Thomo first wrote about his and my ACW project with any seriousness in the middle of 2012 (and yes, that is not a typo). He carried on writing about it when he talked about starting the basing, and was still at it 3 months later. Somewhat ironically he then posted an update in early 2013 where he joked he might be finished by 2020, before making a little bit of progress later that month (photo links have died on that last post).

He’d got them painted by Miniatures Lanka in Sri Lanka. (the links on Thomo’s site don’t work, I did manage to find a website though it looks very old, so use at your own risk) Then somewhat ironically for a man who seemed to turn out periods and painted troops at a prodigious rate this is where his project kinda stopped, or at least stalled, the use of “finished” in his blogpost was obviously a typo or at least wishful thinking.

So when he left SG two years after starting this project he very generously, (at fair price), shifted these unfinished models into my collection. Basically there was a shit-ton of painted Union, easily tripling what I already had, and about the same of unpainted Confederates, which remain unpainted to this day. The occasion was our last time rolling die across the tabletop, he used the excuse that he needed to cut shipping weight, and after a night of laughs, beer, pizza and a victory to him no less, they moved into my collection.

It took me a while given that it is now 2021, so seven years for my glacial pace to finally rebase them all, sort them into regiments, and in some cases repaint for a better colour match (this mainly involved painting a lighter colour for pants, black for the hats of the Iron Brigade, and some command elements for the Zouaves) And to be fair, when I say they are done, I mean mostly.

Of course with Thomo’s recent passing I took a good look at my available Divisions but more so at the unused generals models I have and decided to detail the hair colour of one a little more to represent the “lost one”, and thus create Thomo’s Division, made up of troops that were once his, and led by the “reckless” commander himself. I hope they perform as well in battle under under the command of the die as Thomo* was want to.

I think the General at left is perfect, the hand’s up (no idea the manufacturer or why they make a figure in that pose), the sword broken sometime over the years and you’ll note the gloss paint which is how they came from Miniatures Lanka along with the unfinished basing style adopted by its previous owner and now for whom it will represent. I think Thomo would get a kick out of be represented by a surrendering General on a horse…he’d call it a “cunning plan”.

* he was always a very lucky bastard with the die…all except for one set of blue ones that I have which often saw his forces befuddled with bad luck.

NOTE: I do realise that there are lots of links to Thomo’s Hole, but his death has hit me quite hard, and going back through his blog and smiling over the memories we shared has been a bitter sweet but rewardingly therapeutic journey. So if my blog ever gets any regular readership thank you for the indulgence as I dealt with the loss, and rediscovered both my writing and gaming mojo.