F&D Continental Mounted Officers

Saturday Morning found me progressing through a number of large units and looking for a minor distraction. Although there were a number of candidates, I decided on these two Continental Officers I had ordered from Jim over at Fife and Drum.

My goal with these was simply speed. I wanted to see how quickly I could paint these while keeping them eligible for most game tables. First of all, the castings are full of detail and very clean/crisp to work with. The thinner and more proportional size created an unexpected challenge as it was a break from what I've been familiar with. I didn't think that something as simple as this would provide a challenge, but it did.

I believe the end result was satisfactory, finished in a morning's painting alongside other figures. They probably do look a bit "rushed" in places, but after all...they were.

Read More

American 12pd Artillery

After a long time on the edges of the painting desk I finally put the finishes on these guys. I used Eureka's Molly Pitcher Crew along with two Front Rank 12pd guns.

I'm always trying to do things that are new to me when painting. With these I wanted to experiment with 3 different shades of white on the same figure to perhaps represent different weaves, cuts, or fits. I believed the shirts to be a loose fit so I chose to paint them the most white. The waistcoat I saw as a slightly more refined garment, so I used the menolith white to give it a slight sheen. The pants I imagined to be the tightest fitting clothing and as always when a person is working, they are the first to get scuffed, scraped or dirty. I decided on a slightly more gray shade to reflect that condition.

I'm unsure of the results, but these guys were, for me, an experiment in this direction.

Read More

From 2012 to '11

As 2011 closed with a flurry of non-wargaming activity and I've not had much opportunity to add on the blog. Most of my painting since October has been for other people and a unit or two I painted to sell on ebay, but I should have some of my own pieces to post shortly. My time at the painting desk has greatly increased and looks to be steady on in the near future.

The biggest development has been the arrival of Contessa Rin, born in December. The picture is roughly 20 minutes after she arrived. At that point, she looked like a set of lips and some hair, but luckily we found the rest of her.



I'm trying to convince the wife that 5 is enough, but time will tell...

Read More

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

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More