Time to base the ACW figures

 

General Lewis Armistead's Confederate brigade at Gettysburg. All based in the past couple of weeks.

Click on all pictures to enlarge

My painting pace has slowed down a little bit so far in October, largely due to tackling the task of basing the figures. Basing consists of gluing the figures to an 80mm x 120mm MDF base and then troweling on the ground (wall board paste mixed with brown paint), and finishing off with static grass and tufts. Past experience has taught me that it is a bad idea to let hundreds of painted figures accumulate and then base them en masse at one time. Basing can be a bit tedious and so it is better to base a group of 30 to 60 figures rather 100 to 200 figures.

Here are some pictures of five Confederate regiments that I have based so far. These represents the Confederate brigades of Armistead and Garnett of Pickett's Division of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The unbiased collection of figures is starting to grow as I have two more regiments of Confederates to base. The regiment in the front uses CTS plastic figures while the regiment in the back is comprised largely of Armies In Plastic Confederates.

Close up view of some of the CTS brand of plastic 54mm (1/32 scale) ACW figures.
Note the flag bearer conversion, using the casualty figure on the left, now holding a flag on the right.

My October painting output, so far, has been limited to one 30-figure regiment of Confederates and about 20 of the required 30 figures for another regiment. There have also been about a dozen "one offs" painted simply for the reason that I liked the pose and wanted to give a particular figure a try with my brushes. I need to paint at a pace of 90 to 120 figures per month in order to hit my target one thousand figures for my Pickett's Charge game at Historicon in July 2023. That's about nine months to go and I have finished 15 regiments (8 Union and 7 Confederate) of 30 figures, or 450 figures. This does not include some of the one off mounted officers and various other single figures that aren't sufficient in quantity to make up a new 30 figure regiment.

Now 9 months sounds like a lot of time, but I have to consider the time needed to build the terrain. I have all of the buildings (farm houses and barns) that I need, but it is the number of turnpike fences that I will need for the Emmitsburg Road. Eighteen feet of road, with fences on both sides of the road, adds up to 36 feet of fences that I need to build. Yikes!

The other day I primed 60 figures, enough to make two more Confederate regiments. If I finish these this month then I would have painted 90 figures in October. The time spent on basing the figures has the effect of stealing time from my painting table. Oh well.

Picture of the Day : Prussian Hussars

Here are some pictures of Minden Prussian Hussars painted as HR1, the Green Hussars. These were painted by Michael S. in Germany for one of my Minden Mini customers. Lucky fellow.   I hope that my readers will draw so inspiration from these awesome painted figures.

Picture of the Week: SYW game in the Fritzkeller

 

I was just scrolling through my photo library this evening and this picture kind of jumped out at me and demanded that I post it on my blog.

This is a Seven Years War game between the Austrians and Prussians played earlier this year.

What I’m Reading Today. Civil War

 

American Battlefield Trust has a remarkable set of maps for the Eastern and Western
theaters of the American Civil War

I’m going to be on a Civil War kick for a good part of the next year as I build up my 54mm armies to host my Picketts’s Charge game at next year’s Historicon. I am kind of burned out on the Seven Years War and I also enjoy painting the large 54mm figures. They are easier to see and they are fast to paint.

I do not have many books in my library that cover the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg and more specifically books about Pickett's Charge. I remedied that by purchasing these two books from Amazon. I was already familiar with the author Jeffery Wert and found him to have an easy to read writing style while presenting and interpreting facts. I have been reading Wert's "Gettysburg Day Three" and have already learned a lot of things that I didn't know. The early part of the book covers the fighting on Culp's Hill on the night of July 2nd and the day of July 3rd.

I had never read much about Culp's Hill and so I had the mistaken impression that Ewell bungled his assignment to commence an attack in conjunction with Pickett's Charge on the afternoon of July 3rd. I hadn't realized that the Union army opened the fighting early in the morning of July 3rd, which threw off Ewell's timing for his attack. In other words, the fight was brought to him and so Ewell was forced to fight it out during the morning. I hadn't realized how bloody and difficult it was for the Confederates to assault and capture Culp's Hill. Far from being due to incompetence on Ewell's part, Wert lays out the case that the Confederate assault never had a chance from the get go.

I have just started to read about the events leading up to Lee's decision to order the attack that ultimately came known as Pickett's Charge. I am very much looking forward to having the time to finish my reading of Wert's book.

My second book, not shown in the above picture, is written by a fellow named Philip Thomas Tucker. Much to my dismay, a quick perusal of the book revealed some tinges of Lost Cause writing, which was a red flag warning to me. This is the problem of ordering books from Amazon, you don't have the opportunity to look at the back cover of the book jacket and see which Civil War historians have nice things to say about the book. When you look at the back cover and do not see any recognizable names of historians, then this is another red flag that screams "do not purchase this book!" 

I made a few calls to people I know and trust to get their assessment of the Tucker book and their comments confirmed my suspicions. I tossed the book into the garbage bin. I looked at some of the books in my Civil War library and found another book by this Tucker (there is a good historian named Glenn Tucker and he should not be confused with this one). The book was about Barksdale's attack on the second day of the battle and my reaction was "doh! He got me again!" In my defense I bought the book at the Gettysburg National Park Visitors' Center bookstore. So avoid this author at all costs.

My third book "Third Day of Gettysburg and Beyond" is an anthology of six essays edited by Gary Gallagher (an historian I trust). The essays are written by acclaimed historians such Carol Reardon, Robert Krick, A. Wilson Greene and others. I recommend this book too.

To Gloss, Or Not?

With approximately 450 figures to base for my Pickett's Charge Project, it's time to make the important decision whether to spray the figures with a gloss finish, or use a matt/flat finish. I've heard that some people use both, starting with a gloss coating on the figure and followed up with a spritz of Dull Cote or similar spray matt finishes. I did a test figure using the gloss/matte method and while it looked alright, some of the gloss shine was coming through the matte layer.

Gloss looks good on my Ancients and Sudan figures, but I kind of lean towards a matte finish for the American Civil War for some reason.

I'm wondering what the great Hive Mind has to say about the choice of finishes on my ACW figures.

Leave your responses in the comments section below, please.

 

Classic Toy Soldiers (CTS) ACW Figures

 

A group of CTS figures plus a "Replicant" officer waving his hat and a rather large
60mm TSSD sergeant pointing and firing his revolver

Remember to click on the pix to enlarge

I picked up a couple of bags of 54mm Classic Toy Soldiers ("CTS") at last week's Chicagoland Toy Soldier Show. I finished painting them this morning so I want to post some pictures of what they look like when they are painted.

The Classic Toy Soldiers Company is a retailer of largely 54mm plastic figures from the likes of Marx, Barzo, Timpo, Harold, and other brands that many of us probably played with when we were youngsters. Most of these companies (other than Barzo) have long been out of business and it seems that various companies are legally able to "recast" these figures and sell them on the retail market. Maybe they have purchased the original moulds or essentially do what we would call "pirating figures" in the wargame industry. I presume that this is all on the up and up given that the figures are available seemingly everywhere.

Some companies have created their own brand of 54mm and 60mm (1/32 scale and 1/30 scale, respectively) for the toy soldier market. Some examples that come to mind are LOD Enterprises, TSSD, BMC/Americana, and of course, CTS.

I really like the CTS figures because they have some amazing animation to them that I haven't seen in many other figure brands. They look very dynamic and full of movement and personality when a unit of the figures are assembled. CTS also has some poses that I have not seen from other brands of ACW figures. I am specifically thinking of the right shoulder shift pose.

Here are some pictures of the charging poses from CTS. Note the right shoulder shift running pose in the center. The high bayonet charging figure on the left in these photos is one of my favorite poses in the CTS figure range.

Here are some of the firing line figure poses.

The big fellow in the center pointing his pistol is a 60mm TSSD figure. 
Everyone in his company call him Little John.

A very animated firing line grouping when all of the figures are put together.
The kneeling/ram rod figure is unusual. The casualty with the sucking chest wound
is a good looking figure too. The officer is from the Replicant range.

And here is the whole group having a reunion. I can't wait for my reinforcements to arrive in the mail.

I have probably mentioned this before, but I like to mix up figures from different figure ranges into an infantry regiment because it gives the unit a lot of character and individuality. They may be different sizes, slightly, but then people come in different sizes too, right?

My CTS reinforcements are on order and my plan is to have two regiments: one advancing/charging and one in a firing line. As Flounder said in Animal House, "oh boy, this is going to be great!"

Painting Update:

I finished my sixth Confederate infantry regiment two days ago and I still have eight Union regiments plus a half regiment (15 figures) of the US Sharpshooters. So that is 420 infantry figures painted in August and September so far. I am getting nearer to the 50% mark relative to the planned 900 to 1,000 figures that I need for my Pickett's Charge Project. I probably have about 15 to 20 more artillery crew, foot officers and mounted officers painted that I have not included in the figure totals above.

I might take a little pause in the painting action and work on making the flag bearers for both armies. The Americana figure range has standard bearers and I will be converting these by cutting off the plastic flag pole and replacing it with a metal North Star Spear and then gluing on a GMB Designs flag.  Armies In Plastic also has a soldier ramming a cartridge down the barrel of his rifle, with the rifle butt resting on the ground. I did a zouave conversion by cutting out the rifle and drilling holes through the hands to accommodate a wire spear for the flag pole. I will post a picture of the conversions within the next several days.

The Battle of Gettysburg Podcast

If you have a particular interest in the battle of Gettysburg, or the American Civil War in general, then I highly recommend listening to the "Battle of Gettysburg" podcast. There are 47 episodes in the archives at this date and I have been listening to them whilst painting my ACW figures. Jim and Eric do an excellent job of bringing their topics to life and the episodes are fun to listen to (no dry history retelling here).  Both fellows are licensed Gettysburg Battlefield Guides. You can tell that they come prepared to discuss the particular episode's topic. They are unabashed Daniel Sickles boosters ( I went on a Gettysburg battle field tour conducted by Eric this summer) and I have to say that I have a new appreciation for General Sickles. Well, as they would say, let's put a bow on this blog post and tie it up. 

Treasures from the Chicago Toy Soldier Show

 

Salt Box style clapboard house in 1/32 scale that I purchased at the show.

This weekend saw the Chicago Toy Soldier Show coming to Schaumburg, Illinois starting Thursday September 21 through Sunday September 24, 2023. There were 100 plus dealers from all over the country, coast to coast. The event was organized by Mike Murphy, who operates The Hobby Bunker out in Massachusetts. The focus of the show is on, wait for it, TOY SOLDIERS and runs the gamut from old plastic play sets to aged William Britain hollow cast metal figures.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday the show has something that they call "Room Trading." The various dealers set up their wares in their hotel rooms and punters like me can walk through the halls of the hotel (on three floors) and go room to room looking at all of the goodies. The dealers put a sign outside their door so that one doesn't walk in a private room unannounced. Hmm, what could go wrong here?

On Sunday the dealers move their wares into a large banquet hall where they are all in one room and then the public can come in and browse or buy figures.

It's amazing how many of the old plastic play sets still remain and even more amazing that so many of the original boxes survived years of play, followed by Mom throwing everything in the garbage can when her son hit his teenager years. Are you detecting that someone here has a few issues to resolve with therapy?

A play set is a boxed collection of plastic soldiers and terrain (buildings, fences, earthworks, bunkers, etc) pieces that represent either a television show of the 1950s and early 1960s, or an historical era such as Romans, knights, Civil War, Cowboys & Indians, etc. The Marx company was probably the leading producer of plastic toy soldiers during this era. Examples of boxed sets include Captain Gallant (French Foreign Legion), Combat (WW2), Fort Apache, The Alamo, Tombstone, The Guns of Navarone, Gettysburg, Antietam and Johny Reb.

However, I wasn't particularly interested in any of the boxed sets, other than to click on my nostalgia button, but rather, I was searching for 1/32 scale (54mm) buildings and other terrain pieces. My priority goal was to find a Pennsylvania style barn that I could use as the Codori Barn at Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.

Lo and behold, there I was walking into my very first dealer room MicShaun's Closet and the owner, Mr. David Cook, pointed me towards some foam 54mm buildings that come preprinted (by him). There it was looking right at me (sort of like the Big W in It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World), a red Pennsylvania barn in 1/32 scale! Che Ching, he scores!

The actual Codori Barn at Gettysburg, on the Emmitsburg Road

My foam Pennsylvania barn.

Pennsylvania barns in the Gettysburg often have the foundation built well above the ground and have a dirt ramp leading out from the second story of the barn. It's similar to what we call an English Basement or a Walk Out Basement in houses. David told me that this model was based on the Rummel Farm barn at East Cavalry Field in Gettysburg.

I also found a 1/32 scale clapboard house done in the New England Salt Box style, but I figure that it can stand in for a house in Gettysburg on my game table.

The front view of the Salt Box house.

Britain's Deetail Range of 1/32 scale Confederate cavalry

Britain's Deetail Union cavalry.

Britain's Deetail ACW Napoleon cannon and Union crew.

I also bought a Deetail 10-pound Parrot gun with Confederate crew.
The Parrot is the gun on the left behind the fence.

Current view of my ACW game table with the Pennsylvania barn in the 
upper right corner.

Finally, one of my best finds was a couple of bags of CTS plastic Civil War figures. I will post pictures of them in one of my next blog posts. They have a level of animation and action that looks superb. CTS stands for Classic Toy Soldier company, the outfit that makes the figures. CTS has its own webstore where you can find lots of different plastic figures and a few buildings.

Here are the links to the companies mentioned in this blog post.

Classic Toy Soldier Company

MicShaun's Closet

Britain's ACW Deetail figures