The video on battle of Little Bighorn in 20mm (part 13)

In the last few 3 months I´ve been around Little Bighorn 1876, something I wanted to do for decades by now. The miniatures are plastics, Revell, Atlantic, Italeri, Airfix and Giant. The US troopers of the 7th Cavalry are all conversions of ACW or Cowboy figures while the Indians are more straight forward figures painted straight from the box. Built on purpose to this terrain is the river and the Indian lodges. I still need plenty of Indians - around the double - but the stash I had is all made. The basing is according to the excellent set of rules Battles for Empire II.

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 12) - Last three 7th US cavalry companies

 

Last post before the video. Its always a pleasure to finish one of those projects you had from childhood. Still, I don´t have enough foot figure for the 11th company and the 12th company is totally missing. Fortunately this last company was guarding the pack train and didn´t participate in the battle. Another problem is not having enough Indian figures but at least I finished all figures I had available. 

No big news here, just a collection of the recent ways I use to produce 1876 US troopers. Revell and mostly Italeri ACW were used with kepis, sword and scabbards taken out. The larger slouch hats are Italeri foot figures, A Call to Arms , resized Airfix and Revell. Rifles and pistol holsters were glued on the right side of the horse and troopers. The fanion bearers were converted from figures holding a sword. This time there are more figures firing a pistol from the saddle which must have been much easier than firing (and recharging) the Springfield carbine while on horse. The figures firing the carbine to the left side had some of them cut in half by the torso and placed more frontally. 

The two last dismounted trooper's companies had some of them in buckskin coats and hats from the Hat Spanish Guerrilla set. Real desperation as I didn´t have anything else, only Airfix Australians which have too small heads. 

After 10 buglers directly from the sprues of Revell and Italeri ACW (that means 10 boxes of figures) this last one was made from a figure hacking with his sword as I hadv nothing else. Not the best cornet ever as its a home made GreenStuff thing. 

Some figures were again cut by the waist and moved in different directions for extra action while firing their pistols. 

The legs in the air of many horses were again disguised with static grass due to the use of electric glue to strenghten it. 

Next: The most awaited video of the decade - at least in Montana, USA - dedicated to LBH.

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 11) - One more Sioux/Cheyenne foot warriors batch

 ... and probably the last one, at least in the near future, as I´m out of Indian figures. Including the two last US cavalry companies still on the making, I have around 400 figures total for both sides. The US side at LBH had a total of around 700 men (and one boy on vacations). At a ratio of 1 to 5 you need 140 figures which I already largely overcame (also due to have the same figures both mounted and dismounted), but on the much bigger Indian side, of say 1800 men (a ratio of close to 3:1 in favor of the Indians), you need 360 figures from which I only have around 210, and that is counting with this group, still far from the aim. 

The figures are my remnants Revell, Atlantic and resized Airfix. There is an obvious exaggeration of feathered bonnets here, even if these were not exclusive of chiefs, but they were important as I was running out of figures and the feathered bonnets give lots of colour to the group. With so many feathered bonnets no one visiting my collection can call them Egyptians or Celts. The kind of thing that happens quite a lot :). 

All stands got spray primed with terracotta from Spectrum also in order to get the skin indian color something that speeded painting  a lot as skin color is dominant here. 

Next: last companies of 1876 US troopers. 

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 10) - The river and H company, 7th Cavalry

 

In the middle of the last few posts I´ve been toying with LBH terrain namely the river, hills and trees. While all hills and trees are old things the river is brand new. I tried to follow the course of the river close to the action points, both east - Custer Last Stand, Weir point and Reno and Benteen defence and west - Benteen´s failed southern attack. 

The gaps in the hills represent the ravines and coulees that were used to the approach of the 7th cavalry to the Indian huge camp. This one is Deep Coulee and to its left is Last Stand Hill. 

The view from Custer´s column while approaching the Indian camp. I tried to cover the Indian camp sight with lots of trees as it looks that Custer was mislead when attacking it as he was thinking he was attacking the northern part of the camp when he was really right at its center. 

The river is made of eight MDF parts. After cutting the shape the water effect is made from two tones of green ( I thought about brown but frankly I have more green :) later gloss varnished with spray. The banks of the river were made from thick layers of ochre paint+PVA glue dipped in a mixture of cat litter and sand then drybrushed in sand colour. 

One of the reasons for the "2D" teepees in which the round format of the base is not achieved is because of the need of placing over 30 of them is a narrow strip of terrain between 40-60 cm as the rest of the table is busy with river, trees and hills. 

I took the opportunity to make some extra pieces of river that can be used in other scenarios. 

Company H entered the fray both on horse and foot. The cavalrymen and horses are Italeri while the foot troopers are the usual Revell, resized Airfix and Esci. Most of these figures had new heads and cut out scabbards and swords. 

As I´m getting short of figures I used  figures that were hacking with their sabres (close to the neck) and turned them into pistols. You can do that by burning the whole sabre into a blob of plastic and then pulling the hot plastic into the shape of a pistol (cutting the excess in the end, obviously). Italeri has both a Confederate (left)  and an Union (right) trooper in very close positions of hacking with sabre that can be used as US 1876 troopers. 

H company had blood bay horses, being the only company with this horse color. I mean, this is theoretically, as I don´t know if these horse colors were that much followed. 

Next: more LBH Indians. 

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 9) - The second group of mounted troopers - D, E, F and G companies - of the 7th Cavalry (Airfix and Atlantic based)

 

These four companies are made from the old 1965 US cavalry and the Atlantic 1975 7th cavalry. Frankly what came next from Strelets, Lucky Toys and Waterloo 1815 didn´t improve that much what was available for the Plains Wars and so I used these oldies but goldies. 

D company is made of Airfix with two models at both ends from Italeri and Revell. The Airfix figures got slouch hats and had their scabbards and swords removed. I kept the ammunition bandolier around the torso (a way to carry ammo that only was used decades later) as a compromise. I also like to think that as there were several types of ammo belts in the US cavalry around 1876 some troopers might have used it in Mexican style. D company had bay and black horses.

The "Grey company" (E company ) is two stands Atlantic and one stand Airfix. Both brands got hats instead of the original kepis on top of the heads and they were simply glued, not pinned. This way the nice Atlantic faces are still there and the slightly bigger hats from Revell and Airfix makes them bond quite well with the Airfix models. 

F company is to the front with bay horses while G company is to the back with sorrel horses. 

Once again all troopers, buglers and officers got a plastic carbine hanging from the rear. .  

All horses had the four legs firmly attached to the base with the help of eletric glue and superglue.

 

Next: the Little Bighorn river

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 8) - More dismounted troopers (companies D,E,F and G)

 

Four more companies of dismounted troopers of the US 7th Cavalry. Again they are a mixture of re-scaled Airfix; Revell and some new Esci conversions. 

The Esci figure (left) is the standing Confederate with kepi. The usual treatment followed: trimmed trousers for it to look like boots; new pinned head and shortened rifle in order to look like Springfield carbines. A mixture of shirts, shell jackets and sack coats can be seen. 

Several of the figures had the ugly blue shirt with a plastron which made them look like Country music singers. The whole group is without gloves which is more appropriate for dismounted fight. 

The fanion holder is the cowboy firing the pistol with the left hand pressing frenetically the hammer spur. The left arm was changed in order to hold the fanion. 

Next: The Little Bighorn river

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 7) - The Indian Teepees

 

There were a bit over 1000 Teepees at the Little Bighorn divided among 11 tribal groups. With these 31 Teepees I reached the 34 mark (with the three plastic ones of part 5) which seems Ok to represent the huge Indian camp, probably, the biggest ever to be seen in that part of America. 

Everything started not on this piece of BlueBoard but on Chinese shops of my city. I remember in the past lots of small and big plastic bags filled with Indians and Cowboys (with a few Teepees inside) in those shops but somehow I couldn´t find any after entering a few of them.  Having quit buying Teepees I resorted to my trusted 4cm thick blueboard. This small board of around 35cmX35cm  was enough to make over 30 of them. 

Each was cut into a triangular shaped piece not exactly the same size and around 7cm height and 5cm at the base. The Teepees are round based structures but these became egg-shaped as the 4cm thick block doesn´t allow for more and I was lazy to use a thicker one. The Indian camps are mostly for decorative effects, excluding actions like the Washita massacre, and a "2d" representation is enough for me (the problem is if the cavalry wins and enters the village... well, highly unlikely). 

Each Teepee was slightly rounded with an X-acto and then sanded. On the tip five plastic broom stick pieces were stuck and then glued with hot glue simulating the long poles that hold the Teepee and cross each other at the top. 

The larger type made is the circular one with five Teepees each. Teepees were always facing the rising sun and the disposition of the bigger and smaller bases had to have this fact into consideration. 

The doors are simply painted black oval holes without the flapped doors. Maybe one day I´ll add them with a piece of Milliput. 

The top of the teepees were blackened as smoke was always coming from the central fire place. 

Next: more LBH or a return to Bir Hakeim. 

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 6) - Custer, Benteen, and Reno´s stands and dismounted troopers (companies A,B and C)

This one had to come. General Custer, Captain Benteen and Major Reno are made together with three companies of dismounted troopers. Some dead horses, useful for markers, were added and from now on only numbers are necessary as most of the different types of stands are made. 

Once again the big contributor for this one are the rescaled 1/32nd Airfix figures from the cowboys set together with a few Italeri dismounted cavalrymen and Revell cowboys. 

General Custer´s figure is the Revell Confederate cavalry officer. He got some extra GreenStuff hair and pistol holster, many cuts of the uniform and a side bent hat. 

All officer´s saddles got a shortened rifle for it to look like the Springfield carbines. The flag is the Headquarter´s flag of the 7th cavalry made by Custer´s wife. 

Major Benteen had long hair in 1876 and he is looking a bit like Louis XIV but also close to the real one. On his shoulders there is no hair but the distinctive shoulder straps. The same Italeri figure was used for the more fragile Major Reno with a different painted straw hat and moustache. 

The dismounted figures got many new hats for variety but also to replace hatless heads. The rescaled cowboys become great troopers after trimming the boots and cutting the second pistol and holster. Also you can get some troopers in sack coats by using the Revell firing cowboys. 

The ranks are a bit ragged with some troopers without their Springfield carbines which tended to jam after a few rounds. Like this Reno´s and Benteen´s actions can be portrayed together with Custer´s last stand as all of this had some degree of chaos. 

The dead Airfix and Italeri dead horses got hit by arrows mostly and two drilled holes and a piece of plastic squashed at the top plays the part. 

Next: numbers for LBH or a return to another campaign. 

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 5) - Indian Teepees, wagons and horse holders

 

This post had to be done now because it was occupying too much space on the modelling table due to its big bases. I was also eager to see how these markers would look after painting. 

The horse holders have four horses each which has always been a problem for the dismounted cavalry who looses 1/4 of his fire power. At Little Bighorn they were also a prime target for the Indians who knew that the US skirmish line would not only loose their mounts but also half of its Springfield cartridges, as 50 of them were carried by the horse´s saddle pockets. 

The horses are a mixture of Napoleonic Esci and ACW Italeri with the aim of having only horses at rest. The horse holders are 1/32 resized Airfix cowboys that I will also use in the next post about dismounted cavalry. 

Each stand was painted according to the first three company horse colors. 

This is the type of unit that Custer asked Benteen to come to his aid with the final sentence "PS: bring packs" as they had extra ammunition for the regiment. This is a box from Imex with ACW wagons and they suit reasonably the wagon train guarded by the 130 strong 12th company (the pack train with its mules is still missing). 

This is nowadays my biggest problem as I´m around Chinese shops trying to find more Teepees. The Sioux/Cheyenne camp at Little Bighorn was one of the biggest in Indian history and Custer when attacking its center  was deceived by the teees covering its true size as he thought he was attacking its left flank. 

These Teepees were cheap toys bought decades ago and could be found in many Euro and Chinese shops. But, as it happens quite often, now that I want more I can´t find them anywhere. If I find bigger Teepees I plan to cut them at the bottom so they become the size of these ones. I also had Atlantic Teepees but they simply vanished into many pieces while cleaning them. 

Next: 7th US Cavalry skirmish lines

Little Bighorn 1876 in 20mm (part 4) - The first three companies - A,B and C - of the 7th Cavalry (Italeri based)

 

The cavalry arrives in time to save the day! In fact not really as  the 7th cavalry, around 600+, had almost 50% casualties on the 26th june 1876 at Little Bighorn with five of its companies completely destroyed. 

I´ve been trying to portray the Custer´s 7th cavalry for ages but its not an easy task. When looking at PSR for the possibilities you become a bit disheartened as the available brands always shows these troopers with plenty of deficiencies: Strelets, has them accuratly portrayed but ugly modelled; Lucky Toys  even worse; Waterloo 1815 has nice figures but they are gigantic... 

With this panorama I resourced to what I had available in the stash, Atlantic/Nexus, Airfix and Revell/Italeri ACW with a few GIANT cowboys mixed in. For now I only have seven of the twelve companies necessary. Like this I can portray Custer´s Last Stand (five companies) or Benteen´s or Reno´s actions (three companies each) but not the entire regiment's actions for Little Bighorn. 

This first group of three companies is made almost intirely of bodies and horses from Italeri two boxes of ACW cavalry. The main job is to cut swords and scabbards (left at Fort Abraham Lincoln) and placing slouch hats instead of kepis (with little usage in that corner of North America). The 7th Cavalry was a well equipped unit but tended to relax in equipment and uniform as the campaigns progressed, with Custer itself as the main example. So in 25/26 June many troppers left aside their shell jackets and sack coats and were in grey and blue shirt order. For the regiment to look like a cohesive force I´m pretending them to be with shell jackets and/or blue shirts even if the shell jacket had little usage. The grey shirt was quite common but would break the unit´s colors and for that I only changed the color and type of hats, many of civilian origin.  In this picture the officer´s sword was cut off and he is now ordering its troopers forward. The slouch hats in this one are from ACW Italeri, Revell and Esci. 

Again the same but with an WW2 Australian bush hat for the officer and a Giant cowboy one to the cornet. 

Some troopers were also cut from the waist and turned to the front as too many Italeri figures are firing to the left side for easier cast. 

All troopers not firing their Spingfields trap-door carbines had a plastic one glued to the side of the horse. These were cut-down infantry rifles taken from whatever useless figures I could find. A good thing about Italeri is that many of them already had one modelled into the figure. 

Custer had the horses divided by colors among the companies which adds interest to this already famous unit. 

 

Still a bit to do ... 

Next: more Little Bighorn