Waco Joe’s

A good weekend of painting (too hot to do anything else) has led to the Blue Regiment being completed. As previously stated the regiment is composed of a 2:1 shot to pike ratio. 32 shot and 16 pike. The figures are based on Gale Force 9 http://www.gf9.com/store/ 20mm square bases. This is great company from which to buy bases in bulk. I bought two of their “quart” boxes and probably received over 700 20mm bases. They sell the bases in pint and quart chinese takeout boxes. The figures were then flocked with Woodland Scenics flock and then hit with a spray of Dulcote. Between a coat of clear floorwax, black inked floorwax and the dulcote they should hold up pretty well, even if they are bendy plastic.

A few photos.

Regiment in block

Extended Regiment

Shot

pike and command

Four more regiments, the cavalry and artillery left.

My usual practice is to paint one figure to completion before starting the assembly line process. This allows me to test out various color combos to see what seems right.

For this project I started out with an advancing musket of the Blue Regiment. I start by blocking in the colors and then going back over the fine details. I then seal the figure with clear floorwax and when dry, I brush on a wash or dip coat of floorwax with black added. When totally dry and based I will hit it with a coat of Dulcote.

Here are some photos of the plain figure and the shaded one.

Blocked Colors

Future Floorwax with black

For my own future reference here are the colors I used:
Vallejo
MC Flat Bue – Shirt, pants
GC Bronze Flesh – Coat
MC Ivory – Stockings
GC Leather – Pouches, scabbard, hair
MC Flat Brown – Musket
GC Cold Grey – Belt, hat
MC Black – Shoes
MC Flesh – Skin
MC Oily Steel – Ramrod, barrel
MC Brass – Hilts
MC Ochre – Feather in hat
Craft paint green for the base.

As I start the assembly painting I will add in the occassional change to the shade of grey or a different color pants just to vary the look and diminish the uniform look of the unit.

Next step: The assembly line.

Stage one.

The miniatures are separated, glued on craft sticks and primed. For a change I am trying out Krylon Fusion White as the primer. I usually use the cheapo 99 cent primer from the hardware store but I thought I would try something different. My first reaction is that there isn’t much difference. One downside was a bit of powdering on the minis. That was probably more a result of priming in 97 degree F Texas weather. Here they are in all their ghostly glory:

Primed Swedish TYW

As is usual with most plastic sets there are always some less than desirable poses. This set had two that just were not going to be used as is. The first was a musketeer using his weapon as a club, swinging it overhead. The other had a musketeer advancing with his weapon butt first. I had 35! of the former and 19 of the latter. A little judicious use of an exacto, some superglue and plastic broom straw and they became pikemen. Maybe the overhead fencing pikes are unrealistic but they will be filling in the back rows and hopefully not too out of place. Here are the pics of the final conversion:

Overhead pike

Advancing

The final count of the horde is:

Pike: 71
Shot: 176
Command: 23
Cavalry: 26
Large Cannon: 3
Artillery crew: 25

Total figures: 321 figures, 3 cannon.

I am looking at dividing it up into 5 regiments of 48, 32 shot, 16 pike and 3 8 man cavalry units.

Next step: Painting

I recently won an Ebay auction of some Revell Swedish TYW plastics. This blog will be my attempt to chronicle getting them up and running as a wargaming army.