The Mexican-American War in 28mm

In recent months, I began a project to expand my two Mexican-American War armies to be able to field at least a corps per side. I hadn’t really settled on a set of rules to use with them exclusively, so I based all the infantry on 40mm x 40mm squares, which seems to be a fairly universal basing scheme for this period. Now, as the two sides have grown bigger than a division each, I’ve begun to add terrain features for the period and I’m considering putting on a convention game with them later in the year, but we’ll see how that goes.

First up are some Mexican line infantry. These are all Old Glory except for the officer in the broad-brimmed hat, which is by Cannon Fodder. Notice I still haven’t added flags yet.

The next regiment is made entirely of Cannon Fodder Miniatures. These are actually from the Texas Revolution period, about 10 years previous, so they are wearing the old style shakos. My rationale for allowing this is: A) the Mexican army suffered from severe equipment shortages and not everyone got what they needed, so it seemed plausible that a regiment might hang on to their old equipment for a while. B) The figures are great, from a company that is sadly no longer active. They had to go in.

Next up are some Mexican leva (levies). In addition to the regular army, which consisted of permanente (permanent or regular) and activa (reserve), there was also the option to levy local troops for short-term emergencies. These were not well-equipped at all. I have represented them by putting most of them in civilian clothes with only a few in pieces of uniform. The ones pictured are nearly all Old Glory, although my leva units include a few 1st Corps and Dixon figuresas well. The priest holding the cross is actually a Eureka figure, which I thought would be the perfect addiction to exhort the campesinos to resist the invaders. Sorry about the fuzzy photos. I will try to get some better shots included in the future.

Next are some US regular infantry. All of these are Old Glory figures:

Here are some US artillery teams, also Old Glory.

Finally, here are some Texas Rangers, but these could also stand for volunteer cavalry from other states, or possibly filibusters in a pre-war scenario. These are all Old Glory:

6mm American Civil War

I recently painted some 6mm ACW troops for a customer, and he sent me back a few pics after he based them. My only part in this was to paint the figures. He subsequently based them and posed them with his own terrain.I also did not paint that nice-looking wagon in one of the pictures.

The figures are all, I believe, from Baccus. I was really impressed with the quality of the sculpts and the amount of detail on those time figures. There are even individual faces that are distinguishable. I’m sorely tempted to buy some for myself.

Hello ladies…

Here is a quick shot of some Victorian ladies that I recently painted for a friend. I recognize one of them as a Foundry figure, but I’m not sure about the other three. They were fun to paint.

British Infantry in the Peninsula

These are some 28mm plastic infantry from Perry Miniatures which I painted for a friend as part of a wargame army he is building. The army he is making is British from the campaigns in Spain and Portugal, and he wanted it to have a somewhat scruffy, hard-campaigning appearance, yet not entirely in rags. So, I tried to use some restraint in that. I changed the colors of some of the clothes and blanket rolls and added a few patches here and there.

These are the first Perry plastics I’ve seen, and I was really impressed with the sharpness of the detail on the figures as well as the wide variety you can get from the various arms, bodies, heads and backpacks. It’s really fun to work with! My friend wanted the figures based on metal stands, and I think that’s really the way to go if you’re going to do plastics, because the metal base gives each figure enough weight that it won’t blow over with a stiff breeze.

Prussian Artillery Battery

I recently painted a Napoleonic-era Prussian artillery battery and a mounted officer for a friend. All of the figures, I believe, are made by Calpe Miniatures. Figures are individually based, but the bases fit into slots on the larger gun base, and can be removed.