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.