"It Can't Be Long Now."

"I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war..."

These ten 15mm scale plastic Confederate soldiers are manufactured by “Warlord Games” and came free on a sprue accompanying Issue 393 of "Wargames Illustrated" . Soon to be released as part of the Nottingham-based company's "Epic Battles: American Civil War" game for its Black Powder rule-set, the line of infantrymen is one of two needed to form a single base of miniatures, and are based upon the uniforms of an Alabama unit.

The figures were primed using a double-coat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black and then slowly had all their details 'picked out' started from the ground up. Initially, I was awfully tempted simply to stick to basic black for all of their shoes, but then decided to select three models where I'd apply a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade to their footwear.

"...But I could not."

I did something similar with the troops' trousers too, as I didn't just want all of them to be marching in the colour pants. As a result I applied some "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil to eight of the soldiers' trousers, and Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade to the remaining two; making sure not to pick any Johnny Rebs who already had brown shoes.

For the Confederates' jackets I either went with a mixture of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil or "Vallejo" Heavy Blue and "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade. This choice of colours might seem a little odd for a Southern unit but the Alabama recruits actually wore "a dark blue frock coat" and "black broad brimmed felt hats at the war's start," So I wanted to capture that uniqueness with my palette choices.

"Mondo Games" WIPs - The two dinosaurs are slowly having their teeth and claws 'picked out'

I later gave all the Kepi hats a dash of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, their blanket rolls a smidgeon of either "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna or White with a wash of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and their belt buckles a touch of "Vallejo" Gold and (more) Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter". Finally their hands and faces were layered with "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone, shaded in "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade, and lastly highlighted with extra dabs of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone.

With the first of my ten "Epic Battles: American Civil War" infantry lines "successfully completed, I have made a little more progress on the two remaining plastic Raptor models I own for "Unmatched". These "Mondo Games" dinosaurs have now had the majority of their large claws and numerous teeth 'picked out' with "Vallejo" White, and now just need one last 'big push' to be table-top ready...