So where to from here

Well I finally finished those fences off, it took a while but I got there in the end. So with them done where to from here....

Well to go with the fences, I need some troops. I have been researching a lot lately on the American Civil War, and with that in mind I purchased some Baccus 6mm figs.

At a 1:10 ratio I have sorted out The "Stonewall" Brigade, these are going to be based on two game systems.

The first is Guns at Gettysburg by Dave Brown, a very similar system to General de Brigade (Well it's pretty much the same)

The second rule set, Piquet and using the supplement Hallow Ground.

Now a question that is asked on a regular basis is what shade of grey, or what paint should I use for the grey. Now the short answer that I have found is well, there was that much variance it doesn't matter.

From a lot of reading that I have done, the Confederate uniform started off as shades of blue, and faded to grey, now please feel free to correct me on this as I am still learning.

Over the coming few weeks, I will be starting to paint the Confederates and I will be bringing you along on the journey, in the hope that you can learn from what I have done and be able to apply to your own miniatures.

The final stages completed

Well, it took a while to make these but I am very happy with the final result on them. Here are a few more progress shots on the static grass effect:



PVA applied, with the PVA I have found it is better to apply thinner and lighter rather than in big blobs, something that I used to do:

Not sparing any expense, I heavily applied or sprinkled in this case static grass over the PVA:

Now this next step took me a while to get it right, but using the handle of the brush I lightly tapped the grass into the PVA, going over it a couple of times to make sure that the grass would stick:

Now I managed to work on a section at a time, so applyed the PVA, then the grass, pressed it down. I then turned the base over and flicked the bottom of the base from left to right then right to left.

Turning the base back over again I found that just the one application wasn't quite enough for my liking.

So below you see me loosely sprinkling the grass over once again and repeating with the brush.

And the final result from the grass:

(This base was one of the few where there wasn't quite enough grass, so went over and re-applied after the photo)

After the grass was applied, they should look a little something like this:

Now ignore the colour in this shot, as you can see it lightens the wood more that it actually is.

I will get to posting a few more photos in the next couple of days outside when the weather improves.

So all in all I managed to make 12' worth of fencing, plus 4 corners which measure 50mm x 50mm in an L shape.

Just below are the corners:

One final note, which will help if you feel the height is still a little high, I did this little extra step.

Where each rail crosses over at the start point and the next cross join with one finger on each join (Not in the middle of the rail or it will snap) apply a medium 5 second count then move onto the next.

I went through each section (When I refer to a section I mean each 15cm section) twice. It has dropped the height just enough.

Take your time with this as I found I am a little heavy and heard a couple of snaps. But because the wood is reasonably soft it only broke the top rail - not in two to just split it, however has not affected the visuals at all.

Hope that you have enjoyed watching me go through this, don't think I will be making anymore for a little while now.

A tad on the sick side

Well with the Wife being sick the last three weeks, I seem to have caught something finally and it knocked me off my feet for a few days. Only just starting to feel a little better now and I have finally knocked on the third row.

As well as that layed out the 1st of 4 corners.

Just a few photos, I have now clipped them down a little as well so all that is left is to add the static grass.

Update on the Fences

Well just a small update here. Managed to get the second row down on the fences. It took me about 5 minutes per 23 rails.

So just over an hour to get that second row on, should have the third row done late tonight and if dry I will be trimming the rails.

The first shot shows the height of the second row:

And a few shots of the completed second row:

More photos to follow once the 3rd row is done.

Let the fun begin

Well a bit of a busy weekend saw the fences put aside for a couple of days, but the good news I am now back on track with the construction

First the stack of strips ready to be cut:

3000+ cuts later I now have a container full of 22-24mm rails:

So, after much thought about the angles, I made sure that the first rail is exactly 22mm. Set half way up the base, and angled to the maximum length here is how the first rail is placed:

Next I had to place the next two angled pieces, this set up that angles for the rest of the rail:

Followed by the next rail (Also you will see the full base section laid down)

This does take a little bit more time than I expect the rest of the rails to go down. This is because I am taking care setting up the base angles.

Once this has been done it will be a case of just placing the new rail ontop.

Well back to placing those rails down, oh and if you wondering how I am attaching the rails to each other and the base, its a nice helping of PVA wood glue. I am taking care to only place a small drop onto the rails.

Photos

Well getting there, just been working on painting the edges of the bases. Once this is done I will be going through and applying the highlights to the sand ect.

Then on with the assembly. As promised here are a few photos of me getting there:

With the cutter set to 15mm (This is just about how wide it can go)

Start slicing the wood

After a few cuts I ended up with this:

Measuring along I made several light slices at 150mm

And the resulting pile of bases:

Then applying the PVA, this is where I had to be careful as too much and I would have a bannana on my hand.

Once the sand was applied the one thing that I hoped would not happen did, the wood started to warp. A bit of quick thinking and I grabbed a couple of pots and stacked them ontop. This saved the project from going down the drain:

After leaving them for a couple of hours to be sure, I went about putting an ink through the bases. Here is what was used:

And the end result:

Well thats this round of updates for photos, stay tuned for more once more progress is made.

Fence Progress #2

Managed to get the rails stained today, this took me about an hour and a half. Also bases have been cut and sanded as well as inked.

I have started with 12' of bases, plus 4 corners.

To be on the safe side I decided to leave the rails to dry for the rest of the day and over night.

A couple of things to note though, Balsa, sand and PVA = small warping. As soon as I saw this i grabed a couple of heavy pots (Hand cream and bacterial cream) and placed them on top until the PVA had a chance to cure.

Sorted that almost disaster out.

Also leaving the bases to dry overnight.

So where does that put the project:

Rails all stained but still need cutting down to 20mm lengths
Bases cut, sanded and inked ready for paint

Next to do will be cutting all of those rails, will probably take the better part of tomorrow night. Once they have been done will work on painting the bases.

Then comes the most time consuming bit, assembling them.

Will update with some photos tomorrow night.

Total time spent on project to date: 9 Hours

Fence Progress

Before I start I would like put a small warning, this can be a little bit fiddly but patience does pay off.

So as a teaser (Apologies for the quality on the photo, shot at night and away from workstation)

The following is the prototype (don't worry the fence is straight and level)

It did take a bit of playing around with the cut sizes but after a couple attempts, I have settled on 1mm.

The sheet of balsa wood that was used:

930mm (L) x 100mm (W) x 1.5mm

Setting the cutter to 1mm and placing it at the start of the sheet. Hold the sheet gentle but firmly (If you did what I did I snapped a section of the sheet with too much pressure and it hanging on my cutting board)

Anyway using your free hand holding the cutter, run this down the length of the board.

Paying special attention to when you start the cut and when you finish the cut. The reason for this is because I found the cutter to deviate and can take a small nic out of those points. This will affect how your strips turn out.

This will take a bit of time, the most important thing is to take your time and not rush. Here is the cut.

One thing you will notice is that after you have cut all of the pieces, you are left with a rectangle piece. I wanted square pieces for the fence rails.

This part need a lot of care and patience, as if you rush it you will end up snapping heaps of the pieces. Now I did snap a few pieces and some did not slice properly.

So turning the newly cut pieces on the opposite edge I set up the cutter at the end of the board, make sure the blade is set deep enough or you won't cut right through. This is important and you wont be able to remove this fine strip afterwards.

I slowly slid the cutter along until the rail poked out the other side of the cutter, then gently grabbing the end while holding the cutter in place and with my thumb holding the rail square against the fore edge pulled it through:

After a bit of effort the pile looked a little like this:

And the mess:

You will probably notice that not all of my pieces turned out into one length. I managed to get 64 complete length's of balsa with a pile of smaller pieces. Some of these will be used for posts and spare rails.

I decided to base most of the fence, I will start out with straights and the work cross sections and corner pieces into the mix.

I went with balsa as the base.

Onto the size, each piece will be 150mm long x 15mm wide x 2.5mm thick.

Each full length rail should make a section. So with 64 pieces that works out into about 32'. More than enough for my needs.

When I build some cornfields ect I will attach these to the base.

Well that's it for tonight, tomorrow will see me stain all of those rails and cut them. Each section of rail with be cut to 20mm.

I will also start preparing the bases for the rail sections. A sheet of balsa (930x75x2.5) should give me approximately 30 bases

Stay tuned for the next update