After some kind suggestions from the Civil War Railroads group, I ordered some 10 mm civilian figures from Thoroughbred Models. It's been a few weeks since then, and they're finally painted. I chose a mix of the poses and characters. While I was at it, I also painted some additional soldiers. There are some of the Good Ground Minis figures, for comparison. You can see the GHQ (soldiers, general officer, and Lincoln) and Thoroughbred (civilians() figures are very close, but the Good Ground (general officer and staff officer) figures to the far right are much larger and chunkier.
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| Sampling of the newest figures, including civilians! |
I realized my collection of figures wasn't historically accurate for scenes behind the front lines. What was missing? Black soldiers. They were used heavily for duties like supply and labor. I took some of the artillery crews, which looked like they were lifting something heavy, and made a few new soldiers.
The soldier climbing the boxcar comes from the siege artillery crew set. It's one of my favorite little vignettes. The soldier sitting on the water tank is from a limbered field artillery set. He was originally riding a caisson.
The civilians aren't exactly Civil War era, more like the 1880s. Particularly the women's skirts don't have the large hoops under them. But I'm not going to get that picky. You barely notice, anyway, because they're so small and the scenes are busy enough to distract from any historical inaccuracy of the fashion.
Seeing all these figures at the station platform, however, leads me to think the building is too big for the 10mm figures from GHQ and Thoroughbred. I don't have the math done in my head, but the doors look at least a few "inches" too high. But I'm not going to change it out now.
This is the kind of small accomplishment that offers big satisfaction. I'm planning on making a new video tour of the layout soon (I know, I know, I've been saying that for months) and having civilians in the station area will really add depth to the scene.
Mike, these look FABULOUS! Few questions... It appears you needed to modify the fig in the box car yes? Do you do your own painting? I’d like to invite you to one of our AWCRRHS Zoom meets to present your work. Some very fine modeling you are doing.
ReplyDeleteThom, the box car climber needed very little modification. I'll post a pic of the unmodified original for comparison. I do all my own painting. Used to do lots of this kind of stuff when I was a kid in the 90s, but those were 15mm. I really have been interested in the Zoom meets, but my schedule is really unable to accommodate something like that right now. Maybe over the winter when things settle down for me. One warning, though, is that I have no real process or technique, haha. I pretty much just wing everything.
DeleteGreetings to you all from Australia I am so glad to have found your site I am a bit of a loner over here my whole layout is based on HO civil war scenes it is impossible to buy much stock here so I have in the past been purchasing from America but the freight costs and exchange rates make things really expensive I am sure I will enjoy your blogs which I will watch with great interest
ReplyDeleteRegards Adrian Smith