Sunday 29 May 2016

Bull Run Confederates (1)

There's a reason for the lack of any unit designation for this post - I don't have one.  For reasons I can't quite now remember, I bought some packs of Perry "early Confederates" and painted them up with an eye on the Jackson Bull Run scenario in the "Guns at Gettysburg" "Stonewall" scenario book.  I suppose my rather crazy idea is to do Bull Run/First Manassas using Perry Miniatures figures and everything else ACW using Dixon Miniatures figures.  That, at least, is the general plan.  So this is the first unit of 1861 Rebs, aimed at being part of the Stonewall Brigade.  However, I will happily acknowledge that I know next to nothing about the ACW and I really don't know if these figures, and indeed the way I've painted them, work for Jackson's command.  The figures themselves, and the way I've painted them, seem influenced by Don Troiani's painting "Drive them to Washington!", which portrays Jackson leading his brigade at Bull Run.  Most of the troops are in shirtsleeves or "battle shirts", wearing kepis (with or without havelocks), caps and "Garibaldi caps".  But whether any of the particular regiments that made up the Stonewall Brigade wore other dress is something I just don't know as yet.  A lot of these 1861 volunteer units had companies drawn from the pre-war militia, which may well have still worn their antebellum uniforms at Bull Run.  So I need to do some research before alighting on a precise designation for this unit.   Any help and suggestions from readers would be most welcome.

These are lovely Perry sculpts, full of character.  There are two very similar charging pose packs, one with kepis and havelocks and the other with a variety of caps and hats (including the "Garibaldi caps", as can be seen on the guy at the end of the second line in the red shirt).  I wish they'd do a third pack using the same bodies but with kepis without the havelocks - there are lots of soldiers like that in Troiani's painting and it would add more variety for these figures, which I expect would feature a lot in a Bull Run collection.

16 figures. Painted August-December 2012. Flag by GMB.




    

5 comments:

Simon said...

These are superb!

Simon

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

These look great! I've yet to get my hands on the early confederate packs, but they are on my list!

Christopher

Stefan (aka. Monty) said...

Splendid eye candy!
As usual... :-)

Anonymous said...

Lovely figures Giles

Russ said...

That's some lovely looking brushwork