15mm ACW South Carolina Brigade from Various Manufacturers

In addition to the Georgia brigade I posted last week, I seem to have over three more brigades, including a Texas one and the start of a Virginia one, as well as a hodge-podge of other states. Here, though, is the South Carolina brigade. 

Like all of them, they were painted between 1988-1992. I painted by regiment, not by brigade, so one cannot track the progression of my painting skills by looking at this. Some were done early, others late in that period. There are better painted ones in the collection as well as decidedly worse ones. 

These 600 man regiments - the largest I'd ever do, had really good staying power in Johnny Reb, but they obviously are much harder to paint as they contain 30 figures in them. Marching and firing units are easy to do compared to charging units where bayonets can't be bristling all over, as it makes it harder to align the bases. 

No problems with this one: 

600 Man Old Glory - Marching

At this stage, I had finally given up painting slouch hats in gray, but there will be others coming up that have that. In retrospect, I only had a few really errant uniforms - most of these are basically what I'd do today. 

Pretty sure the flag is not quite right. Flag patterns were particularly hard to find for teens in California before the internet. I read units carried "state flags" andd literally painted state flags without assigning any regimental distinctions. 

Many of my flags were made from wine bottle or toothpaste tube foil. Then I'd poke holes with a pin to indicate where musket balls had penetrated them. 

I painted patches on some of these miniatures, even if they weren't sculpted. 

I have an Essex "brigade" general for the Georgians, but this colonel model is the brigadier for South Carolina. I may revisit all this and use some of the Old Glory personality models for these. They need to be on round bases too, so this guy, ultimately, is a stand-in. 

Second regiment - this 500 man firing unit has an unusual 1861 uniform, but one that I think may be correct, at least at a company level. 

500 Man Essex Firing

This was definitely one of the earlier units to be finished. Still some dust on these, as well as gloss from greasy finger handling. This unit saw a ton of action. 

Story telling was harder with Essex than Old Glory miniatures, but here's a guy taking a shoulder wound.

500 Man Essex At the Ready

Early in this hobby, I used paint to "glue" model railroad ballast down. That may be what we're looking at here. The base edges (all steel from Wargames Accessories) took a beating with these often-used units. 

400 Man Old Glory Charging

I still really liked gray pants here. I'd do more browns, tans, and butternut.

There's a fair amount of 5 o'clock shadow on these - I spot it here and there all over. 

People pooh-pooh the moving diorama look, but fuck'em; I love it. I don't like guys on pedestals, but having guys dropping out is cool. Old Glory, yeah, anatomy is odd and straps don't always line up, but they have spirit! This stand is on the left of the line, taking unexpected fire from that direction. 

Getting better at flags: foil on a sewing pin. 

Last one: Stuart's Berdan's were killing me. I needed an answer: 300 rifles. I fancied them as Charleston Sharpshooters but fabricated the uniform. Early war, says I. 

300 Man Essex Loading (there's half of my greatcoat command)

Dust still evident! 

 ... and surely a wrong flag. 

Next up - a brand new Essex firing unit for a Virginia brigade. I'll post the Texas brigade soon after. 

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858