AWI American Militia

It was a long week of painting, but I managed to finish these 45 American militiamen in just four days.  In many ways, painting AWI militia is very similar to painting ACW Confederates.  You need colors that are close to each other, but recognizably different, and your palette is mostly browns and grays.

No two figures here are painted the same, although you will notice similar schemes on each stick.  I used eight different browns along with eight different highlights, two different grays, buff, off-white, red, and green.  The result is a group of soldiers in few recognizable uniforms, but with a common look.

The AWI commission has reached its halfway point.  I still have 18 Indians,35 British regulars, and 40 Continentals to paint.

AWI Hessians

Next up are twelve Hessians for Glenn's game.  I painted these all as Rall Grenadiers from a plate in Mollo.  I did not have the courage to attempt pinstriped pants, however.

Figures are all Perry.

AWI Loyalists

Here are 45 loyalists for Glenn's game.  The figures are all Perry, a mix of British light infantry, Tarleton's Legion, and Queen's Rangers.  

AWI French

Well, Glenn made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I leave behind his Napoleonic Russians and move right on to a 205 figure AWI collection.  Glenn will be using these figures to play Academy Games' new "1775 Rebellion."

The first figures are these 10 French infantry, all from Perry.

1812 Russians DONE

Today I set up all the figures for final sealing.  I had been waiting for a nice, sunny day with no breezes.

That's a ten foot by three foot table, and the figures take up a great deal of that space.  

I like to seal with Testor's Dullcote, which has a dead flat finish (most of the time) and dries very hard, protecting the figures from chips and rubbing.

I used enamel paints for all the metals.  Dullcote is an enamel spray, so it can cause enamel paints to run.

So I broke out the airbrush and sprayed everything liberally with a flat clear acrylic.  I hit the figures from eight different angles, so it took a long time.

I gave the figures about ten minutes to dry.  The sun really helped.  Once I was sure the thin layer of acrylic paint had dried, I hit them with Dullcote.

It took three full cans of Dullcote to cover this many figures!  They should be able to endure frequent handling now.  In fact, I am pretty sure these paint jobs will be pristine when a future archaeologist unearths them from the ruins of old America.

For some reason -- maybe the heat, maybe the humidity (77%), maybe the flat acrylic -- these figures look even better than usual after the Dullcote.  It's a crapshoot, really, which is why I usually do not seal figures on commission.  Fortunately they really turned out well this time.

I'll be packing the figures this weekend.  It's always tricky to ship this much lead without getting some broken bayonets and swords, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

28mm 1812 Russian Artillery

These are the final figures for Glenn's army.  I have started the flocking, as you can see.  It should take me a week or two to finish flocking and sealing the army, and then it goes in the mail!

Glenn bases the guns with one gunner apiece, then adds additional crew who can be removed as casualties.  The guns are a mix of Foundry and Perry, and the gunners are all Perry.

The Russian gunners have interesting facings: black with red trim.  The red shako cords really stand out.

I'm definitely in the home stretch now!