Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Tarleton's Cavalry

This is a unit of Tarleton's cavalry that I purchased from my friend Rich Oster at Historicon in July. I'm not entirely sure of the figure manufacturer, but knowing Rich they're most likely either Foundry or Old Glory figures. Judging from the quality of the sculpts I'd guess the former. Rich had these based up for another set of rules so I based them for Volley & Bayonet as two massed stands with Tarleton on his own command stand. This basing should also let me use the figures with Carnage & Glory and British Grenadier hopefully.

When I received the figures from Rich, the command stand for Tarleton had a nice vignette on it with a sign labeled "Tarleton's Quarter" in front of a wounded Continental soldier with a saber sticking out of his chest. I thought this was so fun I had to include this on my new re-based command stand even though it's a little cramped on the smaller Volley & Bayonet-sized stand. Rich confided in me that these figures were painted for him by a close friend of his and I have to admit, they're painted much better than most of the figures I've painted for myself in my collection. I have two other units I purchased from Rich that I still have to re-base. Hopefully those will show up in this blog later on.

7 comments:

Andy McMaster said...

British Legion are one of my favourites. Really like your basing there as well. How do you do the tufts?

Andy

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

The tufts are Woodland Scenics grass that comes in small packets. You grab a bunch, cut a small length off and glue on to the base with white PVA (Elmers) glue. While it's wet you can use your hobby knife to spred the grass out as you like. After it dries I go back and give it a quick rough trim with a pair of scissors. It's actually easier than it sounds. Usually I save up several units and to the grass tufts on them all at once. You can do 10-15 stands in 30-45 minutes total.

Andy McMaster said...

That was quick! I've just tried something similar on some water features over on my blog and it sounds like the same stuff, although I may have used too much PVA as I ended up with a big blob at the base! Will try and be more conservative with it next time!

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

I put a blob of glue on a scrap of card, dip the grass into it, then blot a little off on the card, then affix the blob to the figure base. Once the glue dries it shrinks up nicely. Among the static grass it's nigh invisible.

Andy McMaster said...

I shall try with my next batch of basing! There is a local wargames show on Saturday and I intend to pick up mostly scenic bits and pieces as I have enough figures for the time being!

Giles said...

These are fantastic. They look like Old Glory, although the "Tarleton" command figure is not the Tarleton figure from the personality set.

I love the sign. I might shamelessly nick the idea for a vignette when I get stuck into the Southern campaigns properly.

Great pics, AJ.

Giles

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you pinched the idea Giles.