The Army of Northern Virginia, 1863

Happy New Year!  Good luck to you all for the upcoming 2013, and hopefully your 2012 was a good one.

I have a quick little update to post as I have achieved the unheard-of achievement of completing one of my projects in the same year it was started!  Back in February 2012 I decided to use 1/72 plastics to play the American Civil War, and bought a bunch to create a Rebel army.  I progressed them steadily all through the year, on and off, then just before New Year I managed to finish the last of them.  

The Full Force.  Sadly due to the dark evenings, I have struggled to get good pics of them  all, due to the lack of matural light!

Longstreet with his Corps.  These were the first ones finished, and were posted some time back as pretty much the only 'update' on this project while it ran away in the background.

A.P. Hill's Corps, plus the army HQ of General Lee

Yet more infantry.  I based them DBA-style, four figures to a base.  The varied poses of the Italeri figures gives the rebels a suitably ramshackle appearance.

Rebel Cavalry - actually U.S. Cavalry Italeri figures, but it makes virtually no difference!  The leader figure of JEB Stuart is actually the mounted officer figure that comes with the Italeri Infantry sets, but he seemed suitably jaunty! 

Artillery batteries - each of the corps gets two, to support the dozen-odd infantry brigades.  They are from the Italeri Union Artillery set, where each box has 2 cannon, plus a very large limber team (should you wish to model a camp, for example.)

The Corps and Army commanders.  The figures are from Newline Designs, except for JEB Stuart as mentioned.  The binocular-waving ADC riding with Lee is actually an artillery officer from the Union Artillery set, and a spare infantryman standing to attention was added for a bit more of an entourage. 

I also picked up a pile of resin 'entrenchments' at the Claymore 2012 show back in August, so I have painted them up for use as well, given their increased usage in 1864-5 by the ANV.

The entire army - now I just need to collect the Union for them to fight!

For interest, I put together the force on a rough one-base-per-brigade line, using the Gettysburg OoB as a guide - although pretty much any battle from 1863-5 should be do-able with some minor tweaking.  Here, at least, is the original list:


R. E. Lee         Army HQ

Longstreet Corps HQ
McLaws 4 Infantry Brigades
Hood 4 Infantry Brigades
Pickett 3 Infantry Brigades
Corps Arty 2 Artillery Batteries

Ewell Corps HQ
Early 4 Infantry Brigades
Johnson 4 Infantry Brigades
Rodes 5 Infantry Brigades
Corps Arty 2 Artillery Batteries

A.P. Hill Corps HQ
Anderson 5 Infantry Brigades
Heth 4 Infantry Brigades
Pender 4 Infantry Brigades
Corps Arty 2 Artillery Batteries

J.E.B. Stuart Corps HQ (Cavalry)
Lee 2 Cavalry Brigades
Hampton 2 Cavalry Brigades

(total 37 Inf, 4 Cav, 6 Arty)