This frontline of ten 15mm scale plastic Confederate soldiers are produced by “Warlord Games” and came free on a sprue accompanying Issue 397 of "Wargames Illustrated". The soldiers are part of the Nottingham-based company's "Epic Battles: American Civil War" range, and complete the first of two stands I am to field representing the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment.
Due to my picking these figures back up after a good twelve-month sabbatical, I simply had to dust down their "Citadel" Abaddon Black undercoat and patiently started picking away at all the strips’ numerous details from the ground up. This process started with an application of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade to a few pairs of shoes - just to try and break up the otherwise monotonous black leather look of the miniatures' footwear.
I subsequently did something similar with the models’ trousers too, as I didn't just want all of them to be marching in the same colour pants. This caused me to pigment several with "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, a few others with Vallejo" Heavy Sienna or Heavy Brown and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and a single Confederate with “Vallejo” Steel Grey and “Citadel” Drakenhof Nightshade.
For the soldiers’ jackets I exclusively went with a combination of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I wanted to keep the unit's colours as stereotypically Confederate as I could due to the "Warlord Games" booklet entitled "Black Powder Epic Battles American Civil War" mentioning that the Florida units wore straw hats. I thought such an eye-catching and colourful novelty would be more than enough to mark the regiment out on the tabletop, without my needing to spend extra time fiddling about with alternative palettes for their jackets.
I also stuck to giving all the soldiers' Kepi hats a dash of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil. But did mix up their blanket rolls a smidgeon with some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, Heavy Red or Heavy Blue. These areas were later sploshed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, Carroburg Crimson or Drakehnof Nightshade respectively. Finally their hands and faces were layered with "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone, shaded in "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade, and later highlighted with extra dabs of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone.
With half my 1st Florida Infantry Regiment finished, I have taken a short break from the smaller scale sculpts in my backlog, and returned to some more "Doctor Who" figures by "Black Tree Design" - which whilst being a bit 'old school' in shape, are definitely a lot easier to put a brush-tip to than the Confederates. Furthermore, I have managed to get a couple of layers of "Citadel" Sons Of Horus Green on some MK IV former Luna Wolves Space Marines by "Games Workshop". These traitors will make up a third ten-man unit of tactical infantrymen, and complete the core of my Warmaster's legion...
Another reason to hope for the day when Florida disappears under the sea LOL! Great work on the traitors (both the American and Astartes kind) and the Autons are looking good as ever!
Great read. Are you sure you aren't cooking rather than painting? A spolsh of this and a dash of that! I love your prose, it makes me smile.
Absolutely too notch work on those Confederate troops! The variation on such small scale models is insane! I tip my kepi to you Sir! Superb!!!
The Autons are coming along nicely and more SoH is great to see. Having your units in different marks of armour will make for some great variety but unified by the colour scheme. Can't wait to see the 3 units together.
Rebs look smashing Simon! Do you have an army's worth cos if they all look this good painted you'll have quite the eye catching collection?
Excellent work getting the first ACW stand finished Simon, must be a great feeling finally getting them finished, the Auton is progressing quickly, as are the sons models, where did you get these from ? the helmets on them don't look MK III, but MK IV maximus armour, have you used bits from multiple kits ?