AWI Colonial Militia in MPC Coats

 

Now that the terrain bug is thoroughly out of my system I return to painting miniatures.  Miniature painting always seems easier after some time off doing other hobby stuff, so I was able to finish off these 12 miniatures rather quickly for me anyway.  Maybe not for others. 

Here we have the first of what is gonna be many many 'American' colonial militia.

Militia in MPC Coats.  What the Hell is a MPC Coat? 

When I bought my miniatures from Brigade Games I purchased many packs of American Militia described as wearing "MPC coats."   At the time I had no idea what an MPC coat was and assumed it stood for something like Massive Pastry Crumbs.  For what it's worth, I think Brigade Games are the only ones who offer Militia in this selective wear.  

I did some internet research:

Turns out that MPC stands for Massachusetts Provincial Congress and the coat is the one that the congress decreed should be offered up as a 'bounty' for enlisting in the militia.  (as an aside, can anyone spell Massachusetts without a spell check?  I don't think so.)   This happened 4 days after the fighting at Concord and the congress wanted to equip the men who had started to surround Boston.  

 The MPC resolved that  each man who enlisted for a year should be given a coat as bounty. Each coat was to made of brown wool, with no lapels and working pockets. It was based on a simple working man's jacket of the period. Samples of the wool were sent out to each town and they were responsible for making a number of jackets equal to the men from that town who had enlisted. When done they were collected and sorted by shade and regimental marked buttons attached. By 28 December 1775 13,000 coats had been made. These so called "bounty coats" served as the first uniform.

By the way, once you know they were called 'bounty coats' the search for info got much easier.  And I must add that the folks on TMP were very helpful  

So basically it's a plain brown coat.  That made painting easier as it's something of a uniform.  Reminded me of painting ACW confederates.  

12 Militia.
Like 12 angry men

And now for some close ups, just so that you can actually see the miniatures, and not really show off my painting and photography skills.  I know I am not the world's best painter, but I am probably in the first top 10.... (thousand).  

Here is a fine pair.
Wait, are those miniatures in the same pose?
That makes for a less dramatic picture, I'll be sure to not do that again.

Same pose again!! how silly of me.
These guys could probably double as ACW confederates.

I really like the tricorn hat.  I might have to get one.
I'm always wary of painting pants blue, even though I do it and I'm sure they had blue pants back then,
But I always think the guy is wearing blue jeans.

Last pair, you get the idea.

Overall I like the way these came out and it's a good start to the American forces.

The Plan is More Miniatures.  But isn't it Almost Always?

Yes it is.  Currently on the paint desk are 12 more Colonial Militia in MPC coats.  After those I think some Continental infantry might be in order just to get some more snazzy AWI uniforms done.  Because that's part of the appeal of the AWI, all the facings and cuffs and turn-backs.  Otherwise might as well be painting  ACW Union miniatures (I have a number of those to paint as well actually). 

Here is how I usually try to crank out 28mm infantry:  

1) Get 12ish infantry based (glued to base, texture added, some rocks perhaps) and primed black.  

2) Select 4ish of the miniatures and batch paint these to completion (ie, do all the coats, then pants, then straps, then hats, etc..).  In the end the miniature is painted with a base coat and highlight, but the base is still just primed.

3) repeat step 2 until all the primed miniatures are done.

4) Using a brush, paint on the army painter 'Quickshade Darktone' to add shadows.  This ruins the brush so it's best to do several miniatures at once.  Let sit for at least 24 hours.  Maybe while I'm waiting for those to dry I can do up the next bunch of 12 ish infantry.  Who am I kidding?  Usually by this point I'm obligated to spend a night not doing hobbies but spending time with my selfish family.  Wasn't 20 mins at dinner enough?  

5) Paint all the bases.  

6) Using a brush, paint on the Vallejo Matt Varnish to take away that  Army Painter horrible shine.  Let dry.  This also ruins a brush, so I have a collection of cheap brushes that are basically throw away brushes after this step and step 4. 

7) Add flock and stuff.  

Taadaa! 

For me, the key to keeping up motivation / desire to paint stuff is to see steady progress so breaking the process up into bite sized pieces of 4 miniatures at a time, until basically a unit is done makes it all so much more doable.  

That's all for now and thanks for reading.  

Halloween is this weekend, so I leave you with my favorite Halloween-y saying:

"Intelligence is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster, and wisdom is knowing that he is." 

Be safe everyone. 

The Last Tree; 28mm Forest Terrain Complete

 

Has it really been over a month since my last post?  I'm sure you all were breathless with anticipation.  Too bad all you're gonna get are some pics of forest terrain.  Whatdaya goonado?  forgetabouit.  

The Last Tree

Following up from my forest terrain tutorial I went all in as they say and just banged out the rest of it so I could call the project complete. Maybe banged out is the wrong phrase, because it sounds a little dirty like something a high school kid would say and it wasn't exactly quick.  It took longer than I thought due to distractions (shoo kids, shoo family, shoo away work, I'm trying to make important miniature gaming stuff here!) but in the end it made a nice change of pace and now I'm ready to get back to painting miniatures. 

These were all made as explained in the previous posts; here are some helpful links

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I'm pleased with how it all came out.  Too bad that with COVID it might be awhile before it hits a game table, but no matter.  Prepare yourself for a deluge of leafy green splendor...

Smaller Bases

Here are the 'smaller' bases.  These are made with the idea that they will sit in the larger ones and provide more details, or just off on their own somewhere if they're being grouchy.

All of them together

Some close ups

Trees

I also made a bunch of individual trees.  These are based on metal washers and the ground texture is made with concrete patch with makes them bottom heavy like a middle aged woman whose had too many kids. So they don't fall over easy.  Other than that there's not much to say, they are tree-riffic.  

I tried to vary up the colors somewhat.

Large Forest Bases

For 28mm skirmish gaming I like it when each terrain feature has it's own base, and these will be the proper forest bases indicating where the woodsy terrain begins and ends.  All the stuff pictured above will be placed on these bases so they are intentionally made kinda dull and flat.  Just some details around the corners that hopefully won't interfere too much with game play.  Each of these is around 8x11 inches or there abouts.  

Six bases all together now.

Some close ups 

And Now for the Whole Kit and Caboodle

Now for some pics where the pieces are all put together; I think they look suitably wood/forest-ish.  

Reminder: the idea being that it'll all look nice on the table and as troops eventually seek cover in the woods (those cowards) stuff can be moved off / around and placed to one side to accommodate them.  A balance between pretty details and being functional. 

As an aside, I always thought the phrase was 'kitten caboodle.'  I never understood it before and have been saying it wrong for decades now.  Embarrassing. 

 

So that is the forest terrain complete and I've gotten terrain making completely out of my system.  These should come in handy for my 28mm Dark Ages, Lord of the Rings, and the slowly coming AWI. 

Time to put it all away.

This all stores nicely in two storage tubs.

Bonus Terrain: Hayfield

But wait!  there's more!  I also made a hayfield.  Complete with haystacks. It's about 6x6 inches.

The Haystacks are on their own base and can be moved around.
They were also kinda a PITA to make which is why I stopped at two.
Maybe when I'm feeling more patient I'll make some more.

I'm not sure I love the hayfield.  I might need to see it next to some other terrain like a barn and some fences to really sell the look. I went back and forth about adding a fence to the base but obviously decided not to; I figure it'll be more modular without one. 

Terrain Making is Messy (just like real life)

All this terrain making has made my little hobby corner a real mess....

As you know, I can only take soo much mess before I start to feel too cluttered to do anything.

My hobby area in full terrain production mode.

The desk starts clean, gets messy through a project, gets clean again, the next project starts...sunrise, sunset.  The painted armies get bigger.  We all get older.  Children grow up.  Not fast enough (shoo I said!).  

Time to clean this out and make organized.  Till next time.  Thanks for reading, and super thanks (more powerful than a regular thanks) for leaving a comment.  

Making 28mm Forest terrain Part Three

 

In this post we wrap the three part saga on creating forest terrain, and see how it all came together. 

Part one can be viewed HERE

Part two can be viewed HERE

But first, an exciting discussion on the correct height of trees.

Getting the CORRECT Height of Trees is Crucial to Wargaming

No, not really.  Doesn't really matter at all and is a matter of personal taste.  Whatever looks right to you or me.  This is just my take.

My wargames based on land where trees are most likely to be found (versus the ocean) is done in 2 sizes; 15/18mm and 25/28mm, which means I want trees to be compatible with those.

Unless you are making trees from scratch (some folks are mad enough to attempt this) you are buying trees or tree making kits from somewhere.  In the not long ago, I liked using Woodland Scenic pre-made tree packs because they are easy if not a little bit samey (but more on that later) which come in useful sizes for my wargames; 1-3", 3-5", and 5-7".   let's look closer:

From left to right:
3" tree, 18mm ACW miniatures, 5" tree, 28mm AWI miniatures, 7" tree

From the picture above, you can see that all the trees are pretty much compatible with the figures. 

pretty much; but not 100%.  The 3" tree is a little small for the 28mm figures.   It's usable, but doesn't look like a tree you would find in a forest, more like the trees you would find in a new housing development or in the middle of a road island.  The 7" tree is too big for the 18mm, though is probably closer to being in actual scale from a human to a tall tree.  But it just looks weird, unless you're explicitly playing a wargame in the Redwood Sequoias.  Probably a game called "Squirrel Wars."  

From left to right:
3" tree, 15mm building, 5" tree, 28mm building, 7" tree

However you don't want to forget about buildings.  Battlefields will have often have buildings as well as forest areas.  Least all the cool ones do.  ME. myself, and in my own opinion" I like it when the trees are as tall or taller than the houses.  That looks right to me.  Again, the 3" tree doesn't match the 28mm house; it's too 'full' or mature to be that small compared to the house.  And again, the 7" tree is way too big for the 15mm house.  It towers so high above it that the two look kinda silly together.  

Ground scale is always out of wack in miniature war games, and that's alright, we're not building model railroad tables.  But I think it helps if things aren't too out of wack, or at least as close to being in scale as able.  Which means that I like to avoid those extremes on either side of the spectrum as illustrated.

All of That, Just to Say:

3" trees are too short for 28mm, 7" trees are too tall for 18mm, 5" trees are just right and fit both pretty well.  But since I want some variation in heights of the trees because it is pleasing to the eye, I get the whole spectrum.  3-5" for 18mm, and 5-7" for 28mm.  

I know that's not very interesting.  I was kinda bored halfway through writing it.  But it took effort and time to write and take the pictures.  So there it remains. Sorry I tricked you. 

Trees for the Forest; Think like a Tree, Be the Tree

I'm gonna need a lot more trees.  WHY do we always need more trees?!  I already have a bunch of 3-5" and a few 7-9" trees.  And because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided that I wanted to make them as pretty as possible.  Because the whole point of this forest project is threading that needle between pretty and functional.  As I was saying before, you can buy premade trees.  I have PLENTY of these that are made with clump foliage.  These look fine, but altogether a little too neat and factory uniform.  I thought that with a little more effort I could make trees more leafy and unique.  I could of just bought more expensive prettier trees but where's the fun in that?  

 I watched some videos online on making trees and found a method that produced good results and was easy enough to try...

I got a bag or two (or three) of the tree armatures.
Notice that they're 5-7".

How one looks out of the package.

Shape the tree trunk and branches.  Snip off branches and twist the truck to get a suitable tree shape.
I found through experimentation that cutting off about 1/3 to 1/2 of the branches makes a nice shape.
Also, to twist the tree trunk you'll need two pairs of pliers, one to hold the trunk at the bottom
and one to grip and twist.  Unless you have fingers like vices from hard labor.
Mine are soft and delicate from playing with dolls.

After you twist it, give the truck and branches a quick heavy dry brush of light grey or tan.
It actually really helps with the appearance.

Bases for individual trees.

As discussed in the last part, some trees are gonna be based on larger terrain bases and some are gonna be based individually.  For the individual trees, I glue the tree base to a metal washer and use concrete patch for the ground texture (I use the same on my miniatures, because it's heavy like concrete).  This will make the tree bottom heavy and more stable.  Paint it up and add some details as you wish.  

To create the canopy of leaves I'm gonna be using this stuff called Poly Fiber.  It's kinda like pillow stuffing but not. Take little pinches of the stuff and pull it in all directions to get light fluffy irregular shapes of varying sizes.  "Wispy" would be the word to shoot for.  

When you have enough for the tree, simply glue them onto the tree branches where you like..

Like so.  starting to look like a tree now.

Most of the videos I watched on this technique used Hobb-e-Tac to glue the poly fiber to the branches.  But I know from previous experience that Hobb-e-Tac...sucks.  sucks hard.  So I just used white glue.  

HINDSIGHT TIP: I'm actually showing the 6th or so tree I've made and I've picked up some lessons along the way:

When it comes to amount of poly fiber to put on the tree, LESS is MORE but there is such a thing as TOO LITTLE.  Basically this stuff will form the foundation of the leaves and there is a "just right" amount.   If the poly fiber is dense then the leaves will look really dense.  What looks better is when you can kinda see the branches through the leaves. It took me some experimentation / trail and error to nail down. 

When the glue is dry it's on the next step; more glue!  I should invest money in glue stock, seems like everyone needs it.  This next step really brings the tree to life...

Use a spray glue, gently spray the poly fiber to cover it.  I used a glue from an aerosol can because it's what I had, but a glue in a pump spray would probably work a better. 

I couldn't show this next step because I needed both my hands; but take some flock like course turf or what ever you think will look good, I've been using a variety just to experiment as will be seen later, and then SPRINKLE it over the poly fiber.  Try to avoid the tree truck.  What will happen is that the tiny bits of flock will get stuck in the poly fiber and the whole thing will start to look a lot like leaves.  

HINDSIGHT TIP: I do mean sprinkle.  Like when you take a pinch of cinnamon and sprinkle it over a delicate pastry (we all do that right?).  "Drizzle" might be a better word.   If you use a shaker it'll go on to heavy and loose some of the cool effect.  Truussst me. 

At the end, it comes out looking like this:

It's Tree-riffic!

Put It All Together to Make a Forest

Was this all worth the effort?  I dunno, but one gots to do something beside watch TV after the kids go to bed. Let's put the bases and trees together and see how it all turned out.

B to the T to the W: I didn't show flocking the terrain bases.  I figured most folks already have a handle on that (put down glue, put down flock, voila), and the colors and styles are all personal tastes and what someone has available. 

Smaller base #1

Smaller base #2

Both together, with some random 28mm Shepard looking dude, just for scale.

I'm thinking they came out pretty good.  I guess these can be used on their own to line a road or something, but the plan was to place these on the larger base as a way to add more character to it.

Speaking of the larger base...

The larger 10ish by 11ish base.
With some of the individually based trees I made.

Proof of Concept

Smaller base on the larger...

I do like the look of the smaller base on the larger.  I'm not sure how to describe it, but the smaller base with all the crap  extra details on it  helps to break up the flatness of the larger base.   Not sure it is really necessary though but what is in this silly hobby? 

More importantly, I think it looks pretty and should be functional since I can take off most of the stuff to make room for miniatures.  I'll call it a successful experiment. 

Top down look.

Final thoughts: While I called this a tutorial, everything I did I copied from something or someone else I saw on the internet, who did it better.  I really have two goals in doing this project;  the first is to get some cool terrain for my tables (obviously).  The other is just to add to the body of knowledge that is already out there and provide some encouragement to try it out.  So if you liked the way these came out and want to give it try, you should go for it.  

Hope you enjoyed this series of posts.  Now I have to decide if I am gonna do the rest of the forest bases or get back to painting miniatures.  

Thanks for reading.

Making 28mm Forest Terrain Tutorial Part 2

 

Extra

I seem to be getting in some extra hobby time lately, always welcomed.  It's because the kids are now back on a school schedule and go to bed at a reasonable time (not that anyone is actually going to school, its distance learning).  It's like the whole evening suddenly opens up! 

Let's continue on with making some forest terrain and pretending like I know what I am doing..

Part one can be seen HERE

This is where we left off from Part 1.

Instead of doing all the bases that I just made at once, I'm gonna focus on making 2 small and 1 large one.  As a way of testing the concept of what I am trying to do, and if I mess it all up somehow, then all is not lost.  But let's be optimistic.  

Getting Gritty with It

I got my bases of hard board, and on the smaller bases I've glues some pieces of hard board cut offs to create some undulations.  Undulations is a sexy word when said right.  

On these smaller pieces, I also want the trees affixed to the base, so I glued down some tree bases from my Woodland Scenic Tree Armatures, making sure to glue these far enough apart to leave room for the tree branches.  More about trees in a future post.  Are you shaking like a leaf, but with excitement? 

Then to smooth out the undulations (see, told ya) I took some Wall Filler / Spackle  and applied it to the sides.  

Everyone likes smooth unnnndulations.
Bonus footage of my PJs at the bottom of the picture.
While the spackle dries paint a miniature or something.

Now it's time to cover the bases with a texture.  This will make a mess, so can done outside or at least on something to catch all the materials.  I used the top of a cardboard box.  Because going outside is for suckers and daredevils, which I am not.  

I'm gonna use a texture mix because I think that will work well.  The mix is abooouut a 50/50 blend of fine grit / ballast and decaf coffee grounds.   I learned awhile ago that coffee grounds make great base texture, so I just get a tin of the cheap decaf coffee.  No one should be drinking cheap decaf coffee anyway.

I got this Huuuge 1/2 gallon tub of  "#50 blended ballast" from Scenic Express.  It's probably more than I need, but I have no concept of volume.  

Pretty simple process, spread glue all over the base and then dump the mix on top, pat lightly.

Don't get glue on the tree bases

Here's the 3 bases all covered with texture mix.
Looks a little like wet beach sand.
Let this all dry before fussing with it.

Rock On

Some rock outcroppings are a fitting little detail to forest terrain so I decided to play around with some stuff that I've had for years and years.

This was a Christmas gift from I don't know how long ago.

It was easy to mix up a little cup of plaster and cast the mold.  I still have plaster supplies left over from my Lord of the Rings Terrain projects.  I picked my favorites and glued them to parts of the forest bases, and began adding littler pieces of ballast around them.  

I added even smaller ballast after these pictures.  just forgot to document it.

HINDSIGHT TIP: It probably would of been better to glue the rock outcropping to the base BEFORE putting on the texture mix, that way the rocks would be one step closer to appearing like they are coming out of the ground rather than sitting on top.  Oh well.  maybe next time.  

Dry Brushing Should be Easier

When everything is dry, prime with black (not pictured, it's be boring to look at) and then paint things up.  Base coats and dry brushes.  

Bases all painted up.
I added some Woodland Scenics 'Deadfall' to look fallen logs, which of course are just sticks.
One could go outside and just get sticks from the ground I suppose,
but I'm not an outside person as discussed.

Standard stuff:

Bases painted brown with lighter brown and whites dry brushed on top.

Rocks painted dark grey, with lighter gray and white dry brushed on top. 

There are some obvious parts where I messed it up.  I always seem to mess up dry brushing.  Some of the und---ulations were not as smooth and supple as I thought.  But no matter!  Any mess up too egregious can and will be covered up with flock.  Lots and lots of flock.  

Flock and trees in the next installment, in our tree-part saga (get it??!!  Tree part instead of Three part!  OK, I guess that not punny).  This is a shorter post than my usual, but this stage of the project seems like a nice place for a chapter break. 

Thanks for reading and commenting.  I hope you are finding these entertaining and/or informative.  

EDIT: Part Three can be found HERE