More Painting and Hedges

Last night I completed some additional command figures for my Very British Civil War forces.  Please click on the pictures for a bigger image, but be forewarned that the faces are rather plain as I have a very hard time with faces, especially eyes, so normally do not attempt them.

Battalion headquarters, 2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment (Royalist), with (left to right): battalion major, headquarters guard, battalion commander (bought already painted and based), battalion radioman, and battalion sergeant major.  Except for the colonel who is a Renegade figure, these are Artisan Designs WW2 British.

The company medic for Essex Regiment and an already painted company runner.  The medic is from Artisan Designs and the runner is from Brigade Games.

Squadron commander (on foot) and tank commander from the Essex Yeomanry (Royalist).

For right now, these will complete my Royalist forces for my convention game next Saturday.

I also thought I should show what I used for my "civilized" hedges (see Hedges - Part 1 ).  Each pack has three scrubbers.  If you click on the picture you'll see the dimensions.  Folded in half long ways and glued, each will fit on a wide craft stick.  The referenced post explains more about making them.

That's all for now.  Tomorrow we're doing a D+1 scenario where the British landing from the beaches are trying to link up with the paras holding a bridge near Caen.  We'll be using Don Featherstone's rules so it should be an "old school" thrill.

Hedges - Part 1

I've embarked on a rather ambitious project - to prepare a large amount of hedge sections for my Very British Civil War game at Bayou Wars on Saturday, June 14.  So the count-down is on.

I reviewed several on-line tutorials and initially selected one that used pot scrubber pads.  I looked at my local major name grocery store but they didn't have want I needed.  Then I stopped by my local "cut-rate" grocery store and they did have them.  So I bought one package of three of scrubber pads that are about 6" x 4" x 1/4".  I folded each in half along the long axis and secured each with Aleene's tacky glue and left them to dry under weights overnight.  The next night I glued them to 6" craft sticks.  After they had dried again overnight I covered each with Elmer's glue and piled on the flock.  Here are two views of the process in progress with a couple of 28mm figures for comparison.  The tops were trimmed wit scissors to give them an uneven appearance.  These will be good for "cultured" hedges in town or around an estate house.

 

 

 

I need to pick up another pack so I can have 36" of this type of hedge.

 

 

Another tutorial used shaped and sanded dense extruded insulation foam as the base for more of a "bocage" type of hedge.  I decided to use half round architectural moulding for my bases, cut into 5-1/2" lengths and glued to 6" craft sticks.  I drilled various size holes into each so I can use tree armatures and 1/8" dowels to act a framework for the vegetation.  I plan on using the plastic stuffing from a household air filter (the flat kind) as the base vegetation and augment it with flock and foam foliage clumps.  I have all of the base sections cut out, holes drilled, and the sections glued to the craft sticks.  They will dry until tomorrow night when I'll start inserting the tree armatures and braces.  Here is a sample, again with a 28mm figure for size.

 



 

I'll eventually have 10 feet of this type of "wild" hedge, including two with gates.  Now the only question is if I can complete this project in less than two weeks.  And still paint a small number of figures and complete the build of the BUF armored truck.

 

Stay tuned!