Rough Riders

Captain William "Buckey" O'Neill was played by Sam Elliot in the TBS movie Roughriders.  That should be enough to express his awesomeness.   

Another of my long neglected projects are my old 25mm Spanish American War US Army and Volunteers.  Well over a decade ago, I was building this force to fight Jon's colonial Spanish.  (I seem to remember that Colonials was a big 'thing' at the end of the 20th century...)  We played a couple of games with them, as well as some Naval engagements using Jon's exquisite 1/1200 scale Spanish and US Warships.

While I painted up several units of US regulars, Naval Landing parties and lots of Artillery (Including Parker's Gatling Guns")  I never got around to finishing the Rough Riders themselves.  Here then are the first 11.  10 Stalwart men of Co A, 1st Volunteer Cavalry under CPT William O'neill

I went with Yellow bandannas rather than red to more readily distinguish them from my regular Infantry (yellow being the facing color of more civilized armor and cavalrymen.).  The  biggest challenge by far has been trying to color match to the rest of the army after 15 years.   The shine is there until I can get enough clear, dry days to risk a dull coat.  That could be months from now if the weather in North Idaho remains the same....

The figs themselves are all from the Old Glory SAW line, and are very clean and accessible castings.  The OG line has a wide range of figures including a personality pack that includes Wheeler, O'Neill, Leonard Wood, Teddy (of course) and the infamously large Gen Shafter.

The collection thus far...

On the table still awaiting their time to shine are a collection of US Marines, more Rough Riders, and a bag of 10th Cavalry 'Buffalo Soldiers'  Perhaps they will all be ready for a re-fight at the Bicentennial....