Slovenly Yanks in Camp

Spent the better part of my limited free time this week working on getting some of the new figures painted. As I was the most intrigued by Good Ground's "Slovenly Yanks" set, that was the first one I tackled. I'll have a post later on showing more of the painting process, but here are some shots and thoughts about this first round.

The quality of the photo isn't super great. Then again, these aren't really meant to be examined up close, or you really notice the lack of detail possible in N scale / 10mm. My guess is that most people would see these at about the distance you're looking at them through the camera lens here, or farther.

I'm glad I read up on painting techniques before trying to do this. Those old 15mm figures I showed before were done without priming, and with just the mostly-gloss paints I had at the time. But now, with the right tools and the internet to guide me, these fellas came out alright.

Clockwise from the bottom, you'll see two soldiers playing chess/checkers, one I made an NCO. Next is a private lounging and smoking his pipe. A sergeant is playing the fiddle next to him, followed by a lad bringing his blanked out to join the group. Behind them near the tent is stacked arms (I made them Springfields) with a sack coat and hat hanging on the top. The fire pit is in the center, complete with a soup pot and coffee pot. Finally there are two more soldiers laying down, the first holding his coffee cup and the second under his blanket with arms behind his head.

It's tough to say which figure is my favorite. They all make a very fine camp scene. I'd say Good Ground should do a second version of this with figures in even more camp life poses. Maybe someone chopping wood, tending the fire, or mail call. They should definitely make a set of stacked arms, like a half dozen or more in a pack. That's a really nice touch.

I had mentioned in my original post about the orders that I felt the Good Ground Minis were just a hair too big for N scale Civil War trains. I stand by that assessment and would love to see them knock it down a bit. Then I'd be able to use some of these for things directly related to train operations, like loading freight cars.

It's been fun painting these, but man, now I need glasses for this stuff. I really don't mind getting old. But the inconvenience of not being able to just do these without magnification and sufficient light is pretty annoying.

GHQ vs Good Ground miniatures

Seeing the Sibley tents and wood piles just sitting there, lifeless, I just had to bite the bullet and order some figures for the layout. After a few days of research, I narrowed it down to GHQ and Cracker Line / Good Ground Minis. They both had sets I wanted, and figured I'd get a sense of how their sizes compared to the trains.

GHQ on the left, Good Ground on the right.

You can see there's a pretty noticeable difference in size, but not exactly consistent. The GHQ soldiers on the left are smaller, more slender, and the mule looks more like the size of a horse. The Good Ground soldiers are a bit bigger, stockier, and the horse looks like the size of a mule. Overall, both brands look very good and detailed. But I think the Good Ground minis are a little too big for Civil War era N scale trains.

I was planning on using the Good Ground minis for the camp scenes and warehouse/stock work around the depots. Two of the sets are a camp scene called Slovenly Yanks and a General staff scene called Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel. GHQ did not offer anything likes these, and I instantly fell in love with how much more character this kind of imagery would add to the layout. But it does appear that due to the size of the Good Ground minis that I'll have to keep them restricted to camp life, and not right next to or on any rolling stock. The other two sets were a mounted command and two supply wagons.

The GHQ minis included a company of 24 soldiers marching, a squadron of walking mounted cavalry, and two supply wagons.

I'll get a better sense of how they look once they're painted. Right now the Slovenly Yanks group is primed and dry-brushed with some white. This weekend I'll take a crack at final paint. And after all this, some artillery, limbers, etc. will be in order. I'd particularly love to see how field pieces would look on the flat cars.

MTL Loco Shed done, Sibley Tents, new Balloon Stacks

The Micro-Trains Line Civil War Era Loco Shed is finally
built and weathered. The Sibley tents are actually more
weathered than they looked when I took this photo.

After what feels like months of it sitting on the shelf, half-built, I've finally finished the engine shed. It looks nice, considering I wasn't entirely sure how to make it look like "new, but worn" wood construction.

The funny thing is... I have nowhere to put it on the layout! I'd have to rip up some of the existing track and make room for a few switches and the sidings going into the shed. But honestly, I'm not sold on doing that any time soon. This layout was never going to be my dream layout, and putting "rip up track" effort into it is not going to happen.

Whenever I do use the engine shed, it'll be a really necessary piece of the layout. I'm still debating where and when my dream layout will be--Alexandria 1862, City Point 1864, either of those two, but a different year? I have time. But what I do know is that finding this building and the Sibley tents was pure luck on my part, and I couldn't be happier.

The wood piles are coming along, too. They may require another round of painting.

New Balloon Stacks

Bonnet Stack from Kaloon Creek Models.

I've been in contact with Eric Cox about his Civil War era smokestacks. And he did adjust the size a bit and reduced the height they sit on top of the engine boiler. But I haven't ordered any of the remodeled stacks from him yet because he's also working on updating his other stock items, which I plan to order in one big batch.

In the meantime, I tried out these balloon stacks from the Kaloon Creek Models shop on Shapeways. They look very good. They're closer to the smokestacks found on the William Mason. I'll definitely use these on at least one of my four engines. The only issue is that the hole for the engine's mounting peg is too big, as you can see from how it sits a bit cockeyed here. I'd have to use something to either make the fit more snug, or glue.

You'll also notice two things about the engine. First is that the handrail on the far side is broken. Need to get fresh super glue for that. The old stuff didn't hold. Second is I tried to shade in between the wheel spokes. Eh, I'll work on it.

Weekend trip to Washington D.C.

Back in June, my wife attended the ALA conference in Washington, D.C. I figured it would be nice to get away for a weekend, so I tagged along. Plus, I love a good train ride. Much of my exploring was done solo since she was busy with events much of the time. But we did manage to go to the National Portrait Gallery together one evening before dinner. I highly recommend going. The presidential portraits were as good as expected, along with the thousands of other works in the American art collections.

"Grant and His Generals" Painted 1865 by Ole Peter Hansen Balling

Union Station

We stayed right downtown, which was great, but there were no breakfast places open before 9 a.m. except for Starbucks. All I wanted was an egg, ham and cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee around 8 a.m. But then I remembered it was a summer Saturday in D.C. It's like a ghost town until brunch.

Anyway, here are a few photos I finally took off the phone. I'd say my favorite single work of art was the somewhat small sculpture "Wounded to the Rear / One More Shot". It's the last photo below.

Ford's Theater

Major General James B. McPherson, by Louis Rebisso, 1876

Abraham Lincoln Life Masks by Clark Mills, 1865

"Wounded to the Rear / One More Shot", 1864 by John Rogers; cast 1865