Resguardo Irregular Cavalry

I have painted my last unit for my Second Mexican-American War force! Of course I have said that in the past and seem to keep adding units to the army (and as I write this I realize I probably need to paint up six figures for the dismounted option for this unit!).

As I previously posted, I was not happy with the size of the Gringo40 figures. So I bought a pack of Old Glory irregular mexican cavalry on our last order with OG. These were from their mexican american war line, and I suspect not much would have changed in the ensuing 20 years, so I think they'll fit in pretty well as 1864 irregular cavalry . I did clip off the cross piece of the lances to make them more "modern" :)

I intend to use these figures as a Resguardo Irregular Cavalry unit, but I may also use them as line lancers. So I decided to paint them a little more uniformed than they "probably" would have been. I searched online for a pic, found one of a cavalryman in a bluish/grey jackets and greenish/black pants that I liked for inspiration. I mostly copied the picture but did add a few of my own flourishes (like the red/white/green bands) to get the below results.

Resguardo Irregular Cavalry

And to lead this trusty (well more likely untrustworthy) unit, is Fausto "I don't need no stinking rank" Hernandez.

Fausto Hernandez

The pack came with ten figures, and I used eight figures for the unit and the one for the leader. This left the below figure that I painted up as well. Not sure what I'll use him for, perhaps a scout or messenger, but most likely he'll grace the table as an NPC in any games we play.

Señor Pepe Romero with his old pistola

Our British force has fallen through, but looks like we have pick up another Mexican force. So I expect the next blog post for the MAW2 project will be a battle report of the first scenario of the programmed campaign I have worked on.

Tirailleurs Algeriens in Mexico

As some of you may know, I was not very keen on the size of the Gringo40 28mm figures, and made plans to paint up some Perry figures as back up. Due to a generous donation from Doc, I was able to get a few Perry plastic zouaves from him to use as Tirailleurs.

Even though I will mostly use them as a skirmish unit of six figures, I opted once again to paint up eight figures in case I later decide to use them as a line unit.

Close up on a single figure. The blue is actually a lighter shade than what the picture shows. Though I could not force myself to do them in a pure sky blue color :)

I may see if i can get an officer figure and paint him up in the color scheme as well, but I already have enough leaders for any game, so not on the painting table at this point.

I also painted up a pack of perry ACW figures to flush out the Former Republican line units. Both units now have eight figures and one of them can be a ten figure militia unit if needed.

It had been a couple of months since I had painted up the Republican figures, but I think they came out well enough that most of you won't be able to tell them apart.

One on left recently finished, while the one on the right was done a couple of months ago.

And finally I finished a secondary deployment point for my command. It can also pass as a movable deployment point if needed but I do have an alternate idea for painting up one of those.

I think I'll take a break on painting figures for the MAW2 project and focus in on the scenarios and army lists for the campaign. That said I do have a pack of figures on hand that I am going to paint up as armed civilians ... at a later time.

French Army in MAW2

I recently received the French Legionnaire and Mexican Cavalry figures from Gringo40s. As I had finished everything else I quickly primed and painted the legionnaire figures. They came out fairly well and the detail on each figure was really good.

Though I was not keen on having to glue several of the weapons to  some of the figures and suspect they will "break" during gameplay. I probably should have pinned them but am to impatient for that! I painted up eight soldiers and a leader, so that I can use them as a skirmish unit (6 figures) or a line unit (8 figures) plus leader to command them.

While I had plans to paint them as a French Foreign Legion detachment left behind, I ended up painting them as French Line instead. Mostly because the FFL had white pants and I already had enough white in the army. The French line units had red pants and wanted them to stand out from the rest of the Mexican army. I based them the same as my previous figures (see Basing Figures in MAW)

Lt. Labossiere and his detachment from the 51st Line

However, I not sure I am even going to use them! They are simple too big (the cavalry are even more monstrous!) and think the size difference with the Perry figures may be to great for my tastes. I'll give them a go, but it is possible I'll be selling these figures off pretty soon.

Red line is eye level, even if the Perry figure was a little more "upright" the sheer bulk of the Gringo40 figure dwarfs him.

If I do ditch them, my new plan is to get some ACW zouaves (Perry perhaps) and paint them up as legionaries, maybe Algeria raised FFL units with the turbans.

Basing Figures - Mexican American War II

Normally I either base a unit as it is done, or base the whole project in one go. However I have finished painting what I have on hand and decided to base it up even though I will be painting more figures for the Mexican American War II project.

Phase 1 - Rocks

All figures have been glued to the tan primed 25mm bases (1.5mm thick).

So out came my three containers of rock, glue brush, water, Elmers glue and I then set down to "rock" 50 figures.

My impromptu work station.

I had cut out a "special" base for the artillery piece. At first I was going to leave the cannon un-based, but decided to raise it to the same level as the crew. Initially it was just going to be on a 60mm round base but thought it might look a little better if I notched out a few spaces for the crew to tighten up on the gun.

A little careful exacto work, sanding and walla! 

In all it took around an hour of to get all figures rocked, not too bad considering a few phone calls interrupted my "zone". It is actually get pretty boring work; dip brush into glue, spread all over base, sprinkle a couple of "large" rocks on it, cover 80% of the base with the "thick" rocks, then dip the whole base into the "dirt" to cover everything else and finally blow off excess dust, and repeat.

Dirt and rocks for all!

This is going to be my main Deployment point ... I'll print up an Imperial Mexican flag next. I also have a couple of ideas for additional deployment points (secondary and movable), but wanted to have this one done right away.

There still is some work that needs to be done on my unit of skirmishers. I am going to add tufts to the kepi and paint them green. As most of the army is an ad hoc 'what if' 1864 force, I am taking a few liberties with the uniforms, so pom poms for the Cazadores it is!

The pants are much lighter in person!

Phase 2 - Grass

Next up, desert grass that will work on green table cloth! I wanted to avoid the "green" look I normally go for as these figures are supposed to be running around Southwest america. But as the vast majority of games are going to be played on the green cloth they needed to blend in with the cloth as well. So I mixed a special blend of burnt grass and earth flocking, with a touch of green in it.

Materials I used to blend a "desert" grass

Typically I cover three quarters of the base with glue and dip the base into a green flock mix. This time I wanted a more "spotty" look, so I just dabbed the glue on around the base before dipping it into the flock. Some bases had more, some had less grass.

The Deployment Point, sans a flag

As it is just two steps to apply the grass mixtures, this step went a lot faster, around 20 minutes to do the whole lot of the bases. I then let glue dry a little longer before I add some tufts to few bases. I usually don't do too many on rank and file bases though.

The Corporal is on a 30mm base, so gets a tuft!

After the glue has dried completely, I spray all the figures with flat varnish. Not only does this protect the paint job, it also dulls the dip gloss and helps glue down the flocking.

Same figure as seen above in the Rocks section.

The artillery base turned out pretty good ... fortunately I only had to do one of them :)

Top down view of the completed gun section.

The bulk of my basic force is now done, though it is missing the French Foreign Legion section. I'll also paint up some extra groups and a cavalry group to use as supplemental units for different scenarios.

Former Republican troops (left) and Imperial Army (right)

I'll order up the Legion and Cavalry figures later this week from Gringo 40s.

Mexican American War II

I am sure you'll all be surprised but a small group of us have started up a new project. And as I am want to do, I got them doing something different than 'normal' gaming project :)

I recently read the Sharps Practice 2 rules and thought it seemed like a fun rule set to play. And the figure count is relatively low, so would make for a neat mini project (of course it has grown slightly than I originally anticipated!). I knew I did not want to do any Napoleonic figures (have plenty of opportunities to paint up troops for Black Powder), and was thinking that as I have never done an AWI project, SP2 supports AWI, plenty of figures to choose from, that it would be a perfect period for the project... But when I broached the idea to several other participants, I found a lack of interest in it, in fact they thought an ACW project would be better.

I have plenty of 15mm ACW and so was not super keen on the idea. I threw out the idea of doing something different, a quasi-historical period … how about the 2nd American Mexican set during the during the American Civil War! We could have Confederates, Union, Mexican, French, Austrian, Belgian and even British troops … they were sold on the idea. So I read up on what was happening during that time frame and got to work on writing up some background material.

PAX MEXICANA, 1864

 My basic premise is that to unify the country after the French leave Mexico (mostly), Maximilian promises to restore Texas to the Mexican Empire! So in 1864 Mexico invades Texas, along with British support (intent of taking over the Rio Grande Cotton Trade route). Only the French Foreign Legion remained behind to help the Mexican side, while Union troops have been reluctantly accepted by Texas to help stem the invasion.

There will be four main forces to choose from, Texas Home Guard, who distrust the union to much to operate with them, though have irregular units such as Texas Rangers. And Confederate Veterans, who are reluctantly willingly to work with Union troops on the American side.

Maximilian forces are an Mexican Imperial Army, made up of both former republican and imperial forces, with a few Legionnaire units. Or a British Intervention Force supported by some Mexican irregular forces (mostly cavalry).

Each player is going to paint up a core force which we will track through the campaign, and units can gain and lose experience, special abilities as the campaign progresses. Each player will also need to paint up several support units that can be used from game to game but won’t be tracked. Typically this will be artillery, cavalry and limited special units (such as Sharpshooters).

Here is my initial rough draft of the rules, compiled from several sources and will most definitely change. Mexican American War II - Rough Draft

Captain Delgado's Company, 8th Battalion
I have chosen (well a process of elimination :) to paint up a Mexican Army. While both Gringo 40 and Foundry do figures for the Maximilian Adventure, I decided to mostly use Perry's ACW figures for the infantry. I’ll get some Gringo40's cavalry and legionnaires to finish off the core units. I might also get some Foundry figures to use as leaders, support units, as well as for making a few Deployment points.

1st Platoon
Waiting on basing and a couple of touch ups, but my first formation is mostly done (two 8 figure groups and a leader).

The flesh looks "whiter" in this pic, but do need to darken it on later figures.

2nd Platoon
My second formation is blocked out, dip and touch ups left to do (again 2 groups and a leader).

I was going to paint them up in the late Imperial Uniform (red shirt, green pants) but one was not keen on the color combo and two, the figures turned out not to be a close a fit as I thought. So they are using mostly uniforms received from the Union before their treachery!

Supporting Units
Next up is a artillery piece (leaning towards painting them up in a white uniform) and a 6 figure skirmish group (which I am leaning towards a variant of the Cazadore uniform (Blue/Grey with green piping).

Going to have to add one more figure as artillery unit has 5 men to it. My initial thought is to use an extra standard bearer from the "white uniform" unit above and craft a cleaning rod for him.

I am thinking about adding a pompom to the top of the kepi, and if i am really feeling crafty, I will bulk up the kepi first to look like a shako!

This should (along with the cav and french) get me close to my starting force, plus a support unit. Though I might need to get some more "regular" infantry to add to my basic force.

Already have some ideas for deployment points. The main deployment point will be on a 60mm round base with one (or two) flag bearers and a table with an officer. A secondary point, might be some crates with an NCO. For a movable deployment points I am leaning towards just a 40mm round base with a single "sneaky" skirmisher figure advancing.

Will have more to come and will post some pics of the other chaps armies as they get units done.