Working: Texas Rangers, Tennessee Volunteers, and a Colonial Frame House

     Currently on the table are my mounted rangers, some additional Texian Infantry and a frame house I knocked together.  The mounted rangers, at least, have been on the table for a while.  Part of my problem was I didn't have enough horses in full gallop.  Finally found a few more and added the fur saddle blanket, portmanteaus and bedrolls with putty.  Also, in keeping with the 1830's theme, I wanted to mix it up with the head gear, cutting off coon skin caps and round hats.  I replaced those with the wheel caps below.  I will paint these in civilian drab colors, however, it is hypothesized that some may have been surplus blue U.S. Army M28 caps on deserters. 



 

 

 

 

 

 

The frame house is made of birch coffee stirrers glued to foam board.  The stone foundation is foam insulation board.  Still needs further painting and the mat board shingle roof.  This will be the main house for a farm that also includes a barn and smokehouse (already complete).

 

 

Completed: War of 1812 Ship's Company, frontier tavern

Boarding party

     My 1812/Napoleonic ships company is finally complete. These were great figures, but they've been sitting on the bench for so long that I can't remember the manufacturer.  I did get most of them from Brigade Games and a few at Historicon last summer.

        The bases are wood disks covered with yellow and blue sculpting putty, then scored to give the appearance of a ship's deck.  

Lieutenant and Midshipmen

            I do need to find a captain figure and another lieutenant to round out the wardroom.

Gun crews

          A few more gun crews would be nice as well, unless I'm only manning a two-gun sloop.

          All in all, these were fun to paint, although I don't know what I will do with them yet.  Perhaps an Aubrey-Maturin game?

         The tavern took me forever to complete, mostly because its a pain to chink in between the logs with wood putty.  I used Elmer's, which contains wood pulp.  Once its dry and set (1-2 days), it gets a coat of primer and is painted.  The building made its debut as part of a town, defended by Texian rebels against a Mexican force, more on that later.

The chinking completed, awaiting primer.

         The "stone" foundation and chimney are just blue 1 in. foam insulation sheeting, scored, and melted to give the impression of rough hewn stone blocks.

The competed tavern...minus a signboard.

            The roof is just mat board cut and glued.  Perhaps a bit out of scale, but it gives the impression of wood or slate depending on the paint.  At least its less expensive than an embossed styrene sheet.