Confederates no longer in the Attic

I am re-reading Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz. And I must admit that I sometimes find it strange where I get my inspiration from. This particular book is about the unfinished civil war within the United States, or more particularly, how people in the southern states feel about it. it is a fantastic account of his travels through the states but also a chilling reminder that wars last a long time. But this is not a political blog but an account of what I paint and play.

Last Christmas, I was sent a very generous gift of an entire starter force of 28mm Perry Confederates by a good friend. And for various reasons, most of my own making, they sat in the cupboard of shame for almost a year. For months I said that the next project would be to finish these miniatures but managed to find excuses for putting them off until next time. However, recently (2 months ago), I visited a friend, and after discussing our various stalled projects. I happened to mention that I had a small Confederate force for Sharp Practice (Too Fat Lardies); it turns out that he had a small Federal force that also lay unpainted in the cupboard of shame. So having found the opponent I needed to get moving on this project, the glue and clippers came out, and I assembled the miniatures. Those who know me understand that I am not a modeler and hate assembling miniatures. I always seem to glue heads on backward, or the arms keep falling off when I release the pressure.

Needless to say, after a couple of days of glueing and cursing, I got them done and then, over the next six weeks, painted them. I will also admit that I found painting these miniatures slow going. Work didn’t help, as we are in the middle of one of the busiest periods of the year. And yes, I also got distracted by other fancies and projects. But here they are

I am happy with the end result; as you can see, there are five infantry blocks and a small unit of skirmishers, some artillery and leadership. Thanks again to Gerry, who sent them to me. I am looking forward to terrible accents and lots of miss quotes from “Gettysburg.”