Monday, August 18, 2014

11th New York "Fire Zouaves"


The 11th New York "Fire Zouaves" or Ellsworth Zouaves were organized from hand picked fire fighters from New York City in May 1861 with high expectations due to their famous commander Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth a personal friend to President Lincoln who prior to organizing the 11th NY was a celebrated drill instructor that competed in troupe championships and travelled extensively putting on presentations before the war.

In late May after both getting in minor trouble with the law and at the same time putting out local fires the regiment was among the first to set foot on confederate soil capturing Alexandria Virginia on 24 May 1861. However, Ellsworth himself was shot and killed taking down a confederate flag from atop the Marshall House inn by it's proprietor James Jackson who himself was shot and killed by    Ellsworth's guard Cpl. Francis Brownell and received the medal of honour for it. Ellsworth was replaced by Colonel Noah L. Farnham another popular officer within the regiment.

On  July 21, 1861 the regiment fought in the 1st Battle of Bull Run(first Manassas) where after a shaky start due to confusion went on to both repulse a cavalry charge from a portion of Stuart's cavalry and make 4 attempts at taking Henry House Hill and later conducting a rearguard action of the retreating Union army. The unit suffered heavy causalities including Colonel Farnham who was so seriously wounded he could no longer command troops again. With the loss of their best officers and men plus disease pretty much knocked the stuffing out of the regiment which never really recovered and finally mustered out on June 2 1862 with a couple attempts later to reorganize that never saw fruition for various reasons.

I've always liked the look of this unit which is a kind of rough and tumble bunch of Zouaves looking. I've depicted the unit in it's second uniform at the time of Bull Run which was a mix of old and new uniform's consisting of  red Kepi's w/dark blue band, red fezz's and blue tassel's, and some with tan leather leggings from their first uniform and red/white shirt's, new blue fezz's and tassel's, a few in havelocks, dark blue pants and sashes plus some Bowie style knives and rifled muskets . They had removed their coats of dark blue Zouave jacket with red cuffs and red trimming with sky blue trimming inside the red to fight in what was a very hot day.

In terms of gaming this wasn't a very practical unit to do with it's very short history, but I really liked their look and knew I had to do them! I expect I'll do that a few times more with other units.:-) Anyhow I'll use them as regular Zouaves for other games. The flags were a bit challenging as I had to use two different manufacturer's as GMB frustratedly does not produce the Fire Zouaves. Looking around I found that Flags of War does one so I put in an order. While the design is nice the trim was way to yellow so I had to paint over that and sadly,the national colours that come with it were to bright(sorry Ian) for me. Since GMB flags are bigger then Flags of War I couldn't use one of those which caused me to rummage around before I found a Body's banner flag of the same size and a suitable colour in my bit's case.....only problem it has the 24th Michigan written on it!! At this point I said screw it and promptly stuck it on and in the heat of battle I don't think it will be that noticeable.

The figures are based two to a base to be used primarily for Regimental Fire and Fury where you need a lot of bases even for the smaller actions, but I can also simply put two bases together for other systems if needed.

Certain aspects of photography I don't like doing, but find it a necessary evil to share the hobby and my passion for it. By this I mean I don't enjoy the set up, photo sizing and cleaning up portion of it, but I do enjoy the end results and sharing it on my blog. I hope to improve on my story telling and presentation in the future as I find my set ups getting stale at times, but I don't always have the time to do proper ones so I may in the future do little battlefield photo sessions when I have time to put in a decent effort.

One thing that has me in a bit of a pickle is that I'm currently doing two horse and muskets periods with AWI and ACW which are both very demanding in terms of high figure counts which always has me procrastinating which one to do a unit for next! Oh, if you haven't got the new BP Rebellion supplement and you enjoy the AWI period then this is a must have! It's really great and full of uniform guides, lovely pictures, and just stuffed full with scenario's!


Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures

48 comments :

  1. Your Fire Zouaves are fantastic! I really like the mix of kit and uniform and they will look striking on the battlefield. I like the flags too. Who cares if they had a short military history? No me! Your Fire Zouaves can write their own military history from their exploits on your gaming table!

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    1. Thank you Jonathan! Yeah, as far as Zouaves went they ended looking a little rag tag, but I suppose that's part of their charm!

      Christopher

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  2. Beautiful paintjobs and lovely figures

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  3. Very eye-catching unit and always interesting to read their history.

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    1. Thank you Matt glad you enjoyed the background.

      Christopher

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  4. Excellent work here Christoper. They look great on the field and I love those flags.

    I hate taking pics as well. Setting up the lights, positioning and repositioning the figure and having to take 15 shots to get one good one. It's a right pain in the arse.

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    1. Thank you very much Anne and taking a bucket load of pics is indeed a right pain in the arse!

      Christopher

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  5. Very nice rendition, ace paintjobs and quite a nifty piece of unit history. Nothing wrong to use the 'cool guys' as stand-ins.

    Cheers, Tilman

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  6. Another excellent ACW unit Christopher, always a treat to see your musket era Regt's, and always on a very nice terrain setting, I must make more effort to do the same!

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  7. Great work Chris! The red is absolutely striking. I'm not that deep into horse and muskets as you know but these guys are just great. Have to have a closer look next time we meet.

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    1. Thank you kindly Nick! Give yourself time you may eventually like it more and more. Now I've always liked ACW/AWI, but before Mike I didn't much care for the SYW and now I like it a lot!:-)

      Christopher

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  8. What a tremendous looking unit Christopher and a colourful history to boot - top work Sir.

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  9. Impressive brushwork and history, Christopher. Your groundwork is also very nicely done. I'm always surprised at the variety of uniforms for certain ACW units . Best, Dean

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    1. Thank you very much Dean! Yes indeed uniforms could very quite a bit especially in the very early period of the war.

      Christopher

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  10. VERY nice! I have some too which I keep putting off painting for some reason. They're a fine looking unit and the basing is also excellent.

    Envious . . . ;O)

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    1. Thank kindly Gary! When you do them they are some work, but pay off in the end.

      Christopher

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  11. Superb Fire Zouaves Christopher! The Rebellion supplement does look good.

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    1. Thank you very much Cyrus! I'm looking forward to gaming some of the Rebellion scenario's.

      Christopher

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  12. Wonderful painting mate. Gorgeous bright colours and you always photograph your stuff so well too.

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    1. Thank you very much Michael I really appreciate that.

      Christopher

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  13. Damn lovely painting Chris! Every ACW collection should have Zouaves. Poor boys, they did not last long, did they?

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    1. Thank you very much Monty! No they sure did not.

      Christopher

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  14. Good work Chris, nice colourful Zoaves!

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  15. They turned out beautifully. The falgs are a real eyecatcher and the colour combination as well as your execution really make this unit shine. Finally, the photo setup with nice background and scenic elements further improves the overall excellent impression if these chaps.

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    1. Thank you very much dab that's very kind of you to say.

      Christopher

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  16. They look great Christopher! Very nice work on these striking fellas.

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  17. Oh these are just legendary! And what a beautifully sized unit too. Wonderful work sure to make an impression on the gaming table!

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  18. Stunning paintwork on these Zouaves Christopher! Lovely bases too.

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  19. I'm late Christopher, love the red contrast of the figures and flocking of bases look really cool to me as well as the stage settings (art direction is in your blood! :o)

    I use natural sun light from my painting room window to take photos of my work.

    cheers,

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    1. Thank you very much Phil and your not late as it sometimes takes me a couple days if at all before I can comment on the blogs as real life has it's priorities(sadly).

      I have the whole sham bang with photographic lights and photo box plus natural lighting from a window, but it's still always a challenge to get pictures to come out I'm fully satisfied with. I know where is the violin you say....:-)

      Christopher

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  20. Those look fantastic! Great figures and a great paint job! I really like the early war ACW stuff!

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    1. Thank you kindly Cory! Yes indeed, the early war has some very interesting uniforms.

      Christopher

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  21. Fantastic paint job, a great looking unit!

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  22. Hi Christopher, beautiful unit! Great composition and colours . I esp like how the dark blue trousers worked out.
    I don't like the photography part either and I often just do a very quick set up and shoot a few pictures with very minimal cleanup. Can take ages otherwise. I like how you do this with your setup, it brings the unit more to life.

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    1. Thank you very much Mike! I wish could just snap my fingers and all the photographs are finished and posted on the blog.......ah well one can dream.:-)

      Christopher

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