Snake rail fence

Snake Rail Fences

    I have been playing some "Rebels and Patriots" by Osprey wargames and am doing American Civil War in 1/72. When wargaimg actions in North America you need a lot of fencing to line your fields and roads, and plastic ones can be somewhat expensive and somewhat fragile. I decided to make some for myself.

Here is my first batch, about 57 inches.

Some Union Cavalry seek cover behind a section.

You will need:
PVA glue
Toothpicks (a lot of them)
MDF bases
Flush cutters
Plastic clothespins or twist ties
A drill with a bit same size as your toothpicks

Start by cutting a bunch of MDF bases and beveling the sides.



Drill a hole near one corner and then make a spot about 40mm near the other side. I made a jig so I could mark where the next hole would go.

Then drill where your marks are then drill another hole right beside it about 3mm away.

Place blobs of glue over your holes and insert a Toothpick into each hole.

Lay toothpicks flat between each pair of upright tooth picks with a generous dollop of glue, at each end of the fence place an extra toothpick that protrudes past the  base edge, this is to keep your fence height the same as in the middle.

Pile 5 layers of toothpick, then clamp the uprights together I use both clothespin and twist ties.

 

I use these clothespins because the small hole that clamps the tooth picks very tightly.

  Let them dry for several hours and remove the clamps.

 Get your flush cutters and cut off the ends of the toothpicks that extend past the upright (cut the end toothpicks as flush as possible with body of the fence) and above the top rail, make the cuts as ragged as possible for esthetic reasons. Then cut any toothpick that extends out the bottom of your base as flush as possible.

    Get your self a can of brown spray paint (or airbrush or paint by hand) and paint the fence and the base, let dry, then dry-brush fence a light grey. Then you can texture the base how ever you wish.

   I cover the base in brown caulking then a coating of water diluted mod podge and while still wet sprinkle a mixture of sand, ballast and tile grout over the mod podge, then a another layer of diluted mod podge then drip a few drops of green and brown acrylic washes. When that is dry I dry brush the base with a bright yellow and add clumps of foliage.

February Painting

Here is what I finished painted in February.

First up some 1/72 scale Union soldiers for Rebels And Patriots.

Italeri's release of the ESCI Union Infantry

Italeri's release of the ESCI Union Infantry

Italeri's release of the ESCI Union Infantry

Italeri Artillerists

 Some Norman Infantry from Conquest Games, they will be used for Outremer: Faith and Blood.

And since I had what I believe is a Perry Miniature that would fit the era I painted this guy.

I also have these figures, which I picked up a Bring and Buy, they got painted as well. They are a Cool Mini or Not game called Massive Darkness, they are an expansion set that has these 3 figures and a Cockatrice, which is what I bought the box to get.

A male elf flanked by a Dwarven and a Human female.

I managed to get 79 figures/vehicles painted this month, which brings my total to the year to:
Vehicles: 4
Total Figures: 75
     (172 scale) 38
     (28mm)      37

Next month I hope to finish my "Test of Honor" starter set figures, more animals from Wiz kids unpainted minis line (I have 2 Wild Boars and a pair of Pack mules) Victrix Napoleonic French infantry, more Union and Confederates infantry and cavalry and the guns.

Rebels and Patriots

Rebels and Patriots by Osprey Wargames, is another use of the Lion rampant engine.

I saw these rules and liked the look of them enough to Pre-order them, figuring I could use them for Napoleonic gaming as I was not overly impressed by Chosen Men, which to me seemed a kludgy re-skin of Warhammer, but this post is not to list my issues with Chosen men

Even though I planned to use the rules for Napoleonic, I only have French in 28mm and after a quick read through I wanted to try them quickly, rather than wait until I made the investment of time and money for an opponent for my French.

I have had a bag of 1/72nd figures for the American Civil war for decades and thought I will actually get to use these things in at least one game".

I had some wooden shapes I picked up a dollar store, attached the figures to similarly to the suggested basing. i.e a mix of 3 figures to a base, 2 figures to a base and singles.

Union army, This is all union figures I had at start.

Confederate forces. I ran out of bases I have at least as many again still in the bag.

I found 2/3rds of my figures are actually rebels, or at least painted as such, so I picked up a new box of Italeri's (ESCI's reissue) Union infantry and a box of artillery.

I grabbed the usable poses from the new boxes and and got painting, Painted these guys out in 2 evenings (less than 4 hours).

Had to pick up a few more bases from my FLGS, glued these guys on then flocked them and they were ready for use.

I will do a bit more base texturing in the future but these are essentially done.

Ready for a game, Cecil and I went to the Hamilton Road Gaming Group grabbed a table and played a game, which quickly turned into two.

Was hard to get a feel for the game as both playings were uneven affairs, with each player losing with the rebels, due to inability of either player to roll higher than 6 with 2d6. The second game saw my rebels lose their officer to a long range artillery hit during turn 1 which disordered my entire force (see aforementioned bad rolling) the second game lasted 4 turns during which 3 of my units routed off the table, one a turn, and I only managed to fire twice and inflicted zero casualties.

But we liked them enough, Cecil is going to get a copy of the rules, as he too had issues with Chosen men.

I will also increase my ACW armies.

HGA - October 23 2011

October 23rd 2011: This month we played an American Civil War naval game. Run by Glenn, using: Sail and Steam Navies: Naval Battle System 1840 to 1880's; Under Two Flags ACW expansion


I'm not sure if it is a published Scenario, one in playtest or a home brew inspired by the actual action. My understanding is Glenn plans on running it at a con (Hotlead 2012? maybe).

We played the Battle of The Head of Passes 10 days after the 151st anniversary of the battle.

The game, initially, went very similarly to the historical battle CSS Manassas rammed the USS Richmond, did very little damage, got its stacks shot up, but did not run aground. The Union vessels also did not run away, they instead blasted the Mosquito fleet.

Richmond being rammed by CSS McRae and CSS Tuscarora's flaming rafts, USS Preble crossing the infront of CSS Ivy and CSS Calhoun just having sunk CSS Pickens

USS Vincenes anchored in the way of CSS Calhoun, CSS Manassas left edge of picture.

Confederate confusion, USS Vincennes has slipped it bow anchor as USS Preble races by firing on a pair of entangled Confederates (Calhoun and Jackson)

Victory was determined by who had the most points at game end. Points are awarded for sinking or capturing enemy ships. The Union lost the coaling ship USS Toone (5 points)
Confederate lost 1 or 2 ships and had several more badly shot up.

The victory conditions need tweaking, since the Union player starts with 25 points (Confederates out point the Union at start) is unlikely to run away, and either Richmond or Vincennes alone outguns the entire Confederate force.