Bison's Tales of Hobby Crafting

[Doctor Quest]

 

Well done all around!!

[bayonetbrant]

those are very cool.  You should definitely share those with the TSS guys, too!

[thecommandtent]

Excellent work all around, by the kids and the dad!

[Bison]

The ACW project is back on track. There are almost sufficient blue coats painted to start playing small battles.

Three infantry regiments are nearly complete. The third regiment just needs its command base which is on the paint table cue. The stands all still need a matt varnish and basing.



I have the last command base and one more regiment ready to paint. These strips are a bit of a pain to get good coverage. These guys are tiny with a ton of details which causes a bunch of little nooks and crannies . My OCD while painting makes any white specks really stand out. A lot of people are probably going the contrast or quick paint route but you really have to have brush control to make it work. The contrast paint benefit is it just flows into the little spaces and deals with the specks. I do not have the brush control. Also, the original priming job was pretty half-assed. Anyway, I would initially like to be able to field four to five regiments and an artillery battery.



For the first batch, I primed on the sprue. A mistake I will not make again. Now I am hand brushing the worst offending areas. Anyway, the switch away from the generally horrible Army Painter line to my beloved Vallejo line is working very well. I basically have said &$@! trying to avoid covering details with the base blue coverage on the coats. For the most part, it has not been a problem that a couple of thin coats on the details cover the blue and reach a tabletop good enough standard.

I have put together a couple of artillery and command stands for the cue. They will definitely need some hand-brushed primer before painting. I thought about putting the leaders on round bases but I just decided to use what Warlord provided for the brigade commanders. I have some metal miniatures of generals like Lee, Jackson, and Meade. I will base them as Army commanders on round bases. There are some special rules in the Glory Hallelujah supplement which apply to named commanders. Also, I have way more commanders than I will need so sacrificing a couple to use on square bases for the sake of playing is no big deal. The artillery is a surprising hassle. The pegs do not quite fit nicely in the pre-drilled holes on the bases. I had to hand drill out one and put in a peg after I broke off the molded plastic one trying to get it to fit the stand. That particular cannon is a bit awkward looking on the base but today I do not care. Craft late at night and stuff will happen.



I will start on a similar-sized Rebel force next. I grow tired of the color blue.

[bayonetbrant]

I grow tired of the color blue.

Spoken like a true Carolina rebel! 

[thecommandtent]

Man those look good. Overall how happy are you with that line of figures so far?

[Bison]

Man those look good. Overall how happy are you with that line of figures so far?

I think the sets are of great value. I am not sure but I think you end up with something like 10 regiments of infantry and 3 or 4 artillery batteries per side just in the starter box. Plus some fencing, an MDF farm building, and the core Black Powder rulebook. So three to four brigades for each army depending on how you divided the forces and some terrain pieces. A box of cavalry gets you a regiment per side if you do a little augmenting with the extra leaders from the core box. It's all anyone would really need to play a lifetime ACW unless you wanted to field every unit involved in a particular battle. There are additional sets available like skirmishers, dismounted cavalry, the Iron Brigade, Zouaves, and more. Just to add some flair and zest to the game. Warlord is also getting ready to release new starter sets. They change up the units a bit to include skirmishers and dismounted cavalry I think but you get fewer line regiments unless you buy the deluxe version. The old set is still available for very reasonable prices too.

The Napoleonic sets are the same from what I can tell. Of course, I am not a button counter or of the particular grognard stripe that expects flags and uniforms to match perfectly with historical units. I am more of a big-picture kind of guy. The tactical level is a lot of fun but it's the maneuver and overall feel that matters to me, not the specific details.

Now as to your question. The figures themselves are IMO fantastic but they can be a pain in the backside to paint. There is almost too much detail which IMO could have been simplified and cleaned up to make painting easier. Some people love it but painting a .25 mm wide mustache is not my idea of fun. Now if you go for just a tabletop standard and do not worry about all the detail it's not bad but does take time. So if you want or need a big painting project, it's again a great deal.

I am going to suggest a heresy for miniature wargaming especially if painting everything is going to be overwhelming. The armies of both ACW and Napoleonic come color-coded at least in the starter boxes. So there is absolutely no need whatsoever to paint anything. Sure they look like risk figures but if you are just playing at home or with a buddy. Who cares. The Union is blue. The Confederates are grey. Cut from sprue and glue to a base and you are playing in a few hours. Nappy is the same. British are red, French are blue. Prussians are black. If you just hot glued the figures to the base you could paint as you play over time. The one caveat to this is I am not sure that the extra unit types come color-coded. So there may be some solid color painting that may need to be done to keep your armies somewhat consistent in their solid colors.

[Bison]

I grow tired of the color blue.

Spoken like a true Carolina rebel! 

I am slowly being assimilated! Of course, I refuse to deal with chitlins and "greens" are of questionable virtue. 

[thecommandtent]

Man those look good. Overall how happy are you with that line of figures so far?

I think the sets are of great value. I am not sure but I think you end up with something like 10 regiments of infantry and 3 or 4 artillery batteries per side just in the starter box. Plus some fencing, an MDF farm building, and the core Black Powder rulebook. So three to four brigades for each army depending on how you divided the forces and some terrain pieces. A box of cavalry gets you a regiment per side if you do a little augmenting with the extra leaders from the core box. It's all anyone would really need to play a lifetime ACW unless you wanted to field every unit involved in a particular battle. There are additional sets available like skirmishers, dismounted cavalry, the Iron Brigade, Zouaves, and more. Just to add some flair and zest to the game. Warlord is also getting ready to release new starter sets. They change up the units a bit to include skirmishers and dismounted cavalry I think but you get fewer line regiments unless you buy the deluxe version. The old set is still available for very reasonable prices too.

The Napoleonic sets are the same from what I can tell. Of course, I am not a button counter or of the particular grognard stripe that expects flags and uniforms to match perfectly with historical units. I am more of a big-picture kind of guy. The tactical level is a lot of fun but it's the maneuver and overall feel that matters to me, not the specific details.

Now as to your question. The figures themselves are IMO fantastic but they can be a pain in the backside to paint. There is almost too much detail which IMO could have been simplified and cleaned up to make painting easier. Some people love it but painting a .25 mm wide mustache is not my idea of fun. Now if you go for just a tabletop standard and do not worry about all the detail it's not bad but does take time. So if you want or need a big painting project, it's again a great deal.

I am going to suggest a heresy for miniature wargaming especially if painting everything is going to be overwhelming. The armies of both ACW and Napoleonic come color-coded at least in the starter boxes. So there is absolutely no need whatsoever to paint anything. Sure they look like risk figures but if you are just playing at home or with a buddy. Who cares. The Union is blue. The Confederates are grey. Cut from sprue and glue to a base and you are playing in a few hours. Nappy is the same. British are red, French are blue. Prussians are black. If you just hot glued the figures to the base you could paint as you play over time. The one caveat to this is I am not sure that the extra unit types come color-coded. So there may be some solid color painting that may need to be done to keep your armies somewhat consistent in their solid colors.

Good information. Thanks for the answer, not that I need more things tempting me to buy more minis I don' t need

[Bison]

Good information. Thanks for the answer, not that I need more things tempting me to buy more minis I don' t need

I have a good pile of lead and plastic amassed myself. The cost, variety, and less time to paint 15mm are really drawing me in much more so than similar efforts at 28mm. Which is to say...

The temptations of childhood dreams about ancient warfare and mythology have taken hold. And so while I am working on the ACW stuff, I am planning out four 15mm ancient armies using DBx basing. I already have the base of Republican Romans (Pre-Marius Reforms), Carthaginians, Late Macedonians, and Iberians I initially bought for DBA years ago. However, I am planning the expansion of the armies to play L' Art de Guerre and potentially Invictus, Triumph, and Hail Ceasar. They all use DBx-based systems for units except Hail Ceasar which uses a standardized frontage so DBx-based figures will work. And potentially a few magic users, giants, and trolls to do some fantasy gaming with Hordes of the Things (a DBA-based fantasy game with only 12 stands per side) and Fantastic Battles (which technically is all based on 40mm square bases IIRCC but that's what house rules are for...). I mean throw a medusa, giant, or troll in with some Greek pikes, Roman legionaries, or Celtic hordes and you are off to the races.

Old Glory 15s has a great holiday sale going on until after the New Year so...I really am very thankful my wife indulges me to pursue my hobby.

[Bison]

So many Litko bases arrived today...I need them to move the Lion's Rampant project forward...need to now order 15mm armies for L' Art de Guerre...and also wait for Christmas to be "surprised" Santa was so freaking thoughtful in answering an old man child's letter...

[Bison]

It has been a while since I last updated the crafting table. I have painted quite a bit but work, family, travel, and most importantly laziness have caused the lack of updates.

First up the Warlord Epic ACW project is continuing at a pace that should see two evenly-matched forces in the next month or two.

The Confederates are in many ways a little more challenging to paint simply because the uniforms are not "standardized" like the Union. The mix and match is fun to paint but brown, light brown, off-shades of brown...are a bit of a challenge at such a small scale. These lines need to undergo a quick highlight to offset the darkening of the figures due to the Army Painter wash.

[Bison]

The other project occupying my time is armies to play L' Art de la Guerre and similar DBx-style games. Currently painting up the first batch of Carthaginian forces. I have a large order in with Old Glory 15s to fill out the ranks for both Carthage and Republic Romans.

Carthage is an interesting army. Compared to the Romans relatively little is known about it. I guess it's a by-product of having your city wiped off the face of the Earth.

Anyway, I painted up a couple of light horse Numidian and another light spear type. I also painted the elephants. I will say the Army Painter shade really messed with the elephant blankets. Large flat surfaces do not work well with it. If I get the itch I may need to repaint parts of the elephants.

[bob48]

I really like the ACW figures 

[Bison]

I really like the ACW figures 

Thanks Bob. I need another 4 regiments of Reb line and then some cannon and leaders. I have some cavalry to paint too but first things first.