28mm American Civil War

[leopard]

A new blog!

and one that shall only gain entries when there are pictures to be shown.

Anyway, today I have assembled the Confederate part of the box, well most of it, which looks thus



arranged for Sharpe Practice, we have six groups of line infantry, two groups of skirmish infantry, one cannon with six crew and assorted officers/command groups to lead them. Also the farm house from the box, which needs a base of some sort.

infantry bods need coins and filler for the bases but are actually pretty nice models, easily assembled with each sprue having five models and options to have any or all of them on the march (as the second ranks are here) or weapons ready (as the first ranks are here). the command frames proving a few other bits over and above the officer and drummer they have.

models generally being "pick a hat to wear and stick the arms on" they went together pretty nicely.

hope to base them Sunday and prime Monday.

[Baldie]

That's a ton of stuff to say its just half the box.

[GuEsTy]

Oh dear God this looks sexy

[leopard]

First group of confederates painted up, just needing a bit on the bases but otherwise done.



Turned out ok, this just being a "base and wash" paint job but seems pretty good, they may get a light drybrush of Iraqi sand for a bit of dust, given thats what the base is getting after some khaki which the trousers will also get near the bottom to blend it all together (worked ok for the SAGA stuff).

Have also now assembled the Union side of the box, well most of it, still have 12 infantry on frames having run out of steel cored 1p coins.

Confederate models are very nice, the Union Zouave are also very nice, the generic 'union' models are not that good though, they are the generic civil war models, mostly at the march, and likely to end up as the second rank with some better models in front of them.

given the above eight were grey plastic this morning I'm hopeful to get at least another unit done this week

[GuEsTy]

Arrrrrgggh please stop. You are stirring up feelings inside of me and I don't have the time or money

[GuEsTy]

What wash and what method of wash?

[leopard]

What wash and what method of wash?

the grey jacket got the GW black Nuln Oil wash, painted over and not lathering it on as I usually do, more of a glaze really just settling a bit.

the flesh is the GW flesh wash, applied the same

the rest is the GW 'earthshade' one, applied the same

VMC washes would work but would need thinning slightly for the black and brown.

nice thin coat just to bring a bit of detail out, but not enough so they need highlighting over

a Sharp Practice force is pretty small, five groups of eight models, a group or two of six and maybe four officers is the basic force. two of the Perry boxes which typically have 40 or so in is all you need and then some, add a cannon or ponies to taste but can play it with just the infantry.

beauty of historical games, they tend to be reasonably cheap and lots of rules to try - hence why these are individually based, can use movement trays to group for any set of rules desired.

other colours are:

Neutral Grey (jacket)
Dark Grey (belts)
Tan Earth (trousers & water bottle)
Us Field Drab (great coat roll)
bone white (napsack)
flat brown (cartridge box)
leather brown (boots and hair)
beige brown (wood)
oily steel (metals)
old Gold (buttons)
flat flesh (skin tones)

nice group of eight so a pure production line method here

[Baldie]

Look good.
Only criticism of the sculpts is beards are too small.

Having watched the TV mini series Gettysburg it is clear 90% of the forces had a beard mid way between Santa and uncle albert.

[leopard]

Right, update time, the first detachment is now completed, well still the bases to sort but will do them as a batch eventually



here we have all three groups, a colour party, a leader, a drummer and a small group of skirmishers with their own leader.



same models, rearranged into a Black Powder regiment, skirmishers and the four extra models out of sight

Note the farm house is now also painted up, nice model actually

finally a quick group shot of the unpainted Union troops



Just the next batch of Confederates to do next, these will be mostly in the plain grey uniform, which will likely be slightly faster to paint as the base colour can easily be airbrushed, they are primed and hope to start them tomorrow evening.

not pictured, but assembled are three further small houses from Sarissa, simple enough but functional, hope to make a start on them over this long weekend as well but not real rush until more models are done so they may end up waiting.

Also need to sort out a bit of the fencing to see how the sizes work and sort some bases out.

busy busy busy

[Baldie]

To say good work would be an understatement.