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!