2nd Pennsylvania

Back in late June I had decided to take a brief break from the Hessians to produce a couple American regiments in time for July 4th. One thing led to another and I've just finally finished the second regiment, the 2nd Pennsylvania. Painting this unit in this manner was inspired as always by Giles over at Tarleton's Quarter.
The flag was a minor modification of one offered and designed by Clarence over at Quindia Studios. He releases a new flag every week in what he has termed "Flag Monday"...some great stuff.

I'm not sure where I am at with my painting style. At times I feel like I'm going backwards in quality. I'll continue to experiment and attempt to find my groove, as they say. I'm considering trying a higher contrast style or maybe a speed painting style as I believe both speed and contrast are lacking from my work.

I've been a bit lacking lately in making the rounds to all my favorite blogs out there, but there has been some great content from what I have seen and as always thanks for all the kind comments here.

Figures 20, Foundry Miniatures, Flag by Quindia Studios, Litko Bases

Terrain Mat Roads

I recently received a set of 25/28mm roads from Terrain Mat, however I don't think they currently fit my terrain plans. They cost me 100 USD total with shipping, but I will sell them to somebody in the lower 48 for $80 shipping included.

25mm Road Set
Includes 4x straight.8xBends
3xJunctions

Green with cart tracks.

Straight sections are 3 feet long.

Hartley's Additional Regiment

These figures are among some American AWI figures I had planned to post on July 4th, but due to events they are just getting on here now. I had these figures painted in the usual method with the goal being a nice clean paint job.

I wanted to try a different white cloth process inspired by a fellow on the wd3 forum who was doing some Perry AWI. My criteria for the experiment was to use paints I hadn't used before and to produce a slightly browned or buffed white shadow. I would do this on the small cloths and pants, but leave any white on the coat in the familiar gray to white process. The brown you see on the turnbacks is actually a product of an experiment explained in a paragraph below. The paints I decided on where Formula P3 Menoth white base and highlight along with a vallejo off-white and Foundry's Austrian White C. The final result was satisfactory and I'll probably use more of this on other figures in the future. I do have to mention that the Formula P3 paints have some very nice coverage and the consistency of the paints was pleasing to work with.

Finding a blue I liked for the coats was a challenge in itself, but I eventually settled on the Foundry Prussian Blue triad, with some cornflower blue mixed in the final highlight.

With Rall on the horizon and many Highlanders in my future I took an opportunity with one of these figures to take a stab at pinstripes. One of the infantryman's legs is wrapped in a remnant of a bed sheet. It turned out okay, but I need more practice.

I thought myself done with these. However, a few days ago the doorbell rang and a couple packages were delivered. Inside the packages were some MiG and Vallejo pigments I had purchased for future use on WW2 vehicles. As with anything new to me, I can't wait to use it. I didn't have to look too far to find some test subjects. These are Eureka Miniatures' Ragged Colonials after all, so I needed no further excuse.

At risk was turning a halfway decent paint job into a disaster. I had watched a video on youtube about the use of these pigments, but that was the extent of it. The pigments I picked out of the box for this attempt were MiG Dry Mud, Europe Dust, and Dark Mud along with Vallejo's Chrome Oxide green as well as the Vallejo Medium. I mixed the Dark Mud and Europe Dust with the medium to make a thicker mud and used the Dry mud in more of a drybrush method to create dusted portions and dried mud. The finale saw the Oxide Green used to create the appearance of grass stains on those men who still had pants that covered their knees. The goal was to make them look weathered and worn while still maintaining a decent paint job. I think I came close to this with the result, but I need practice of course.

I needed to complicate this project with just one more change. I've decided to make basing individual whenever I can to accommodate future Sharp Practice AWI gaming. As usual Litko had what was needed. I used 25x25 .8mm wood bases, with 25x25 thin flexible steel attached to the bottoms. In addition I have their 75x25 and 50x25mm heavy duty magnetic bases to mount these on as needed for BG. The end result is a very thin and functional base. Despite them being thin the hold is very very strong. I'm going to be using this for a few select regular line regiments as well, namely the Queens Rangers and some Highlanders. I have 100 18x25 flexible steel and 100 18x25 .8mm wood bases as well as a number of 36x50mm and 54x50mm heavy duty magnetic bases. To give you a rough estimate about the final thickness, .8mm wood + .65mm flexible steel + .78mm heavy duty magnet group base = 2.23mm.

6 Eureka figures, Litko bases




July 3rd witnessed another Kid & Cake episode when my youngest, Antigony, or "Tiggy" for short, had her first birthday. Below are a few shots including a picture of my wife with Tiggy. Oh, the wife is expecting again, due in December I believe






(edit) Added a photo I have handy of my wife's face since I previously added a "top of the head photo". She might not be pleased that I uploaded a photo of her shortly after a shower and without make-up etc, but hopefully she won't find out.

Sharp July Practice

Despite having a number of AWI figures ready for a July 4th unveiling, I've not committed the time to finish these off in recent weeks.

Most of my free time has been spent gaming Sharp Practice by TFL with my two oldest kids (9 & 8). We've had a fun time of it, mostly focused on the ACW. As I'm behind in my painting we've been using a number of cheap soft plastic 1/72's as a substitute.

The kids really enjoy the game for a number of reasons, not the least because their dad is umpiring. They like the random events and I would like to find some new ideas for these to keep fresh elements in the game. The "spooked livestock" event has created many entertaining moments and dialogues. One time my daughter insisted that the livestock should be rather irritated chickens and on another occasion my son told his troops to look forward to the bacon. A good 50% of the time is spent laughing. At least once a game my daughter will giggle about the rules being by "toofatlardies". She, at first glance, had thought it read "toofatLADIES".

A recent small and quick game saw just 2 formations face off against each other. The Union was placed securely behind a fence and the Confederate objective was to clear the fence line of Yankees. My daughter, the union player, charged out from the fence, across the field and in a flurry of action they completely decimated the Rebels. Despite a number of events that should have hampered the Union effort, they prevailed, mostly due to great versus bad dice in three rounds of firing which sealed the Rebel fate. The first round saw a lot of shock added to the Rebel formation, followed by a round of few hits, a couple of kills, a bonus card played, and a dead rebel Big Man. From that point on it was just a matter of time. My son's well timed quip when his Big Man took a dirt nap..."at least Captain Bad Dice is gone."

In SP ACW the Tiffin card is replaced with a Sarsaparilla card. We celebrate each end of turn with a drink of Sarsaparilla or Root Beer, usually A&W.

Leib / du Corps Regiment

My latest finished project is the Leib Regiment of Hessians based upon the OOB for Brandywine. The biggest challenge for me was, in a word, yellow. I have never painted much yellow other than the odd highlight. Here I needed to do small clothes and facings in this color. I ended up choosing to do these in different shades. I used Foundry's Ochre triad for the small clothes and Foundry's yellow triad for the facings/cuffs. Although it felt like a risk, I think it turned out well. The other challenge was with the musician. According to the information on Tim Reese's digital illustration CD, the musician wore rose or a faded red facing and cuff. My hope was that they wouldn't turn out too pink in color as I used the A+B from the Wine Stain Red triad. I also completed the Grenadiers for this regiment as I'll be using them in the grenadier battalion von Linsing.

Despite Murphy's law of painting time having descended upon me, things seem to have gotten back to normal.

Figures 28, Perry Miniatures, GMB Flags, Litko Bases

One goal almost complete

The purchasing of my ECW project for next year is almost complete. Building forces built around FoG:R lists to start and then maybe branching out into other rules. So far I have enough lead and plastic for about 900-1000pts for Royalist and Parliamentarian forces. Most of the minis will be Warlord with some Bicorne personalities and a few Perry/Tag rank and file. The only thing left here is the Montrose Scots, which will be mostly Eureka/Perry.

Major General Stirn

I recently completed my first AWI personality figure with this sculpt by Perry. Stirn is part of their pack of Hessian Mounted Generals AW099.

I had two goals in mind when I started. First, don't mess up the horse! Second, I wanted to try a new flesh combination.

After testing a first round of color triads on the Thracian Cavalry I came away with one in particular that I thought had potential and that was Foundry's Bay colors. The biggest problem is that I dislike the Bay Brown C. The hue is too pink in my opinion and unfamiliar to my experiences with horses. It comes across a little too pink and most bays reflect a golden brown or reddish brown sheen. I took a stab in the dark and mixed Bay Brown C with Deep Brown Leather B. Luckily it seems to have turned out for the better. When it came to the horse's eyes I tried a dot of white behind the eye as the horse is looking forward.

When it came to the flesh I discarded the Foundry triad in favor of Dusky Flesh, Dwarf Flesh, Elf Flesh from GW, along with Foundry Flesh C. I really like how it turned out, but I need more practice with it. I can easily see me using this in the future. I'll probably wait until I finish the Hessians to make the switch.

Japanese Flags

Every Memorial Day I take out an old ammo box and other items my uncle gave me years before he passed. The ammo box is full of items from his service in the Pacific during ww2 and the other items include his uniforms, half a dozen Japenese flags and a Japanese rifle. He was awarded the purple heart for being wounded in the Phillipinnes. He didn't tell many stories about his time in the war, as most ww2 veterans I've known. Those things he did tell me when we were alone working or fishing together were deeply personal and well remembered.

Every year I intend to find out, but have yet to, what these flags are or what they say. I've posted a couple in the odd chance somebody might know. Each flag has loops on one end. They are in a wide array of conditions, although near the same as the day I first saw them.

Cheap Plowed Fields

This has probably been done by many before me, but the following is a 9"x12" test piece of terrain I did today. I'm always looking for inexpensive terrain options that still look the part. Although this test piece is rough, I think with a little polish this could work for any plowed fields I intend to make in the future. Not only does it have very fast drying times, but it also appears to be very durable.

$2.39 at local hardware store
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$0.72 at DickBlick.com

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$1.49 Nutmeg Brown Craft Paint
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Already on hand in quantity.
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Already on hand in quantity.
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With plenty of material left over...

Thracian Cavalry

These figures are sporting a very quick and basic paint job. They only took a couple hours to do with the main focus being on the horse colors. In fact, other than being a possible option for my Later Macedonian FoG army, their main purpose is as test figures for possible horse color triads as I have a number of 28mm mounted figures awaiting pigment. If you want to see some pretty incredible 15mm Thracians, check out this thread.




16 Xyston figures, Litko bases

Hessian Artillery

Back into my AWI work, I've finished the Hessian artillery. These were done with the standard Hessian palettes I've used before along with my first attempt at the proper "straw" color for the small clothes and pants. I hope I came close to the proper hue. The artillery bronze barrels are done using Foundry's bronze and the gun carriages are in the hussar sky blue. I preferred this over the regular sky blue as its a bit more muted.

They are based with three figures rather than four per British Grenadier's recommendation for lighter artillery. I'm not sure why I collected 4 models. The scenarios I have, at most, call for 2 models. I may try and sell the other two to finance some more ECW or start a Sharp Practice project. (that would make the wife happy)

I apologize for the photos as my camera is giving me problems. I fear I will need to make a replacement purchase soon as its not been working well with close-ups.