2mm ACW ... progress!

The curse of the blogger is your proclamations of new projects are there for the world to see. Looking back, I see I started this 2mm ACW project in June 2014! Curiously, this first post on 2mm has become on the the most visited pages on this blog with 1473 views to date! Must have been something I said! it's ^%$#&*-well time I finished it and actually posted some AARs!

Nevertheless, every project gets its moment in the sun, and 2mm ACW seems to be having just that. Besides, I want to start a Thirty Years War project in 2mm so it was time to get a wriggle on.

So, after a flurry this weekend painting is nearly complete and I am now working on basing (40x20mm). For me, one of the challenges with 2mm basing is to ensure they help show the direction the blocks are facing (very helpful with my dodgy eyesight).

When I based the Confederate force I was thinking I would need a label the rear corner for unit identification - I've since decided against that as I feel it detracts from the overall look on the table. Instead, I have decided to paint muddy ground behind the base to reflect the tramping of brogans through the pasture. I think this gives a good sense of movement for the units too.

I am working on some subtle 'landscaping' on each base with gravel, static grass and minute pieces of clump foliage. At this scale even the finest gravel looks like I'm recreating the Devil's Den! So some subtlety is required (in short supply here).

I can feel the project nearing the point where I can game with them (if I could only settle on a set of rules*!). In the meantime, I couldn't resist a quick layout for some pictures. I think the pictures show that 2mm - even with fairly rudimentary basing and paintwork can give a really good drones-eye view of civil war engagements!

*which will, of course, need to be sympathetic with my rather arbitrary decisions around basing!

 The next challenge is to flock all the bare spots I left for labels on the CSA bases! Doh!

2mm ACW is back on the table!

Just a quick post to signal a return to the most challenging of scales - 2mm. I've had a pile of Irregular Miniatures 2mm ACW blocks painted (except the cavalry) for some time. Each time I get them out I go into a nose dive over basing and rules and away they go again.

I've grasped the nettle and based them on a 40mm x 20mm (1 1/2" x 7/16") with two infantry blocks on each. I've been experimenting with adding a little detail to the base - in this case, the muddy path across the field left by the companies as they advance.

I'll look at adding some bushes and hopefully a fence or two (pebbles for stone or flywire for post and rail).

The 2mm project lives!

Desert gaming mat

I’ve had a couple of attempts over the years of making gaming mats using latex caulking compound. My last attempt - a gaming mat for desert terrain, was my most successful.

The approach I took was to:
1. Paint a plastic backed canvas dropsheet with an undercoat of off white acrylic house paint
2. Once dry, scrape on a thin layer of grey caulking compound (painting first meant less compound was lost in the porous canvas - used less product!)*
3. Sprinkle with fine grit while soft (I used sand)
4. Once dry, paint with an acrylic house paint again - sand coloured - then dry brush with a range of other suitable colours - eg. browns and greys

*Its worth hiughlighting Lasgunpacker's comment below - there may be a durability issue with the latex not bonding as well to ;pain as it would to the canvas - good point, time will tell!

 Here's what it looks like with some minis on it:

 

I have 6mm Irregular and 15mm Eureka Miniatures minis on the painting bench for some WW2 Operation Compass gaming - the 15mm are the Eureka range sculpted as the Australian 6th Division at Bardia. However, below I have laid out some of the Eureka Miniatures World War 1 Palestine range in preparations for a Second Battle of Gaza scenario.

I have since completed a platoon of Bersaglieri, again from Eureka. The next step is to get them on the table for a little Operation Compass 'fun' using my recent purchase of Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes.