A Regiment a Month, part 2: more Union troops

At the debut of may, 7 brave wargamers took upon them the gauntlet of trying to commit and paint a regiment each month.
The first month saw four regiments (a pulp warband, a Nurgle unit, a Confederate cavalry regiment and a Union infantry regiment) and a scenery piece for 28mm pulp gaming as a result.

Now, month two closes and what will be the yield of this round...

28th Massachusetts (4th Irish Brigade)



My entry for the second month is another regiment of Union troops for use in the ACW. Continuing to build upon my `Irish force`, the 28th Massachusetts is also known as the `4th Irish Brigade`, carrying the green of Erin into battle.

The regiment is 20 bodies strong, an average size for most game systems, and are all metal greatcoat models from Wargames Foundry. Banners are from Flags of War.

The 28th Massachusetts Infantry regiment was the second primarily Irish American volunteer infantry regiment recruited in Massachusetts for service in the American Civil War. The regiment's motto (or cry) was Faugh a Ballagh (Clear the Way!)

The 28th was raised in Boston and received its initial training at Camp Cameron in Cambridge and Somerville. The unit underwent additional training at Fort Columbus in New York harbor before being dispatched in early 1862 for its first active duty assignment.

After serving briefly under Gen. Benjamin Butler in the Carolinas and with the 9th Corps during the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's first campaign into the North, the 28th Massachusetts was assigned to the II Corps as the fourth regiment of the famed Irish Brigade (US), commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher.
Col. Richard Byrnes

Known for their distinctive Tiffany-embroidered green flag and Gaelic war cry, "Faugh a Ballagh" (Clear the Way), the Irishmen of the 28th Massachusetts saw action in most of the Union Army's major eastern theatre engagements – Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the siege of Petersburg – and were present for Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.

Upon completion of their original three-year term of service, many of the 28th's veteran soldiers elected to return to Massachusetts. But a sufficient number re-enlisted by January 1, 1864, to justify the continuation of the regiment as a five-company battalion of "veteran volunteers" until the end of the war.

For most of its service, the 28th Massachusetts was commanded by Col. Richard Byrnes, who had previously served in the cavalry. Wounded on June 3, 1864, while leading the Irish Brigade at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Byrnes died nine days later.

Stage actor Lawrence Barrett served as captain of the regiment's Company B, but served for less than a year, resigning in August 1862.



Among all Union regiments, the 28th Massachusetts ranked seventh in total losses. Roughly one-quarter of the 1,746 men who served in the unit were killed, died of wounds or disease, taken prisoner, or reported missing.

The surviving veterans of the regiment marched in Washington, D.C., during the Grand Review that celebrated the war's conclusion, then traveled home to Massachusetts, where they were paid and discharged from the service at Readville in June 1865.



My next unit for the ACW is normally my plastic Perry zouaves, numbering 40 troopers BUT... it won`t be for the ARAM entry of July. This is due to July being by far the busiest month in the year at work, and even now I don`t even feel my feet anymore, so painttime will be very limited.
No worries though, I already have my next entry planned out, it`ll be a regiment, or rather a band, of individualistic dressed warriors. That way, I can get about a model done every 2 evenings, which should be a managable tally for the comming month. Just a hint, X marks the spot arrrrr.

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth review #8: Jabu of Unicorn

Arrogant, cocky, feeling superior to his opponents, yet undyingly loyal to those he believes in... this fella shares my character traits.

Often seen as the `leader` of the B-team of bronze saints, Jabu looked to become one of the main antagonists of the story when you saw the start of the Galaxian Wars, up till the appearance of Ikki. It isn`t until the Lost Canvas that we get to see more of the Unicorn saint when his previous incarnation Yato dons the cloth.

Personally, I always liked this fella, ranking him in my top 5 of favorite saints. The cloth design in my opinion was way more elegant than many of the `chest - belt` designs a couple of the bronzes shared initially.

But what where they thinking when they let him, of all saints, defect from Saori`s side to Artemis`s in the Heaven Ouverture... did ol` Kuru loose his mind????



But onwards to the model. As most bronze saints, the cloth is a lot simpler in design then for example the Mariners. Bronze clothes generally lack upper arm pieces, have simpler leg designs, and not to much `tits and tats` of bits around him. A pattern that also follows the (anime) design of the Unicorn (in the manga, most bronzes have no leg armour, and he has a horned hairband as headpiece), BUT with an option of two headsets included in the box.
The full horned helmet as he is seen in the original series, and a horned hairband like he sports in the manga and as Yato has in the Lost Canvas.

The waist piece is actually a belt with a plate added in front, not a full `robe` as many other cloths have, the rest is pretty standard yet elegant, with armpieces sliding over the forearms, shoulder pieces locking the chest parts together and in place, a hairset for with or without any of the headsets...

I posed the model in kind of a challenging position, sort of `come and get it` look. In order to have him poised in his signature move, the Unicorn gallop, which is a flying kick, one would have to use the stands Bandai creates and of which I ain`t a fan at all.

To assemble the Object, it`s a very basic, standard assemblage, cliking the chest around the middle of the object, putting arm and leg pieces on the legs of the unicorn object `frame`, and getting the helmet on the head.

One would think this is a very `boring` cloth, but actually in my opinion, and not biased by being a `fan` of this particular saint, this is actually one of his fortes. If you look at his object, you can clearly identufy all the pieces as they are on the clothed up model, something not really seen with a lot of later releases where parts tend to get fully absorbed into the frame or hang on somewhere left or right. This ain`t really Bandai`s fault though, one should have a look at the appendixes in the various manga issues and see that some clothes are really complex and not recreatable modelwise, due to having parts `shrink` or `grow` in the drawings between cloth and saint.

I rate the Unicorn saint no less then a 5 out of 5. Because I like the character, yes, but also because I really love the elegance coming forth out of the simplicity of the model, one does not always have to have lot of flashy stuff to actually become a gracious design... bit like the USS Defiant in Star Trek DS9 I suppose, beautiful in his spartan purposeness.

The Saints of Hope

A few years ago, Bandai released a series of Gashapon `bottlecap` miniatures, each about 4cm in height and mounted on large round bases.



These models are made in the typical soft plastic of gashapon`s, but also used for example in the production of Heroclix models. The models are monocoloured, and the bases removable, so it wouldn`t be to hard to start repainting them and as such, prepare a complete new setting for the use of the SuperSystem rules. Skills enough in there to recreate the Saint`s attacks and face them off against Marvel`s, DC`s and whotnot`s galore soonish.



Now that I have the full series completed except for 1 `secret model`, namely Shaina from the second `season` of models, it`s time to start painting them up. I went for the same painting method I use on my Heroclix, namely directly unto the plastic, using the `main colour` of a model as the undercoat, and using three `layers` for each colour to get a nice contrasting, comic stylish paintjob. A style which got me some nice praises when I initially entered it this year in the LPL5 over at Lead Adventure with Alpha Flight, so why change a winning team is it not.

And then some pictures of the individual Saints, still statting them up though at the moment, but expect to see (some of) them in a battle report in the future though

Pegasus Saint Seiya



Dragon Saint Shiryu



Cygnus Saint Hyoga



Andromeda Saint Shun



Phoenix Saint Ikki



The sculpts themselves are based on the manga`s though, not on the anime, and as such hover somewhere between what is called the `2nd` and `3rd` version of the cloths in the anime series, aka those between Asgard arc (which doesn`t exist in the manga) and the Hades Inferno arc. Apart mostly from the legguards, there is barely a difference.
I also went for the anime colouring, as in the manga they all wear white clothing with single colour armour over it, the biggest differences being the Cygnus cloth having a more blueish colour, and the Phoenix cloth even being totally orange instead of the more sinister colours as seen on screen.

Oh, and if someone has a the Shaina model from this series spare or not for use, drop me a line and I`ll happily liberate you from it for a decent price...

Ciao ciao and may your Cosmo burn supreme forever!

Lunamaria Hawke

Arrived today to adorn my cabinet, the Babe of all Gundam Babes, Lunamaria Hawke!



It`ll be hard these days for me to pass by the cabinet and not stop staring teeheeheee

Take Wing, ALPHA FLIGHT!

Alpha Flight, Canada`s line of defense against all things out of the ordinary, wether they be supervillains or alien invasions.

For years they defended the Maple Leaf Flag against all, but then Michael Pointer, aka The Collective, crossed the border.

Alpha Flight set out to stop him... and got decimated by the super empowered postal worker, many of their number loosing their lives as a direct result. Alpha Flight had fallen, and though a substitute team was created under the name of Omega Flight and ironically had Michael don the Guardian suit, things didn`t work out quite the same.

Then the Chaos War came, and in an effort to defeat the Chaos King, Sasquatch, one of the survivors of the Collective debacle, struck a deal with the Great Beasts in an effort to stop the malicious entity, and returning Alpha Flight from beyond the veil of the defeated Death.

Now, they stand tall once again to take on all the enemies of the state.

Take Wing, Alpha Flight!



Guardian and Vindicator

James and Heather Hudson, married, and both wearers of a Guardian suit, led the team each on occassion. Granting them the ability to manipulate the Earth`s force field for flight, strength, durability and projecting energy blasts.



Sasquatch and Puck

The muscle of the team, Sasquatch is also a brilliant scientist, while tiny dwarf Puck, who used to be a bouncer in a bar, is a very atlethic and brave little fighter, but unfortunatly at present he hasn`t returned from beyond the grave.



Snowbird and Shaman

Narya, or Snowbird, is a halfbreed Inuit goddess, able to shapeshift into the forms and powers of artic beasts like a white owl, a polar bear and the likes. Michael Twoyoungmen, aka Shaman, is probably the most brilliant surgeon in Canada, but also a medicine man of his tribe, using old rituals to invoke magics through his medicine bag.



Northstar and Aurora

The twins, they are both mutants capable of supersonic flight. Though Aurora is the slightly stronger of the two, she is also mentally unstable. They can combine their powers by touch to generate highly destructive light based blasts.



Marrina and Wild Child

Both originally members of Alpha Flight`s training squad, they occassionally joined the team. Marrina is an alien who can reach supersonic swimspeeds and resides often in Atlantis at the side of Namor before her initial demise, while Wild Child, who is one of the `Weapon X` program subjects, currently having regained his mutant powers somehow even though having been depowered in the events from House of M.

Captain Britain and MI13

During the invasion of the Skrulls in the `Secret Invasion` storyline from Marvel and afterwards with the location of escaped evils from Avalon and Dracula`s master plan, Britain`s secret services rallied all the british superheroes to their cause.

Under the banner of MI13, these heroes, with a newborn and even mightier Captain Britain faced off against the many threats threatening the UK, the focus point of all magic in the world. Together, Pete Wisdom, Captain Britain, The Black Knight, Spitfire and Blade stand ready to defend the realm!



Missing models as they haven`t been `Heroclix-ed` yet: Faiza, `John Lennon`

Nena Trinity - Gundam 00

The newest addition to my anime collection, the pvc statuette of Nena. Now to build my Throne Drei to go with her for the Gundanium! project.



She`ll definitly make a nice `accompanying piece` if the project is a go, who can`t resist a freckled, psychotic redhead after all.

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth review #7: Geki the Bear

One of the great things I personally like about the Myth cloth series, is that it also has models of the `B-Team` of Saints, or `the five that where left behind` after the Galaxian Wars, namily Unicorn, Bear, Lionet, Hydra and Wolf.

Unfortunatly the prices for some are going through the roof on eBay at the moment, with Ban the Lionet and especcially Nachi the Wolf clocking in well over a 100 dollars for the model. On the other hand, with the low course the dollar is steering at the moment, they still are more or less affordable to us European fans.

These 5 saints played a secondary role in the anime and manga, being featured in the anime adaption to `show off` the powers of the main anagonists (though you`d get the impression Jabu of Unicorn would have been a mainliner in the first episodes, like Yato became in the Lost Canvas), and to protect the fallen Saori in the later half of the battle for Sanctuary, and again for Seka (Seiya`s missing sister) in the Elysium chapter of the Hades arc.



The first thing you notice when you open the box, is that Geki is a large model, towering more then a head`s length over the other Bronze saints (who, at that time, are boys of around 14 to 16 years of age), and half a head over the other, more `adult` saints like the God Warriors or the Gold Saints.

Having trained in Canada by defeating a grizzly bear barehanded to gain the cloth, Geki is a warrior relying on pure physical strength, and has a solid cloth to represent this. While the bronze cloths in the anime where heavily adapted from their manga counterparts (a robed mid section, a full helmet, lower leg armour), the Bear saint stays rather true to the original, with still a belt only for the midsection armour, and a headpiece `hairband style`.

The cloth itself is very simple to assemble, having an interlocking chestplate and connecting shoulderpads, and `glide over` leg and arm armour which don`t have to interlock with any other parts, making the model an easily posable model. I opted to just put him in a sort of boasting pose though, because well, that just does the job for me in my cabinet.

All in all, a simple model, yet elegant in it`s execution and style, with no mistakes or such in it. I`m rating this a 4 out of 5 stars, as it doesn`t have to be spectacular with many parts and oddities to be an effective display model in my opinion!

Sanctuary, home of the Twelve Houses

The latest `scenery` I got, received yesterday in the mail.



Each temple is about 5cm in height, which is nice to have around for a future game... of which I cannot say to much yet, as it is my `planned project` for 2013 (in other words, apart from a setting, I have no clue what I`m going to do).

On a different note though, watch silly season (aka, convention period) 2012, when my newest project dubbed `Gundanium!` (bonus points for he who can guess what that will involve teeheeeheee) hopefully hits the road.

Ciao ciao