"Florida Participated In The American Civil War..."

"...As a member of the Confederate States of America."

This frontline of ten 15mm scale plastic Confederate soldiers are produced by “Warlord Games” and came free on a sprue accompanying Issue 397 of "Wargames Illustrated". The soldiers are part of the Nottingham-based company's "Epic Battles: American Civil War" range, and complete the first of two stands I am to field representing the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment.

Due to my picking these figures back up after a good twelve-month sabbatical, I simply had to dust down their  "Citadel" Abaddon Black undercoat and patiently started picking away at all the strips’ numerous details from the ground up. This process started with an application of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade to a few pairs of shoes - just to try and break up the otherwise monotonous black leather look of the miniatures' footwear.

"Black Tree Design" WIPs - Three Autons awaiting a final "Citadel" wash or two

I subsequently did something similar with the models’ trousers too, as I didn't just want all of them to be marching in the same colour pants. This caused me to pigment several with "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, a few others with Vallejo" Heavy Sienna or Heavy Brown and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and a single Confederate with “Vallejo” Steel Grey and “Citadel” Drakenhof Nightshade.

For the soldiers’ jackets I exclusively went with a combination of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I wanted to keep the unit's colours as stereotypically Confederate as I could due to the "Warlord Games" booklet entitled "Black Powder Epic Battles American Civil War" mentioning that the Florida units wore straw hats. I thought such an eye-catching and colourful novelty would be more than enough to mark the regiment out on the tabletop, without my needing to spend extra time fiddling about with alternative palettes for their jackets.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - These MK IV Space Marines have been primed in "Citadel" Sons Of Horus Green

I also stuck to giving all the soldiers' Kepi hats a dash of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil. But did mix up their blanket rolls a smidgeon with some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, Heavy Red or Heavy Blue. These areas were later sploshed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, Carroburg Crimson or Drakehnof Nightshade respectively. Finally their hands and faces were layered with "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone, shaded in "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade, and later highlighted with extra dabs of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone.

With half my 1st Florida Infantry Regiment finished, I have taken a short break from the smaller scale sculpts in my backlog, and returned to some more "Doctor Who" figures by "Black Tree Design" - which whilst being a bit 'old school' in shape, are definitely a lot easier to put a brush-tip to than the Confederates. Furthermore, I have managed to get a couple of layers of "Citadel" Sons Of Horus Green on some MK IV former Luna Wolves Space Marines by "Games Workshop". These traitors will make up a third ten-man unit of tactical infantrymen, and complete the core of my Warmaster's legion...