Sunday 15 May 2011

Flying the Spirit Flag!

Earlier this year, I learned that one of my South Carolina based cousins had been offered a place at the Citadel, one of the United State’s oldest and most-respected military institutions. I have yet to hear if he accepted the place, as he also received offers from several other worthy universities.
Partly in honor of him, but mostly because it was fun, I decided to add a Citadel Spirit Flag to my Confederate Army of Oxford. I’ve already established that there is a strong South Carolina contingent to the force, and the flag is just such an attractive piece.  Normally, it will fly over one of my batteries, but it is pictured here with the first Confederate figure I have painted from Steve Barber Miniatures.
Previously, I painted a Union officer that I received as a sample. I was pretty enthusiastic about that figure, and that enthusiasm carries on to this one. The figure has some incredibly sharp detailing that makes it a joy to paint. Size-wise, it is fractionally bigger than my Sash and Sabre and Perrys figures, but I’ve placed this guy right into a mixed unit and he’s difficult to pick out.  I do wonder a little about his close-legged stance. I am told that this comes straight out of a period drill manual, but it looks a bit unnatural to me. I wonder how often such a stance was employed by troops in battle. Still, this a minor point to me.

I have purchased several more packs of these figures and will be hopefully showing off some more soon.

3 comments:

  1. Great figure and flag! I like the steve barber as well but I'm not sure about them being multi-part. Don't like the gluing :-)

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  2. Impressive about the cousin's job offer. Now if only they'll be hiring historians a year from now... (Oh, yes, the fig is impressive too.)

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  3. MiniMike, I to am wary of multi-part figures. Superglue is unpleasant stuff and to be avoided if possible. That said, the firing line figures only consist of three parts. The torso has a peg to fit into the legs, which may need to be trimmed, but once it is the correct height this is no proble. The head also goes into the torso with a peg. Thus all the joins are very easy. I'm less enthusiastic about the marching figures as you have to glue the arm onto a flat shoulder, so I'm generally avoiding these.

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