Monday, May 22, 2017

The Seventh And Friends

Okay, only primed - mostly - but at long last the Old West/Indian Wars figures move forward.  Foreground left is 120 American Bison (only six to finish painting - all in need of bases textured), center is the entire 7th Cavalry with Custer right up front and forty-nine stands following for 150 total mounted figures.  To the right is the Native American pony herd, 72 horses, and coming up behind them are three groups of allied scouts, 36 total.  In the background is the 7th again but this time dismounted plus casualties.
 A different view of the pony herd.
 Focusing on the bison.
 A herd of 36 pronghorn antelope - why white?, started the first twelve white so did the other 24 the same.  Those hills are in development - and idea borrowed from The Major General Tremorden Reddering site.  There will be more - if I'm going to do the Old West, I have to be able to create a credible Apache Pass (or reasonable facsimile).
 Another view of the native scouts pursuing the pony herd.
 And here is the cavalry's remuda, a herd of 36 remounts.
This image shows the dismounted HQ company (which I might convert to a Euro-heritage scout company) - unlike the cavalry which get just one standing horse to mark a company point of dismount, each of my scout units get four standing horses so that they can 'scout' the table.
And here is the dismounted native scouts seen mounted chasing the pony herd - guarding the flank of the dismounted 7th.
Speaking of which here is the dismounted regiment.  Each 12 man company gets three dead horses and two dead men for casualties, the 6 HQ figures get 2 dead horses and 2 dead men plus one standing horse to mark a point of dismount.
In the foreground of this photo is the two gun gatling battery - following the "walk-a-heaps".  (That's infantry for the greenhorns in the audience.)
Those lined up casualties go with the wagons seen to the right, at least the tail of the train.  The four dead horses are 'extras'.
Four wagons at the rear with two horses apiece and four horses, with canopies, with four horses apiece.
 And for the Little Bighorn event, six stands of pack horses for Company B to traipse about with.
 A rear view of the full regiment.
 An overall view of what, almost all, got recently primed, haven't done a detail adding how many pieces but perhaps over one thousand total figures counting animals and casualties with the men.
 Company A - twelve men mounted.
Custer's command - no, the main man isn't drunk, each center figure on all the three figure stands is only 'tacked' in place for removal for easier painting.  They'll get glued to a strip of card for painting, the tacked figures.
 The pony herd isolated - two different cans of primer, thus the color variation.
 Custer's command between two lines of his dismounted regiment.
 The canopy wagons are Peter Pig army supply wagons.
The other wagons are from Stone Mountain's ACW range - with a cool bit of supplies in the back.  These have hoops to go over the wagon boxes but I haven't decided whether I'm going to use them or not.

After all that brown - and wee bit of white - a bit of color is needed so here is a sampling of 'flavoring' terrain, I think I'm over 120 pieces now in a variety of styles.

There is still another entire "regiment" to prep but it will be three separate battalions of four companies each - 5th, 6th, and 9th(or 10th).  Then there is a group of high command - Terry or maybe Crook.  Last of all will be the figures to populate the fort including some civilians.

And that's just the US Army above (and some animals unaffiliated with any fighting force).

There's mountain of mounted warriors and a whole bunch on foot plus a plentitude of villagers.  And then there are all the civilians including the black hat guys and the white hat guys.  Yes, it is a huge collection for the era (other than being in 15 mm).  No, not insanity, just a large amount of zeal for a fun period.  Maybe someday it will all get painted.  See earliest posts here for trains!

Important to remember the point of this collection: my penultimate Extravaganza Game:

THE WHOLE WILDER WEST, ALL AT ONCE.

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