"Six Pounder Guns Had Mostly Disappeared From The Union Armies By 1863."

"But the Confederates continued using them until the end of the war."

This 15mm scale plastic Confederate Artillery piece is sold by “Warlord Games” and can be found on their Epic Battles: American Civil War Infantry Frame. This is the second of three cannons I require for my Johnny Rebs force, having recently discovered I need to field a trio of these stands to form a six gun six-pounder smoothbore artillery regiment in "Black Powder".

As the 'kit' comes in three different pieces, with a pair of soldiers holding each wheel and the actual cannon, I decided to paint the miniatures separately and gave the figures a couple of coats of “Vallejo" Sombre Grey. I then busied myself by 'picking out' the odd set of trousers using either "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, or "Vallejo" Steel Grey and "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade.

"Warlord Games" WIPs - These Iron Brigade soldiers are slowly having their details 'picked out'

With the pants all finished, I turned my attention to predominantly applying some "Citadel Nuln Oil" to the Confederate's already "Vallejo" Sombre Grey jackets, and subsequently spent some additional time applying both a lick of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and a dash of "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson to their kepis to better mark the crewmembers out as artillerymen. I was slightly tempted to mark this particular unit out as belonging to Florida's contribution to the Civil War by having a couple of the soldiers wear 'straw hats'. But in the end settled upon them having either "Vallejo" Sombre Grey or "Citadel" Abaddon Black broad-brimmed headwear.

I had hoped to just plonk the big gun in between the weapon's completed miniatures and give it a quick lick of "Vallejo" Heavy Grey, Brass and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. However, the paint and varnish on the models made 'squeezing' the unpigmented cannon into an already tight space a real chore. Furthermore, when it came to basing the team's rectangular stand with PVA glue, grit and paint/shade, I ended up having to 'fix' the odd figure which was accidentally splashed in the process. This extra work convinced me that sub-assemblies was not the way to go with future artillery units.

"Warlord Games" WIPs - Another ten 'Straw Hats' for my 1st Florida Regiment 

Sometimes such 'pain' can somewhat put me off a hobby project. However, having watched the 2020 American television miniseries "Grant", I've found my enthusiasm for wargaming the American Civil War to be as high as ever, and resultantly I've even started working on some opposition for the Confederacy - namely a Regiment of metal Iron Brigade (or black hats).

Furthermore, I've begun applying my brush to a third stand of Johnny Rebs for my 1st Florida Infantry Regiment, so as to bring it in line with the criteria needed for a small foot unit in Black Powder. It really is early days on this plastic strip, with just some basic layers being applied to the ten soldiers' shoes and trousers. Hopefully though, having learnt some valuable time-saving lessons with this 15mm range in the past, I can push through these reinforcements quite quickly, and then move on to the 1st Mississippi Infantry Regiment...