With day four closing, I have finished painting the coats and pants on all the figures.
Civil War soldiers' leatherwork was often black, and to save time, I've chosen to leave all the leather as black primer. This makes it tougher to pick out all the cloth on the jackets, but it saves a lot of time by not requiring me to paint all the straps, haversacks, cartridge boxes, bayonet scabbards, and percussion cap pouches.
The Confederates got a good mix of grey, brown, and butternut shades. For the Union soldiers' hats and coats, I used Delta Ceramcoat's "Blueberry." For their pants, I used Apple Barrel's "Denim Blue."
I often see ACW Union figures' pants painted in light sky blue, but the actual color was much darker. Compare this reproduction uniform with the colors I chose for my miniatures, and you'll see I'm pretty close. I made the jacket and pants a little brighter than they were in real life, but not much.
Now the miniatures are starting to look like soldiers! For day five I'll first touch up the black leather where needed, then paint the canteen straps a nice, bright white. I'll paint canteens and blanket rolls too, if I have enough time.
I'm in the home stretch now. All is on schedule, and I should have these figures finished by the one week mark.
Not to break your momentum, but shouldn't most of the Rebs have white/tan linen haversacks?
ReplyDeleteWe wouldn't want something as egregious as inaccurate haversacks to detract from an otherwise admirable achievement.
Austin
Holy CRAP Scott! You're totally over the hump on these already! They're still looking great.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree about the pants color, when you're talking about figures, and the scale effects involved, sometimes the powder blue works because it makes the pants look 'right'. Yours look right too however.
You'd be surprised how many Confederates used captured Yankee blue pants with their grey or brown pants. That's something most people overlook.
Looking awesome. I am humbled again.
AJ
Scott - best series of posts I've read this year... any chance you can make those photo's bigger when we click on them?
ReplyDeleteThis is great. How simple to let the black primer show through for straps.
ReplyDeleteAnd is "Apple Barrel denim blue" a craft paint color I can get at any Michaels store ?
Dave, you should be able to find it at Michael's. That's where I got mine.
ReplyDeleteYour more well equiped reb would probably have a captured haversack.
ReplyDeletePants boots etc were not going to go to waste!
Don