20mm Pack Train

I had a couple of simple ideas of how to flesh out the Indian camp. Here are a couple of bases of hides and meat drying on racks. Very simply made using brush bristles and hot glue. The hide and meat are strips of dried wet wipe, given a coat of watered down PVA.

Benteen come on. Big village. Be quick.Bring packs. P.s. Bring packs.

 Well, with an order like that I thought I'd better add a few more packs (ammunition) to the mules. I cut up some bolsa wood into ammo box shapes and stuck them on the mules. I also partly covered them with wet wipes again to act as canvas. The wipes were given a coat of watered down PVA to give them more of a canvas look.

Two gun fighters from Newline Design will double as teamsters. Clint with his poncho looks good already but the other guy just needed a box to carry and job done 

The pack mules are from Irregular Miniatures again and are perfect for the job. I twisted some of the heads and necks carefully to give them more variety.

As well as ammo packs I also added some tent poles and stacked canvas bundles. Hopefully now this single sculpt will look like a host of individual animals.

 

A bit of research shows the mules in a spread out line, hence the train ref I suppose. For this I've ordered some 90mmx40mm bases.

I will make up 4 bases with 2 mules and a teamster to a base.

Update, The veteran 'old sweats'. This is a simple idea to create some seasoned fighters amongst the companies. Company E was said to be made of men with some experience so I altered these slouch hats to fit. A lot of cavalry gear was altered for personal preference and non more so than the troopers hat.

I used the simple technique of cutting off the brims and sticking on shapes of thin card to become the folded hat. These will be filed and cut when dry and should look the part when painted.

The drying racks get their brown undercoat. I also added some fine cotton to bind the poles together. This was wound over super glue so it stuck fast.

I thought this Indian casualty figure had more protectional. So I straightened him up on his base with some pliers, added a knife and then fashioned a scalp. The scalp is made from a dried wet wipe so it actually looks like hair. He stands over a dead trooper, I cut the top off his head to complete the grizzly effect. This victorious figure can be a single guy on his own base, this way he will always be popping up as the double man bases take casualties.

I nice cardboard neckachef for Tom.

Below, veteran troopers and their personalized head wear. It's hard to stand out in a crowd.