The American Civil War – An Odyssey in 6mm – Part 2

 Whisper it, quietly: I’ve painted something.  After months of English Civil War painting (and a bit of finishing some extra units for my Saga Welsh) the big game at Gauntlet has been and gone, and every one of my Royalists is done.  So a couple of nights ago, while trying to recovered from a heat-related headache, I sat down outside, got a few of my Union infantry out and had a bash.  This suggests there was no actual planning, when in fact I had used PVA glue to attach them to sticks (cheers Andy, good glue tip) a couple of nights previously, and sprayed them with black spray paint the following morning. 

I sat and painted for approximately 2.5 hours, using a new technique, a variety of brushes and several paints, and at the end 48 little men (or rather 12 6mm strips) were finished and stuck to 3 40mm by 20mm MDF bases.  They still require sand and flocking, matt varnishing, and flags, but they already look the part and I’m rather happy with them.  The pictures I tried to take don’t capture their best side sadly.  Might do another infantry regiment next.

Because I had the luck of being given a tutorial in how to paint Union troops I thought it only fair to include it below in case its useful to anyone else.  This only covers the painting not the basing, and is supposed to be done in the order below, all the paints are Vallejo ones:

First regiment, not sure if the mdf base is a bit too thick or not.

1. Firstly paint the entire model/strip a middle-light blue – lighter is better because once its on it looks darker due to the size of the model.  I’m using Flat Blue.
2. Dry brush the entire model light blue –Deep Sky Blue.
3. Paint the trousers light blue –Deep Sky Blue.
4. Paint the skin – blocking in using a dwarf flesh.
5. Paint the bag under the water tin (left side of the model) and its strap sandy – Iraqi sand for me.
6. Paint the gun (all of it except the butt) and water tin bright silver – Natural Steel.
7. Gun butt, other bag, its strap and the models hair light brown – beige brown.
8. Shoes and base dark brown – Vallejo Hull Red.
9. Finally ink the whole model in a brown wash to give it a duller image and pick out the detail.  I’m actually using a Windsor & Newton Ink – Nut Brown, which comes in a 14ml glass bottle and is to be found in art shops.  This was the recommendation of the tutorial chap whose name I will remember or find at some point.

Other tips; don’t go back and correct unless it’s a disaster, nobody will notice!  Don’t spend ages getting it right.  Do trust the ink wash will make everything good.