With the out of the pack troops behind me, it was time to turn to the units that needed a bit of conversion paint work to finalize. So, it was time to get back in the habit of doing some painting myself! All the figures are from Gajo’s lines of painted figures.
I noticed when separating the troops, that there were a number in a different shade of blue (more of a gray blue). I pulled these out and found I had enough to do a regiment of volunteers from Indiana. All these needed was a touch up on many the hats. A lot of these had chipped hats. Between the color difference and the hats, I suspect these were an earlier batch. Bonus points for me!
I then took two unit of regulars and painted cuffs and colors on them and added some lace on the facings to do two Indiana units. I also painted the hats with gloss black to give the oilskin version of the caps this unit seemed to have.
I had to pick up a unit of Mississippi Rifles (like everyone else), just for the red coats! The set from Gajo actually has red and brown coats. I pulled out the brown coats for another unit and did the whole unit in red. The hats had some interesting color options (many in gray), so I adjusted these to black (if they were not tan).
I needed some figures for units in more of a civilian brown look to represent Kentucky and Texas. I turned to the Rebel Civil War line and ordered some confederates (only in slouch hats). I also used all the Mississippi Rifle figures in brown and mixed them together. I had to change a few hat and trouser colors, but that was quick.
Next I did a unit from Tennessee. These needed dark blue coats/frock shirts, blue gray pants and slouch hats, so I turned to the US Civil War line and chose the figures that would work best. I through in a few brown coat figures to break up the unit a bit and give a more worn look. I added a regular MAW command figure. I had to repaint all the hats to black and change a few canteens to finish them off.
The next unit was the 1st US Artillery. These were the regular US infantry. I just repainted their coats in dark blue and added red stripes to their pants. I also did two companies of dismounted dragoons, these were just troops with their coats changed to dark blue and some yellow trim added.
I ended up with a whole bunch of extra drummers. I started by doubling up on the drummers for the regulars and still had more. So, I decided to just do a marching band for my overall command! Looks like I will be doing the same thing for my Mexicans. No figure should go to waste, even if it they are just battlefield scatter!
I got all the flags from the Virtual Armchair General set. I had to do some on metal rods and add them after the basing had set. For the basing, it is all the same Muddy Paw mix I used on the other troops, with some flocking to boot! WIth that, my Americans are all set. Next I have to work on Mexicans, which I have a bit of a larger project….
- Manteuffel
These look amazing! Great work!!