More Rebs & Yanks (Off Topic #17)

Apart from the Napoleonic period my other main wargaming interest is the American Civil War. This is undoubtedly the result of exposure as a child to ACW related toys that became available here in the UK around the time of the Centenary. The most fascinating of these to my young mind was a bloodthirsty series of Civil War bubblegum cards. I still have them (my favourites are framed on our hall wall) but when I look at them now I’m amazed that they were ever put on sale to children!

A bit gory, but not to a 7 year old

Of course the other big event at the time was the release of the Airfix range of HO/OO ACW figures and my brother and I had boxes and boxes of them. They were continually deployed on the carpet fighting battle after battle over dressing-gown hills. Their ranks included the famous “hello Mum” running man (as immortalised on Matt’s blog) and those brilliant Officers who looked liked pirates. Being the older of the two of us I suppose my brother got first pick at sides and I got lumbered with the Yanks, but it never felt like second prize.

Billy Yank waiting to greet Johnny Reb

Just over 10 years ago I decided to collect two 15mm ACW armies for Fire & Fury and the recruiting of these forces has been incredibly slow. One reason of course is that the Hinton Hunts have come to dominate my hobby time leaving very little time for other projects. So last autumn I decided to give up on painting the remaining 200 or so figures myself and turn for help to the Blue Turkey painting service.

15mm Confederates (mostly AB figures) painted by Blue Turkey

I was really impressed with the service from Alan at Blue Turkey – he quoted a very reasonable price and delivered exactly when he said he would with all the figures painted to the same high standard as his original sample figure. In fact it has probably taken me longer to base the figures than he took to paint them. It may not be long before the Yanks and Rebs do battle again although this time it won’t be on the carpet as I don’t think either of us could manage all that crawling around on our knees now.