15mm Old Glory, Union - 600 March Attack

When Stuart MacDonald died, late in 1998, he had many friends who helped sort through his gaming stuff for his estate. In the process, some took souvenirs to remember him by, and in a few cases, took the command stands from various regiments. At the time, he, as I did too, painted his flags by hand. I had it easy supplying the one-flag Confederates, but he had to do national flags for all of his regiments. One was enough and he didn't bother with the accompanying Federal flags. In any event, these command stands then, represented the very best of his work and were splendid to behold. However, their removal made these few units unusable for gaming purposes. I inherited much of what was left behind, but thought I'd restore them for table top use by filling in the missing stands. 

In the day, it was a treat to just select the figure for the regiment and Old Glory figures had a massive amount of variety such that units could be built where no two figures were the same. It was fun picking out which command, which figures were doing a particular thing,(firing line v marching v charging, etc) and building 5 small dioramas out of them for each regiment, These units were augmented with figures from the Dead and Wounded pack as well as the Energetic Infantry and sometimes the Melee Infantry bag that had Union and Confederate soldiers locked in a life or death struggle on the same casting. Marvellous stuff - stuff nobody does today in any scale I'm aware of. Old Glory were so dang creative with creating these unique sculpts and we loved picking through them all to make one-of-a-kind units. 

The figures then were bagged into 100 figure bags, which left a lot of leftovers. Most of my figures have already been "assigned" to their regiment and are still in their hardware organizers with the little plastic drawers. They sit along drawers of unpainted Stone Mountain, Essex, Battle Honors, units such that we referred to them by manufaturer and gneral activity along with how many men were represented. This unit for example was "600 Old Glory - March Attack" because of their aggressive postures and the presence of casualties dropping in the front ranks as if advancing through a withering fire. 

So, my task was to go through my remaining Old Glory leftovers and see if I could put together a command stand for this unit. I have a whole division of Union with artillery and completely assigned vanilla regiments in it so those had to be left alone. Unfortunately, I needed some marching figures and TWO flag bearers to take advantage of all the wonderful flags from Rick - "The Flag Dude."

I can do a one-off Confederate flag, a stars and bars or a battle flag easy enough, but I don't want to get involved with doing two Union flags, especially the federal flags with the eagles, shields and text-filled ribbons all over. 

Also, I needed slouch hats to match the style of this unit. I was able to pull this together, but not without some compromises, including the one kepi in the whole regiment - the drummer. 

I also had to use a Battle Honours guy as I was out of marchers with slouch hats! 

There's a reason why some of these guys weren't already assigned: the sculpting was awful with a lot of chunky blobs in the crevasses that could not be removed easily. 

The crook of his left arm, beard, and left side of his face were so disfigured as to have made Joseph Merrick jealous. I just decided this would mostly go unnoticed once tightly in the ranks. All these shots are from below, angles unlikely to be ever taken again. 

What a mess!

Similar blobs on this flag bearer - it was all I had!

Marching guys with slouch hats were in even shorter supply! What abomination is this?! 

But at a straight-ahead angle, it's barely noticeable. Fine. Not ideal, but fine. 

The other consideration required that I go back and paint in the style Stuart did over 30 years ago, but also to try and match colors for what was mostly Polly S paints - a line of acrylic paints formulated for diorama and model train enthusiasts. 

We didn't do a lot of clever three-layer highlights in those days, and Stuart left the darkest shadow as simply black. I did strugle with that, and couldn't quite get it right, as it's against all my instincts in areas such as the trousers and the skin/faces.

For black leather gear, Suart just painted them with a gloss back, which explains, in part, why he was able to field so many units at a decent clip in our little "arms race." If a unit was painted and based, it could be used on the table. We didn't do historical engagements with proper OBs - just fielded brigades of five to six regiments with accompanying artillery and cavalry in support. 

Most details had just one highlight on it that was mostly very subtle. I did my best to color match as close as possible, and I think I mostly got away with it. I was worried about getting the basing to match up. I was out of this particular grass cover and have been for years. So I cheated. And not just on the bases. For the red blankets, I dabbed the current highlights onto the old models, so they would have the same hue in place. Same with bayonets: both new and old models got the same silver highlight to bring them all together. Finally, with the bases, I glued on patches of my new mix onto Stu's old bases to get it all to harmonize. I did find an excellent color match in Pro-Acryl Drab Brown for those bases so that helped considerably. As I recall it, we applied static grass over wet paint, rather than with a PVA as we so now. I eschewed the PVA here too. 

At last, I think it all worked out. The flags look grand, the figure defects are well hidden, and even a close look could fool one into thinking this unit was assembled and painted all at once. 

One thing I completely failed to apprehend throughout this process is how big these flags are - especially when compared to Stu's forces. These units will definitely stand out as a result. Here's one of his other command stands so you can compare: 

Big problem or no? 

My ability to fill out another Old Glory marching unit now is pretty diminished. I have a 500 man Essex Firing unit I think I can do. I also noticed one of these units has its command but is missing one of the side stands. Another is missing TWO of the side stands. I'll likely have to buy more models in the future to complete these, but I think it will be worth it. 

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

28mm Warlord/Wargames Atlantic Revenants for Silver Bayonet

I already have the North Star Revenents, but one can always use more for games set in a Silver Bayonet world. So why not make up some more in a way that will allow me to try out some of this grimdark nonsense everyone is so fussed about? (Er, I'm fussed about it as well, honestly, though the idea of Trench Crusade leaves me cold. I'm thinking more for Mordheim and other Fantasy-centered genres, Gardens of Hecate, Grimm Dark [did I just coin that?] witch-hunters, child-eating cannibal crones, sylvan aberrations in dark German woods - that kind of thing.)

The Models: 

The zombie heads are from the Wargames Atlantic Zombies box, which is extremely useful as it contains not only generic zombie heads but also zombie heads spanning from Ancient Rome, the Viking era, through the 18th Century, Napoleonic Wars, and World War 2. There are scores of extra heads in the box suitable for all kinds of periods. The bodies are Warlord - from a sprue of 1812-15 French line infantry, included with a copy of Wargames Illustrated. 

The Painting: 

In any event, following guidelines already established, I painted these up in my usual, clean and layered style. 

In retrospect, I should have textured up the greatcoats with some grit before priming, but didn't think about it til it was way too late. I deliberately painted the coats lighter than I would have normally to get the biggest contrast from the grimdark process of applying muck and madness in oil paint, or Monument Hobbies' Newsh - an acrylic variant, as I did here, and then wiping away the highlights. This leaves the mini fairly grungy and earthy, which is precisely what I was going for.

Not having done this method before, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos to see if I could intuit it and transfer the knowledge to these otherwise nicely uniformed and equipped zombies. In my head, they had been killed and buried in a mass grave (yes, in full kit this time), and covered in earth. One has to put aside the question as to why they continue to hold their muskets at all, let alone in the regulation style.

I'll repeat a story I read in an Architectural Digest about a nobleman who, after the Napoleonic Wars, purchased a number of former service horses from the reensconced Bourbon government. One day, he was amazed to find them in formation and executing battlefield maneuvers without any riders guiding them. This was a habit so ingrained in them that they continued to model it long after the necessity for it was removed. Zombies carry their muskets in much the same way: habit and muscle memory. 

Lesson du jour: use far less paint than medium. I used ProAcryl's Drab Brown for the earthiness as opposed to a black earth more suitable for agriculture. I took a deep breath and started with the grenadier. The mix was very thick and to my horror, basically covered every single detail, which put me in a terrible panic. I added more medium, then some water to the mix. I used a wet brush to remove it from the faces, which I had worked hard on. I kept thinning it down and wiping each one as I went rather than letting it sit. The Newsh was hard to remove from the first few as the pigments were too strong and sticky and it was not easy getting into the tighter spaces. 

The drybrush guy says using a finger gets you the best results. He also drybrushes on his hands to test things. I'm more genteel than that and tried those little eye shadow brushes. That worked ok, but they didn't seem to be wiping away much, just moving it around. One swipe and the surface is already polluted. I ended up using my paint tag (old t-shirts) and that worked much better as there were plenty of clean spots with which to wipe. 

In my panic, however, I also found I was wiping too hard - hard enough to remove paint underneath the Newsh. You can see several coat edges and fingers, and other high spots were wiped down back to the black primer - criminy! Luckily, they were small, and I just put the Newsh back on those places to indicate where stubborn dirt stains have remained. 

And though they all looked suitably earthy, there was a monochromatic look to it all. I did a light drybrush of tan over the whole thing to bring some contrast and detail back. I touched up some of the noses that were now black, added some blood effects to facial wounds, mouths and finger tips, then dotted on spots of dried blood where the coats were too flat and without folds. I thought about doing another darker earth color on the coats but chickened out at the end. 

The Bases:

If I include stones on a base, I typically integrate them when I texture the base and hide the bevel on puddle bases, BEFORE I prime. I like to think the primer gives it some extra adhesive properties while also providing a uniform basecoat. There are then one or two lighter, bigger rocks on each base. I started with a black prime - rattle can. 

This was followed by a layer of the Pro-Acryl Drab Brown, upon which were glued tufts from Shadow's Edge Miniatures called 6mm Prairie Rocky Gray Natural. I wanted a stone base underneath the rocks, which these did in one go with grass over some kind of dark ballast. Innovative! This took up some space to help conserve my precious Krautcover's A Tale of Grimdark (marvelous stuff!), which came next to fill the remaining space on the base surface. Finally, a splash of Battlefield: Green Grass from Army Painter to tie it into all of my existing terrain pieces. As you know, for all minis that are not part of existing forces, I aim to have three different textures and three different colors on all bases to keep it interesting. 

In Progress Shots: 

This is the basecoat brown for what was to be undyed wool for these coats. 

Rushed Action Shots:

Conclusion: 

The basing came out the best! Overall, these are fine. Newsh is scary. My mix wasn't quite right and I'll need to try darker colors (but thinner) for next time. I'll also have to be gentler with the wiping part so as not to take the paint with it. Before you learn you gotta fail!

What d'y'all think?  

As always, thank you for looking. Questions, comments, and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

25/28mm Monster Fight Club - Rocks

This is the last of my Monster Fight Club collection. Like the rest of it, trees, trunks, bushes, etc, I bought these at a good discount as they were unpainted. I prefer my own painting anyway, especially on these rocks. They look a little bleached out here because of my white lighting, but came out well enough. 

"Trees are gray, not brown; rocks are brown, not gray" is my basic coloring philosophy on this kind of thing.

It's a nice collection, nice variety of pieces for making disruptive, line-of-sight breaking obstacles.

This is the back of the largest piece

That's an Oathmark orc for scale. 

As always, thank you for looking. Questions, comments, and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

25/28mm Monster Fight Club - Verdant Trees

 I picked these up at one of the HMGS cons one year. They are significantly cheaper when bought unpainted, as I did. It was easy enough to drybrush over the splendidly deep details carved in on each piece. I didn't prime, nor did I rinse them with soapy water, and paint seems durable on this pretty rigid, but not brittle, hard plastic. 

If you like the trunk recipe, I used a heavy drybush of Craft Smart - Tan, followed by a top down drybrush of Folk Art - Barn Brown. In some of the recesses, I used some Army Painter - Speed Paints - Brownish Decay. Finally, to suggest a light moss is making its way up the trunk with a light and spotty drybrush of Apple Barrel - Leaf Green. 

 For the larger canopies (the base plastic is a dark olive), I used Americana - Hauser Medium Green as a heavy drybrush, followed by the Apple Barrel - Leaf Green. For the smaller ones, Americana - Leaf Green was used for the heavy drybrush. This, too was followed by the Apple Barrel - Leaf Green. To punch them all up a little more, I used a light drybrush over the tops with Army Painter Fanatics - Warped Yellow. All pretty simple and straightforward.

After all this, I probably won't even use the canopies. I mostly got them for the nice dead/winter trees for horror or Russian winter games - which are mostly the same thing. (If you know, you know.)

For scaling purposes, here is a 25/28mm Silver Bayonet Austrian hussar from North Star. They are interesting in a storybook kind of way, but they look very artificial next to more traditional tree models. 

I spose they are not awful as just large bushes or piles of entangled growth. This is the smaller bush from the same company in the center there. 

Here they are folded in with the properly dead trees and the stump I posted last month (see below). That they all have prominent and identically located hollows is what prevents me from getting more of them. Yes, I can fill them with putty and sculpt the bark back on. But, naah.

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

25/28mm Citadel Wood - (Bonus - Monster Fight Club Tree Scatter and More)

 I was working on two sets of Citadel Wood and had other dead trees lying around unfinished, so did this whole lot together.

Let's do the miscellaneous first: 

The two standing trees I bought at what is usually the Miniature Building Authority at Fall In. Now, that booth is kind of a hybrid thing, with painted and unpainted stuff as well as product not yet (or never to be) on their website. Not sure what all is going on there, but I did get some lovely bits: pre-painted topiary/hedge pieces seen in the background here. That's three of seven pieces of Edwardian-era manor house hedges. 

These - a stump and two fallen trees are from Monster Fight Club. I have six standing (and healthy) trees to do, which, as you may know, come with a separate canopy that rests over what are leaflesss limbs. 

That's a Warlord Napoleonic figure there for comparison. These are not great trees to me, but when mixed in with the rest of my Haunted Forest collection, they will be cool to have alongside them. The print lines are evident, the bark is not quite right and the design suggests long feces rather than a tree branch. For a Haunted Wood, they look suitably uncanny.

Ok! On to the Citadel Wood!

My hobbying practice often, as you may have gathered, involves starting a project, losing interest about halfway through, then moving on to something else. This was one such endeavor. The canopies were stolen to make these: 

Then, I primed the trunks and the bases and made quite a bit of progress with the bases before getting distracted for a few years.

I broke another brittle Wargames Atlantic printed model of Napoleon's Women Camp Followers and was so pissed, I pushed those to the side and did this instead. How many have to break before I finish painting them? 

The bases were easy enough to finish. I remember quitting as I was uninterested in painting all the skulls, roots and details. But I had done the stones, and all the earth so this was easy to pick up where I left off. And there's the rub: I only buy what I'll use, so it was inevitable I would circle back to this. But rather than starting from scratch, the project was half finished - a couple days work! Breaking up a big project into smaller pieces is sound advice, but it usually doesn't require years of delay before picking up the next few tasks. 

In any event, la!:

They look "busy." 

Let's look at them in their component parts: 

The Bases: 

One thing I'm glad I did ages ago was to make pints of my three layers of earth paints at Home Depot. I've put these into dropper bottles so I always have the exact same colors to build up, giving all my basing a consistency that would be hard to replicate today. 

Like all my basing now, I try to combine at least three different textures and colors to all my ground cover. These had grass sculpted on that I had painted and highlighted but once I added tufts, grass cover, and clump foliage (Woodland Scenics in Olive and Light Green), the sculpted grass looked awful and unnatural. So I pulled what is called "Steppe Grass" from Army Painter and just glued it over the sculpted grass. It's a terrible color for Steppe Grass, honestly, but works fine here. 

You'll recall I did a post about Leaf Punches from Greenstuff World. For the leaf piles I used generic "dead leaves" but, on the stones, I glued those nicely shaped punched leaves so that when you look, it suggests all the leaves are actually leaves and not just flat irregularities. 

Let's look at the trees themselves:

In two sets of Wood, there are three unique trees. Assembly can make them even more unique as there are many options when placing the lesser, smaller branches. 

I don't want duplicates, so all are different. 

I basically copied the techniques I used on the big bases on to the individual tree bases. I did not get the stones exactly right, but they are close enough. Note the odd leaf highlighed on the stones. I covered up the painted grass with the Army Painter Steppe Grass to match. 

They look nice enough on their own, I think. 

All together now: 

Though they look busy and cluttered, most woods do. Mission accomplished! I do need to seal them up when the weather warms up a bit. 

Work traveling this week, so not sure what is next. Camp Followers? Napoleonic odds and ends? I need to finish some quantity of half-finished projects. Perhaps 18mm Blue Moon Pirates? A second unit of Oathmark Heavy Dwarves?

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858