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| An old picture of some of the pieces in my 28mm ACW collection. The collection has since been sold to another collector back in 2011. I think that this might be the Washington Artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia. |
The month of August has seen Der Alte Fritz going in a different direction than the 18th Century. I have been painting 54mm plastic American Civil War figures for a possible Historicon 2024 game. I have also been working on some 54mm Carthaginians and Republican Romans so that I can finish those armies, also for a possible Historicon game.
Recall in the movie The Great Escape how the Allied prisoners dug three tunnels, named Tom, Dick and Harry. The idea was that if the German guards found one of the tunnels, in all likelihood they would not continue to look for two more tunnels at the same time. Thus one of the tunnels was likely to get completed so that the escape could be made. So in a similar manner, I have two projects going on at the same time (Punic Wars and ACW) so that I am not locked into a decision for the subject of my Historicon 2024 game.
As of time of this posting on my blog, I have painted 24 Zouaves in July and 120 Union figures in August. I'm figuring that I will need approximately 500 figures per side for my Historicon ACW game. The regiments on both sides will have 30 figures each and three regiments will comprise a brigade. A brigade with a frontage of two regiments and a third regiment behind them in reserve takes up nearly 36-inches of table space. I debated between using 24 figures or 30 figures per regiment and decided that 30 figures looks better. I will base 6 figures per stand and have 5 stands make up a regiment. Thus I can place the flags in the center of the regiment more easily with 5 stands rather than the 4 stands that would be used in a 24 figure regiment.
Here are a few pictures that I snapped today. I cleared off a 6ft by 4ft section of my game table and set up a Cigar Box Battle Mats green mat on the table to show off the first brigade of Union infantry that I have painted so far.
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| Union command stand, perhaps a division commander with two foot figures also on the base. |
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| Overhead view of the Union army so far |
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| Collis' Zouaves (114th Pennsylvania Regiment) |
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| A William Britains "Detail" ACW 3-inch ordnance rifled cannon and 4 crew. |
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| Union regiment lined up against a wood snakes rail fence. |
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| 120 Union blue coats |
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| Meade's headquarters in 1/32 scale. Plastic scale model. It's about 10"L x 8"W and 7"H |
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| Some 60mm TSSD Confederate figures. (Toy Soldiers of San Diego ) |
Stay tuned to this blog for more ACW pictures coming fast and furious as I burn through my paint brushes.
Quality Jim, well done yet again.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind comment Robbie. It's much appreciated.
DeleteFantastic looking army Jim.
ReplyDeleteWillz.
Thank you Willz. It is off to a good start.
DeleteLooking great; the start of another small project :)
ReplyDeleteI see what you are doing there. LOL!
DeleteThat is a fantastic start to your project.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mark. The painting pace seems to be picking up. I find that the more figures I paint, there is an increase in my enthusiasm.
DeleteI thoroughly endorse any basing scheme that supports having the flags in the middle!
ReplyDeleteI agree! :)
DeleteDoes it take extra fees or a special request to take up extra table space at a convention for a big game like this?
ReplyDeleteYes it does, because the convention organizers might have a limited number of tables available to set up the games and/or there is insufficient "space/area" in which to set up such a game.
DeleteI feel that I have an obligation to have as many as possible in the game and to run the game multiple times in order to maximize the number of convention participants into the game and justify the number of tables that I'm accounting for.
At Historicon I ran Khartoum 3 times and used the same tables to run the Battle of Abu Klea. Each game had 12 players (and sometimes a couple extra players were squeezed in) so that totaled 48 to 52 players over the course of the convention.
I wasn't sure what kind of stamina I would have for running four games solo as a game host, but I was physically up to the challenge. I think that I could easily do 5 games over four convention days. Maybe 6 games?