Gettysburg - the Madness returns

Part 5- Tales of Sand, Glue and Cursing

Returning to the task in hand after a week of constructive dialogue and forward planning (i.e. we spent 30 seconds agreeing a time to meet and get stuck in to the the next stage), Chris and I turned up at the workshop with a surprisingly clear idea of what was going to happen next. We were both absolutely certain that the other was going to have a plan. Sadly this happy state of affairs lasted only for a few heady moments and we were back to our normal indecision. In the end we decided to get the power sander out and grind the roads down to a correct degree of flatness. To both our astonishment, we'd remembered to bring the sander so this job was done in a trice. Deciding that we were on a roll, I said, 'Let's get some sand glued on.', and with no other alternative to hand, that's what we did.

Using all of our combined skill and dexterity watered down PVA glue was applied with a large brush carefully avoiding the river and stream courses, the locations of the woods and the line of the railway track. Here's a dynamic action shot for you of this process:

Impressive or what? And that is Chris's own hand - no stunt doubles for us!

Very carefully and painstakingly worked our way across the board, adding a thin layer of sand to the PVA until we ended up with something that looked like this:

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Yes, I know it just looks scruffy, but bear with us. It should get better from now on in. Let's face it, if it doesn't we are going to look even more stupid than we do now.

The great thing about PVA on a warm sunny day is that it dries very quickly which meant that after about 30 minutes we were able to remove the masking tape, which to our great delight came off easily. While not hugely more impressive the end result looks a lot neater.

However after such a period of intense creativity we were both spent, besides which we were also very hungry. On the way home I was in such a good mood, that for the first time I expressed a bit of confidence. 'We'll have it done in plenty of time for Derby!', I chirruped in a joyful manner. Chris then brought me back down to earth with a thump of considerable size when he pointed out that in fact we only had two more sessions in which to complete the work before the Derby show.

Oh, buggar!

Part 6- Of baby poo and bollocks

Just for a change we actually had a cunning plan at this stage. I had previously painted both sections a rather fetching colour of brown from a can of household emulsion labeled 'Cocoa'. This had two effects. Firstly it sealed in the sand and texture we had previously applied and provided a base colour for the next phase. Secondly, linked to the marked off squares on the boards it made them look like two giant bars of chocolate. As this started off Chris's hunger reflexes I decided to crack on with the job in hand lest I lose him in a mindless search for things to eat.

What followed will be immediately familiar to all of you out there who use the Baccus Basing System. We applied three layers of ever-lighter dry brushed highlights to the board, thus giving it definition and texture. The highlight pigments were mixed using the simple expedient of adding white paint in ever increasing amounts to a base of the afore-mentioned cocoa. The resultant colour mixes were unfortunate as Chris pointed out when he peered into the pot and uttered the words, 'Blergh! It looks like baby poo!'. Infantile excrement or not, it's what we used and we leave it to you, gentle reader, to judge the wisdom of our decision.

The highlighting done, we then moved on to the 'Three R's'. Roads, Rivers and Railway. The first was easy as Chris set to work painting the road network in using a light grey-brown. For my part, I set to work on the rivers. I had been relying on picking up an appropriate paint to do this from a local hobby shop on my way into the workshop. However, once I got there, my choice was more limited than I had considered and so I picked up the only blue that they had. This turned out to be quite a jaunty shade.

'It's very blue, isn't it?', said Chris, leaning over and looking at the first few inches that I had completed. It was indeed. Very, very blue. Not just blue, but eyeball-grabbingly blue. The sort of blue that does not just sit there being content, but instead radiates BLUENESS to the world. 'Very blue' did not begin to do it justice...

'Ah,' says I, thinking on my feet. 'Remember that we are not as such doing an exact scale replica of the Gettysburg battlefield. It is more by way of an homage, a representation of the area that is patently an exaggeration and amplification of the original that by its very differences and obvious inaccuracies allows one to cultivate a deeper understanding, nay a relationship with the real thing that transcends the more representative aspects of the model and in many ways conveys the experience in a more complete fashion.'

'Dad', came the weary response, 'You are talking bollocks again. Admit it, it's the only colour we have.' I was rumbled, but I had to carry on with the blueness and I will leave it to all who read this to judge the end result.

Luckily for both us the railway was far easier. We have used the excellent 2mm rail sections from Irregular Miniatures. There were simply painted black and then dry brushed with grey to bring out the sleepers and rail details. They were finished off with an ink wash and the rails painted in silver with a gelly roll pen.

And here is a shot of work in progress. The highlighting and roads are completed and I am adding a little more blue goodness to the riverine drainage network. For some reason, Chris has cut off my head in this shot.

All that was left to do was to tidy up by touching up the divisions between the square and making the appearance a little neater. Here is a picture of Chris doing just this. I tried to return the favour with a spot of decapitation of my own, but failed miserably.

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Finally for today a general shot of the appearance of the board on completion at this stage.

All that is left is to paint the buildings and stick them to the boards, sort out how we are going to model the town of Gettysburg itself, flock the entire table, add the woods and tidy the whole thing up so it actually looks presentable. We have just one session to do all of this. Chris keeps on pointing out possible flaws and things that aren't going to work well. My answer to all of this so far has been, 'No problem. The flock will cover all that up.' Next week we are going to see it that actually is the case...

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