From FrederickC: American Civil War Cavalry (424 points)

 My seventh submission of this year's challenge is a collection of 15mm American Civil War Cavalry, both Union and Confederate. The figures are from a variety of manufacturers, although I have only been able to identify those by Old Glory and Essex.  I think the bulk of the Union cavalry are by Falcon, but I am not certain regarding that. Perhaps some of the grognards in the group can provide some insight as to their origin.

 With terrain being dropped from the point tally, I needed to do a last minute course change, and found all these figures in a box in one of my storage drawers, already primed and glued onto popsicle sticks for ease of handling. They had been prepped some thirty years ago when I was gaming with a group that did a lot of American Civil War using 'Johnnie Reb' rules, but for some reason (available time, family obligations, the new 'shiny', etc.) that was as far as they got. I had hoped to get this project finished for last Saturday, but other demands on my time resulted in them being only half done when the clock ran out. 

 As mentioned above they were already primed black with a rattle can. I then painted them with Vallejo acrylics. The Union cavalry was the easiest to paint, both in terms of the standard colour palette, and the poses. The Confederate cavalry was more challenging as I tried to put some variety into the uniform colours with different shades of brown and grey, plus some of the poses made it difficult to get the brush into some of the deeper recesses. Regarding the sculpts, I liked the Essex and Falcon(?) the best. The riders were separate from the horse and saddle, and the poses and detail were easy to paint. The Old Glory sculpts were much more animated, but the fit of the rider and saddle (which came as one piece) to the horse often had large gaps between the saddle cloth and the horse's body. I would also describe the sculpts as a bit more 'rough and ready'.

Here are the final results - four 15 figure Union cavalry regiments, one 15 figure dismounted Union cavalry regiment, one 15 figure Confederate cavalry regiment, two 11 figure Confederate cavalry regiments. 

Encounter in the East Cavalry Field

Confederate troopers of General Jeb Stuart

US troopers of General David Gregg

 

Union cavalry brigade deploying

Union cavalry regiment No. 1

Union cavalry regiment No. 2

Union cavalry regiment No. 3

Union cavalry regiment No. 4

Dismounted Union cavalry with horse holder in the background

Confederate cavalry brigade deploying

Confederate cavalry regiment No. 1

Confederate cavalry regiment No. 2

Confederate cavalry regiment No. 3

Anyone recognize the manufacturer?

Anyone recognize the manufacturer?

Wearing Abe Lincoln's blue suit circa 1990

The points being claimed are as follows:

 

18 x 15mm foot figures @ 2 points each = 36 points

 

97 x 15mm 'mounted' figures @ 4 points each = 388 points

Total = 424 points

Thanks for stopping by.

As Sylvain is unavailable today, it's your stand-in Minion here, Frederick. Yes, I was a little disappointed at the exclusion of terrain this year too, but I must say that you have found a wonderful alternative! These 15mm ACW units certainly look good. The extra effort you put into the Confederates definitely shows, but the more regular Union troopers look very fine as well. I really like Essex 15mm figures (of course, I have some lying around somewhere...), but the other makes are nice models too.  And that's a very smart Union soldier in that photograph! I can't help you with identifying the unknown ones, but I can help you with your points. A whopping 424 are added to your tally!

Martijn

From FrederickC - A Phalanx of Hoplites, A Gunslinger, and a File of Riflemen [Swords & Sandals] [Westerns] [Books] (176 points)

  From our last stop at the Fantasy studio, we are going to continue along the Blue pathway to the Swords and Sandals studio for the production of '300' with a 15mm Spartan De Bellis Antiquitatis army consisting of 12 stands of Spear and an optional stand of Psiloi. If I recall correctly these are from Falcon Miniatures that are now no longer in production. They were cleaned up and primed a quarter century ago, and have been sitting in the pending box ever since. Once again, the Special Challenges has cleared a project from the 'To Do' list. They were painted using Army Painter Warpaints Tannned Flesh for all the skin areas, Partha Paints Bronze Metallic for the helmets, greaves, and shields, and Vallejo acrylics for everything else. They were mounted on metal bases of the appropriate DBA dimensions that I still have in my storage boxes, and the groundwork completed. The temple in the background is one I built for a scenario that Curt hosted back in the early days of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts. 

 

'300' from 2006

 

This is Sparta!

 

Spartan hoplites

Shields emblazoned with Lambdas

The General's stand

The lone stand of Psiloi

 

  Before carrying on, we will make a quick stop at the studio cafeteria for some refreshments in the form of a tall glass of Spartan Brewery 'Swords & Sandals' Session IPA. 😁

 

 Moving further along the Blue pathway we arrive at Westerns for the production of 'The Quick and the Dead'. Okay, it's not Sharon Stone as 'The Lady', but Alex Kingston as 'River Song' in the Doctor Who episode called 'The Impossible Astronaut', but she's wearing jeans and packing a big iron on her hip. That says Gunslinger to me. This figure was a freebie that came with my order from Warlord Games back in December. Just the thing for the Westerns studio.

 

The Quick and the Dead from 1995

 

River Song, Gunslinger (front view)

River Song, Gunslinger (rear view)

  

 And now we arrive at the fourth stop on the Blue pathway, the Books studio. If my wearing of a British uniform at Waterloo 200 raised Minion Miles's ire, my book choice will really be twisting the Minion's tail. Nearly 50 years before Bernard Cornwell wrote the first Sharpe novel, C.S. Forester wrote 'Death to the French' (also known as 'Rifleman Dodd'), one of two stories he wrote taking place during the Peninsular War. His second book was 'The Gun', that was made into a movie in 1957 called 'The Pride and the Passion', but we had to wait until the 'Sharpe' TV series to see riflemen on the small screen. Cornwell gave a shout out to Forester's character by naming one of Sharpe's men Matthew Dodd. 

 The figures I have are two Perry Miniatures plastic 95th Riflemen that were another freebie with an issue of Wargames Illustrated that sat in storage until now. They are very nice minis with lots of detail, easy to assemble with minimal cleaning of mold lines. Their rifle green uniforms were painted using Vallejo Luftwaffe Camouflage Green, followed by a wash of Citadel Nuln Oil. 

 

'Death to the French' from 1932

 

Riflemen Dodd and Harris (front view)

Riflemen Dodd and Harris (3/4 Profile view)

Riflemen Dodd and Harris (rear view)

The points being claimed are as follows:

50 x 15mm foot figures @ 2 points = 100 points 

2 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 points = 10 points 

1 x 34mm foot figure @ 6 points = 6 points

3 x Studio lots @ 20 points = 60 points

(Since the 34mm figure is halfway between 28mm and 40mm, I split the difference between 5 points and 7 points)

 

We are ready to try the Director's Chair on for size

Minion Miles:  Mr Fredrick - Another wonderful submission but there really isn't a 34mm category so its 28mm - I'm just too lazy to adjust the spreadsheet :). I do like the rocks on the Riflemen so a bonus point for that but this is probably the last time

Greetings, Minion Miles. I did some further research into the Warlord Games Doctor Who range of minis to try and determine their scale. Obviously it was not possible to make that assessment from just one figure, especially given a shorter than average character. It appears that they are 1/48 scale. The Star Wars Legion minis are apparently 1/47 scale and are rated as 40mm figures. Just sayin'.  ;^)