I painted these a few weeks ago for a customer and coincidentally it was about this time last year that I finished some very similar figures for the same person. I really enjoyed the project especially as I had the chance to base some of the figures. Basing is something I especially like doing which is useful really considering the amount of times I have rebased my own figures over the past 37 or so years that I have been involved in this hobby.
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For my growing collection of 12mm Kallistra ACW figures I decided to make a selection of typically American terrain items starting with Stone & Rail Fences that would be used to line roads and define the edges of fields. I wanted enough so that I could field larger battles on battlefields at least 8ft wide and they had to fit in with my figure basing system which is for an ACW variant of Blucher and also my storage system which is box files.
So having determined the size and amount of pieces I wanted the first thing to do was to assemble the materials being: small stones, tile spacers, pre-cut bases and thin lengths of split cane from an old window blind. The small stones were glued in a row along the length of each base and once done the tile spacers were glued at appropriate distances along the base. These were then all set aside so that they could dry to a point that the tile spacers were solid enough in position so that the lengths of split cane could be cut and glued in place, and once done everything was left overnight to thoroughly dry out before painting commenced. The whole lot were painted dark brown including the bases and left to dry out for a hour or so, and then a second coat of a medium brown was painted over the wood and stone parts. The stonework was given coat of grey paint and with the same grey the woodwork was heavily drybrushed. Finally the whole lot were drybrushed with an ivory coloured paint to add highlights and a sense of weathering to the woodwork. Finally the bases were treated to some bushes and long grass clumps and finally scattered with suitable grass scatter to give the effect that I wanted. These were extremely easy and enjoyable to make and in next to no time I had built over 20 feet of fencing which I determined was enough as it filled two layers of a file box. The materials cost me next to nothing and overall the effect was really very pleasing even though they were very simply treated in modelling terms. Here are some photo's and a comparison using 12mm & 15mm figures, although disregard the red base on the 12mm as they have yet to have the bushes, rocks and grass added. These figures (a mixture of Perry Miniatures plastics and metal) I painted for a customer before Xmas but I only made the Flags a few days ago. As I didn't have any flags I decided to make a new range of ACW flags starting with 3 sheets covering the Union 'Stars & Stripes', next will be some sheets for the Confederates covering the Stars & Bars and the Battle Flag. As time goes by I will start adding more sheets to cover State Flags and Cavalry Flags & Pennants.
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AuthorStephen Wylde BA (hons) Archives
April 2020
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