28mm American War of Independence Project

During this Covid-19 pandemic, I've been able to brink out my 28mm AWI figures and start painting in mass.  So, here are some progress photos from beginning to end. I've managed to paint about 250+ AWI infantry and artillery figures over the last few months.  

Painting a British Unit, or 2, or 3, or 4:

Figures are primed black and now have a white dry brush over the top. 

Started painting the coats in red. 

Painting of the cuffs, collars, and coat trim for each unit. 

Painting flesh on the hands and faces.  Now they start to look like actual people. lol. 

Trousers and gaiters are painted white.  The boots and hats are painted black. 

Time to get the rifles started.  Painted the wood brown. 

The back of the figures get some attention as canteens, haversacks, and cartridge boxes are painted. Then white is applied to the leather cross belts.  

These troops have received a black wash for the details, and then lightly dry-brushed as if marching in the sun. 

The figures have been removed from the tongue depressors and glued to 1" metal fender washers.

The bases have had white glue applied and covered in sand and fine ballast.  Then they were painted a nice earthen color with a brown wash over the ballast. 

Once dry, the base gets a light tan dry-brush over the sand and ballast. 

Glue is placed selectively on the base and then dipped into a green mix flocking. Make sure to leave areas of sand and ballast show through for a varied effect. 

Of course, the last step, which I don't have a picture of, is to add/glue a couple of 'grass tufts' to each base...grass green, spring green, yellow-green, etc.; whichever is appropriate.    

15mm American Revolution Project: Artillery

With a resurgence into the American Revolution, I have dusted off my unpainted 15mm AWI forces and started to paint them.  Up first are all of the artillery for the main combatants: Continental, French, British, and Hessian. 

Here's the complete artillery painted to date, including guns, crew, artillery limbers, and wagons. 

The Hessian artillery have the Yellow guns.  The Hessian artillerists are dressed in blue jackets with white vests and trousers.  The French artillery have the sky blue guns.  The French artillerists are dressed in navy blue jackets with red vests and trousers.     

The British artillery have the red guns.  The British artillerists will be dressed in blue jackets with red trim and white trousers.  The Continental artillery have a variety of colored guns including olive green, brown, and gray.  The Continental artillerists will be dressed in a variety of colored outfits.  Some in jackets of navy blue, black, and browns. 

AWI/ACW 28mm Brick Building Find @ Antique Store

I'm always browsing through flea markets, thrift stores, and antique stores as you never know what you might find that is perfect for miniatures gaming, but was not created for that purpose.  I recently found this one for $4 and bought it so I didn't violate my rules of Acquisition.

(Rule #1: Buy it when you see it, because when you come back to get it, it will be gone.) 

 

As it states on the bottom of the house:

 

"The Little House Where We Began.  This is a handcrafted replica of the Heinz family homestead designed for you to file your favorite Heinz recipes.  The house is made basswood and silk-screened by hand. " 

 

I did a quick search and you can find these for sale on eBay and such.

 

Here are some 28mm ACW figures for scale. The style of house will fit in fine with the AWI through the ACW and beyond.  You could add additional details if you wish, but I'm leaving it as is and spend that extra time on other terrain projects.  Though, as I can't leave 'good enough alone', I'll probably end up adding some shingles to the roof made from cereal box cardboard.   

The cool feature is that the roof is removable and you can fit a whole squad of 10 figures inside (if mounted on 1" bases.) 

This building will be put to good use in upcoming black powder skirmish games. I'll bet you that the creators at the Heinz company never thought the recipe box would be fought over by small metal miniature soldiers.

25mm ACW Wood and Stone Barns

Here's even more paper building goodness.  This time in 25mm/28mm scale for your ACW games.  These would fit in fine with other black powder games as well.

15mm ACW Wood and Stone Barns

Here's a 15mm Wood and Stone Barns that I created years ago, with an option side workhouse or storage area.  I designed it for the ACW, but would probably fit in for any blackpowder era game. Enjoy.

15mm and 25mm European Stone Barn and Stone House

More paper building goodness that I created years ago.  Take your pic, 15mm or 25mm? 

Paper Building: 15mm ACW 2-Story House

Here's another paper building that I created for my 15mm ACW games.  It can be built as a stone or brick house, or both. Simply add some colored pencil, paint and/or marker to complete the model.  The model is also appropriate for other American games such as the AWI. 

Paper Building: 15mm ACW Barn

Here is a copy of some 15mm Paper, ACW Barns that I created. There's no reason why they couldn't be used for other eras such as AWI, Seminole Wars, European Wars, and etc.  Happy Building.

Battle of Monmouth, AWI

Here's a game we played in August 2009 using our 15mm AWI units.

Sable Palm Trees & Cabbage Palms (Florida Palm Trees)

Here are some pictures showing how I made my Sable Palm Trees (State tree of Florida and South Carolina) for my Florida Terrain project. I'm planning on running skirmish level gaming (28mm) for ACW, AWI, Seminole War, Patriot War, and earlier eras (Dinosaurs), set in the State of Florida, Florida Territory or La Florida, depending on the era and ownership of the area known as Florida.

This same technique can be used to create trees and foliage for scales from 54mm on down to about 15mm.

Typical Florida palm scrub or hammock areas. 

Sabal Palmettos

 Typical Florida palm scrub or hammock areas. Cabbage or 'Sawtooth' palm in foreground

 A bunch of plastic foliage found at Michael's craft supply store.

 Individual 'branches are separated from the main stem. Notice each 'leaf' represents a palm 'frond'.

 Here, the 'fronds' have been removed from the stem.  Leave enough for the 'front' stalk.

 The Construction process: (1) Cut a wood dowel to the appropriate length. For 28mm, I used a 1/4" or 3/8" wood dowel. Use a smaller diameter for smaller scales and a larger diameter for larger scales. (duh!) (2) Wrap the dowel in masking tape, starting at the base and working upwards to create the palm 'rings'. (3) Glue (I used hot glue) a wood bead to the top. (4) Start gluing and layering the palm fronds, larger to smaller, from the bottom to the top.  The lower fonds will represent the dead/flapping palm fronds. (sorry, they didn't have landscapers back then that regularly removed the dead fronds.)

 (5) I spray the top 'foliage' with a forest green spray paint. (6) I dry brush the fronds with lighter greens/yellows, with the lightest colors at the top of the tree. I paint the lower fronds with browns and tans.

(7) I paint the trunk a tan color and highlight the rings. (8) Lastly, I drill holes in a 1/8" mdf base, and glue in the trees.

 (9) Finish off the base with assorted foliage and details.  Can you see the Seminoles hiding?  The other plastic plants are other pieces from various Michael's plastic plants and ferns.  You just have to find the right ones that look to scale. Think small.

 Here is some of my other 'Florida' fauna.  The plastic palms are from a Chinese distributor and can be found cheaply and easily on ebay.  They work well for understory trees, cabbage palms, and 'Sawtooth' palms. These haven't received a final paint job or highlighting, just based and flocked for a game. 

Some other foliage to represent some of the pines, cypress, bushes and ferns abundant in the Florida wilderness.