Ohio militia - Stage 1: Build

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Among other projects, I'm using Rebels and Patriots to motivate me to return to the War of 1812 miniatures I first started almost a decade ago.

I've already done some painting which I'll get photo's of up shortly, but last night I whiled away three hours working on a troop of Ohio Militia, based on the Perry Miniatures AWI American rifleman sprue.

Fresh from the modelling tray

I modified them firstly by using a handful of Victrix and Perry Napoleonic parts to create an officer, drummer and a couple of different weapon poses.  The main task then was to modify the heads and hats.  

One of the two poses has a queue in the hair, which I trimmed away, being out of fashion by the nineteenth century.  Then using the supplied round hats as a base I modeled tall hats in Greenstuff.  The fashion of the time was for something approaching a top hat, but most illustrations show it somewhat disheveled.  This is not a surprise given these objects being made of felt and sometimes even just coloured card and cloth, would not hold their shape well in wild weather.  I can imagine a soldier's hat suffering greatly in a Canadian winter!

The plus side of that is that I didn't need to be too perfect with the sculpting.  Honestly I don't know how the pro's manage it, I'm doing well the blend stuff in and make passable folds in cloth or straps.  That's the limit of my Greenstuff skills.

Still these look the part, and cost only 75p a miniature to assemble; and I can move them straight to the painting tray now, as all other projects have neatly concluded.

More on them soon....

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