Perry ACW Conversions

The Perry ACW Battle in a Box is a great deal, but it does have a couple of glitches.  One was that the number of zouave figures included is 24 when the regiment size is 18.  One answer I have heard was that this was intentional as some regiments had only a company of zouaves.  The six extra figures allows one to recreate this.  However, I think it has more to do with the way the Perrys do their sprues.  Regardless, I had six odd figures and decided to try to build a Confederate unit around them.  I found a couple of nice pictures on the internet to give me some ideas; I replaced a couple regular heads with some of the extra zouave heads, painted up the hats as being straw ones, and brushed red over some jackets to make them appear as the red undershirts some of Wheat's men wore.  This is the result.

I am very pleased with the result.  It's colorful and fairly well animated.  I though the pants turned out better than I thought they would.  It took a little effort, but it was well worth it.

More Perry Battle in a Box Figures

I am continuing to plug along on my Perry ACW project.  I have painted up two more union regiments and one of the confederates.  Next up will be a unit of confederate zouaves.  That should be a fun group to paint.  Here are some shots of the three just completed.

More Commission Work

I am finishing up the cavalry portion of a large commission I am doing.  These are Elite Miniatures Early Prussian cuirassiers.  I painted a total of 16; 2 X 8 figure regiments.  Today I hope to finish an equal number of dragoons plus an 8 figure grenadier battalion.

Before I started the Prussians, I was finishing up another unit from the Battle in a Box ACW project; Confederates this time.

Perry Battle in a Box

I have just started working on the contents of the Perrys' Battle in a Box.  I have finished a unit of zouaves, both troops of cavalry and the officer figures.  I am really pleased with how they are turning out so far.  This is a great deal if you are starting out in 28mm.  There are enough figures that you can fill a small table.  You also get a nice plastic farm house you can assemble and then several sections of fencing.  The rules that are included look fairly simple and call for 18 man units.  My only complaint about the set is that the distribution of the figures don't match up with coming up with precise 18 man units.  For example, there are 24 zouave figures.  So, unless I am going to have a mixed unit, I have some odd figures.  But this is a small thing in comparison with the many positives within this set.

Here are some pictures of what I have painted up thus far.

A zouave unit

/The Union cavalry troop

The Confederate cavalry troop

The two mounted officers.

There are no direction in the box on how to put together the models.  But I have had a lot of experience with plastics, so I didn't have a problem.  I thought putting the farm house might be a challenge, but came together with a little thought.

I am mounting the figures individually as I plan on one day passing all of this on to my grandsons when they are older.  This would be a perfect set to wake up to on a Christmas morning.  I'll probably add another box of cavalry to bring up both units to a total of 12.

This is going to be a fun project as long as I do it in bite sized pieces.  Stay tuned for updates.

Victrix French Artillery

To add some punch to my French forces, I ordered a couple of boxes of Victrix French artillery.  That gave me a total of six additional guns, but I only needed four.  What to do with the extra two?  One option was to build a half battery of Old Guard artillery as there were pieces that would allow that.  But that would mean having 10 French artillery sections to just six for the allies.  Therefore, I chose option two which was to attempt two sections of Spanish artillery using the heads with tricorns.  Between the two boxes I had several heads that had plumes very similar to what the Spanish wore.  I think they turned out pretty well.  I also used some extra arm selections from some infantry boxes that let me increase the number of options for the French gunners.  Here is how they turned out.

The whole battery

close up

From the side

British Light Dragoons bearing down.

Spanish battery

While I am posting, here are a couple of shots of the commission I am working on for a friend, Elite miniatures early Prussians.  These have been a pleasure to paint thus far.  These were the second of two brigades of line infantry I have done thus far.

These are some of the grenadier figures I have done.

These are musketeers

Latest additions

I just finished painting up the last of my French cavalry additions to bring my units up to either 18 or 24 figures.  This batch was made up from one box of Perry French heavy cavalry and one box of Perry French dragoons.  I really enjoy painting these and I was quite pleased with the final product.  These larger units look terrific.

Carbiniers.  I now have 18.

Cuirassiers.  24 "Big Brothers" now.

Elite Dragoons.

More Dragoons

A second regiment of dragoons.  There are now 2 at 18 figures, plus 10 dismounted troopers for each regiment.

Flames of War Game at School

On Friday our wargaming group got together for a FOW battle.  I had painted up a couple of special tanks for one of the students and he wanted to get them into a game.  This student set up the scenario.  American infantry was given the task of holding a town against an attack by German armor.  The Americans had a platoon of Priests on the table and would have some Shermans joining them as the game went on.  The Germans had only tanks; ;no infantry.

The Americans dug in to defend two bridges and a ford.  They had a couple of bazooka teams that sheltered in buildings close to the bridges.

The Germans moved up their tanks.  One platoon contained a Konigstiger tank.  The panzers took up firing positions and began to shatter the American defenses with close range blasts.  This took a toll on the beleaguered GIs.  But they somehow managed to hold on, despite losing the entire platoon of Priests.

The game was getting close to the end and the Germans had to take the town to win, so they charged over the bridges.  At one crossing, a bazooka was able to dismount the lead tank, so the attack stalled. At the other end of the town, the Germans learned the hard way that it is a very risky thing to attack without infantry support.  Three panzers entered the town and were assaulted by six teams of American infantry.  Despite issuing a sizable amount of defensive fire and losing some stands, the assault went in and one team was able to destroy the lead panzer.  This blocked the road and stalled the attack on this end of the town as well.  As the game was ending, a third American infantry platoon had gone of the offensive, crossed the ford and had made its way to the flank of a platoon of panzers.  Though they would have suffered heavy casualties, they would have posed a threat to the enemy that could not be ignored.  An American victory was declared.

The town before any forces had been deployed

Dug in Americans

The Priests are destroyed.

The brave defenders take shelter in the buildings.