These are the two armies in their drawer, they were small, but then by the reckoning of all these DBA, DBB, DBC and CBEEBIES that people play now, they look a little on the large side!
Confederate Volunteers skirmish irregularly, while more formal units form up behind, the Terrance Wise school says use union for confederates, as they wore what they could, and both sides had kepi's, a fact thankfully reflected in more recent issues by newer companies.
The gun/s (and crews?) have been here before, but if I'm blowing the dust from an old closet, you might as well see it warts and all, massacred the Hinchliffe British Colonial Gatling Gun, gave the Union cavalryman a Napoleonic saddle AND check out the cowboy!! I was always quite pleased with the CSA General from the Civilians set, Grant was Hinchliffe...but not necessarily their 'Grant'! Crews were converted from Atlantic Gold Diggers and Hong Kong Cowboys
Scratch-built transport. You see, it was about wagons all along! The union force got a sort of engineer/blacksmith/tool shop wagon made out of heavy-duty poly-strip, and another old man from the civilian set, not to mention more Napoleonic horses! Confederates were issued with a prairie schooner and a water-cart, I also built a small cannon mount, which would probably look more at home on the walls of the Alamo.
Union troops stand firm, I would find a colour scheme I liked the look of - usually from a Blandford Colour Guide, which explains the 34th Right Royal Leprechauns in the second row! But I'm not repainting them now, they're part of my childhood!The last thing I did before '...putting away my childish things' and going off to join our army was buy a box each of the two then NEW Esci sets, the officers, flag bearers and buglers all joined my army first!.
I have to wax lyrical here... Quite simply, despite their serious historical and detail deficiencies (see Plastic Soldier Review on these), I think the Airfix ACW sets are the greatest cheap toy soldiers ever made.
ReplyDeleteWe have a plethoria of sets these days, Esci, Revell, IMEX etc. but these really are special. I think it may be because, for several years, it was the only era for which you could buy infantry, cavalry and artillery but I think it is really because we had so much fun with them and many of us fought our first wargames with these figures and simple, fun rules from the likes of Don Featherstone. Simple, happy, undemanding days... (So no nostalgia then...)
A couple of years ago, I cast some of them up in metal just for fun. The incorrect uniforms didn't matter and you could see how the scupting was actually a lot crisper than it appears in polythene. Paul Keough
I think also it was the great battle scenes in Red Badge Of Courage and The Good, The bad and The Ugly, that inspired us to long lines of blue and grey charging across the dust behind the school's (unheated, outdoor) swimming pool!!
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