ACW Bits and Bobs

This week has seen yet another ACW Union regiment step off the painting table...this time a converted fair haired Union colonel leads the regiment forward with his kepi impaled on his sword.

No sooner than it had marched off, fresh Confederate recruits have marched on to make an appearance sometime next week.

Also completed this week is this very nice Perry Miniatures plastic farm house kit. This has been sitting in an unfinished state on the painting table for a couple of months...pre-COVID19 in fact. It came with the Battle in a Box set that I bought ages ago and was assembled in late February. But when I sprayed it black I screwed up the spraying and over sprayed it so that some of the detail became obscured. I was so disappointed that I just left it. When I finally did get around to painting the weatherboards white it didn’t look right and even the application of that secret potion “Aly’s Brown Liquid” couldn’t fix it. So it continued to sit on the painting table, unfinished.

Then just this week, when I was becoming a little bored with painting ACW troops, I had another go. First I painted the roof, starting with a dark grey which was then highlighted with a lighter grey. Normally I would apply some GW Nuln Oil over this, but I was running really low on this tone and no local retailer seemed to have any stock. Instead I created a wash that was a 50:50 blend of GW Seraphim Sepia and GW Darkenhof Nightshade which gave quite an interesting dark brownish green that brought out the edges of the slate really well.

I then decided to try this new blend on the weatherboards of the house and repainted one section in pure white and then applied the wash. I liked the result and went back and repainted all the white area then washed it. I could then go back with the same wash and pick out the edges of the weatherboards and window frames where I had over sprayed. A quick touch up to the porch and the brick chimney and it as done.

To add a little character I placed two chairs either side of a small barrel (I was tempted to stand a bottle on the barrel, but had nothing to hand) and added a larger barrel to the wall at the end of the porch. I am quite pleased with the way I as able to recover what I had written off as a disaster into what is now a very functional structure. I haven’t quite decided if I am going to base this at all yet, but having been looking through photographs on the web of various Civil War buildings, I quite like the idea of making up a base of a farmstead like some of these Gettysburg houses

The Lester House (Meade’s HQ)

Trostle’s house and barn

The Bryan house

The idea of creating a special piece is quite appealing.