Southern Continental Infantry

After a few finishing touches, my first batch of Continental infantry is done! I’m roughly basing them on the North Carolina units at Charleston, SC in 1780. For early war scenarios, though, they can also pass for the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment in a pinch.

Despite my initial misgivings, I really liked how they turned out. There are two wounded men in the group (but they’ll be dispersed through the larger force). I have to confess to using GW Blood for the Blood God on some areas that turned out wonky, but I think it ended up alright.

The next batch is already primed blue and sitting on my desk. I hope to start blocking in colors tomorrow and have them completed by the end of the week.

AWI Continental Soldier Test Figure

Exactly 7 years ago, I posted about a WIP Continental soldier I was working on. He was an Old Glory figure that I’d had for a few years and I wrote about trying out some new techniques and using a washer as the base.

The 2013 version.

Well, none of that ever came to fruition. But I rediscovered him and several other Continental figures while cleaning out my basement home office and felt compelled to give him another go. So I threw the above figure into a pot of Simple Green and started fresh.

The 2020 version.

I painted him up to represent the Southern forces (South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia wore blue facings per Washington’s 1780 order) because a) I’ve not seen anyone else do it and b) it’ll be a little quicker to paint. I blocked in the basic colors and used Army Painter Dark Tone Quickshade and was really impressed with the results. I did go over the skin with a bit of GW Reikland Fleshshade to liven him up. I also just got a jeweler’s magnifying headband with an LED light and have been double checking things (I missed a lot in my initial paint job!) and fixing as needed.

This thing is seriously awesome!

I have a few more figures nearly finished as well. These guys won’t win any painting awards but they’re quick to do and should look good in a larger group. All told these guys we’re done in 6-7 hours. I have a few more in stockings as opposed to gaiters, and I think they’ll help give this unit a nice, motley appearance suitable for the American army of this period.

WIP: Continental Soldier

Good evening, everyone. I know what you must be thinking.....two posts in one day?! Crazy isn't it?

This is the figure shown in a previous entry, and I thought it was time to give some life to him. To paint this chap I tried something a little bit different, though, than I usually do for 28mm figures. Instead of simply painting over the base color with a layer coat, I drybrushed instead to help make the figure a bit grittier.

I used Mordian Blue and Screaming Skull as the base colors on the coat and trousers respectively. The regimental coat was then drybrushed with Regal Blue and Shadow Grey to give it a lighter, slightly faded look. I really liked how it turned out! For the trousers, I drybrushed Skull White on top of the base color, washed them in a dark grey, and then drybrushed a little more white. I'm not sure I like this quite as much, but I'll see when everything's done.

The skin, musket and accouterments need to be finished and the base needs to be detailed yet. But he's almost done!

Anyway, what do you all think? Comments are welcome and much appreciated!