Operation Rebel Yell

Another day sees another six bases painted and dipped. This batch ended up being very Butternut, I think I was just curious how the 'Rich Butternut' would look when shaded with the dip.

I tried to keep each base looking very similar in their uniform colours, this is meant to represent companies that may have been uniformed together.

Later I'll be able to place all of the similar uniformed bases together to make regiments. For example, a few regiments of mainly Butternut troops would look good as a Brigade.

I used the 00.5 marker pen to spot on some patterns on material. I also drew out a few patches which were then painted in. This is a nice trick as it adds character to figures.

The new mob join the ones from a few days ago. Painting them in threes on the bases works really well and is very rewarding.

It's fun finding similar browns to mix into the unit. Another trick I haven't tried yet is to mix the browns and the greys together to make new shades.

A lot of the figures from eBay have lost their bayonets, it's not the end of the world and the figures are still very useable.

It was a great chance to update my old paint jobs. I tried to only have a couple of blue trousers and had to repaint a lot of bread bags white. Some nice striped ones would be nice...next batch. It was good to turn a lot of the black leather equipment to a dark tanned colour.

I also used the black barrels and New wood paint to create Enfield rifles.

The real joy of this project is getting out all those old figures I've had for years and mixing them up to form bases. Redoubt make some lovely figures and together with Dixon, Foundry, Eagle miniatures, Crusader, Old Glory plus a few more, the bases have plenty of character.

I quite enjoy mixing them all up into a mob of moving men, this is a huge contrast to my late Nineties approach of having them all in the same pose.