Federal Flocking Fun

 It took me long into the night with a cracking headache, but the men pushed on and finally the job was done. Hard work but totally worth it! Everything up to date and looking better for it.

 This is the proud moment when I introduced my new four bases to the rest of the corps, lots of cheering and hats in the air. I have many more to base up and intermingle with my very old stuff. These new bases brings the tally up to 50, loads I hear you say but the army lists I’m looking at have 100+.
 Even my rules of choice ‘Bonny Blue Flag’ have lists of 71 bases (Confederate) and 64 bases (Federal) for their bigger scenario game. Well we all need goals in life now let’s get the flock out of here. So really I'm almost there for my Federal forces.

 I started basing these figures for Regimental Fire and Fury, until I played them and found them quite complicated, Kevin Calder’s BBF came to the rescue. The rules seem great but they lack scenarios, this is where RFF comes back in with their many scenario books. Using these scenario books will allow me to play games using correct unit strengths and accurate maps of high detail, while using strong simple rules. Best of both worlds! Each of these three figure bases equal 40 men.

 The new grass (6mm-4mm) looks great on these Union troops. A mix of different lengths really adds to the natural look.

Here is the Corps before the great flocking, they were okay but I think the extra work was worth doing.

The Troops Go Back For More

A mix of grass colours help give the right blend for the African grasslands.

 New improved long grass base, I think It looks a lot more like the African Velt than before.

I found some rubber gloves to wear from a garden store, not really needed but I think they help cut down on the static to your hand and arm.

New flocked British Infantry look a lot better standing in long grass, the stones on the base look better covered in light grass.

Flocking Mad!

 After the recent success of my flocking experiments I’ve decided to go back over my AZW and ACW stuff and give them a taste of it. My old (completed) bases look so much better with a bit of free standing grass on them. After this my fantasy collection will need a blast, especially those hungry Wargs and their rough terrain.

Flock Box Magic

 Well after using the Flock box to cover the bases in 4mm and 6mm grasses I feel like now I should go back and flock all of my recent civil war bases. Most battles were fought in Rough terrain so it kind of makes sense to have long grasses on the base. This was a bit of an after thought using the Flock box, but now I have I will be going over the Zulu force and the ACW  regiments again.

 Above a Union base with some 6mm static grass added. I didn’t have the Flock box when I started to rebase this lot so now I will have to go back and add some grassy goodness.

I normally put a selection of grass colours on the box so the tufts are a nice blend of colours, this way you can tailor your tufts to match you environment and country of conflict.

Basing Anglo-zulu war

I tried out some slightly different techniques this time around to reflect the African terrain. 1st step, put wood glue all over base and flock the whole base in one go. The first sprinkle layer is rough sand to add some larger stones to the base.
2nd sprinkle on some mid brown fine gravel, 3rd sprinkle a tiny amount of light buff gravel, not too much of this because it really shines through. This lighter gravel does give it a dry feel though which is great for Africa.
4th add patches of static grass summer mix, this adds a little colour to the dry looking base.
5th, add grass tufts of 4-6mm.

The very last step I tried was to dig out my Flock box, It is quite new and I haven’t used it much. To my mind the bases were done and I thought I would just give it a quick try out. Well the results were so good that now I feel I have to go back and do all of my other ACW bases. I ran out of time with this lot as I only had a rare three hour window while family popped out.

Basing zulus

Basing the 5000

War Games Terrain

The Circle is now Complete

My little boy always wants to paint like Daddy, so after a bit of thought I popped into a local store to see if I could get a cheap paint set for beginners. Well, cheap and Games Workshop don't normally go together but I came away with a basic set with some new Chaos marines...or monsters as called them.

At this stage I thought it better to use these Acrylic paints we use for almost everything.

Always remember to wear some sort of protective eye shield when painting Chaos marines.

Some British Tommies soon take care of the infection.

It was quite interesting for me looking at these new GW figures, they have certainly changed quite a bit from my day and I have to say I like the new taller size. They new snap together figures were cleverly worked out and a great step for a beginner. My little boy is only five so these are a little too old for him to be honest but he enjoyed painting one before he got bored. He did a good job and It was funny to see him use some techniques I had taught him about brush care.

Nice simple figures that are very cleverly put together, I have long since moved on from GW but hats off to them.
 I started my figure painting with Citadel figures way back in 1985 so its a good place to start.