Testing Confederate Mettle: The Battle of Parsley Flats

(I know, I know...it isn't the first or the fifteenth. This must all just be a dream.)

The pastoral nature of my herb garden was rent asunder this afternoon as mounted titans in blues and gray clashed amongst my parsley sprouts.  Fortunate was I to have had my camera at the ready.

These images do paltry justice to the actual carnage witnessed by the delicate eyes of this humbled  observer.

The melee was difficult to follow - so swirling was the action, so disquieting the scenes - however, both sides retired from the field in an apparent draw. Although the forces of Lincoln and freedom had the advantage in numbers of troopers, the sons of nullification and the second American Revolution had riders of superior anatomy and animation.

The ranks of the yanks were overly bloated with Imex figures, rigidly refusing to fire forward but, instead, always firing off to the side, oftentimes into their own confused comrades. The Federals were further burdened with BMC/Americana recruits, so poorly cast and in such non-martial poses as to do little to cause Rebel morale to waver one whit.

The saucy sojourners of the Southern States  were fortunate this time to have forwarded so many fine mounted Italeri men  to this fight, bringing not only superior horsemanship to the affair but sculpting and animation that would cause even the sternest of New England maidens to swoon in doubt of her cause.

The day was saved for the Unionists by a stalwart and steadfast guidon bearer, dragooned from the ranks of Toy Soldiers of San Diego's infantry and provided with minimal modifications to allow him to join in the contest astride rather than afoot.

Huzzah for our side!

Just prior to the clash of arms.

A dauntles Dixieman dashes for the union flank...

to deliver an unsportsmanlike coup de grace to a downed down-easterner.

Though, truth be told, Unionist scoundrels also perpetrated heinous acts of the lowest sort.

Note: Identities are obscured in the service of decency and in consideration of the delicacy  of any ladies who may cast their disbelieving glances in this direction.

Shortly after this image was captured the fight came to an abrupt end as both sides retired in the obscuring and sheltering dust, to meet, I am quite certain, again!

As shall we.

Mannie

Reviewing the Troops: Airfix/IMEX 7th Cavalry 54mm

Earlier this week I purchased a box of Imex troopers.   It should be noted that these are originally Airfix figures, always fine figures, which are concurrently being packaged and sold by Imex as well as being recently reissued by Airfix.  This is an interesting and strange marriage as both companies produce quality product. I've always been pretty happy with the overall quality of both lines. These soldiers will continue that trend.

It was with some anticipation that I eyed the box, imagining the figures within.


Box art by the way, has never been the strong suit of Imex.

The contents included six mounted figures in five poses, six dismounted figures in six poses, and six horses in three poses (3, 2. and 1).

Right off the bat I could see that the sculpting, anatomy, attention to detail, and animation were up to the usual standards of this British company (Airfix/Imex)  though, as with the Imex line of Union Cavalry (future post) many of the figures are in poses more conducive to simple and economical casting rather than convincing animation.  This leads to a certain "flatness" of several of the figures, all too often firing or motioning off to one side or the other rather than straight ahead...

much like this trooper who should be watching where he's riding rather than inspecting his cuff button. Simply slicing off his head and rotating it 90 degrees would improve this figure greatly, something I might try later.

After removing the sprue material one is left with two pegs protruding from the rider's legs. These pegs mount into corresponding holes in the separate saddle which combines to form this sub assembly:
So far so good.

The problem is that our trusty steed already has a saddle molded on:
Seems the original Airfix horses were bareback.  Oh well, throw the saddle in the parts box, cut off the mounting pegs and send that soldier into action.

This pose of one of the mounted men shows to good effect the fine detail and often outstanding animation that Airfix sculptors could bring to their craft.

The anatomy of the horses (strictly Imex)  is fine though the animation is somewhat stiff.

The dismounted figures are where the most pleasant surprises occur.

Generally I prefer to have all of my cavalry guys mounted, infantry I got, cavalry I need. Although I could modify these dismounted guys so they'd be able to fight astride, the poses are compelling enough that I think I'll keep them "as is".

Again the level of detail and animation that established Airfix a place in the middle upper range of plastic figures is apparent (Imex will continue that tradition with their own molds).

Certainly, many details like the pistol aren't correct for ACW but the kid in all of us will be able to easily accommodate such lapses.

This pose is quite outstanding.  A prone figure with Sharps in one hand...
while the other is reaching for his revolver.
The anatomy of this figure is outstanding and the imaginative pose is, I think, the best of the bunch.

The carbine barrels are very thin and prone to the type of erectile dysfunction that is typical for plastic long arms.  I'll see if the old hot water treatment can straighten this one out.

This trooper, though sans shoulder straps, makes a nice command figure for the group.  None of the figures, by the way, have molded chevrons or shoulder straps.  All privates, I guess.


Here we have a soldier with a double MOS: bugler and guidon bearer.  Again note the flat aspect of the sculpting.  This will use much less casting material but makes a much less realistic pose.  

This is one of the aspects of Airfix sculpting that keeps it out of the very top tier of toy soldiering.


Imex has been around for a long time and has, for better or worse, expanded far beyond figure production. You can go to their website here.

All in all, a very fine effort on the part of Airfix and continued by Imex, and veteran troopers who appear to be the equal of any emergency.

Something we can all aspire to. See you later this month!

Mannie
(next post July 15)

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Burnside Bridge: a modification

Last summer I undertook a fairly large modification project of the BMC/Americana Burnside Bridge.

Although I'll be reviewing them in a later post, generally speaking BMC makes pretty inferior figures, the poses can be imaginative, but the casting and consistency is usually pretty dreadful. Where BMC/Americana really shines however is with many of their ancillary models, especially Meade's Headquarters (later post) and here, Burnside Bridge.

I wanted to make a much more convincing model of the bridge and permanently mount it spanning Antietam Creek. Combining two out of the bag kits I spent sixteen hours to remake the finished model.

By combining the two kits I was able to double up the stone walls making them appear thicker and much more like the real bridge which I'm lucky enough to see five days a week.

http://volunteersinparks.blogspot.com/2007/01/burnisides-bridge-new-perspective-part.html


I mounted the painted and weathered bridge on a panel of luan plywood and sculpted plaster-of-paris appproaches and creek banks, painted the entire base and creekbed, and used envirotex clear resin for the surface of the muddy creek.

Here are the results.

Before and after. A side by side comparison of the Americana kit and my modification.


The approach to the bridge.


And here it is alongside the real thing:




This was really a fun project.

In a future post I'll show a modifications I did to Meade's Headquarters, Dunker Church, and show you how to get two buildings from one kit.

Until then keep your reenforcements close at hand.

Mannie
(next post July 1)

Scott Mingus was kind enough recently to feature some of my custom made pewter Civil War soldiers on his fine blog Charge! Civil War Wargaming and News, and you can see a bunch more of my guys by clicking right here.

Here's some more pictures of the 54mm Old Third Michigan Infantry Regiment as they form a firing line in my back yard.

Although about half of my guys I cast from commercial molds, the other half are created by me and are unique. This is one of the high-temperature silicone molds I made to produce my own soldiers. On the left half rests one of my plastic prototypes and you can see the pewter version of that pose still embedded in the mold. On the right half of the mold you can see at left the plastic prototype I made of the marching soldier, to his right is the finished pewter soldier, painted bright, and below both are the cavity in the mold that they hail from.

"TUEBOR" is the legend on the Michigan flag which translates to: "I will defend".

The flags, by the way, started out in civilian life as Hunts tomato sauce cans.

The young victorian diarist and Grand Rapids resident, Rebecca Richmond, wrote extensively in her diary about the presentation of the colors to the regiment prior to their departure for Detroit and the seat of war beyond - Washington D.C.

Here's the link to Steve Soper's excellent blog on the Old Third, it is comprehensive and outstanding!

Jack Dempsey, I know you're on hiatus, but I hope your tuning in.

Lastly, here's a little i-movie using some of my pewter guys to symbolize the development of the "ring forts" the Civil War defenses of Washington D.C. This is from a larger project entitled Washington D.C.: Lincoln's Fortress City which is taking forever for me to get back to working on.

Unfortunately, I neglected to remove an eerie sound effect at the end of it.

Nonetheless, I hope you like it.

Digging in, just north of Boonsboro,

Mannie

(next post June 15)