The last tranche of dismounted Seventh Cavalry troopers is now finished and the Little Bighorn project continues to steam along. I'm happy with the progress!
Having painted "Autie" earlier I tackled the rest of the models in the Foundry "Personalities" pack. Here we see the General's younger brother Captain Tom Custer (winner of TWO Medals of Honor in the Civil War!), the hapless Major Marcus Reno, and Captain Frederick Benteen. Reno of course was a pretty useless tit in the battle and while Benteen showed moderately more initiative, neither were what you would call "combat effective."
Here are Lt. William W. Cooke, Lt. Charles (Carlo) DeRudio, and "Lonesome" Charley Reynolds. Cooke was Custer's adjutant and buddy. Born in Hamilton, Ontario he served with the Union army in the Civil War under Major-General Ambrose Burnside and fittingly, cultivated immense sideburns. He was the author of the infamous last note sent by Custer back to Benteen urging the latter to "be quick, bring packs." He died with Custer and was scalped twice... the second time losing one of his enormous dundrearies. DeRudio was an Italian serving with Custer and the only man in the battle to carry a saber. Charley Reynolds was the chief scout with the Seventh Cavalry who
had a bad feeling about this.
Here's a trooper carrying Custer's personal "standard", a bugler (there were many present at the battle) and another trooper.
With these troopers and characters I'm finished painting the dismounted Seventh Cavalry contingent for the battle. I used the standard colours - uniform coats Kantor Blue highlighted Ultramarines Blue, trousers Sky Blue highlighted Wolf Grey, and everything black highlighted Dark Rubber. The initial drybrush of DR helps a lot!
So on to some more Plains warriors now - hoka hey!
Superb work
ReplyDeleteTremendous work.
ReplyDeleteAt the Greasy Grass, Custer was being his usual self. Basically he wanted to wipe out a Native American village, like at Washita. He split his forcecwithout knowing what he faced, despite his Crow scouts trying to warn him.
ReplyDeleteReno was probably drunk during the battle. Benteen really could only have done, what he actually did. Custer was hated by a lot of the officers and men of the 7th. The regiment had the worst record for desertions in the US Army at the time. There was a reason for that, Custer and his cronies were incompetent.
Well despite all of that I'm finding it to be a fun project :-)
DeleteThanks Neil and Michael! More to come!
ReplyDeleteI have a large Apache/Plains War collection. My comment was not intended to be negative.
ReplyDelete