army of Tennessee refurbishing task - now with another infantry regiment, the 9^th Texas:

(https://www.wargames.cat/soldadets/confederats/g_09Texas_01.jpg)

This time there are no PP figures here (apologies for this!) - but a selection from AB and Old Glory 15s with a small pick from Minifigs instead. Most figures were already painted years ago, so I've just refreshed some colours, adding a few washes and highlights here and there. Only exception to this is the blue shade of trousers and facings, that was way too pale; so these elements have been repainted using a mixture of Vallejo's 70.841 Andrea Blue + 70.961 Sky Blue.

(more pictures and some rationale on my personal blog, https://soldadets.blogspot.com/2023/01/9e-ri-de-texas.html (https://soldadets.blogspot.com/2023/01/9e-ri-de-texas.html))

Best regards,
Lluís

Despite not being PP, they look quite good, Lluis  ;D

Thank you too for sharing the colours you've used for the trousers - that's always very useful.

Simon

It is a real plus for wargamers that older figures can be touched up/renewed and put back into action. Good lead Lluis.

martin :)

Outstanding Lluis, rely excellent

Stewart

Really nice...

Superb.

Lovely work Lluis. I have a real soft spot for the Army of Tennesse, and also the Hardee battle flag. I recently read an article written after the author had studied Confederate blue trousers and compared them to Union blue trousers. Apparently the Confederate ones were a richer and slightly darker blue than the Union, which were lighter and of a dustier tone.

Same I read too, and this is what I tried to represent in this unit - however, I'm not 100% happy with the final blue shade. Perhaps a bit too deep. Next time I'll change the mix above to make it lighter.

Well in my opinion, having seen the colour switches used in the research, I think you already have it correct.

Lluis, Speaking as someone who used to colour match fabric for a living don't get too concerned about an exact match. The variation between batches is quite noticeable. Dyeing fabric is a bit like cooking, the recipe will have been followed to the best of the cooks ability but there will variations in the result.

The figures look very nice.

Best wishes,
Martin Buck

That does relieve a lot of pressure, indeed!  :D

Sometimes you find yourself with figure samples not fitting enough your taste for buying more of them, but that you regret not taking advantage of in one way or another. This is the case with the figures in this article, that I purchased long ago from a company called FreiKorps, which are intended to represent Alabama militiamen in the early days of ACW.

(https://www.wargames.cat/soldadets/confederats/g_04Alabama_01.jpg)

This brand used a very brittle alloy, which at the time gave me a few annoyances; mainly due to broken bayonets. During my recent restoration of these figures, I have re-bayoneted those having lost it, using either common staples or parts from other broken figures. Maybe the result is far from brilliant, but I think it will do the job - at least for a while.

(https://www.wargames.cat/soldadets/confederats/g_04Alabama_02.jpg)

Some more on this topics on my personal blog, https://soldadets.blogspot.com/ (https://soldadets.blogspot.com/).

Cheers,
Lluís

I think that more than "does the job", Lluis!  ;)

Simon

They look excellent Lluis

Stewart

Very smart Lluis.
Into battle now?

martin :)

Nice work !!

It is quite unusual to see miniatures for early ACW regiments ... It brings a certain "flavor" to the battlefield...

Indeed Lluis the early figures certainly add to the look of the 1861 and early 1862 games, before the Confederate commissary began to supply uniforms and the states got their uniform production better organised. Late 1861 and up to Antietam 1862 is the best period of the war to also have home produced butternut uniforms (not 1864/65 as popular myth would have it). Regarding Freikorps figures, their complete range, with some additions, is available through Quick Reaction Force in the UK, using a much better quality of alloy than the original figures produced in Northern Ireland. I have a very nice unit of early war Confederates in havelocks produced by FK15 (QRF).

Those below have little, if any, to do with the real Army of Tennesse - but I strongly wished to have them in my collection.

(https://www.wargames.cat/soldadets/confederats/g_01Cherokee_01.jpg)

This unit is something of a Frankenstein that I assembled using, modifying and recombining in the most cruel and horrible ways figures of quite diverse origin (Essex, FreiKorps, Old Glory 15s, AB Figures and PP, to be precise), trying to recreate a famous regiment formed by the Cherokee Nation during the ACW (with debatable success, I now think in retrospect).

(https://www.wargames.cat/soldadets/confederats/g_01Cherokee_02.jpg)

The unit was actually painted some years ago, but I've recently restored it as part of the project I undertook to rebuild my Confederate 15mm army. I haven't touched the basic paint scheme, but I have added a few tweaks, mostly related to the application of washes and lighting. A rather conservative approach, then.

(https://www.wargames.cat/soldadets/confederats/g_01Cherokee_03.jpg)

As I use to do, the unit has a mounted and a dismounted version.

Cheers,
Lluís

I like the mix of native and European dress and the fact you have dismounted as well. Very appropriate for the ACW.