ACW Adventures in Basing No. 9

A very long time ago (2012 to be exact), I did a post featuring a box and some unpainted sprues of 1:72 Italeri ACW Union Cavalry, promising to get on with them ASAP.  The good news is that I have now finally finished and based them.

These are very nice figures and being a slightly stiffer type of plastic hold the paint very well.  It doesn't come out clearly in the photos but I painted these using a two stage tone system, i.e. after a thorough black undercoating I did the base coat colours (mainly from an old but trusty pot of Revell 5077 blue - which I use for painting Napoleonic French as well) and then some highlights with a slightly lighter blue.  It's the same system as I use for 15mm figures.

Faces were done using a 'rust' coloured base (Revell 37 Reddish Brown) and then flesh colour daubed in four places: on the cheeks, nose and chin.

Horses were initially painted in various shades of brown (e.g. Revell 85 Braun, and some in darker browns).  Thin black wash was then applied to each horse's face, manes, tail, legs and underparts in layers generally to build up the contrast and create variation across the animal.  Tackle was painted black afterwards.

Finally, I needed to upgrade my generals, which are very old plastic Spencer Smith figures (technically 40mm I think).  I stripped these down from their flat mid 1980s' paint job and removed the mould lines properly this time.  After painting, all figures were varnished using Windsor & Newton "Galeria" acrylic matt varnish, as recommended by a couple of people on the TMP forums.

Basing was my usually coarse shelly sand on MDF bases, with added static grass.  For some reason I never painted the sand on earlier ACW figures I'd based, so I kept with tradition on these ones.

So, remarkably, that's pretty much all of my ACW figures painted.  The only thing I might need is some dismounted replacements for the cavalry, but they feature so rarely in our games (when we have ACW games) that they're not even on my list of things to do.

Claymore 2019

Just over a week ago now and here is my belated report on Claymore 2019.  It's great having a wargame show in Edinburgh that we don't have to travel too far to get to and most years it is pretty good with some interesting games and ideas on display.

I'm sure everything will be fine.

This year was a bit lack-lustre for some reason, I'm not sure why. There were a few empty tables meaning some expected groups just hadn't turned up, which was odd.  The traders were mostly there however, although I don't know how busy they were.  Anyway, here are some of the notable games that were on.

Up the Nile

The Iron Brigade's "Up the Nile" scenario (using the Partizan Press rules of the same name) concerned "a ripping yarn set in the sweltering head of the Sudan" (it says here), looked really nice and the buildings were great.  I'm not sure how those lads wading past our old friends the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) got on, however. 

View from the other end of the table

Just to add that I've been to the upper Nile (Lake Albert area) myself half a dozen times and admit I've never seen one.  Mind you, if I'd fallen off the Paraa ferry I expect they'd have turned up sharpish.

Pucharas in the mist (I'm gonna put a hex on you)

Another interesting game was a Falklands War public participation effort with the SAS attacking an Argentine airstrip (Pebble Island).  Pucharas are instantly recognisable, as are the typical tin sheds down there.

Naval gazing

There was also a really nice age of sail game set up by the Border Reivers.  Ships were 1/600 scale paper and wire efforts available as pdf downloads from War Artisan. They looked fantastic and after this I am seriously thinking of getting a few of them.

What shores?

The coastal terrain was also great with some scratch built buildings and various harbour pieces (and jolly boats) by Peter Pig.  Other games that caught my eye included:

• An interesting 15mm forest clash between the Finns and the Russians, with some nice figures and terrain (Gourock Wargames Association);

Can't see the wood for the trees

• A very long (about 5m long in fact) Vietnam convoy type game (SPIT Wargames);

Hue's that coming down the road?

• A rather nice 10mm depiction of the battle of Gitchen from the 1866 Austro-Prussian War (SESWC); and

Sun-dappled fields of death

• An Ottomans vs Imperials display (League of Augsberg) with a very impressive mortar firing off in the centre.

I seem to remember Baron von Munchausen riding one of those

Finally, apart from a few pre-cut bases, I actually bought something: some very useful looking 15mm African/Afghan buildings for my AK47 side-project, from those nice people at Pendraken/Minibits.

I love the smell of laser-cut MDF in the morning