Diving back into 28mm Civil War

Getting The Details Correct: Early War Specifics of Two Rival Battalions at 1st Manassas

 I’ve been working on a Small scale American Civil War tabletop rules system called “Vortex of Hell” for a while now, and it’s pretty much finished. Before historicon this year, I painted a battalion each of Rebs and federals so my friends could playtest it! I’ll write more about that soon in another post I think, but it was fantastic to get two fully painted battalions (75 or so individual minis each) on the tabletop with striking and well detailed terrain provided by my friend Turhan. 

 All that is to say, that those two forces were painted to portray troops in mid 1864 or so. After realizing the game we played at historicon ‘25 was playable and dare I say even enjoyable, I got back to it, editing and adding clarifications. While thinking about specific book scenarios, I kept going back to a Matthews Hill type scenario. Lately I’ve wanted to get back on the ACW horse to paint some opposing battalions for very early war stuff, probably Manassas themed. So, July of 1861.

Above: Wheat’s Special Battalion arriving at Manassas Junction in late June, 1861. 

 I’ve been fascinated by and have diligently researched “Wheat’s Special Battalion”, raised in New Orleans, for over half my life now. 20 years is a long time for a mega hyper fixation, but then I realize I’ve got minis next to me right now that I’ve had for 27 or so years. So, it’s a theme. Wheat’s Battalion, or the “1st Louisiana Special Battalion” as they were also known were and still are a very misunderstood and often misidentified unit. Folks have a hard time understanding who they were, what they did, and what they wore. I get into that a little in a YouTube video I made while painting two members of the battalion, if you’re interested. 

 On the left, we have a member of Captain Alexander White’s “Tiger Rifles”, who would form Company B of the battalion. On the right is a member of Captain Robert Harris’s “Walker Guard”, which would become Company A of the battalion. 

 I go into some specifics of these uniforms in the YouTube video, but it’s worth noting that of the five companies that made up Major Wheat’s Battalion, each had their own distinct uniform. Each company was roughly 100 men on their enlistment. Wheat’s Battalion was certainly colorful, but proved to be very aggressive fighters when it came to it. Many of the men from Co’s A and B specifically were veterans of  many Filibuster missions to South America prior to the war, where they honed their skills and learned very brutal combat tactics. Now, there’s way too much to get into with all of that, and keep this blog short. For now, I’ll just note that many of them were brutal dudes who most folks wouldn’t likely invite to dinner. 

 Along with these two companies, I’m in the planning stages of starting on the Battalion’s Color Company, the “Delta Rangers” (yes that was their actual name), who were assigned as Co. C in Wheat’s Battalion. They were uniformed very similarly to Company A, but were issued blue or grey caps and havelocks. 

 At Manassas they primarily fought against troops from Rhode Island on Matthews Hill. Specifically, John Slocum’s 2nd RI infantry. So, I think it’s only appropriate as I plan, slowly build, and paint three of Wheat’s companies, I should begin work on some of the Rhode Islanders who valiantly held against the ferocious attack that day. The Rhode Islanders, while not AS wildly dressed as some of Wheat’s soldiers, had a unique look of their own. 

 These men were outfitted with a dark blue indigo dyed flannel pullover shirt that was fairly long, and had a deep placket. It was made of the same material as a Federal army 1858 fatigue blouse, but was fairly simple in construction, and assembly a good way for the state of RI to uniform and outfit her first volunteers. Their trousers were dyed grey that most likely faded to a dead grass/tan color. And the men wore a mix of blue (possibly faded to a deep grey) caps, caps with havelocks (white cotton cap coverings that were intended to keep the sun of their necks), and civilian brimmed hats of various makes. One stark color contrast were the red state issued blankets they carried as bedrolls or rolled in a blanket sling. Their equipment was a mix of oddball state items as well as regular federal government sets of leathers. 

 I got excited to start working on a few Rhode Islanders, while I wait to order some of them from Perry’s Minis. I landed on these two so far. I’m very happy with the first guy. The second might be changed. Initially, his pose looked ok to me, as a guy encouraging his comrades forward. But I’m not sure I dig it. Either way, a bit of minimal sculpting got these two looking pretty close to my ideal 2nd RI look. 

 These two minis started a federals in sack coats, so I converted them into Rhode Island blouses with some (old) green stuff. The caps were an easy fix since I added the skirts of the havelocks. The second guy got a quick blanket roll, and they were finished. if I were to change anything, I could elongate the shirts a bit to closer match most of the original examples, although they did vary in length.

Above: For some context and to see them in color, here are two museum quality uniform reproductions I made for a National Park program at Manassas a few years back. These detail what a member of White’s Tiger Rifles would have looked like there, as well as what a member of the 2nd Rhode Island would have looked like. Modeled by myself and my buddy Tom. 

 Next, I’ll paint up the guy below as a test model for the 2nd RI, to figure out exactly how I want to tackle them. I think for the long term on that battalion, I’ll do two companies advancing at shoulder arms and one more like the guy below in different stages of firing and reloading while advancing, to portray their skirmish company who was out front of their main body of troops and first engaged with Wheat’s Battalion at Manassas. 

Ok, I’ll end the rambling for today. Read more actual history, it can get pretty cool and wild. 

-Tyler  

Track Pants, AKs, and Seizing the Means of Production: In The Apocalypse!

    You can paint your minis, you’ve just got to sit down to do it! This started as an experiment to see how fast I could paint a model in one sitting to a table top standard. Then, I would go back to that model and add some more detail to make it pop a bit more. This model being the dude in the balaclava smoking a cigarette. I was inspired to paint another one as well, so this project became two guys in the end and evolved into some of my favorite minis I've painted in a while.

    While painting these two, I started to form their story and who they’ll be in my games. I think I’m going to use them in some upcoming games of Inhumane Harvest I’ll be running at Arcanecon in November. These guys are members of a group called “The Vanguard”. This term coming from Leninist thought that a small dedicated Vanguard would prepare and aid the proletariat in overthrowing capitalism and sizing power. So with that said, these guys are organizing a new world for themselves in the wake of the apocalypse! 

    I originally thought these minis were from Anvil Industries’ digital line since I got them in a bag with some of those minis in it, but now I’m thinking they’re from Black Hills Games, Spectre, or somewhere else. I can’t find them in any catalogues. If you know, please tell me! 

Like usual, I started with a zenithal primer. Black base and a Wraithbone highlight. 

    First I threw on a diy asphalt mix for the base texture. Then I played around with some new paints from the “two thin coats” paint line, one of which “cold corpse blue”, I really like. That’s what I used for the jackets. The pants were a base of dark blue and a highlight of that same blue with a bit of white added in. The AK was painted black and the wood was painted a dark brown. Everything got a wash from the Pro Acryl black wash that my buddy Sam turned me on to recently. Guilliman flesh contrast paint was splashed on his skin and then highlighted and the eyes were painted. I painted on the road line and then hit the base with random brown wash, painted the face on the shirt, did the cigarette white with a teeeeny tiny red tip, and then call it at around 15 mins. 

The 15 minute model. Totally serviceable and ready for the table top. Now let’s push him further. 

Here are some base colors on guy number two as well as some extra detail and highlights on guy number one. 

    I worked more on both, focusing on guy #2 primarily. I built up his skin tone, reddened his nose, and added a 5 o'clock shadow with a blue wash. Going back and forth building subtle highlights is the name of the game at this point. Oh, I also wanted to write a short Russian word on his hat and “Нет” was the lazy result. I also like the idea of someone walking around with and AK in their hand and “no” on their hat.

    Here are the first two members of the Vanguard. The muscle behind making their community a better place, no matter how that's done. All in all, these two were a blast to paint. they inspired a great new faction for my modern and apocalypse games too! There will be more to come on this faction. I'm currently converting a few more.

I really like the little details on these guys! 

See them on my Instagram HERE.

30k Death Guard Saturnine Terminator

    30k is such an enticing setting and is one I’ve flirted with making models for since I first read “Horus Rising” by Dan Abnett a few years after it came out. The setting is really interesting and got my creative juices flowing with some really interested options for mini converting.  

    As luck would have it, earlier this year my buddy Zack had a couple printed Saturnine Terminators he offered me! This terminator is a REALLY nice true scale model by Sedivalle, which I believe you can check out on his Cults3D page. His range is full of great true scale minis. Any who, Zack gave two of these minis to me at Under the Dice Fest in May, and I promptly converted one of the terminators! I chose to swap one of the arms so he had double cool claws, I added a wounded marine at his feet, and I carved out the face hole.

    I knew I wanted to do a XIV legion Death Guard guy, but was torn on loyal or traitor members. I am really drawn to loyal marines from traitor legions, but in the end, I knew this guy had to be a persuaded DG Terminator. I ended up getting super inspired to do subtle little bits of corrupted flesh spilling from between seems, denoting very early signs of Nurgle’s blessings. The face is a green stuff copy of a GorkaMorka mutant head that I made, cut, and squeezed into place.

    Then after I did the converting and green stuffing, it sat on my desk for the entire summer until I needed a quick project to bring to the studio to work on while the crew hung out with Sam as he visited. 

Sam has a thrilling experience as Gage looks on in horror.

    I threw on my usual base coat spray of a black with a Wraithbone zenithal highlight. I love this because it’s great to go to either warm or cooler tones depending. When I started painting, I blocked in the basic colors of a dark green (some Vallejo German green) and another patchier highlight of Wraithbone from the pot. Then the first skin tone for the exposed flesh(I saved the face for later), a fairly vibrant yellow on the wounded Imperial Fist, a bronze for the trim, and did the base in watered down steel legion drab. I also painted the joints etc black somewhere in here too. At that point it was getting late, and we wanted to head out so before we did, I mixed up a nice oil wash with a brown and some mineral spirits and slathered that one, giving it all night to dry.

^ Pre oil wash 

^ Post soaking

    Upon our return the next morning, I jumped right back into it. I forgot I did a different non oil wash on the imperial fist, I think some sort of burnt umber color. Then I began taking away a lot of the oil wash that was now dry, and leaving it in the recesses. The coolest thing about both pre and post heresy Death Guard is that their armor should look absolutely disgusting. I built up highlights on the armor and shoulders as well thought the next few steps. I forgot to take pics of the next steps but I got a base coat down on the faces and started blocking on where I wanted some grime and rust streaks to be. I added some hints of scratches on the armor I’d go back and give some depth to in a few steps as well. 

    Then I decided it was time to free hand the Imperial Fist chapter logo on the wounded guy's pauldrons after a basic yellow highlight. This was mostly out of necessity as I didn’t have any transfers with me. I really lucked out as I just kind of went for it and didn’t sketch it in at all. 

    After that, I started blocking in colors on the face and getting that to an ok place. Then I did more rust and tried to even out some colors on flat surfaces. Skin highlights and irritation on the exposed flesh with glazes was next, and then building up the face colors a bit. Then subtle armor highlights and adding some depth to the painted on scratches.

    Rounding out the painting, I did a quick messy checkered pattern on his left knee, and originally was going to do the same on the off white parts of this left shoulder too, but didn’t end up doing that. The imperial fist got some love at this point too via some ok face painting and some highlights as well as trying to keep the yellow tone pretty weak as to not distract from the main model. I also painted the base rim black here too and did some other black and silver highlights on the model. 

    The final painting bits were some real intense small highlighting and extra rust to darken some of those parts. That all was a two or so hours from the start of the day taking off extra oil wash to ending with the base rim. When I got home I added a little bit of blood effects to tie it all together. 

Here are the final shots of this mini. It really came out how I envisioned it, and I’m excited to keep doing one off little 30k characters. All in all, it took a few hours to paint this mini, and I like how it turned out. I’ve got a few more in the works from various legions! 

Inhumane Harvest: Making a Hectic Tabletop Game

    Back in 2011 or so I began running a very ad hoc zombie game with the minis I had collected up until that point. It was a mostly 4+ hit and wound, make it up as a went game, but it planted a seed that I wanted to get back to at some point. Fast forward to 2023 for the first One Page Game Jam organized by Bigboygametime, and I figured that would be a great place to get my zombie game organized and finally written out. After a few days of writing out some rules that hopefully made sense, and doing a few water colors and sketches, it was finished. Well, that came and went. The game was now one very dense page of rules and original artwork. I ran it for my Wife and our buddy Jarrad a few times on and off and it was a pretty good time. From there I kept going back to it, and decided to do an expanded front and back page ruleset with more optional rules to make the games more interesting. Then, over the next couple months it snowballed into 20 pages, tons of original art, and a lot of restructuring to what it is now.

Above: One of my first water colors to test the style I wanted to go with.

    My goal for this game was to create something that threw you into a fast paced zombie apocalypse story where you essentially play a third tier character from a book or movie that is nameless and wouldn’t be noticed if they went missing. You’re the expendable person going out on supply runs. You’re the background actors of this story! From the get go I wanted to stress that you might randomly roll a bad ass character who kills zombies and gets tons of loot, but more likely you'll roll a random person with a knife and a rifle who will get shredded eventually after being cornered by a horde. Also, that badass character will at some point, get overwhelmed and slip off a roof, get grabbed from behind, or run out of ammo at the worst time. My point being, No one is the main character. This is a game that encourages the story being told over "winning".

    I should mention, the game’s name is taken from a Cannibal Corpse song that just jumped out at me one day while listening to that album as being the perfect name for this game. It was perfect. The game is brutal and I want it to feel like a CC song almost in a way. Unrelenting and overwhelming at times, but in the end, still fun!

    Inhumane Harvest is unhinged, unbalanced, and sometimes unfair. It can be played solo or with as many players as you’d like, and runs very well with a GM overseeing the board and zombies. Players roll randomized character stats and roll for random weapons on two simple charts. The more players there are, the more zombies will be on the board. Players may choose to team up or fight against each other as rival groups for possession of precious dwindling supplies or work together to survive. The vibe above all is don’t be a bummer, roll off for rules disputes, and don’t be the reason your opponent isn’t having fun. In the end, after the dust settles, Inhumane Harvest should be about telling a fun solo or co-op story!

    All of the art pieces are my own original black and white water color or ink drawings from the past few years that fit the theme. I did about half of them for the rulebook specifically though, and found a lot of joy in theming the pieces for this project.

     

    Finally in early 2025, I made and printed the full rulebooks! I sold 40 something of the 50 or so I brought to Adepticon which was nuts. I've still got them if anyone is interested too! This was a real milestone in my hobby world, as I felt and still feel very proud of this silly little 20 page rulebook. 

    Being able to share this silly game with people and run games for friends has been really rewarding. It’s been great to run bespoke little scenarios at events.

    Above: Robyn, Victoria, Shaun, and Slade played in a game of Inhumane Harvest at Under The Dice Fest 2025 I ran where they each rolled a random survivor and worked together to fight a redneck militia while escaping a growing undead horde. This game was fast and loose, focusing on the story over nitpicking rules. It was the ideal way to play this game with folks who "get it"! 

    Here are the three Redneck militia guys I made for the UTDF25 game I ran. I really should go back and take better pics of these guys because some of the details are really fun.

    All of this is to say that you should make your game a reality if you've had an idea for one. Don't worry about it being good, just have fun with it! Playtest it to make it better if you want, but more importantly, have fun with people you care about playing your own Indy games! I love this zombie game I made. I'm still painting minis and slowly working on extra rules for it. If you want to know more about Inhumane Harvest, shoot me a message on Instagram!

    Below are some pictures I took of my display Diorama I made for our booth at Adepticon this year. I thought it was a good visualization of how the game plays!

Thanks for reading through this truly incoherent purposeless rambling about my game. I'll write more about it at some point. Maybe I'll post about how I paint my zombies or something. 

Luv, tYluR