French and Indian War in 28mm

Goodness, how little has been achieved in the last month.  Work (and cats) have really hampered any tangible progress on this project.  Thankfully the arrival of Christmas leave has given me a couple of days to sit down and have a good concentrated effort at chipping away at the painting pile.

The primary focus has been on the core of my force, the Connecticut Provincials.  Now I’m not the greatest painter in the world but this (fairly slow) process appears to work for me.  I’d welcome any hints and tips of doing better and faster!

1. Apply basecoats.  I used Vallejo Dark Vermillion (70.947), Deep Yellow (70.915), Black Grey (70.862), Pale Sand (70.837) [N.B. I hardly ever use pure black or white now], Army Painter Barbarian Flesh, and various browns and tans.
2. Initial highlights.  This is probably where I struggled most.  I typically added a spot of Pale Sand to my base colours to produce a lighter tone.
3. Apply washes.  Two washes were applied separately (allowing each to dry!).  The first was a careful application of Army Painter Red Tone over the red fabric, with Army Painter Soft Tone over the remainder.
4. Final highlights.  In most places I’ve reapplied the basecoat, thinned sufficiently to remain opaque .  Sometimes I’ve added a little Pale Sand or a similar lighter colour to the basecoat (i.e. Salmon Pink 70.835 was added to the flesh tone).
5. Rework!  Now I wasn’t happy with my red tunics, these appeared to purple or pink to my taste, so I glazed the high points with the Dark Vermilion.

I’m reasonably happy with the outcome (its good for me – and I can see improvement), but I suspect I had to work a lot harder for the result than was needed; all those washes and glazes.  Any tips from the community here?  I’d particularly welcome hints on painting red.  How do you highlight it?

All Sharp Practice players know they need a deployment point (or two or three) for their games.  When I was suffering from a lack of tangible hobby time I decided to do something quick rather than anything detailed and complicated…so simple and generic deployment points were it.

Many gamers create impressive scenic centerpieces for their deployment points; Dave Hunter, and also Jim at Bristol Independent Gaming have some stunning examples.  I didn’t have the time and just wanted to make something functional, which my brothers and I could use irrespective of the forces we used…so these had to be generic.  There is no science or real skill to making these generic pieces, but this was my approach:

1. Cut disks.  I used a 2″ hole saw to cut a load of disks out of a fibreboard fruit container found in one of Britain’s largest supermarkets.
2. Cover hole!  I roughly cut some good card to stick on top, covering the hole from the drill bit.
3. Texture and paint.  I used sand but considered tile grout for a finer texture.  Once dried a quick basecoat of brown poster paint was applied, and later a rough dry brush of the same brown paint with a spot of white.
4. Decorate!  This is the interesting bit.  Because I wanted these to be generic I knew my designs were going to be fairly simplistic.
   1. Luke’s APS pine forest ground cover provided the finer ground cover.
   2. Fallen branches were created from twigs and roots I had dried out.
   3. The camp fire was circled by larger bits of grit I’d had sieved out of builders sand, with the ash make by fine sand.
   4. Leaves were dried herbs bought online in a vast 1kg packet.  I plan to use a LOT of this for my FIW model and terrain basing.
   5. Grass tufts and flowers were homemade by me.

These aren’t going to set the world alight, but I’ve got plenty to get playing with, and they can be used whether I’m fielding (or facing) British, French or Indians.

I’ve got to pull my finger out to be completely ready for a FIW Sharp Practice event at Bristol Independent Gaming later in January.  On the to do list are:

• Mohawk Indians
• More civilians
• Carts
• Terrain (assorted – trees and rivers)