Sharp Practice – ACW for Pennies on the Dollar.

Hi everyone,

Last summer I spent a lot of time war gaming – mostly Silver Bayonet and Fantasy Battles. In between I tried out several games, and one of them was Sharp Practice by the Two Fat Lardies.

I had the rules but I never played the game.  My friend had two ‘Indian Mutiny’ forces and I played a few games with him.  I have to say I enjoyed the game a lot.  I feel it is a game for mature players, but my friend was only 18 years old.

It has been mentioned often on OTT, that movement in Sharp Practice is a pain in the butt and there is truth to that.  My friend and I overcame this by adding extra movement dice.  This resulted in faster games, as the groups made better headway.

Therefore,  I decided to build two forces myself. At first I was going to do Napoleonics, but I was already playing and painting Silver Bayonet. Since I had bought several boxes of ACW in 1/72 scale from a car boot sale several years ago, I decided to paint them up.

I have never played in this period, so it was something new to delve in.  Also they are super easy to paint up.

Below is a quick summary of how I go about painting these miniatures.  The most time consuming aspect is the cleaning.  Some of these models come from the mid-eighties and the mold designs show their age pretty well.

There is a lot of mold lines on some of the miniatures, especially the Stretlets and Hat models. Therefore I recommend using a very sharp hobby knife to remove them.  The plastic is soft and can easily burr if sanded.

I will paint the army up in batches of 12 figures at a time, since the paint schemes are very simple: two tones of blue for the Union and a grey and two brown tones for the Confederates.

That is all for now.  I will post some short updates as I go along.  I will also be building some terrain for this period since I have none.  I will have to order some though, as I have never wargamed in this period.

Until next post stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Another twelve figures are ready and I have already started the next.  I hope to finish the Union infantry by the end of this week – time permitting.

I have decided to do more drybrushing and less layering, in order to speed up the process. Since these minis are only for gaming and not for display (besides being cheap and low quality), I think this compromise will work.

A short post for now.  I will be posting again soon hopefully.

Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Just finished the third batch of 12 miniatures. This time I painted up half the Hat box into union soldiers.

The Hat miniatures are very nice, but the plastic is soft and if you do not use a sharp knife you will get a lot of burring.

Nonetheless, I like the way they turned out.

I now have another 12 Union figures to paint up and 9 Zouaves all from the Italieri box.  I also need to paint up the 4 leaders.

Until next post stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I have finally finished painting up the first batch of figures I prepared in the first post.  This last batch came out quite shiny.  I think it is because I did not shake the matte vanish properly enough.  I have now fixed this problem, but I was too lazy to take another picture.

The next batch will be the Confederate infantry. I want to leave the cavalry to the end, because I hate painting cavalry.

I also now that I have more infantry somewhere, but I do not know where they are? Over the weekend I will Spring cleaning my apartment and I will make it a point to find them.

Now I only have the character to paint up to finish up this first stage of this project.  I hope to finish them by Sunday.

So until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Now that I have painted up the four leaders, the first stage of this project is now complete. I have also found the extra boxes of ACW models and I have calculated that I can add an extra 3 infantry units and one extra cavalry unit to both forces. This will give me a lot of flexibility of choice during force construction.

I also ran out of bases for my infantry.  These were customized for this project at 1.75cm x 1.75cm for infantry at the Warbases.co.uk. I have ordered more, but they will take at least 3 to 4 weeks to arrive.

I also had some customized movement trays done for the infantry, but I still have to order more.

I also went about making some ‘shooting markers’ in the form of smoke. You need these for Sharp Practice in order to identify which units have fired and need to reload.

I can also use them for my 1/72 Napoleonic armies.

Next week it is on to the second stage of this project with the Confederate infantry.

So until next time – stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I started the Confederates, but I don’t have enough bases for now. I have made the order, but British Post is not what it used to be!

I spent several hours cleaning these models up.  It is by far the most time consuming part, since they are full of mold lines and bad undercuts.

While I was in the swing of things I also prepared Stage 3 of this project.  These are the Union cavalry. I had enough to make two units.

So the work goes on.  Hopefully at a good pace. So until next time.

Stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Just finished up the first batch of Confederates.  They took longer to paint than the Union troops, due to the fact they are not so uniform as the Union.

Nonetheless, I tend to like them more because of their non-uniformity.

A short and sweet post, but the work continues.

Until the the next post stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Another quick post.  12 more Confederates painted up.  These are also from Italeri.  The next batch will be from Hat.

Until the next post.

Stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Just finished another batch of Confederates for Sharp Practice. The Confederates are taking me a little longer to paint up because they are not as uniform as the Union. Nonetheless I am enjoying the experience of painting without worrying too much about accuracy or quality.

These figures are cheap and of poor quality, but they serve their purpose perfectly – to represent fighting men and to play with. The buck stops there.  They are wargaming miniatures and when the game is over they are packed away and do not go into the showcase.

The following are the Hat miniatures.  They are not as good or as detailed as Italeri miniatures in this scale, but they are still good and relatively the same size. This scale can also vary widely – as I have discovered when building my Roman and French Napoleonic armies.

The best thing though is that they are also half the price than Italeri.

There are still more Confederates to come before I finish Stage 2 of this project. Until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

While I wait for my bases to arrive from the UK, I decided to use up the last six bases paint up another 6 Confederate soldiers. Also, I built myself some skirmish movement trays. I realized I forgot to order any, so instead of making another order, I went ahead and made six from materials that were thrown away by the company I work for.

The bases were made from materials that my company threw away.  These boards were used as packing for various items.  The modeller in me immediately spotted their worth, and I asked my manager if I could take some of this material home instead of throwing it away.  Guess what – he agreed.

I am not sure what they are, but the white board is a firm but easy to cut plastic material and the brown board is a hard-board type of material with qualities like MDF.

Fast-forward nearly 8 months and I have finally found a good use for them.  The pictures below will chronicle he process used to make them.

And viola – six skirmish movement bases!  The question I ask myself now is why I did not make all the movement trays in this manner! (Between us the answer is simple – I am lazy. Why do it yourself when I can pay someone to do it for me).

I am not sure what to do next.  If the bases come I will paint up the last of the Confederate soldiers.  If not, I will start work on the characters.

Until next post, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

As I wait for the bases to arrive from Warbases.com, I realized I had no terrain for this period in 1/72 scale.  I looked around and did not find a lot in 1/72.  Most of the ACW is in 15mm or 28mm.

Since I am playing in a 1:1 scale I really wanted my terrain to be in scale.  The underlying philosophy of this project is to get it on the tabletop cheaply, therefore I decided to make my own terrain as cost-effectively as possible.

I already made the skirmish bases with cheap materials, so I decided to make the rest in the same fashion.

The first piece is a small house.  I have never built anything like this before so it was a bit of a challenge.  The materials I use were off-cuts of foam-board, thick cardboard and pieces of Styrofoam.  The only thing I bought was bag of wooden stirrers for 5 euros.

After looking at some photos of ACW period houses, I drew one to scale on paper and copied it onto the foam-board.  I cut out the shapes and glued them together and placed them on a base (this is the same stuff the skirmish bases are made from).

The next step was to glue the wooden planks to the structure.  At first I did a lot of measuring, but I realized later I could just glue them on and cut off the jutting pieces with a scissors and trim down the planks with a blade at a later stage.

The last step was the most time consuming.  This was the roof and details.  Cutting up the tiles individually and gluing them on one by one was a headache. Adding the window frames and the patio fence was very finnicky.

The chimney is made out of Styrofoam and covered with card to mimic brick work.  The bricks came out a little too big but I did not realized the mistake until after I primed the chimney with Vallejo’s White Stone.

Thankfully I only want three houses.  So one down, and two to go.

I made a lot of mistakes with this first attempt.  I also learned  a lot.  So things balance out. All I need to do is paint it up.

The next building will be a barn.  If the bases don’t come by Tuesday, then I will start it, otherwise I will continue painting up the Confederates.

I also want to make some trees, fences, hills and fields – which I will also document here.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

Another short post.  The bases arrived this morning, and I painted up and based 6 figures from the Confederates.  To be honest a lot of the painting on these six miniatures was already done – I just needed to add some finishing touches.

I also took the time to finish up the skirmishing bases I made.  I now have to paint the movement trays I received with the bases.

So that is it for now.  By the end of the week Stage 2 should be at an end with the last 9 Confederate soldiers and their leaders all painted up.

The next stage will be the Union Cavalry or more terrain.  I will see what mood I am in!

Until next post stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

So this week was a bit slow on the model painting scene. With work, life in general, and the stress of painting armies – the miniatures took a second seat this week.

Instead, I spent the week building terrain.  These include fences, trees and hills all scaled down to 1/72 scale.

Today though I will focus on a type of fence, the one you usually find around houses or gardens.  I am also building a second type of fence used mostly for livestock, but that I will leave for another post when I am ready.

The fences where all built from stirrers I bought for a few euros.  These are the same I used to build the house in the previous post. I will detail the process in pictures below.

That is all for now.  The next post will possibly be the trees.  Whatever the case, I will make it a priority to start painting the miniatures again.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

This project marches on, but I have been focusing on terrain a bit more than the miniatures for the moment. The next type of terrain I focused on are trees.

Like the buildings and fences, I went with the same philosophy – if possible, use materials I already have and try to build the trees as cheaply as possible.

Like most gamers and hobbyists, I never throw anything away (a habit I am trying to break), and I had a lot of foam from blister packs and various other items.

About two years ago I saw a Youtuber make trees from foam pieces, but unfortunately I do not remember who he is.

Therefore I set my mind to replicate his process and make a bunch of 1/72 scaled trees from foam and kebab skewers.

The first step is to tie three skewers together with fine aluminum wire.  I had bought a roll of wire several years ago from a crafts shop. These will act as the trunks of the trees.

Next is to glue these trunks to bases and give them several light layers of Polyfilla, art stucco, or art modelling paste.  Whatever you have.  I used stucco mixed with some light very fine sand.  I gave the trunks three thin coats.

After the stucco had dry, I pinched out a lot of foam pieces and glued them to the trunks.  I have seen very talented hobbyist make trees of various shapes and species.  Personally, I just wanted trees to play with.  I wasn’t too interested in the artistic side of the process.

After the glue has dried, you might want to trim down the sharp edges of the foam with a pair of sharp scissors to give the tree a more appealing form.

If you used white, cream or light coloured foam, you can dip the foam into diluted paint before attaching the foam.  In my case, this would not work because the foam was dark grey.

Therefore, I had to first paint the foam white, then paint it green.  The foam absorbs a lot of paint, so I used very cheap acrylics bought from the 2 Euro Shop.

The trunk was painted light grey, then I gave the trunks several washes with cheap homemade brown washes.  You can also use Contrast or Speed paints at this stage as well.

Leave everything to dry for at least a day or two.  The spongy foam absorbs  a lot of water and paint and needs to dry properly.

When everything had dried properly, I started flocking the trees.  The first coat of flock was glued on with PVA glue.  Mix 50% PVA to 50% water and give the foam a generous coat, then sprinkle the first layer of leaves.  This gives a solid covering  that will not fall off easily.

I then gave the trees a second covering of flock.  I do this by spraying the trees with hairspray and adding the second layer of flock.

I do this step again for a third time, but lightly flocking with lighter green leaves – just to give the trees some colour dimension.

When the hairspray has dried properly I gave the trees a wash of scenic glue to solidify the whole thing.  You can also use spray adhesive – but this might prove expensive.

That’s it.  I hope this post gives you some ideas of your own to make cheap but very presentable gaming terrain.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

A short post today. So I finished off all the fences and trees I started in the previous posts.  I also worked on a new type of fence for animal pens and other livestock.

I won’t go into the techniques here as you can check out the other posts or leave a comment if you have any unanswered questions.

Now I have to get back to the infantry, but as is tradition with me I will probably find some other terrain item to work on for this project.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

As predicted, I found an excuse to not paint infantry – so I worked on some hedges and shrubs.

The hedges were very easy and quick to make and no paint was needed except for the base. I used Vallejo thick sand paste for this.  The painting of the base is the same for the rest of the models in this project.

I then dabbed PVA glue all over the hedges and sprinkled flock on it.

The shrubs were made in a similar way.  The branches are real dried pieces, and the base was covered with real soil. Therefore no paint was used to make these.  I cut up what was left of the Heki material and glued the pieces onto the dried braches. Then when dry and dabbed with PVA glue and flocked.

Last but not least I made some storage for the terrain I made.  The philosophy behind this was the same for the project as a whole.  Use materials I already have and do it as cheaply as possible.

That is all for now.  Until next week stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

This week work was a nightmare, and I have been basically sleeping and working, but I did manage to find an hour here and there, before or after work to sit down and try to do some hobby.

Instead of painting, I just went with building some haystacks.  These are simple and straight forward and offer some diversity on the gaming tabletop.

They are made of styrofoam, flock and thick sewing string.  All it takes is cutting up the styrofoam into blocks, then cover the blocks with PVA glue and dab into the flock.  You might need to do two applications, then trim down the the whole thing with a pair scissors.

I also found some time to make several collective bases for my foam trees. I build these the same way as the skirmish bases in previous posts.

That is all this week.  Hopefully the work will slow down a bit next week and allow me to do some more work on this project.

Until next post, stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

As you might have heard, the central Mediterranean has been hit by a burdensome heat-wave that literally crippled everyday life, for the past month.  With temperatures reaching 45 degrees, it was just impossible to paint anything or do any hobby whatsoever.

Over the weekend, though, the temperatures went down, and I found the strength to get back on the saddle and paint again.

I went back to this project, because the painting is simple and straight forward and doesn’t require a lot of thought.

I painted up the leaders of the Confederates and the last 9 miniatures to complete Stage 2 of this project. I also painted up a wagon from Warbases.co.uk.

The next stage is painting up the Union cavalry.  I have two units of eight models each (and I am not looking forward to painting them). In between, I will build some more terrain.

So until then stay safe and have fun.

NR

Hi everyone,

I am pushing on with this project again as the temperatures decline and my stamina rises. The next things I did are two outhouses and I finished painting the house I started several posts ago.

To be honest, the house was the first model of this kind I ever did and for my first attempt, it is not bad – but not really good either. Especially the bricks of the chimney that did not come out to scale.  In fact, I might try and fix the chimney if it bothers me too much.

The next post will be the the Union Cavalry. I never enjoyed painting cavalry, but I don’t wont to play this game without them.

So until then, stay safe and have fun.

NR

There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry – George Armstrong Custer.

Hi everyone,

Today I finished up half of the Union cavalry.  It is like painting two units of infantry – so it takes twice as long. In the end I think I have achieved the same standard.

I also managed to finish up a mounted leader, since I did not have a mounted leader for the Union.

I also just watched the XLBS before posting this and this project won a golden button, so thanks to the OTT team for their time and kind words.

That is all for this week.  Next week I will continue work on the second Union cavalry unit, before I start the Confederate cavalry.  Italieri have nice cavalry miniatures but there is not a lot of diversity in the range. This means that the next unit will basically be a replicate of this one.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun.

NR