Painting Challenge entry 13: ACW Union Cavalry and Artillery

I finally got my cavalry and artillery units finished for our ACW campaign. Luckily the game got postponed so these are easily in time for the new date. After these guys I still have 5 regular infantry and 2 zouave regiments left. They are not needed for the first few games though so it might take a bit of time to get them done.

Nothing special to say about the painting. Coloured basecoat and then just adding details. 5 Artillery batteries with their limbers, 2 mounted and 4 dismounted cavalry units and 3 command stands. These are quite fun to do as you can build sort of mini dioramas quite easily without the bases starting to look too crowded. Like the destroyed cannon on one of the artillery bases. It was broken in the bag when it arrived from Baccus so I just decided to use some casualty figures around it to create a slightly battered battery :) I guess I should try building some walls etc. on some of the bases to show the troops being in cover.

I tried a different background with the photos this time. A black background instead of the regular light grey or the scenic base that I normally use. Seems to bring out the colours quite nicely and finding proper settings for the camera was easy. Might use these instead of the grey backgrounds in the future as I like the effect more.

Challenge progress

I'm getting my painting mojo back as the Olympics are drawing to an end and not much else to watch except for hockey. I got my casualty entry finished and sent of to Curt this morning and now I've been finishing more Union ACW stuff. They are now all painted up and waiting for basing. 66 infantry, 24 cavalry, guns, limbers and some casualties. Probably going to finish them up tomorrow and get them game ready for next Saturday.

I've also been painting more Finns for Winter War with all of the remaining minis having their faces finished and snowsuits with the first few paint layers. After a quiet week with my entries I'm hoping to catch up on my points target next week as I have quite a bit nearing completion at the same time.

It's also looking up to be another Finnish Hockey Proudness moment with the guys leading 5-0 against the USA in the bronze game. Too bad we lost against Sweden in the semi-finals, but they were just so much better as a team. I guess Bronze is fine too and should be a great ending for the careers of the Finnish hockey veterans like Teemu Selänne and Kimmo Timonen.

(c) Scandinavia and the World

Painting Challenge entry 5: 6mm ACW Union Brigade

Up next my first contribution to our clubs Gettysburg project. A brigade of Union infantry with skirmishers and a few command stands to go with them. As I mentioned earlier this is my first foray into 6mm minis so still some learning left. Anyhow they are a pleasure to paint and it's really nice to see that a few evenings effort yields this many finished minis.

I basecoated them with my airbrush using the indigo color that would be the main uniform color. Then just quick block painting followed by a wash to bring out the details. For the next batch I'll have to add a basecoat under the indigo as I had some trouble with the paint coming of from some of the guys when I accidentally touched them before applying varnish. Not sure if I had some grease from my hands or the moulds on the minis or if it's just that Vallejo paint that are causing the issue. I've previously just primed them straight with a normal color without issues, but it might be the paint as some Vallejo blues have some coverage issues.

I really need to practice my photography with these guys too. It's really darn hard to get a decent shot when they are just so tiny. And the dark Union colors don't exactly help either. It's a bit hard to make out any detail on the black webbing when the whole jacket is already so dark.

Next up some Finns in snow suits. I've got a squad pretty much finished except for the guns and some mittens so hopefully I'll get them done soon. Lot of work to finish up today so that'll unfortunately take all my painting time away

Painting Challenge progress: ACW Union Infantry

I managed to finish the Paras this morning and send pics off to Curt. While waiting for them to go online on his blog so that I can put them here too, I started the next project on the desk. We are starting an ACW campaign at my club in February with 6mm armies. It's a new period and a new scale for me so will be interesting to see how it'll go. To test paint schemes and everything else I decided to paint a test brigade (why settle for individual test minis?) first before preparing the rest of my horde.

These Baccus minis are a lot more detailed than I expected from 6mm stuff and I was positively surprised that not all the infantry blocks are identical. I've now just airbrushed the base color on and painted some pants on these guys. Around an hour of work and I've got 140 guys + some generals with jackets and pants painted. Nice to see stuff actually progressing fast, instead of the slow slugfest that my Paras seemed to be. Probably won't be that nice and fast when I start painting all the straps etc. but that's future me's problem. And I have a feeling that the bases will take quite a lot of time as they will really be the focus instead of the tiny lead men.

And as a side note, I don't know how it's still possible that I'm amazed at what women find when they are shopping, especially if there is a sale on. Apparently this bunny sitting on top of a top hat was on sale at a clothes store and it just had to be bought. Though probably it's just the same with me when I'm at the local gaming store...