Tuesday, December 27, 2011

ACW Splitrail Fences In Progress

I spent a few hours the afternoon of Christmas Day in between company, watching the Dr. Who marathon on the Space Channel and trying, in vain, to figure out exactly who River Song is (yes I know she is Amy Pond's daughter, but not exactly sure how). Oh well. It gave me a few hours to put some more fence rail sections together for my American Civil War 28mm collection.

My idea for these was to make modular sections on large, flocked bases that enhance the look of the table. I had made four sections two years ago, and always wished I'd bitten the bullet and made more at the time, since in a large ACW game you can never have too many split rail fences. You can see these earlier sections on the left of the photo below.



The fence sections are made of cedar shims bought in packs from Home Depot, split up with an axe (very authentic, I think) then trimmed with a hobby knife and glued together on the base. The bases, as mentioned above, are sections of MDF board, covered with wood putty mixed while wet with different types of model railway ballast for texture, then painted and drybrushed, my standard recipe for bases. Once the fences are painted, I'll flock the bases and add some accent pieces such as rocks, strands of taller grass, etc.

When I get these new sections finished I'll post some shots of them next to some figures. The fence sections are probably too thick and long for real life, but I like the substantial look of them. It's always nice to have these nice big fences between you and that enemy firing line, if only for pyschological benefit!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Great War Padre Figure

Last year I was reading Sidney Roundwood's stonkingly good blog, which is mostly dedicated to First World War gaming in 28mm, and came across his AAR of a battle which had a role for a British army chaplain, a fictional fellow called "Capstan Charlie" based on the famous padre of that war known affectionatey by his troops as "Woodbine Willie". For Capstan Charlie, Sid used a Great War Miniatures figure which comes in a set of personality figures including a Tommy kicking a football into the attack, a motorcycle dispatch rider, a sniper, etc. I bought this pack and could feel it's gentle tug at my sleeve to start a Great War skirmish collection. Thus far I have resisted the tug. However, I did paint the padre figure, since I collect chaplain miniatures, of which there are damned few.

Here's the finished product. I've based him as a display piece, using a surplus Games Workshop round plastic base, and he will adorn my desk at work in the new year. The painting isn't as good as Sid's but I'm happy with the way the face has turned out. It was the first time I've painted a figure wearing glasses.





The two pictures above were taken using Mrs. Padre's expensive SLR camera, and I haven't really figured out the macro settings to my satisfaction, so this next picture is taken using an HD app I bought for my iphone camera. I need to see them side by side online to decide which one I like better.




Sid tells me there is a Great War padre produced by Woodbine Miniatures / Gripping Beast, so that may be a present to myself in the future.

Thanks for looking. Blessings to your paintbrushes. MP+

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