Company L, 7th Cavalry.

I've had to make a few tweaks to this company, mainly shopping out the spare officer to use in a different unit. Counting through my undercoated figures, I realised there were no more officers left, with company E still to do, this was going to be a problem.

Young Jed O'Neil came to the rescue and took the place the spare Lieutenant.

Now Calhoun rides with his full company of troopers towards his fateful hill.

The spare officer gets a bit of a tweak too. A canvas bullet belt is added to cover his civil war sash.

Update: Tom Custer's Company C trots into view. This is another nice unit to paint because they are mounted on light chestnut horses. It will make the company stand out amongst the others.
 

Foundry paint 'light chestnut' is the perfect colour for this, nice and easy.

Sorrel is the American name for chestnut.

Lt James Calhoun in 20mm

 Painting Company L of the 7th Cavalry. What did Lt Calhoun look like on the day of the battle? Well I thought the information boards dotted around the battle site would be a good place to start 

This latest batch of figures I'm going to make a bit more ad-hoc, with more shirts etc.

Update: The troop is now done and just need a coat of Matt varnish.

A Boar warrior makes for a good Victorian irregular. He fits right in with the rest of the unit, is he a scout or a newspaper man. My money is on a scout with that rifle.

I did the super glue trick on his coat to give it tassels.

Painting the odd figure with a waistcoat helps to give variety to all the blue. Straw hats were also a common site in the regiment to help fight off the vicious summer sun.

A white shirt makes for a great character and I need to do a few more grey shirts too. Grey shirts are the classic undergarment for the 7th.

Company L were mounted on bay horses but I chose to mount the trumpeter on a grey. Custer would of approved of this cavalry tradition for sure.

These Kepi wearing figures are from the Newline Design ACW range. They fit in well and help give character to this troop. You could use them to signify green or raw troops. Many of the 7th Cavalry were in fact very green and hadn't seen any action before the campaign.

Newline Design do sculpt great faces, even at this 20mm scale.

Lt James Calhoun rides to take up position on a rise above the Indian encampment.

The figure is the one who's arm snapped off when I was trying to bend it. It was remade using a brush bristle and layers of super glue. Now it's painted it doesn't look too bad and his cocked hat gives him the air of an officer.

Learning to paint toy soldiers

My little boy has been asking me to teach him how to paint. So, I gave it some thought and decided to start him on some larger plastic figures.

We took it very slow and went through some basic brush skills like dry brushing.

We put down base coats for all the colours, then applied a black wash. The armour was then given a second coat to tidy up some areas. The trousers, arms and gun were dry brushed before the wash was added.

The result was good for a first go and I think he enjoyed it. There's so much to take in that it can get a bit overwhelming, but he did really well I thought.

Well, he lasted to the end which is a victory in my book.

Many people moan about Tamiya paints but they certainly have their place in figure painting 

 I had bought these large soldiers a while ago, they are great figures and have a Colonial Marines vibe. They have sat in the sandpit all year so it's great to get some colour on them.

Billmen of Lord Hastings

The Billmen of William Hastings form up, bills levelled for action. There are some lovely figures here from Front Rank miniatures.

Bow and Bill.

The officer with his bodyguard orders the formation to advance.

A wall of nasty hooks and points from the medieval meat grinder.

The standard is from Pete's Flags off eBay.

 Update: let's get some mud on them!

The plastic bristles are cut up and stuck into the mud, this time I dipped them in UHU glue first. This should make them a bit tougher on the base.

I also took the opportunity to brush some of the mud onto the legs and clothes of the figures. This just helps to tie them into the base and tell more of a story.

Static grass and mixed herbs were sprinkled on the wet mud and pushed in with a brush.

I also cleared a couple of areas in the mud that I'm going to fill with AK puddle solution. More on this later.