Sunday, February 24, 2013

State of the Union

I have been watching all these Confederate updates and I was getting anxious to post some Union pictures. The process in which I am painting this army has slowed down my ability to post articles mainly because I was concentrating on getting the entire army to the point before putting the finishing touches on them. I was base coating the entire army and 'dipping' them prior to adding highlights and basing them.

Well, I am happy to announce that the base coating and dipping stages are done and I started highlighting stuff this past week. Adding the highlights takes a little bit of time but I am really happy with the progress in just a week. I was able to get almost 30 miniatures done in one week so I am going into the final days with a bunch of confidence that I will finish in time. Enjoy my progress pictures.

Infantry Brigade Command including Divisional Flag



Artillery Brigade Commander



114th PA Regiment Command Stand


2 of the 3 artillery pieces


88th NY Regiment partial command stand 


Monday, February 4, 2013

Fun With Flags!

 
Last week my order of flags from GBM designs arrived and the first thing that popped into my head was a bit from my favorite show, Big Bang Theory.  I'm no Sheldon Cooper, but like him, I'm excited to welcome you to the amazing word of flags....in this case, confederate flags of the Army of Northern Virginia. 

In looking at the regiments I was painting for my brigade (Heth's Brigade) I found that none of them appeared to have specific regimental standards (at least that I could locate).  It seems that many regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia used the ANV flag (below) or one of the "official" National Flags of the Confederate States of America.  I added in the state flag of Virginia (above) as this felt "right" in some way for the boys from Virginia and would likely have been used although I truthfully have no idea if it appeared with Heth's regiments or at Gettysburg specifically.

So, although I'm sure amateur historians more astute than myself could point out flaws in my logic for flag choices I hope you'll forgive me for being such a period "generalist" who likes to take liberties with the hard facts (i.e. sometimes I'm too damn lazy to research it all!)

The GBM Design flags are awesome.  I tried to dirty them up a bit with some dry pigment but now that I see the pictures I think I need a little more work on them.  I'm thrilled to have two command stands done (minus basing) with another three to go.  As you may notice, I did NOT use the National CSA flag but plan to with my next regiment.  There's something to look forward to!