Friday, October 7, 2011

Wainwright Battery #1 I Corps


I'm modelling my armies under the command structure at Gettysburg for both sides. This is my first artillery piece for the period and is a 3" rifled parrott gun.Information on each battery under General Wainwright at the time of Gettysburg is a bit sketchy except for perhaps Lt. Greenleaf T. Stevens and so I'll just number them battery #1, #2 etc. for ease.
Wainwright was commissioned a major in the 1st New York Artillery on October 17, 1861 and rose quickly through the ranks.
He was chief of artillery of I Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg where he helped repulse the Confederate attacks on Cemetery Hill and exchanged volleys with confederate artillery prior to Pickett's charge.
In 1864 he became chief of artillery of V Corps and also attained the rank of Brevet General which he held until the end of the war.
He was an author as well writing "A Diary of Battle: The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, 1861–1865" where he discussed his opinions on various generals he served under and experiences he had to include engagements and how to use artillery.
I was pretty keen to try out the new Foundry ACW paints, but didn't want to do a whole regiment before trying it out and so opted for an artillery piece as a test run. The Union Blue does come out authentically dark, but I'm undecided if it's perhaps too dark as I prefer a bit of a zing to my miniatures. The Union Blue Trousers came out great and so no need for a second thought on that. I'm looking forward to see if the confederate colors work out just as good. For the cannon body I tried Foundry's French Gun Olive Green and thought it too bright and so instead went with French Dragoon Green which I quite like.
Next up Iron Brigade!
Thank you for viewing.:-)
Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures

22 comments :

  1. Stunning as usual Christopher!
    Cheers
    Paul

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  2. Looking very nice Christopher.

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  3. Very nice. The gun looks to be a rifled artillery piece rather than the 'napoleon' style gun? I know both styles were used at Gettysburg from the recent documentary on SKY...

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  4. Thanks guys!

    @Scott
    That's correct it is a rifled piece of which I now added into the description thanks to your question.
    The union army actually had more rifled pieces then Napoleons and of course far more then confederates had.

    Cheers
    Christopher

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  5. Just beautiful work, as always. Stunning piece. Dean

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  6. Hi Chris,
    a very good looking painting job, just as usual. It's always great fun watching your artworks.
    Cheers
    Mike

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  7. Incredibly beautiful painting ...

    http://dioramanet.blogspot.com/

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  8. Lovely Chris, how many artillery pieces are you looking at for your Union army?

    Cheers,

    Helen

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  9. Terrific painting, as always, Christopher. Lovely basing, too. I'm tempted by the new Foundry paints but worry that they are other triads that have been rebranded. Palettes like Prussian and French Blue are very dark on ther own, and i often use lighter shades of other palettes. Anyway, a beautiful unit.

    Best wishes

    Giles

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  10. Great painting and basing -the flowers really make it stand out.

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  11. Thanks everyone!!

    @Helen

    I'm not exactly sure how many, but I figure roughly 3 or 4 per Corp as they assigned initially to Corps and then moved them from brigade to brigade where needed.

    @Giles
    Yep, the French Blue and the Union Blue are the same or virtually the same. My feelings are the same as yours in that perhaps the shade is authentic, but just too dark for my tastes. Taking a cue from your French I'll just use Deep Blue C as my final highlight to get the contrast I like.

    Cheers
    Christopher

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  12. Great looking figures and great base! Most of my 15mm figures are for the Gettysburg campaign, but I'm organizing my 28mm figs for the Western Campaign (particularly Atlanta - Nashville).

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  13. Oooh, I'm late! :) Great work, Christopher! Nice to see you back to one of your favourite periods!

    Looking forward to hearing more about the Foundry colours you are using. :) I was quite disappointed by their Napoleonic range, but I'm glad their ACW seems to be ok... Do they have a shiny finish? Cause that is what disturbed me with their Nap range... Shiny finish and lousy coverage!

    PS and slightly OoT: I'm just reading The Fort by Cornwell at the moment about the Penobscot Expedition... It made me go through your AWI stuff again. Cracking stuff! :)

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  14. Thanks.:-)

    @Doc

    I didn't notice any shininess to the ACW colors and the coverage seemed to be fine, although I haven't tried the confederate colors yet.
    I've heard about the fort and glad you like the AWI stuff I did!:-) As a matter of fact I'm finishing up another militia unit that I had sitting on my desk for ages!
    I've really come back to North American history so expect plenty of ACW, AWI and F&IW for some time to come with just a bit of Crusades on the sides with my Arabs.

    Cheers
    Christopher

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  15. Beautiful piece Chris! Very much looking forward to see this grow as it might even inspire me to try some blue myself :-)I use the confederate foundry colours and I find the quality of the triad varies. They are very thin but I do not find that very disturbing as I like it that way. As with almost all Foundry triads I mix them (with Vallejo paints) as there is either too little or too much contrast in the sets that suit my painting style. Rebel grey is my favorite, gives nice results when you darken the base colour a bit.

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  16. Thanks Michael!
    I usually prefer my paint with a lots of pigment and then thin it myself to desired consistency. Foundry paints used to have quite a bit of pigment, but seemed to have started thinning it to my chagrin.
    When I find a foundry triad to strong at any point then I usually mix them together(the a, b,c's that is) to get the tones I want and usually this works without needing to use other brands or even colors.

    Cheers
    Christopher

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  17. Beautiful painting once again, I love the colours on the base!

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  18. Great piece again Chris! Like the blues

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  19. Nice, three comments from me now :-)
    Noticed I already had commented, that's what you get when you are catching up over a weeks worth of blogs...Cheers, Michael

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