Impressions - US Army, Vietnam - 1969

Another shot from the King's Mountain event from almost a year ago. This event featured groups who specialized in US army impressions throughout the centuries, starting with the Overmountain Men who fought at King's Mountain.

The final impression period was Vietnam. The private on the left is wearing what would be the uniform of US forces in the mid- to later stages of the conflict. He looks to be wearing the 2nd Pattern Tropical Combat Jacket, Variant A, along with the 2nd Pattern Tropical Combat Trousers. He's also wearing issue Jungle Boots, second or third pattern.

Weekly Wargame Miniatures Focus

Paper Terrain.com is an interesting concept for miniatures wargaming. Rather than spend lots of time modeling buildings, the more gaming-oriented miniatures wargamers can put up some great looking buildings in a fraction of the time and money than it would take with conventional models.

The offerings from this site are many, and come in the major wargaming scales - 6mm, 12/15mm, 20mm and 25/28mm.

Group Spotlight

I don't cover too much in the way of French and Indian War groups, but once I seen the Snowshoemen site, I decided to give it a group spotlight.

One thing I notice about some groups is their character, and the Snowshoemen definitely have a site that expresses character. The groups is primarily the French and Indian War, but it also has a couple of splinter groups, Church's Company, that covers King Phillip's, King William's and Queen Anne's wars of the late seventeenth century, and Eames' Rangers for Revolutionary War. Easy site to navigate, and a nice opening for looking at F&I groups.

Saturday Vids: Roman reenacting - Ad Pugnam

This Saturday Vid is early - going out of town for the weekend, but I wanted to share a very creative video done by Roman reenactors. It has a strange old timey feel to it, but the effect seems to go.

Update on a great site

It looks like Let's Play History is well on it's way to becoming an essential site for anyone looking to step into reenacting for the first time. LPH is more gearing to the civilian side of things, but has potential for the military too. Check it out, and support the effort going into it - we'll all benefit.

My favorite Sutler of the week

Oooops! Got busy yesterday, so I didn't have the time to write the Sutler of the Week. Valentine's Day does that you know. :-) Anyway, here's the SotW in all its glory...

AEF Supply is a cool site, hands down. It was one of the first sites that I encountered when I started doing surfing outside the American Civil War realm to look for single-era vendors to cover in the blog. Then I opened up the sutler categories to anyone interesting.

I like this site because it specializes in supplying US army reenactors from the Spanish Armerican War through Vietnam. The prices are very decent, too. Plenty of pictures illustrate the inventory. This is a great place to go if you're into Spanish American War reenacting, this vendor has the best overall selection of uniforms. The WW1 selections are simply excellent - this was AEF's primary era before it expanded. The site is easy to navigate, and is recommended by many reenacting groups.

Picking Fights: Vietnam

The HPS game Vietnam is beginning to grow on me.

I've already got someone to play me in a dry run so I can learn the rules. This game is set up much like a traditional wargame, and each unit represents a squad, or squad weapon. In this skirmish, the "P" stands for Pinned, and as the NVA, I've been able to Pin one of my American opponent's squads. But, he's got two of mine.

The larger battle has two separate American platoons, and right now my overall strategy is to keep them separated and defeat each with superiority of numbers, and wait for the the rest of the US force to come rolling in. Let's see if I'm successful.

Cool Vid: David Farrier investigates: Wargaming in New Zealand

Here's a nicely done news report from New Zealand covering many aspects of miniatures wargaming. Interesting clips and opinions, with a little humor sprinkled in to keep it light-hearted.

Reenacting links of the week

Here are some reenacting links for this week:

World War 2:
Bicentennial: Horton's efforts saved Newark Air Force Base

Civil War:
Lincoln celebration kicks off today
Lincoln flatboat will launch Sept. 9
The Battle of Valverde and Rafael Chacón
Museum to honor Civil War doctor
Civil War history comes alive in EC

Revolutionary War & Late Colonial:
A patriots' preserve
Colonial living comes to life at Aspen Creek
Old Fort plans replica stockade

Weekly Wargame Miniatures Focus

OK, now for a shameless plug for the hometown miniatures company.

This plug has a whole-hearted recommedation to it, I'm happy to say. Sash & Sabre Castings covers a small handful of eras in 25mm, including the Seven Years, Napoleonic, and American Civil wars. Where Sash & Sabre really shines is with their 40mm line, which covers many major periods from Rome to the Zulu Wars.

From personal experience, I can say that the quality is excellent, and when painted, the miniatures look great. If you're looking at building an army for wargaming, Sash & Sabre should be one of your first stops.

Group Spotlight

Not exactly a military history group, the Civil War Texas Civilian Living History could be considered an auxillary of the Civil War aspect of militray reenacting. This group has honed down theire image not only to do a civilian, but of civilians of Texas who have their own look and personality.

A worthy visit for anyone interested in being a civilian and needing some insights into the subtleties of an authentic impression.

Travelogue: Wilmington and Fort Fisher

Starting up another semi-regular serial. I travel enough, so I'll blog about the interesting places along the way. Many times, these are places that I've enjoyed as a reenactor and want to share some of my experiences, and maybe what you can find to help you enjoy some preserved history. To kick things off, I'm starting with one of my favorite towns, Wilmington, NC, and one of my favorite sites, Fort Fisher.

Wilmington
I've been to Wilmington numerous times, and I never tire of it. It's as Southern as any southern city gets, and reminders of its Civil War heritage are almost countless, from the points of interest to the many DAR statues that you can find about town. Not so visible, with the exception of the USS North Carolina, are the WW2-era landmarks which can be found around town too. Not only does the Civil War history live strong in Wilmington, so does the spirit of the WW2 homefront.

Fort Fisher
I have a thousand storys to tell about Fort Fisher, and this landmark is much like coming home each time I visit.

Saturday Vid: Hoghton's English Civil War Sealed Knot

Obviously a PR piece for Hoghton's Companye of Foote, this is still a great look into English Civil War reenacting. It's interesting - one part musket, one part pikes and one part rugby. :-)

Picking fights, update

The one great thing about computer based wargames is the volume of games you can initiate and play at once. I've picked fights with three players so far, with another one lining up to send in moves. All you need to have is a sense of organization.

I already have a roaring battle going on in one game with the Poles vs the Wehrmacht. I've got the Poles, and while my opponent was able to knock out one of my Shermans, I was able to rain some fury back, and scored on a StugIII and a couple SdKfz 251 halftracks. I get the feeling he's going to hurt me back.

If you have empty time, I suggest, very heartily, to buy Combat Mission:Beyond Overlord, learn to play it, and pick some fights.

What I'm Reading Now

Well, what I'm kinda looking through it for the moment. If you reenact a North Carolina regiment, State Troops and Volunteers is almost a requirement to have as a reference. If you research North Carolina regiments, this is one of the most indespensible books to have in your library.

State Troops contains a wealth of photos and bits of information about the men in the uniforms. You can almost trace the progression of State-issued uniforms, and get a handle on who wore what early on.

My favorite Sutler of the week

CR Henderson & Sons has a nice selection of Civil War ammo and hardtack boxes, all properly built and stenciled. Although he doesn't have a large selection of everything, what he does have is correct in dimensions, color, and stencil lettering. He also seems to have the spirit of improving the accuracy of his products. I like that.

Apparently, for more complex boxes and desks, he'll work with the customer. That's a nice service in itself.

Them's fightin' words!

Looks like a "public history" blogger wants to stop reenactors... or farbs. I'm not sure how wide his paintbrush is with this post, but judging from his other writings, it's pretty broad. One part of me kinda sees his point, the other part of me says "what a snob - history is for everybody." Then I really thought about it. Although he doesn't come across well to me as a reenactor, it's interesting to read what a critic who maybe has a qualified opinion has to say about the hobby.

I do recommend any reenactor to read Public Historian's Haven and come back and post here with opinions and comments.

UPDATE: Found another blog, Living on the Field with a very relevant observation about reenacting battles and the history behind it, and whether or not reenacting is preserving the history or changing it. A much better critique of reenacting than the Public Historian's Haven.

Gave Vietnam a run last night

I'm a serious gaming geek these days. The instant I get a game, I run to the computer and install it, ASAP. Vietnam was no exception. From mailbox to -BAM! - computer in nothing flat.

I only had time to run through the tutorial game, but I was pleased with what saw. If you've played other non-Squad Battles HPS titles, no fear. The interface and command buttons are very similar to other John Tiller games and easy to learn.

Cool Vid: Soviet reenactment slideshow

Happened to stumble on this video tonight. Not only is it a nice video, you have to hand it to the Russian reenactors, they're into it hardcore. When you have a functional flamethrower, you're in the big leagues of authenticity.

Reenacting links of the week

Here are some reenacting links for this week:

General Interest:
FlyntAirsoft.com Finds Airsoft Games Bring Past to Life

World War 2:
Historical reenactment at Sawyer Park on Friday
Military-historical reenactment to mark the end of the Leningrad blockade
Reenactment takes students back to 1939
Recreating History
Re-enactors, crowd victorious at “Bulge”

Old West:
Vigilante hanging reenacted

Civil War:
Battle of Rivers Bridge reenactment this weekend
A friendly reenactment

Seminole Wars:
Fighting to preserve history
Seminole fight to be reenacted on battle site
War re-enactors to put on show at Okeechobee battlefield

Colonial and Revolutionay War:
Wormsloe Celebrates 275 Years
Patriots scores a blast at Gillette
Parochial students gasp at stories of Colonial Yonkers
He commands the Federal Blues
Cowpens National Battlefield celebrates 227th anniversary