Hi everyone ,

MJ miniatures continue to release into their series of models , this time an addition to the figure range , the details were announced here:

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/new-release-of-mj-miniatures-for-oct-2016.80776/

and the box art here:

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/louisiana-tiger-box-art-mj-miniatures.81059/

It is of course:

MJ did a series of on line painting sessions for this and other figures and busts which you can find on You Tube ...all amazing to watch as the painting progresses .





Who were the Tigers , well led by someone who was a maverick but a natural soldier

Chatham Roberdeau Wheat

In late May 1861, Wheat commanded five companies as their major, and on June 5, they were inducted into the Confederate service as the First Special Battalion. They marched to Virginia, where Wheat and his Louisiana Tigers fought in the first battle of the war – First Manassas, or Bull Run. They fought well, although Wheat himself was shot through the lung. Despite and the predictions of the field surgeons, Wheat recovered from his wound and rejoined his regiment in mid-September.




In December, two of his Tigers were found guilty by court martial of violating an article of war and – despite Wheat’s entreaties on their behalf – sentenced to be shot. As the firing squad, selected from among the Louisianians, fired on command, Wheat sat sobbing in his tent.
He died at Gaines Mill , his men burying him on the field of battle .


Many variations of weapons exist

The famous zouave uniform of Company B (Tiger Rifles), First Special Battalion (Wheat's) Louisiana Volunteers has long been a matter of debate due to the lack of a wartime photographic image that could answer a lot of the detail questions that have been raised over the years. Even if it was in black and white, we could at least tell the shape of the fez, if the jacket had tombeau (false pockets in a trefoil design), and design of the blue and white striped pantaloons and if the pantaloons were in true zouave fashion or modified and the exact look of the blue and white striped socks worn under the gaiters. If the photograph had been tinted with color, we could see if it was blue or brown (both have been given in period descriptions) and shade of blue of the stripes on the zouave pantaloons. All the descriptions are consistent that they wore a red wool shirt.

The Harper's Weekly and Fremaux watercolor are very consistent in the general look of the uniform. They both show the Tigers wearing very traditional looking zouave uniforms, with the exception of the striped pants which were made of blue and white striped Hamilton mattress ticking material. The traditional uniform pants for the original French zouaves was red and in white for tropical climates.

The Fremaux watercolor, which was done in September of 1861, has the color of the jacket a light brown. All the earlier descriptions of the jacket before the First Battle of Manassas have them in blue jackets. Later descriptions had them both in blue and light brown jackets. This has led to speculations that after Manassas, where they were fired upon by accident by the 4th South Carolina Infantry, that they might have dyed their jackets brown, or the jackets were bleached to a brownish color by exposure to the sun and elements

The discovery in 1978 of what is believed to be the graves of privates Dennis Corcoran and Michael O'Brien, who were executed in December 1861, resulted in some concrete evidence of some elements of the uniforms. A scientific investigation of the few scraps of textiles in the graves led to the conclusion that the jackets were originally blue with red trim, the shirt in one grave red and the other white, porcelain buttons on one of the shirts and a silk cravat was worn by O'Brien. There was no evidence of lower body garments. It could not, apparently, be conclusively determined from the material scraps if they had tombeaux on their jackets or exactly what type of fez they wore.

A postwar sketch by Confederate veteran artist A.C. Redwood in Century Magazine in 1884 shows a drummer of the Tiger Rifles generally wearing the standard uniform of a zouave. This sketch generally follows the wartime sketch appearance of the uniform.

Many commercial artists are turning out excellent prints representing the Tiger Rifles and we have every reason to believe based on all of the historical research, that are probably pretty accurate representations of the uniform.
But until a wartime photograph of an enlisted man in the Tiger Rifles surfaces, this famous zouave uniform is to some writers a little speculative

A Tiger Rifle drummer by A.C. Redwood

The Century Magazine, 1884.

Civil War Centennial brochure, map.

Books are available and of course much information on the internet , here are a few that are a good start to look at

Continued in next post

Nap

Now to the resin itself

Details of the release


Title: Louisiana Tiger ( American Civil War )

Reference: MJ75-002

Scale: 1/24th 75mm

Material: Lt brown/flesh coloured Resin

No of pieces: 7 plus a brass rod

Sculptor: Greg Girault

Box Art: Man-Jin, Kim

Continuing in the same way as previous release we have the good strong box with colour box art on the top and smaller ends , parts were in bags and then in a bubble wrap envelope , and we also have nice comment from the MJ studio ..a thank you .




Parts consist of the main figure ,head, left arm , right hand, flag finial , flag , brass rod and a base




Prep

Main Figure ....Remove casting plugs from under feet , fine slip line from inside lower right leg amd outer of right one

Head.....Remove former from under neck

Arm ...Remove small plug from weapon end and excess on shoulder

Hand ...Small casting plug to take off , flashing from between fingers

Finial...Fit to top of flag

Flag...remove casting plug at top

Base ...Remove excess from edge

Note :

General fit is accurate with minimal filler needed , I would suggest pinning the finial and the feet to the base , the flag has been cast ready to take the brass rod , you might want to increase the fit a little more .

Main figure

Consisting of the full figure less left arm and right hand our zouave is wearing the distinctive and very full trousers , nice folds , the sheer amount of material has been handled well bt Greg , seams are evident , the lower legs are sculpted with the lower leg having the spats well reproduced, the canvas material showing good button and folds .

At the waist there is a full sash nicely worked , over this the belt with a cap pouch and a holster , the beltplate details are good.

The jacket ...with the mark of a zouave the lacework making its way around like a snake, in scale and a nice style, the lower edges of the jacket slightly turned up with the movement of the figure , under this there is a shirt with a turned down collar , sharp work on this area , folds are naturally shown with the buttons in position nicely .
There is no rank on either the shoulders or the arms , speaking of this the right is cast on with good cuff details , the wrist ready to take the hand with the left having a cutout to take the other arm .
Neck area is cleanly cast and with no blemishes will take the head easily .

Head

This is where Greg really shines IMO producing a face that is so in keeping with the image , facial features are of a fighter , young but well versed in his trade , the eyes are sharply done with both upper and lower eyelids being good , same sculpting on the nose and the mouth is held defiantly shut , neck muscles are there with the ears being seen from underneath a pile of straggly hair , this also peeks out in many places from under his headwear .

The cap is nicely done with the felt like material being softly knocked about , we have ahanging tassel from the top , the details on the strands are good sitting nicely into the cap side, fit of the head is good into the neck area .

Arms

This is held slightly lower pointing with a weapon towards the enemy , same quality in sculpting , good folds , the hand sculpted well and gripping the weapon well , the detail on the weapon is good with the hands thumb positioned at the side ready to pull back the mechanism . The material has seams on it with nice cuff details again the fit to the torso will be easy with only a tiny bit of filler required.



Hand

Well sculpted ready to take the brass rod , the fingers gripping tightly the regiments prized possession ....the colours .




Flag/Finial

This is sculpted with the flag folded onto itself , no design is on it allowing the painter a option if he wishes to depict another unit. , perhaps a little bit thick in scale but perfectly suitable ( you could replace by using rolled out putty of course ) , folds are natural in style with the lower edge having a hole to take the brass rod which has been provided for the pole .



The finial is spear shaped , and sits well on the top of the flag , no cords or tassels are included , when fitting I would suggest pinning .



Base

A simple round piece of groundwork , slightly stony with textured on it as well the locating positions have a flat area which the feet sit to nicely



Final Thoughts

A nice subject , with plenty of potential conversions as well from both sides in the civil war and perhaps later French regiments .

Its good to see Greg sculpting with MJ Miniatures which results in a quality item , lets hope we see more!!

Well presented again with excellent box art and a good addition to the MJ Miniatures catalogue

My pleasure to RECOMMEND this

For more details on this and all the other great releases in all scales why not visit the website at:

www.mj-miniatures.co.kr

e mail: mjminiatures@gmail.com

Thanks to for the Review piece and all of you for looking in

Lets have a look at some more box art pictures ...ENJOY

Nap