No big news, but there’s been positive movement on both the ACW and 6mm WW2 fronts. Unfortunately, I’m fighting a four or five front ‘war,’ but there’s no one to blame for that, except myself.
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First up, some terrain progress with the 6mm WWII IABSM 3 (that’s a lot of acronyms. TALOA, everyone!) project. I painted up two small houses, a barn, a cottage, and a manor house, all by GHQ. These buildings paint up so easily, and so nicely-a little paint, drybrush, a sepia ink wash, and you’re set! They look even better in person, where every little flaw isn’t exaggerated by zoomed in digital camera. By the way, I discovered that if you use future floor wax as a component of your ink wash, applying Vallejo matt varnish by brush afterwards reactivates the wash, and swirls it around in a not-unpleasing, but still alarming and unintended, manner.
Cottage and Villa
This is the Villa de GHQ
Dilapidated barn and two small houses. Here’s where you see how incredibly lazy I am about cleaning up flash and mold slippage. It’s a little annoying that GHQ puts their trademark on the outside of the buildings (grey house, right side), but I’ll forgive them.
Houses and barn from above. My road is way out of scale.
I have 10 Sherman tanks about 80% done, crops to plant on the terrain board, and a few British infantry to paint up, and this puppy will be ready to go. Unless I decide to base the buildings and make little vignettes out of them. Which I might.
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On the ACW front, I’m still mired in the long process of finishing up my Confederates. I completed a couple of limbers, disored/silenced markers, wrecked gun markers, and out-of-ammo markers, but still need to paint up an ammo wagon and an ambulance. It’s neverending! I also need to base up a brigade of the famous Danish volunteers of Texas. Oh, and I have a regiment of cavalry to paint. Woe is me! Our next scheduled game is the 15th.
Is it strange that these dead horses and wounded men make me feel a little uncomfortable?
These wounded Confederates are the first Blue Moon figures I’ve ever painted, and I have to say, I really love them. The anatomy isn’t quite as good as the best of the AB, but the poses are just fantastic. The wrecked gun markers (dead horses with caisson wheels) are all Blue Moon, as well. The wrecked gun ‘diorama’ style bases are kind of bugging me, now that I’ve done them. They don’t look particularly naturalistic. I’m sure it’s a skill that will develop with application and time, though.
A better shot of the wounded.
The Blue Moon casualty pack includes a few accessory muskets, which is a really nice touch. Really, those figures made enough of an impression on me, that I plan to do quite a few Blue Moon figures when I switch over to paining Union troops. Oh, that unpainted 15mm resin house in the background is by JR Miniatures. Cheap, but it’s a real pig-bad flashing and pock marks everywhere. Maybe it will look ok painted.
Ok, that’s all for now. I’m going to try to finish up my Brits for IABSM in 6mm next week. Also, there’s some new stuff coming down the pike, that may be of interest.
ArkieGamer 
Comments
Looking real good! I have been thinking about wwii 6mm for a long time and your pics really make it hard to resist!!!
Just think about how quickly you can paint in 6mm with an airbrush!
The only real downside of 6mm is the size of the infantry. They don’t really have any presence on the table.
Oh, and thanks!
Good table setup. The houses came out very nicely. I am always surpirsed how much detail you can still have in 6mm. The ACW stuff looks good, too. I thought of making some casualty bases myself to monitor cohesion drops playing Field of Glory. I assume you’ll use them to keep track of losses? Finally, if you have some time to spare, I would suggest using some permafiller mixed with brown paint to cover the wire structure of the tree trunks up. It doesn’t take that long, but really gives a nice bark texture.
Thanks. Regimental Fire and Fury tracks losses by removing stands. The markers are to indicate disordered units, a condition that occurs quite frequently, and results in half firepower, reduced melee ability, and a somewhat limited palette of movement options.
Thanks for the tip on permafiller-one thing, these trees are mounted on needles so that I can use them with a terrain mat draped over rubber athletic mats. Do you think the permafiller would hold up to being repeatedly jabbed into a terrain mat? I should probably just do an experiment and see for myself!
The idea to pin the trees in a terrain mat with rubber underneath is excellent. Never heard of this variation.
The permafiller is relatively hard, but can be bend to a certain extend without cracking. If you colour the filler and sculpt the roots you should be able to pin it easily. The only problem I see might be the underside of the tree, but that really doesnt matter. If permafiller fails some sawdust and PVA might work, too. Should be rock hard in the end.
If you click around in this blog post, https://arkiegamer.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/scratch-made-cloth-and-caulk-gaming-mat/ you’ll find a link to a tutorial on Flickr by War Artisan. That’s where I stole the pins, needles, and rubber tile idea from.
I’ll try the permafiller out-sounds like it would work fine. I probably won’t mess with trying to sculpt roots on this batch of trees-sometimes they have to be pinned onto slopes, which would probably make roots look strange. I ‘ll try out the roots if I do any vignettes with the little buildings, though.
Thanks for the help!
Thank you for the link. An excellent collection of great ideas. I made a chalking mat, but didn’t think of pining stuff on it. I guess in FoG you have fixed terrain pieces and less free placement of trees etc. which is a pitty.
If they have to be placed on slopes the roots might indeed be a problem. However, looking forward to see the trees.
Cheers
Well done Sir! That terrain looks terribly permanent. Do you make a new set up for each game, or is there a degree of versatility?
Thank you, sir. Yes, the terrain IS terribly permanent with zero degrees of versatility. It’s not even modular!
This project started a long time ago, before I had begun to realize the overwhelming benefits of using a terrain mat.The trees and buildings aren’t permanently mounted, but I have, unfortunately, wasted quite a bit of that foam bush/tree foliage stuff.
I second the compliments posted above. My French riff-raff are moving right along – at glacial speed, mind you, but there is progress. No need to hurry on my account. :-)
Thanks, Frank. No worries-the Napoleonics are my fun project! Well, they’re all fun. I guess it’s the extra fun project.