Christmas Tithe

Here's the annual Christmas package for my young relative.  I've never enjoyed painting horses before, but these were fun, especially the Appaloosa.

And a rail fence for him as well.

Good News, Everyone!

It's been hard to find time to work on my projects, hard to find the money for new miniatures, and hard to summon the energy to keep at it.  But I've been chipping away at things steadily.  The real difficulty is that it's been hard to finish units because I don't have enough men for the regimental bases, so there are two nearly-done regiments and two nearly-done command stands.  I was able, however, to complete one brigade-level command base, that of Col. Addison Farnsworth, who led the 3rd brigade, 1st division of Jesse Reno's (IX) corps.  Which means, of course, that his two regiments will follow in due course.  I like to imagine that he's a distant ancestor of that most famous of Farnsworths:

The blue jackets (and colors generally) came out a bit bright in the photos, but I may start switching to a darker blue altogether for some of the regiments to show the variety of shades of blue that would have been found in Union armies.  The dyes used were of better or poorer quality, differed in hue from contractor to contractor, and often turned lighter over time as they were bleached by sun exposure.  The base of course will get more interesting when I eventually have enough change to order the right static grass.

Dungeons Deep and Caverns Old

     A big update here to make up for the radio silence of the past months.  This is the entrance to the dwarf-mine my little company of dwarves is trying to reclaim.  I began planning this project probably four years ago but couldn't get myself to stick with it long enough to finish it - until recently, that is, when I decided to discipline myself and complete it.

     I had originally planned to make one 2x4ft. board, only to realize after I'd started that it was too big to fit through the doorways in my house.  I cut it in two, but the cut wasn't as clean as I would have liked, so there is a fairly large seam between the two halves that I'm trying to find a way to conceal.  The first board (the flat, easy one) I finished a while back, long enough ago in fact that it has rather a different feel and a slightly different color from the newer mountain-side (probably dust in the static grass).

Warg-riders chase after the company as it nears its destination (seam partially visible below).

A rear-guard is formed while the sages of the company try to open the gate.

The mesmerizing blue waters of the lake draw the attention of the company's pony.

The dwarves approach the gate, furtively observed by some goblins.

Up the causeway!

The "foyer" which will connect to the next board.

There are a number of additions and slight alterations still to be made: ripples onto the streams, a way to conceal the seam, extra rocks and hillocks, perhaps a dwarf monument.  Also I will need some suitable names for the terrain features.  There are imperfections, in particular regarding the match between old and new boards, but overall I'm quite pleased.  To be frank, I was rather disappointed with myself for not having had the gumption to see this project through, so it feels good to have finished it at long last.

Birthday Present

I finished these for a young relative of mine who had his birthday a few weeks ago. Federal ordnance rifle and the 11th Mississippi.  He's getting to have a nice little ACW collection now.

Goblin Reinforcements

Assorted goblins, including a shaman standing in as the Goblin chieftain.

I tried to give the troll a greenish tint, like it has in the book (the book troll also has toeless feet, but I like the toes too much to get rid of them). Unfortunately, the photos are a bit blue in tone.

I attempted to show the stone floor buckling under the troll's footfall.  Not sure how well it came out.

A bat swarm from Reaper miniatures, flying through the rubble.

This more of less finishes my goblin force.  There may be a few additions in the future, but for now it's done.  Now, to build their stronghold...

National Zouaves

   

     I present here the 10th New York State Volunteer Infantry, also known as the National Zouaves or, early on, as McChesney's Zouaves.  The 10th was the second regiment in Gouverneur Warren's elite brigade, which had the special distinction of being assigned to Sykes' "Regular" division, otherwise composed exclusively of US Army regiments.  At Second Bull Run, Warren's brigade arrived with Porter's corps and on the 30th remained on the extreme left of the Union line as a precaution.  By mid-afternoon, it had moved to the edge of a field off the western face of Chinn Ridge, with Young's Branch behind it.  Warren ordered six companies of the 10th  into the edge of a woodlot as skirmishers, while the other four remained to the left of their sister regiment.  At about 4PM, the Confederates with whom skirmishers were exchanging fire rose as one man and advanced, heralding the beginning of Longstreet's assault.  The six companies immediately came under heavy fire and, being in skirmish order, had no hope of resisting the advance, so they fell back rapidly and attempted to form up with the four other companies on the 5th's left.  With much of the 10th scattered across a wide front, however, this was no easy task, and the regiment soon came under a withering fire from the 5th Texas off its flank that scotched any chance at putting up organized resistance.  By this time, the 5th NY was buckling, and Warren ordered a withdrawal, which went unheeded but proved unnecessary, since the men soon broke and tried to make it over Young's Branch to safety.  During this action, the 10th got off more lightly than the 5th, presumably because it was a less tempting target; all the same, the National Zouaves suffered 115 casualties, approaching 25% of their strength.

     Here we see Colonel John Bendix, an able soldier and enthusiastic recruiter, trying to call in his skirmishers and form up on the left flank of the 5th NY.  There are only 15 models rather than my usual 18, to signify the absence of the skirmishers who could not rejoin the colors.  The tree on the left represents the scrub growth at the edge of the woodlot where the skirmish line had been posted.


     The matter of the regimental uniform was of great interest to me.  The 10th had three different official uniforms over the course of the war.  The first was a dark blue and red affair with a white havelock, which seems to have proved as unpopular with the National Zouaves as with everyone else and was soon discarded (the havelock, I mean).  In October of '61, the original uniform was replaced and the men issued with a distinctive (and as far as I know unique) color combination of sky-blue pantaloons and middle-brown jackets, along with red trim, fez, sash, and vest.  This uniform was badly worn during the heavy campaigning in the first part of 1862, and a third, fairly standard blue uniform was ordered in September '62 and reached the regiment at an uncertain later date.  So what did the 10th wear at Second Bull Run?  Had the second uniforms been totally (but temporarily) replaced by the standard Union dress? Were the men still wearing their brown uniforms?
     Brian Pohanka's writings on the action at Chinn Ridge state that the 10th was largely in regulation dress, which, since I was looking forward to something more colorful and unusual, was rather a disappointment. (I have always found brown uniforms attractive, perhaps because of all the Austrians I've painted.)  Some additional research yielded pleasing results, however.  Don Troiani's painting of the Texan attack on Chinn Ridge shows a New York casualty in regulation blouse and trousers but with the red fez of the 10th clapped on his head.  A real trove of information came in the form of a photograph (or more correctly the comments about the photograph, since I do not have access to the image proper) taken some time in '62, showing some National Zouaves in the field.  Most of the zouaves wear fatigue blouses or NYS jackets but still wear fezzes, and a few men retain (nearly) complete versions of the brown/blue uniform - in short, a real jumble of clothing that makes for interesting modeling and painting.  Since I had to remove the forage caps from the metal models, I took the opportunity to sculpt fezzes worn in the "skull-cap" fashion we see in many photographs, which some men found better-fitting and more comfortable.

Grimdark

    A little diversion into the forty-first millennium.

     When I was in high school I was somewhat obsessed with 40k and more specifically the Imperium.  I never gamed or even collected a complete army, but I was fascinated by the art and the setting: the atmopshere of decayed grandeur and the mixture of the arcane, the primitive, and the futuristic.  I will try to avoid the inevitable anti-GW rant, but I will say that the recent emphasis on the epic (big war machines, big battles, etc.) has resulted in a blander, less original "space wars" feeling (which is one of the reasons I drifted almost completely away from 40k in the past three or four years).  In my opinion, the creative torch has passed from the devs and artists of ten years ago to the Inquisimunda community (see The Convertorum and Iron Sleet), who are focused on the narrative and hobby aspects rather than on scale or 'epicness.'  Before my disillusionment, I had tried my hand at this more intimate approach - with enthusiasm but not much gumption.

     While poking around in some boxes I recently rediscovered my trove of 40k bitz and semi-finished I-munda models, mainly of various Imperial citizens and agents.  On a whim I decided to revive this forgotten project and build/paint a few more models.  I've tried to achieve a Blanche-esque color scheme: pale skin and lots of reds and golds, standing out against muted background colors.  The point is to be striking rather than realistic.

Imperial administrator and a mysterious gunslinger.  These were done a few years ago.  The skull might need some touching up.

Cherub

A 40k version of the medieval barber/surgeon.  I imagine he stands around on street corners offering therapeutic bleedings and the like.  

Two henchmen.

Some kind of crusader.  He's going to get a big shield on his left arm, but that will not be attached until it's painted.

     The next batch of Federals should be ready tomorrow - only the State color remains to be painted.  Stay tuned!

The Greatest Traveller and Huntsman of this Age of the World

     I've had this model of Strider in a drawer for easily five years and never got around to painting him.  It's from the original Fellowship of the Ring set from way back in 2001 - in my opinion these are/were some of the best sculpts in the whole LotR/Hobbit range.

     There is a big controversy, as you may know, about whether Aragorn has a beard, and I decided to take the middle road and give him a heavy growth of stubble not unlike Viggo's in in Fellowship.

     My painting has gravitated towards sharper, bolder highlights in recent years, and so I tried to paint Aragorn in a more realistic and toned-down way, but as usual the overall effect is rather muted.  Still, I am very happy with the finished result.

     Federals on the way, I promise!

Into Mirkwood

     I've been working on a Mirkwood terrain board for a few months, on and off.  Frequently, artists depict Mirkwood as a tangled, overgrown forest full of gnarled trees and tangled roots.  Here's a still from The Desolation of Smaug.  To my eye, there's nothing interesting about this kind of forest - it's become the 'go-to' forest design for any fantasy setting (Snow White and the Huntsman, e.g.).

     Tolkien's own drawing of Mirkwood is quite different, however.  Endless rows of fairly uniform trees create a kind of eerie semi-monotony.  What is more, old-growth forests often have little in the way of undergrowth because the trees are tall and the canopy dense enough to block out most of the sunlight, and few branches survive on the lower portions of the trunk. So this is a more life-like representation of an old forest.

     Here is Siegfried in a forest in Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen.

     And here's a still from Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, when Falstaff and his pals waylay some travelers and are in turn set upon by Harry and Poins.

     I find these images much more interesting and affecting.  

     Here's what I've got so far.  The trees are just dowels of different diameters, wrapped in toilet paper soaked in watered-down glue, with roots made of twisted floral wire bound in masking tape.  By varying the colors, textures (from sawdust), and the direction of the TP wrapping, one can create a number of different tree types.  The leaf litter is from JTT, and the mushrooms are from a Polish company called Ristul (I think?).  I intend to make enough to cover the whole table, but these were the trial run.

     Not the best pictures, and the effect is ruined by the bright sunlight in the background, but that's the idea.  Will try to prepare a more scenic backdrop next time.

This Hand for My Country

Bit of an odd post today, and one I've been meaning to complete for some time.  In a way it's a lead-up to my next Federal regiment, the 80th (20th) NYSVI.  I will write more about them when the regiment is fully painted. 

At Second Bull Run the 80th was under Colonel George Pratt, who received mortal wounds while leading his men against Jackson's right flank on August 30th.  Pratt was born in what is now Prattsville in Greene County, NY, a town named for his father, Col. Zadock Pratt.  Col. Pratt was many things: tanner, businessman, militia officer, Congressman, reformer, banker, and developer.  One thing he was not, however, was modest.  Not only does Prattsville bear his name, but a large rockface outside of town, now known as Pratt's Rock, is covered with carvings he commissioned to commemorate himself and his family.  George Pratt, a state senator, businessman, militia officer, and amateur historian, moved to Kingston, NY, seat of Ulster County, and subsequently was involved with that county's militia.  After he was killed, he was of course added to Pratt's Rock.

Col. Zadock Pratt: "Tanner, Farmer, Builder, Banker, U.S. Congressman."  Pratt is also responsible for revolutionizing the postal system in the United States.  Previously, postage for letters and packages was paid by the addressee upon receipt of the item.  Transportation was costly, and therefore postage was high, so it was not uncommon for an addressee to refuse a letter upon its delivery, in which case the postal service would have to return it to the sender (and pay for the two-way trip, labor, etc.). Pratt, believing that the high cost discouraged people from corresponding, moved while in Congress for the system to be reformed.  The sender would pay postage prior to mailing, and postage would be kept low.  Since it would be simpler and cheaper to send letters, more people would send them, and a net increase in postage revenue would arise in time; at the same time, increased correspondence would stimulate intellectual and commercial development.  Pratt was so proud of this accomplishment that he ordered it engraved on his tombstone.

His son, Col. Pratt - one of many carvings on Pratt's Rock. 

G. Pratt from the front.

Also carved into the rock is an emblem the militia regiment, the Red Hand of Ulster, encircled by the words "This Hand for My Country," a phrase of Pratt's devising that would become a sort of motto for his regiment.

Here is Col. Pratt, urging his men toward the enemy.  The model is a fiddled-with Perry Union officer, who's been given boots, hair and beard, and a hat in his outstretched hand.