Project: Siege of Vicksburg Update #3

This project is really starting to pickup some steam. A lot of progress of several fronts.

But first, Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends! Remember to bring up politics at Thanksgiving dinner to save on Christmas gifts ;-) lol

Fresh new units are starting to roll off the painting table from the excellent Steve Dake ... and basing is in progress ...

Louisiana Zouaves

Yeah, I know they didn't carry the state flag with them ... but it is just so colourful I couldn't resist!

Ohio Volunteer Infantry

The rest of the first batch ...

Union artillery crew for the 24 pdr guns

Union and Confederate commanders

More casualties to add to my current pile

The Union observation balloon, ironclads, gunboat and river boat are all just about finished. Michael from Golden Candle Studio (same who did my Star Wars stuff) is packing them up to ship them to me. The observation balloon is an old plastic kit from the 1960's or something ... found it at an antique store online ... but the perfect scale (even says 1/56 on the box).

I need to paint the guy that goes in the balloon, and then all the ground crew, including to wagons I'm converting as the pumps, etc. for the balloon.  I'll have 4 copper wires (ropes) that go up to the four corners of the basket to hold it up in the air.

Boats and Balloon

A closer look at the main part of the balloon

Here comes the navy!  The boats that will make up the side action for the game are also done.  I need to add the cannon barrels and do flags, but that is minor work.  Michael did a great job on these, really great work here.

Confederate Ironclad

Confederate Ironclad

Progress with the added Union Monitor class

The riverboat and gunship join the ironclads

Ready for action!

My new fur mats are also complete and have arrived from David Skibicki - looking forward to starting to stage this all. I've started painting the buildings and will be jumping between basing units and painting buildings for a little while now.

More to come, stay tuned.

Project: Siege of Vicksburg Update #2

Just a quick update today on my ACW Siege of Vicksburg scenario that I'm hard at work on for the upcoming convention season.  I scanned in an updated map of the battlefield and plan.  This time I needed to figure out more extra scaling/sizing of the various battlefield elements.

Siege of Vicksburg Map

For the field positions around Vicksburg I've decided to use the Gabions from Ironclad Miniatures (https://www.ironcladminiatures.co.uk/ourshop/cat_302099-Gabions-28mm.html).  I figured out using the map how many of each section I would need to complete the positions for Vicksburg and the Union artillery positions.

I have WW2 trenches from Ironclad that I used for my Pegasus Bridge game many years ago and their products are absolutely top notch.

90 Degree

45 degree

Ends
(50mm each or ~2")

Straight with Opening
(100mm or ~4")

Straight
(100mm or ~4")

Printing of the ACW buildings for the edge of Vicksburg is nearing completion.  I set out to print 11 buildings and the final building is printing now and after that there is just a couple of odds and ends to print for a couple of the other builds (e.g. stairs/veranda's).

These 11 buildings will add to my existing (finished) buildings to provide 14 buildings for the "edge of Vicksburg" and the host of civilians I have now to populate the town.

11'ish of my 3D Printed Buildings
(Printing in progress on #11)

I've started cleaning up these buildings, gluing them together and priming them to prepare for painting.  I have taken the US Thanksgiving week off to start into the painting of these buildings.

My ACW collection is expanding significantly as well with 20+ infantry units, tons of casualties, new battlefield extras (camps, HQ, wagons, field forge, etc.), picket lines (skirmishers), civilians, artillery, cavalry, and ironclads.  This is mark the end of my ACW collection - I will have everything I could possibly want for any scenario I'd ever want to do.  The collection will be in excess of 2,000 miniatures.