I thought I was down to a single unit of troops to finish for my Mexican and American armies. Well, a buddy of mine disagreed and gave me some of his partially painted figures… So, a few more units to go…
I was down to one unit of Mexican Zapordores to work on. I had a unit of Mexican lights from Gajo to use as a base. I was not in the mood to do all the straps, so I kind of procrastinated on these. However, that delay was finally overcome when I got some AK paint markers! I took the figures I got and repainted their collars and lapels black. I touched up some of the red areas and then got to work with the white paint pen on all the straps to change them from black to white. I did go back and hit them with a little bit of white paint to cover some opacity. I then used the yellow paint pen to do the strap on the top of the shako rim. This hits a milestone and should finally finish up my Mexican infantry, unless I go back some time and do uninformed militia…..
Next was the free figures. The first I got was a unit’s worth of US infantry from Eureka. These were done in a gray blue that looked a lot like my Illinois infantry, so I decided to do these as a second unit from that state. I went around and added the black where needed and hit all the flesh with a sepia wash. I repainted the hats dark blue. I then worked on the bed rolls, painting them red. I finished up the drums with some red white and blue. Then came the hard part… A whole bunch more white straps! I used the paint pen where I could and finished up with a brush, as some of the areas were too tight for the pen! So, a few more troops for my Americans!
The next unit was some Mexican line cavalry, from Eureka. These were done with red coats, with green trim and had most of the colors block painted. I decided to start by adding black and brown washes to the figures (depending on the base color). I then hit all the areas with a highlight color to bright them up again. I had to hit all the black areas, as a lot of paint had worn off on these or they had colors I needed to cover up. I finished all that and finished up the unit. I must say that the Eureka horses are soooo much bigger than the ones from Old Glory, so I will have to pay attention to how I group guys on the tabletop!
After finishing the units, I glued them to the magnet bases and finished off the basing, like the other troops I have done. A little Muddy Paw sand, some water and finishing up with some flock. I have a couple more things to work on, but I am close to finally finding!
- Manteuffel