I put the finishing touches on 22 rebel skirmishers this morning and based them up this afternoon. I bought all my lead when Sash and Saber ran their 50% off sale last year, and by sticking to regiment packs I was able to get my infantry for $.50 a figure. I bought five packs of the marching infantry and one of firing line, planning to use the marching troops as close order infantry and the firing line as skirmishers.
Since the Sash and Saber regiment packs have no duplicate poses, that means each of my 40 skirmishers is an individual. And that meant, of course, that I couldn't use my assembly line technique. This was a slow process, often involving custom mixes of craft paints to get just the right shade of grey or butternut.
The skirmishers look the part on the table. These bases were very easy to do. I started by gluing the figures to 2"x1" Litko bases. Then I painted the base sides in "brown iron oxide." Once that dried, I used the same shade to paint the tops of the bases. While the paint was still wet, I swirled the base in a bowl of Woodland Scenics dark brown medium ballast. I waited about fifteen minutes for the paint to dry, then gave the bases a wash of diluted Glue-All. After four hours, the Glue-All had dried, making for very secure ballast. This stuff won't come off through normal handling. I drybrushed the ballast with "light chocolate," then used another Glue-All wash to attach static grass. Tomorrow I'll hit the whole lot with a gloss varnish, followed once dry by Testor's Dullcote.
I have a little more commission work to do now, but once it's finished, I'll move on to the Confederate close order infantry.
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