I remember reading an article years back about a Wargamer who was driving by a garage sale and saw little flags sticking out of storage boxes. Stopping his car like a Motor Trends Panic Braking Test, he went over to investigate. He found an entire wargame collection for sale at prices far below market value. Needless to say the figures were purchased without a second thought. To this day, as I drive by a garage sale, I always take a quick look to make sure those little flags are not sticking up. No luck so far! I did get a nice bargain years back when buying ACW figures for my collection. My purchase was a painted brigade of infantry from the personal collection of the sculptor. The price was about double the going rate, but I was happy to get these rare figures. When the figures arrived there was a note indicating that the seller had about 250 unpainted ACW figures he wanted to get rid of for $20.00. Most of these were Hinchcliff figures which would have been top of the line at that time. Quicker than a Motor Trend Braking Test, I sent away my money plus postage. About a week later a box of figures arrived. It did not have the 250 figures that were promised but closer to 450! Seventh heaven for this young Wargamer. I ended up putting together several brigades from these figures and for years afterwards, any time someone came to game at my house and had any interest in painting figures I would give away 40-50 figures. That purchase ended being a bargain many, many times over. While big bargains like the above examples do not come along very often, little wargame bargains are always showing up, many times in places you would least expect. Last year while I was picking up building supplies at Menards I came across a knick-knack that would work perfect in my ACW games. This piece was a wooden grain and feed store, already painted and in perfect 25mm scale. The only problem was that there was also a tractor pulling a wagon next to the building. Not quite Civil War! The building sold for $11.95 and would easily be a bargain, as it was already painted to a high standard. Now why this type of knick-knack was being sold at Menards I can only guess. I figured that there would not be a lot of demand for this item at a lumber yard so I decided to wait to see if it would go on sale. Six months later I was able to buy the feed store for $5.95! Original Intention My original intention was to make a building block scene with this building to be used as a stand alone piece on my gaming table. Before I could get started on this, I changed my mind and decided to make a Union field hospital vignette. The multi-level porch of the feed store peeked my imagination. It looked perfect for having casualties laying around waiting for treatment. I also had some sample figures from different manufactures that would fit into a medical scene. This type of vignette would fit in with my desire to have parts of the battlefield unplayable. Not every square inch of the battlefield could be used in defense or attack. The project was started by removing the farm tractor from the base. At first I thought this might be difficult, but in the end the tractor just popped off with a screwdriver. Next thing was to remove the wagon that was also on the base. As I looked at the wagon the only thing that made it look out of place for the Civil War period was the rubber tires. I then decided to grind off these tires and replace them with a set of small wagon wheels. Now the wagon seem to fit right in. I then mounted the feed store on a 6"x 8" base made from 1/8" tempered hardboard using epoxy glue. To smooth out the transition of the building base to the board and to fill in the hole fell by the tractor, I used water putty. This made for smooth ground on the base with a slight rise toward the building. The seed store was to become a field hospital so wounded figures, a surgeon and nurse would be needed. Many of these figures are available from a variety of different manufactures. I had a stretcher team from Dixon that would work, and some walking wounded from Old Glory that fit right in. The feed store had a multi-level porch system that was perfect for wounded to be sitting waiting for treatment. An old Alamo figure that had a wounded leg was added. From Redoubt I had a couple of sitting wounded figures. One had his hat on sideways and had a large lump on his forehead. He must have ran into a Rebel rifle butt or fell off his horse dead drunk! Take your choice. The final figures that I added were the surgeon and nurse operating on a wounded soldier. The operating table was made from a couple of barrels and a door placed on them. I did not have a surgeon or nurse so modified them from a couple of old west figures. The bar-tender, who had an apron on, would look like a surgeon. For the nurse, I used a school marm who was holding a school bell. The bell was filed flat, made into a point and teeth carved into it. It looked just like a saw when I was done. The figures were painted up and glued onto the base. Final touches for the vignette were a couple of trees, a stone and split rail fence around two sides, grass tufts and a field hospital flag hung from the porch roof The flag came from my ACW # 30 flag sheet. I used a 20mm flag as it seemed to fit in better with the building and the overall scene. The Union field hospital flag was yellow with a green "H" on it. Confederates used a red flag for the same purposes. I will use this field hospital in my next ACW game. It will be placed toward the rear of the table, but will add nice color to the game and the battlefield. New Flags For the last couple of months I have been working on new flags for the Civil War period. My original goals were to produce flags for all periods of US history and to provide a flag sheet for each state who fought in the Civil War. I was able to compete 7 new sheets. ACW #44 is 13 headquarter flags for the Army of the Potomac. This sheet would have Mead's HQ flag and 12 corps HQ flags. After seeing a lot of period photos I did these flags with the number in mirror image on the reverse side. Not what people are used to seeing but its the way the flags were actually made. ACW 445 is the headquarter flags for the Army of the Cumberland. The first of my new state flag sheets is ACW #46, Minnesota flags. Twelve flags including 1st Minnesota ( Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg), 2nd, 7th 10th and 11th Minnesota national flags. There are 3 state flags and 2 New York depot regimental flags. ACW 447 is the Eagle Brigade at Vicksburg. The sheet has the national and regimental flags for the 8th Wisconsin, 11th Missouri, 47th Illinois and the 5th Minnesota. The 8th Wisconsin had an bald eagle mascot (Abe) that they brought into battle with them. The color guard included a perch for the eagle. Dixon makes a great 25mm figure with the eagle. ACW 448 is 12 Iowa flags. Most of these are national flags carried by various Iowa units. ACW #49 is 12 Illinois flags, most of which are national flags. Illinois had so many regiments, close to 200. that I picked out various style flags and various patterns for labeling the flags. The final new sheet is ACW #50, United States Colored Troops. The sheet has 8 flags on it including 28th, 60th, 29 and 102 colored regiments. Other flags are the 12 Corps d'Afrique. 5th Heavy Artillery and two Pennsylvania regimentals the 3rd and 6th USCT. For many years I would get a letter every couple of months from a gentleman from Belgium. lie would want to know when I was coming out with colored troop flags. I did not have much info on these units, so kept putting off doing the sheet. My friend, Ryan Toews, had some research for these flags so a sheet was finally done. He sent enough info, that there will probably be a second sheet of colored troops when I get time. New Books I came across some books for ACW that interested me. All were at Barnes and Noble. The first was The Civil War on the Web. It lists many of the ACW web sites and makes research much easier. It was $18.95. The other two books were a set, Officer and Soldiers of the American Civil War. Volume 1 is Infantry and Volume 2 is Cavalry and Artillery. These paper back books sell for $19.95 each. The books have a wealth of uniform equipment and flag information. Well worth the money! Web Site My daughter, Megan, has put together a web site for my flags. Nothing elaborate, but it does have a listing and description of all the various flag sheets that a available. The site address is www.geocities.com/banasikflags If you have any comments or questions feel free to drop me a line at Orv Banasik. 395 West 33rd Ave., Marion, Iowa 52302 or e-mail me at Banasik@aol.com. Back to MWAN #111 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com