Hello out there!
What a fitting post for what is Memorial Day over here in the states - the 28 artillery pieces and 18 limbers for the ACW project.
A mix of a couple different kits, the main bulk is metal Perry, with some additions of some artillery being plastic. All of the limber pieces themselves are the plastic kit as well. My biggest hurdle with this one was my particulars of gun tube and chassis. On each side, as per the client's official notes, each side had 8 metal gun carriages and 4 plastic. Side by side the two mix just fine, but I did not really want to mix and match per tube, so I put the 4 each iron tubes on the slightly smaller metal carriages, and did an extra two plastic on me to hold the 6, 12 pdr Napoleons on each side. Everything nice and clean that way.
ACW artillery is generally the same color on each side, an olive with brown undertones. In reality a matter of mixing yellow and lampblack to seal up the wood of the pieces. Lucky me, a color I have painted many time before for 40k, and enjoyed myself a lot between it, the metals and natural woods of the limber seats/lids.
I also did some extra models for the "at ease" or crew #5 and 6 going back to the limber. Most of the metal Perry limbers are at a galloping pose, but some are "at ease" and I used these extras to make those three each side, little dioramas. The little extra things that make something feel alive are always the last but most important little 10% of a project to go from toy soldiers to alive.
You might also notice some bits of artillery here and there. Like the round based dead figures, these are functional in the game, but I really enjoy them for spicing up the photos.
This is the last blog post of the project. It is quite fitting being such a big fun aspect of the project. I had to watch myself not spending too much time putting the rest of the models back on the table for a big shot. That is for next time. In fact this is the first time I had to break out a couple of card tables just to pull things off and repose. The final shots will be quite an adventure of posing the whole project and expect it to take at least a day if not two. Looking forward to it.
See you next time for the big finale. Some Zouaves, and then the 18 generals!
