Roman EIR work in progress

A few months ago I posted an entry about a Roman unit I was painting up to see how quickly I could complete them. As with most things, it took a lot longer than planned...

Even now, they aren't quite complete - the scuta (shields) desperately need transfers - if anyone has any going spare please get into contact!

The pila also need to be attached, static grass applied to the bases & I'm probably going to do another layer on the tunics.

Painting this number of figures at the same time requires a certain degree of discipline - but I'm reasonably happy with the results.

I've already started on a unit of 24 Pretorians & a smaller unit of archers. Over the Xmas holidays, my painting schedule has been cleared to finish off the remaining Romans, so hopefully I'll have about 150 done by January...

Rally men, Rally!

Haven't had time to paint much recently, but aim to put that right over the Xmas hols.

This unit represents 13th Mass. Volunteers, who formed part of Paul's Brigade (1st Corps, 2nd Div). The unit was engaged in defence of Seminary Ridge on the first day, suffering heavy casualties.

As for the figures themselves, they are as always from the Foundry range, with several small conversions. A couple of the casualty figures have been resculpted from Foundry's colonial ranges - the Boer in the foreground of the first image with a blanket sculpted over his bandolier, and the Sikh Wars figure I posted about previously.










To break up the uniformity of the charging line, many of the rifle arms have been swapped around to create the impression of movement.

Foundry Gordon Highlander - North West Frontier

Another one from the lead pile, one of the Perry sculpted NW Frontier range from Foundry.

I assume he's a Gordon Highlander because of the tassels on the sporran, and it would fit with the campaign - he'd be perfect for storming the Dargai heights!

The yellow & blue in the tartan may need a little more work, as it seems to bright, although Photoshop's levels may be to blame - it doesn't look quite as conspicuous in reality. Also note the black and red stockings; which became red and white in later conflicts.

The tunic was painted in a mix of the 'Moss' and 'Linen' Foundry paints, the leatherwork Vellejo Cavalry brown / red leather. The choice to use brown for the leather is inferred from various paintings detailing the campaign; I don't usually rely on these second hand sources, especially when uniforms are so often subject to artistic license.

The Roman unit I began has expanded slightly - I now have about 60 individual miniatures based, undercoated and in various states of completion. Other things on the work bench include some of the new Perry ACWs and a couple of old Citadel knights (the 'Barons' War' range later released by Foundry) I have had since they were first released!

CS Divisional Commander

The Div. command base would (according to the FnF rulebook) usually be a single mounted officer; but although mounted on the correct sized base, I felt the foot figure added a 'story line' to the base.

The figure on foot is from the Crimean British command pack, with a hat taken from one of the ACW mounted packs. I particularly liked the turned down collar, which is under represented in the ACW range itself, despite its prevalence in period images.

The horse also originated in the Crimean range, although I had to resculpt the saddle, blanket & pommel oil skin.

The mounted officer's lower half is from the CS mounted infantry officer, pinned at the waist with the CS artillery officer miniature. The sash and sword belt are made from green stuff & hide the join.

By the way, the figure on foot is reading a map, not feeding the horse!

Completed fences

This is what the fences look like painted & based; I just put this little scene together to show what they'd look like on the gaming table.

They are really quick and easy to make, and I think they look pretty authentic. All from cat litter & lolly sticks :)

Photoshop Tomfoolery

Just a bit of fun with Photoshop... CS artillery with the Roundtops in the distance. See if you can spot the monuments I didn't stamp or clone :)

The only miniature that hasn't been discussed before is the officer out front, who some may recognise as one of the British officers from the Indian Mutiny range; havelock removed, head resculpted and a straw hat replaced.

Although static grass on the bases probably needed to be blended in a bit, and it's probably out of scale, I am quite pleased with the results. The next time I visit, I must remember to take some 'stock' photos for this purpose; it will be more of a challenge trying to find a suitable vista without also getting a bunch of tourists, a large bronze statue or an RV in view!

Gettysburg terrain - fences

I wanted to make up some authentic looking fence lines for background for photos and also to work as gaming pieces. I knocked up five bases like this one in just under an hour (unpainted). Card base, cat litter coated in PVA shaped into a line, upright posts made from barbecue skewers, horizontals made from spliced ice cream sticks, all held in place with diy filler. Once dry, the bases were sprayed black, the 'ground' coated in sand, painted brown, drybrushed then static grass was applied. Excluding drying time, the five bases took only a couple of hours to complete.

CSA artillery pieces

Another couple of bases that have been hanging around for a while. The first one is pretty much out of the box, just the rear figure has the head taken from the straggler figure in one of the vignette packs. Painted to represent the Washington Artillery; dark grey shell jacket with thin red piping & red kepis with dark blue bands.
http://www.washingtonartillery.com/Uniforms%20page.htm

(scroll halfway down for the Civil War images)

The second base again has a headswap from the CS mounted infantry officer (rear figure) with no other conversions.

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Final Part

Finally done, even down to the carving on the picket fence. As previously mentioned, the window frames have been intentionally left a darker colour, as per the early images I have posted. Like most things, it took longer than I anticipated, but I am pleased with the results.



Lessons learnt?:

• I will be buying moulded plasticard for tiles, bricks, boarding etc. Life is too short.

• Complete roof separately and affix at end, allowing access to the interior so any mishaps with windows etc can be sorted out easily.
• Research is vital. There's not much point in taking time making something that's not historically accurate. The Gardner images were a perfect starting point, and the Library of Congress architectural drawings were a Godsend. These, together with my own photos, images from various websites & books such as Early Photography at Gettysburg by William Frassanito gave me more than enough material to work with. It's fair to say at some point conjecture and informed guesses will be required, but the more research; less guesswork.
  
• Use cheap paints for terrain. I used large pots of cheap acylic (Inscribe pots picked up for 50p, and old Citadel paints that were near the end of their useful lives) to cover big areas. I was surprised how much paint got used. Conversely, use a quality wood glue!
  
• Put it together using masking tape to make sure it all fits before you glue it. Bulldog clips make excellent clamps for gluing wood joints.

The next building will be the Bryan House. Again, I have all the wetplate images, drawings & photos. The Bryan House is pretty similar to the Leister House, so much so that Brady mistakenly took photographs of the Bryan residence whilst trying to capture Meade's HQ in 1863. Strangely enough, I saw an ebay auction for 'Meade's HQ' last week; guess what? It was a model of the Bryan House!

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 8

The house is now complete, but not photographed. I thought I'd just show a couple of features in the penultimate post of this project.

The chimney was constructed from brick plasticard over a wooden core. A layer of two bricks width was added at the top, then a single bricks width to finish off the detailing. This was all then painted black then Dark Sand for the mortar. The individual bricks were picked out in Plaka Brick Red (!), then weathered with some black added to the mix. As you can see, the shingles are all painted as per the porch roof (the white plasicard has now been painted too).

The ground was sand painted dark brown, dry brushed with various tans, red browns and ochres. PVA was then painted randomly over the whole area, followed by a mix of static grasses. Once dry, the grass (which to my eye always looks too bright) was lightly coated in brown ink, which blended it all in nicely. Again, once dry, the grass was dry brushed with various greens and browns.

CSA Breakthrough marker

FnF breakthrough marker, from the Foundry Southern command pack. Painted with Vallejo greys - black grey and dark sea grey blended with white, Andrea blue facings & dark Prussian blue trousers.

I've also finally finished Meade's HQ which has been a slightly longer project than I expected. Pictures later! I also managed to secure some Foundry Roman standards, so I'm waiting for them to arrive before I start the Legio (excuses, excuses...).

Foundry & Perry - shoulder to shoulder

I've seen a lot of nonsense written on the interweb (of all places!!) about compatibility between the old Perry sculpted miniatures released by Foundry, and their new range. As you can imagine, this issue probably affects me more than most!

Well. As you can see with the two Northern firing line figures, there are differences in the anatomical construction; the new sculpts, as mentioned before, are more 'lifelike'. I don't think these miniatures are incompatible on the battlefield, but maybe not in the same unit. They are certainly more compatible than with Old Glory, Sash and Sabre, Redoubt, Dixon, Renegade etc. Indeed, the differences are less marked than between their Foundry ECW and own range, and I don't remember that being such an issue. There is as much difference between the Foundry ACW artillery and infantry - the artillery being half a head larger - and that's the same range!

The mounted Generals pack I photographed in an earlier blog entry show that although the heads may be slightly different, the overall size of the metal miniatures is similar. After I have painted up one of the ACW3 pack I will let you see the differences.

As to the plastic figures themselves: the main feature is the cost; large armies could be built up for a fraction of the cost of their metal counterparts. They are sculpted in 'generic' sack coats and shell jackets, so for most units they will need to be split US/CS. With a couple of packs, there should be enough to put together three FnF brigades, with a few left over.

Preparation is much like for white metal - there are mould lines which need to be filed, and a rinse with washing-up liquid will get rid of any release agent present. This one was undercoated with enamels and painted with the usual mix of Vallejo, Foundry, Plaka & Citadel; there were no problems with application.

The only thing I found was the detail was harder to pick out on the plastics - especially areas like eye lids; and there are areas on the sculpt, like the hand in the cap pouch that are not as well defined as metal.

I enjoyed painting this figure, and I am looking forward to painting the rest of the range - the plastic horses display the best of the plastic medium; I'm surprised they don't replace their metal horses in their normal ranges. I am of course reassured that there is a continuing line of metals, as not only will we see the 'finishing off' of the Foundry range (Negro heads already sculpted!) but hopefully some new personality figures (Hill? Longstreet? Burnside?) and some unusual units like the Red Legged Devils!

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 7

This modelling project is starting to take shape! The base, built up from polystyrene, with modrock added in the first image; coated in PVA and covered in mixed sand and gravel.


In this next image, the sand has been painted with a mix of black and brown acrylics. The main roof has been covered in plasticard tiles and the chimney has been added; a wooden core with brick textured plasticard affixed.

The last image is another artillery base, this time standard unconverted Foundry figures.

The Romans undercoated last post still remain unpainted - although the bases have been coated in sand and the remainder of the brown paint mix from the Leister House base.

Roman Holiday

No this posting has nothing to do with Gregory Peck! Surprised at how quickly I completed the Roman Cornicen, I decided to take a break from the ACW & dig out some old Foundry Romans I bought from ebay a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately, they had been "painted", or more accurately doused in what some call "magic dip" (i.e. floor wax and dark brown ink wash over a base coat). I guess if you just want figures to game with and are not too fussed with the effect, it's ok, but close up it looks very odd. Anyway a week in Dettol (pine oil disinfectant) stipped them back to bare metal.

There are 15 figures in total, including Cornicen & Centurion, but will include a Signifer when I lay my hands on one. If any one has a few they want to dispose of, send me a message!

The challenge will be to paint them in as short a time as possible without sacrificing the quality of the painting. I will however cheat this time and use transfers as a template for the shields.

The first concession to time was to use black aerosol spray rather than the normal painted humbrol enamel. Once dry the figures were mounted on 20mm bases, tidied up with milliput.

Once the bases have been covered in sand and gravel, the clock starts!

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 6

The rails have been added, and the whole model attached to a wooden base. Because of the uneven ground, polystyrene has been glued in place. The only thing that remains is to tile the roof, but I haven't managed to summon up the enthusiasm just yet!




The windows were constructed from clear plasticard, with a thin slice of white card to represent the sash, and the actual panes scored with a scalpel. The whole window was then painted, left to dry, then rubbed clear of paint, apart from where it has caught in the cuts and in the corners. Not all the paint has been rubbed off in this photo.

The window in situ. Light reflects off the cleaned panes creating a realistic appearance. The window frames on the actual building are now painted white, but as previously discussed, the period images suggest a darker paint or stain.

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 5

Next stage: The porch roof. If only I had some shingle tile plasticard... instead, each row was cut from plain plasticard, and each tile individually cut. Because the card was so thin, it twisted up, so it had to be cut again into five to ten tile widths so it didn't curve. This took an age, and I'm not looking forward to doing three times this area on the main roof.

Once dry, it was sprayed with a black undercoat, then painted Vallejo black grey. This was worked up with white added to the mix, then washed with black ink to smooth out the texture.

Finally, individual tiles were picked out in a mixture of different greys and browns. The porch timbers were also painted and dry brushed. Note that for the porch and windows, I have decided to use brown paint, unless I find evidence to the contrary.

With the porch in place, I could now add the railings. The cross beams still need to be put into place. Compare to the photo I took (see Pt 1).

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 4

The first photo shows the completed construction, including window frames, which amusingly enough had to be puttied in with 'green stuff'. After the glue had been allowed to dry, the whole thing was sprayed black. I then proceeded to drop it on down some steps and onto a concrete floor. Fortunately it just bounced with no damage whatsoever!

Next the whole building was given a grey undercoat and then drybushed in various shades of light grey and finally white. Obviously the area below the boarding will be covered up as part of a scenic base. It is interesting to note one of the problems with accurate scale representations, the fact that the real buildings are not in themselves perfect. If I was constructing this model to be used without a base, I would have had to alter the design, as the house itself actually sits on an incline, as can be seen in the second image.

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 3

It is obviously a distinct advantage to have architectural drawings to work from when constructing a scale model. The originals were blown up to the correct scale for 28mm, then cut out and traced onto mdf.

The mdf was then cut out to form the rough template & the windows were drilled out. The model was then taped together to make sure everything fitted correctly.

Separate roofs were constructed from lightweight wood. The internal view shows where the house was glued and strengthened.

The inside was painted a dark brown and the small porch room (cellar entrance?) was added. The porch iself was added, but not glued. This porch was later replaced as another photo shows the stonework actually runs under the porch. The stone (textured plasticard) was added, followed by row after row of wooden boarding.

Day two. The work in progress. Note the boards on the rear of the house, with a central join as per the real building. I think I will invest in some wood effect plasticard. Gluing the boards one by one was simply too time consuming. The wood will look better when painted though.

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 2

Another image of the Leister House, originally from an engraving from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, December 5th 1863, republished in 'Farms at Gettysburg' by Thomas Publications using Adams County Historical Society images.

Interesting to note the first floor window (above the ladder), which was not visible on the previously posted wetplate images. The window is also present in the 1935 architectural survey, but has now been removed from the building itself. Again note the dark door.

I can only assume this window was added between July and December 1863. Perhaps one of the shell holes (described by Leister herself in a later interview) was carved out and a window frame inserted?

The Leister House (Meade's HQ) Part 1

The Leister House, or Meade's HQ as it is now often called was the home of the widow Lydia Leister, located a mile from the centre of Gettysburg down the Taneytown Rd.

The photo above, now in the Library of Congress collection, was taken only days after the battle, as the horse carcasses that litter the field bear witness. This image will be invaluable in an accurate representation to scale. Note the dark window frames and door.

This second image shows the house in better detail. According to the photographer it was taken during the battle itself, although the density of foliage on the trees doesn't seem to compare with the first image. Note the faded clap board on the near side, and again the darker window frames. I assume the outbuilding is the smokehouse mentioned in period descriptions.

On my last trip, I took a number of photos, which I could compare with these period images and the scale drawings from the LOC website.


The house today, which has been restored to its original appearance. Note the window frames are now painted white, and I am not sure as to whether the porch window (left of photo) is present in the earlier wetplate images.

This view from the rear of the house (taken between 1874 and 1888) shows another larger extension, added in the 1870's. Strangely when Leister sold the property to the Battlefield Memorial Association, she removed the extension and attached it to her new house.

These changes over time show the difficulty in returning the property to it's original state. However, by using these sources, it is possible to form pretty complete picture of how the place looked in 1863.

Roman Auxiliary Cornicen & CS Firing Line WIP

Back to the painting table, with a day off! Unfortunately most of the time was spent undercoating and putting on base layers, which is not terrifically exciting. I did however, start to paint my first Perry plastic infantryman. In comparison to their Foundry output, the new figures are more slender & truer in terms of proportion. I will suspend judgement until I've painted a few, but I am a little concerned about some of the detailing, for example around the hands. I haven't started on the metal sculpts, but they look as good as their AWI output.

This miniature (from the Foundry Roman Auxilia command pack) has been in a semi painted state for a while, and I finally finished him off. Strangely the face was the last part I painted, usually it's the other way around. Black enamel undercoat, with the usual mix of Vallejo, Foundry, Citadel and Plaka paints. Note that in the photo, the wolf pelt looks slightly 'flat', but I have a feeling this is a side effect of the Dullcote being applied before the paint had actually dried.

The Cornu (horn) was interesting to paint, starting with old style Citadel 'tin bitz' and 'brazen brass', then Vallejo copper and Liquitex gold highlights. This didn't look quite right, so I used some brown ink to blend the metallics and give it more 'weight'. The ink was then wiped from the body of the horn to reveal the gold highlights. Having managed to finish this example off in a fairly short time, I'm tempted to paint up an entire unit of Romans to see how quickly this can be achieved. I certainly have enough unpainted legionnaires that need to exit the leadpile.

This CS veteran was also finished off today, and is one of my favourites from the Foundry range. The brown leather cartridge box and brogans help to break up the grey tones. This will be added to a firing line stand - with the remaining miniatures hopefully being finished over the weekend.

Battlefield visit

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days wandering around the battlefield at Gettysburg. Starting at the new museum, which is a lot larger than the old one, I sat through their new film (not recommended for anyone with any basic knowledge of the war) then went off to the Lutheran Seminary, walking down to McPherson's ridge looking at the position of Buford's defense on the first day. Unfortunately we didn't get to go into the Adams County Historical Society which is based at the Seminary.We then followed the path of the collapsed Union line as it retreated through the town towards Evergreen Cemetery, and ending the day at Culp's Hill observation tower.

Day two started from the museum again, moving towards the Leister House (Meade's HQ), where I snapped some photos in order to reconstruct it for the wargames table.

This is the rear view of the barn. Wow. I bet you wish your holidays were as exciting as mine :)

Amazingly, the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
has architectural drawings of many of the most important historical buildings on the battlefield including the Leister house and barn (part of the Historic American Buildings Survey) so there's no excuse for inaccuracy.

We then went towards the Pennsylvania monument where some re-enactors were doing a demonstration. These well fed federals, seen doing rifle drills above, were accompanied by their Rebel counterparts stationed by the Longstreet monument. Strangely, someone was actually getting married on the site, with a Confederate honour guard! It is always good to talk to these enthusiasts, as they always have interesting tales to tell, even if one felt compelled to apologise for one of their 'pards' who had brought along an 'authentic' 1860s deckchair for the Reb camp...

Onwards to Little Round Top through the Peach Orchard and Wheatfield, back up to the Virginia Monument and across to the Angle in the footsteps of the Pickett Pettigrew charge. A lot of ground covered, and some very sore feet, but I could have done another month without covering the same ground twice. This all too brief trip has given me a taste for a longer holiday later in the year.

As well as the new Perry miniatures that need to be glued together, the Leister House will be a first terrain piece. I'll leave the Seminary until later - that's going to be a project in itself! I should probably then do the McPherson barn. So many plans. so little time...

Salute!

I haven't posted in a while. I haven't painted in a while. However, I thought I'd do a quick update on Salute (the biggest UK Wargames show) & my thoughts on the prospect of painting the first Perry sculpted metal ACWs.

It has probably already been said that the Excel venue is like an aircraft hangar, with as much character. However, I wasn't there for the ambiance (or the £5 vege burgers!), I was there for Perry ACWs! Picking up the plastics (Infantry and Cavalry) from the Perry's themselves & delaying while I admired their demonstration game, I then went to pick up some metals from Dave Thomas. Unfortunately by the time I got there, all they had left were limbers! I picked one of those up, but then they found a Generals pack they hadn't sold. The day was saved(!)

I have seen a number of posts about the compatibility of the old Foundry range, and as I'm sure you can imagine, this was certainly an issue for me.

As you'll see, the fears were unfound(ry)ed. The Perry sculpt is on the left. I picked two similar looking miniatures to compare, and although the Foundry sculpt is slightly 'chunkier', they are by no means incompatible. The new Perry miniatures have more realistic proportions (horses do too!) and the detail if anything, is even finer than before, although this may be due to the respective ages of the moulds. Suffice to say I am very happy about these new models - and can't wait to pick up the rest of them. The artillery they had on display looked superb.

In terms of the models themselves, this pack is most suitable for the Union, due to the sculpted shoulder boards, although they were used down South (Wade Hampton for one). A needle file would sort them out, but I think I'll keep them as Blue Bellies.

Once I've painted some of the plastic horses, I'll do another side by side post, although apart from the benefit of more realistic horses, I don't see too many problems.

As for the rest of Salute, I picked up some bargains at the Foundry stall - 4 complete (and a few extras) ECW artillery crews plus guns for £5!

I also picked up the interesting Touching History terrain building guides. I'm off to Gettysburg in two weeks, so hopefully some of the tips will come in useful!

Fightin' Joe

For those Gettysburg 'what if' scenarios... Or Chancellorsville.

Currently a work in progress, I may remount him on a horse that's a better match for the one in the tintype. Correcting the relative scale of horse and rider may pose more of a challenge though...

The horse in the WIP is from the Crimean Russian Generals pack, with resculpted saddle blanket. I will use him for the General's staff when I find a better match.

Hooker himself is based on the Foundry Union mounted Infantry commander with the head from the CS Cavalry with Shotguns pack. The sideburns were added with greenstuff.

While I was on the Foundry site, I noticed the work done on Stonewall Jackson - his coat's painted grey! Jackson was wearing this coat - a black oil cloth raincoat when he received his fatal lead poisoning. It's still on display at the VMI. Their Little Sorrel looked a little off colour too :(

The start of a Roman WAB army?

This one's been in a semi painted state for a few months now, but I dug him out and finished him off today. I have a bunch of these Foundry sculpts and their Dacian adversaries, but they always seem to be on the 'to do' list.

Although they should be easy enough to paint in large batches because the colour schemes are quite basic (... by that reasoning so should the ACW...), the major problem is the shield. As this was a test piece to see whether I was inspired enough to do an army, I did this one totally freehand. The prospect of doing a hundred more is, however, enough sap my will to live. Although it looks ok, I will order some decals and paint over the top of them. Decals never look quite right on their own, but as a template they'll be fine.

It's a shame I painted this model and then attached the shield. I didn't realise the torso would be completely hidden until I attached it. I guess that would save quite a lot of painting time too ;)
Having looked at the tunic colour debate that seems to get the reenactors so animated, I was swayed by the 'undyed' option as for Trajan's army on campaign, resupply would be an issue. Just a shame you can't see it!

Sikh Wars conversions

Two Foundry Sikh Wars figures that will be painted up as part of a Union brigade. I wanted to have this unit charging forward, taking casualties as they ran. Because of the limited number of 'charging' poses in the ACW range, I have been scouring the lead pile for likely looking substitutes to add some variety.

Fortunately I found these two - the cast of the running figure was slightly misaligned, so the cap would have needed to be resculpted in any case. Easier to simply cut it off and give him a forage cap. As you can see the sack coat tails were added and the shoulders filed down. Bands were added to the rifle to make it look more like the Springfield. I'll probably paint these up over the weekend and post the results later. Yes - the rifle is on the wrong shoulder, but this is a one off, in the heat of battle.

Good news about the Perry's return to the ACW - although I have mixed feelings over their decision to use plastic. I have seen their LOTR plastics, and the horses are especially nice as horse legs can be molded to the correct thickness in this medium. However, I prefer the weight and durability of metal. I guess those 'drastic plastic' orcs put me off... The promise of metal 'extras' for this range makes up for an misgivings.

The idea of producing a 'generic' ACW soldier is great for an entry into the period, they may not satisfy the purist. Although kepis, slouches, sack coats and shell jackets were utilised by both sides in both theatres, it may be difficult to build historically correct armies from these packs in isolation. The price looks extremely competitive though, and I'm sure I'll be buying a number of packs even if they aren't all usable. The prospect of extra bits to use in conversions is an added bonus. Hopefully some separate rifles will be added to the sprue so they can be used in vignettes.

Hopefully the range will be compatible with the Foundry range - I'd be happy with the small differences observed between the respective AWI and ECW ranges. Can't wait for the release date!