CONSTRUCTION OF LIMBERS.

HOW I MAKE AND PAINT LIMBERS.

Limbers are used extensively in my armies not only for artillery and heavy weapons but also in Cavalry and Horse Artillery regiments to tow supply, ammunition and utility trailers. The premise is that such regiments require full off road capability and that can only be provided by limbered transport.

Construction of limbers starts with a balsa block 15mm wide and 10mm deep cut from standard trailer stock of 5mm thick planking. To this is added a cut down toothpick shaft. The standard toothpick as used straight from the box for wagons is about 55mm long. To fit the smaller limber I cut them down to 40mm. This can be seen in the photo below.

The next shot shows a batch of 32 limbers with shafts attached. The next step is the usual one of applying sealer to the end grain which is sanded smooth when dry.

Next task is to add wheels, towing hook and the horse mounting block on the shaft, all as seen below and very similar to the work required to build GS wagons. Construction is now complete so the wheels and towing hooks can be primed ready for painting.

As is my usual practice I also cut out the horses required for a batch of vehicles and paint them up at the same time. The photo below shows the horses partially primed  in the normal  head up or head down situation.

As above but now painted my standard horse brown  ( Humbrol Burnt Leather ). The colour of horses is a constant issue with my wife who is most upset that I do not have a variety of horse colours to reflect reality.  She particularly wants me to have dapple gray horses.  I tell her the official Army view is that horses only come in one standard issue colour and that is brown !!!!!!!!!!

The limbers are now painted olive drab, my standard vehicle and equipment colour.

The next step is to glue the horses to the mounting block. It is vital to glue the painted side as the paint provides a key for the glue. It also makes it much easier to complete the painting of the horses.

This next picture shows the horses after all painting has been completed.

The final steps are to add the twisted wire harness and paint the limber wheels black as shown below.

Basically, other than the initial cutting of the balsa block body, the rest of the construction process is the same as described in the post on building GS wagons.  These principles also apply to all other vehicles and trailers used in my armies.

FLAGS: CONSTRUCTION AND PAINTING.

FLAGS OF THE WOODSCREW ARMY.

My army has three types of operational flag. 

The national flag is carried by all battalions and regiments and is oblong, solid blue in colour with a single white star in the first hoist area of the flag. 

Each battalion/regiment also carries a battalion/regimental  flag which is triangular, with a blue field and  the battalion/regiment number in white on the field. The staff is coloured to the arm of service for that particular type of battalion/regiment. In the case of brigade command battalions the main part of the staff is coloured red for command but the top of the staff is coloured to the type of brigade, infantry or cavalry. 

 The third flag is the general's personal flag. These are also triangular with a blue field but the staff is gold and there are small stars across the field, either one, two, three, four or five to represent the general's rank. All the stars I use are decals purchased from Fantasy Printshop of Cornwall, hand painting small stars was just a step too far for my skills !!!!

This photo shows from left to right, the national flag, the battalion flag of 7th army command battalion, a two star major general's flag and lastly, a three star lieutenant generals flag. 

The only other flag in my army is the red cross flag which is flown by all ambulance wagons. Other medical vehicles carry a small red cross sign on each side only.

My historic reference for many of the design ideas of my flags is  based to some degree or other on the US army of the Civil war period.

CONSTRUCTION.

The construction of flags is straight forward and is in fact, based largely on the 1969 Miniature Warfare magazine article that originally introduced the idea of using screws as soldiers.

 I start with a pin and a piece of ordinary copier paper, that is 85gsm for the paper experts !!!!! I usually use scrap from the printer but avoiding any printed areas. Flags are 12mm high by 18mm long when finished so I cut strips at least 50mm long so as to allow for wrapping round the flag staff with a bit left to cut to length.  As for the flag bearers, I file a groove in the screw at about 20 degrees off vertical. I hope the groove can be seen in the photo below.

                                      

The strip of paper is then glued and wrapped round the pin as shown below. I then cut the flag to finished length and in the case of triangular flags I then cut the angles.

A drop of glue is placed in the groove on the screw soldier and the pin flagstaff attached. After half an hour or so I then apply a big blob of glue ( UHU HART ) to smother all round the flag staff ensuring the glue goes well into the thread of the screw. Don't worry if the glue goes right round the screw or how big a blob you have as it shrinks as it dries as shown below.

The next step is to apply primer to the whole of the flag, staff and the glue joint as shown on the left below. Its then just a matter of final painting of the flags which in this case are for 28th Infantry Command battalion.

CONSTRUCTION OF GS WAGONS.

HOW I MAKE AND PAINT GS WAGONS.

                                                                                                    

Having completed yet another batch of GS wagons I  photographed the whole process of construction and painting  so I can now share these with readers.

GS wagons are the most numerous vehicle in my armies. The total required for the army I am currently constructing is over 450. For the three armies already existing to date I have built almost 1400 !!!! The primary historical reference for these vehicles is the British mark X GS wagon made in large part by the Bristol Wagon Works and used in vast numbers in WW1 but I have also been influenced by the US army's Escort wagon and the products of both Studebaker and Murphy Brothers.

Construction starts with the cutting of balsa blocks. These are 30mm long and 15mm wide and are cut from 9mm thick planks as shown on the left of the photo below. I then take toilet tissue and cut small squares/oblongs which I screw up between my fingers as shown in the middle left and middle right of the photo below. These lumps are then glued to the approximate centre of the balsa blocks as seen on the right. The process is kept rough and non exact so as to ensure the lumps are all slightly different in size and shape as you can see in the photo.These lumps depict the cargo load in the wagons. 

The next stage is to create the canvas tilt cover to the wagon. I use the brown paper that comes from the large paper sacks in which we buy sunflower hearts to feed our garden birds !!!!!!!! These sacks are two ply and I use the inner ply. However you can of course just use regular brown wrapping paper too, I am just addicted to repurposing anything and everything I can to provide raw materials for my modelling activities because I am just odd like that !!!!  The idea behind using brown paper is simply that I have found it to be just the right consistency for this purpose. The paper is best used crumpled and a bit used, it then looks and creases more realistically.  

The photo below shows the roughly cut oblong of paper which is then glued onto the wagon body using hot melt glue around the edges. The paper is quickly and carefully pressed onto the hot melt glue to ensure a good bond all around. Any surplus glue oozes out and creases are created all at the same time. Practice will make perfect but be careful as hot melt glue is very hot and sticks to the fingers, and that hurts !!!!! The final stage of this bit of the process is to trim the brown paper tilt after the glue has gone cold as shown on the right side of the photo below. This can be done easily with sharp scissors which will also cut away any oozed out glue. After making hundreds of these wagons I have never found any two with the same exact pattern of creases which I think adds a lot to the aesthetics of the models.

The next stage  is to treat the end grain of the balsa wagon blocks  with sealer. I use MDF sealer which I find does a good job. This stuff is water based and soaks in well and drys quickly. The idea is to ensure a good painting surface that does not soak up gallons of expensive enamel paint, and it looks better too. I apply sealer at this stage because it is easier to file the end grain smooth after the sealer has dried  rather than later when other elements have been added. I follow the same process with all balsa block vehicles and equipments. For filing the end grain I use emery boards which are actually more effective for this particular task than my Excel belt sander as they are wider and do not create grooves if used too energetically.

The next step in the construction process is to add the shaft. These are made from long (average length 58mm.) flat toothpicks as shown below. Unfortunately these are only available in the USA but most large supermarkets over there stock them. I have bought large quantities over the course of a number of trips over several years. They can however be purchased on the interweb but the postage is high. Of course the best solution is to  actually visit the US or know someone going there !!!!. Please bear in mind that the wastage is high. You will find only at best a third of the contents are good enough to actually use so buy plenty.

Having glued the shaft on, next steps are to glue on the wheels and a towing hook made from a Bambi staple, also readily available online. In addition you will also need to cut and fix a block of 5mm thick balsa to the shaft on which you can mount the horses in due course. These elements are all shown in the photo below.

One last step before we  move on to the painting process is to trim the horse mounting block. I find that when fitting these blocks they are never quite square, therefore , to ensure the horses are fixed straight and level they need to be carefully trimmed by eye using a craft knife or the belt sander. Please ensure you trim the balsa block only and not your thumbs !!!!!!!!! I have a leather thumb stool but rarely remember to use it. Don't be dumb like me !!!!!!!! Once that is done painting can start. The first job of that process is to prime the wheels and the towing hook as seen below.

At the same time I also cut out the horse blanks needed to supply the batch of vehicles I am building and  prime them too. I find that partially painting the horses before fixing improves the strength of the glue joint. Therefore I  paint most of the inner surface of the horses. Do not forget that you will need mirror image horses for each side. The way I cover this is to paint either head up or head down. If you look carefully at the photo below you will see exactly what I mean by this expression.

Next job is to paint the wagons, in my case, olive drab.

At the same time I paint the horses brown, still one side only, again head up or down. Although my wife complains that my horses should be in a variety of colours, I decided long ago to have a standard "issue" horse colour, Humbrol Burnt Leather.

The next stage is to glue the horses to the wagons, ensuring you glue the painted side in. As soon as the glue has dried , the rest of the horse, that is the edges, outside and inside of the head can be primed and then painted brown just as soon as the primer has dried.

Almost there  !!!! Next job is to fix the twisted wire "harness" around the horses as shown below. I buy this wire online, there are many suppliers, just look for twisted wire. I originally used the sealing wire used on franking machine but that is no longer available in the UK. I just make a small hole in the wagon body and then bend the wire in my fingers then push home. Usually I can do it easily but occasionally there is a hard bit of balsa so then I just use pliers to push the wire home. I find no glue is needed. Be careful not to apply too much pressure to the horses during this operation or you will be re-attaching them  again and again and again !!!!

At this point I have a confession. The sharp eyed reader may have noticed that the photos above and  below are different in that the spare wheel has magically appeared on the vehicles below !!!!!! Despite the 1000 plus GS wagons I have now made , I actually forgot to fit the spare wheels to this batch until I was just about to paint the wheels black. I had to hastily fit the wheels and prime them. In fact, the spare wheels need to be added at the same time as the other wheels. I use no glue, just push fit the pins.

The very last job is to paint all wheels black as shown in the photo below. I only paint the outside of the spare wheel black. I paint the underside olive drab like the wagon, it's just easier.

The basic principles of construction and painting described above apply to virtually all the other vehicles and equipments I build. Unlike some of my other vehicles and equipments, the construction process for GS wagons is quite lengthy and complex. Given the quantities I make it may even seem arduous I guess to some readers. However the end results do look really good. To see hundreds of vehicles lined up alongside thousands of soldiers is what, being odd I suppose, gives me a buzz.

RANK AND ARM OF SERVICE INSIGNIA.

RANK INSIGNIA.

Readers may have noticed on previous photos that there are coloured stripes on the shank (between the thread and head) of some screws. These colours indicate the rank of the individual. Privates have no insignia. The rank colour combinations are based on four colours, silver, red, white and gold.

Ranks are denoted as follows:

One thin silver stripe equals corporal. 

A thick silver stripe equals sergeant. 

Two thin silver stripes equals sergeant major. 

A thick stripe of half silver and half red equals lieutenant. 

A thick red stripe equals captain. 

A thick stripe of half red and half white equals major. 

A thick white stripe equals  lieutenant colonel. 

A thick stripe of half white and half gold equals full colonel. 

A thick gold stripe equals one star brigadier general. 

Two thin gold stripes equals two star major general. 

Two thin gold stripes with a silver centre stripe equals three star lieutenant  general. 

Two thin gold stripes with a red central stripe equals four star general. 

Lastly two thin gold stripes with a white central stripe equals five star general of the army, the commander in chief.

This photo shows, from left to right, captain, lieutenant, sergeant major and sergeant. These soldiers all have a brown top which indicates they are quartermaster troops.

This photo shows from left to right, three star lieutenant general, two star major general, full colonel and major.  These soldiers have red tops which denotes they are staff troops.

ARM OF SERVICE INSIGNIA.

All soldiers, regardless of rank,  have a coloured top which denotes the arm of service as shown in the photos above. The  colours are as follows:

brown for quartermaster,

red for staff,

blue for infantry, 

black for field artillery, 

sand yellow for pioneers, 

sky blue for heavy weapons, 

purple for cavalry, 

white for medical, 

silver for signals, 

dark green for field police, 

orange for heavy artillery, 

pale green for horse artillery, 

gray for workshop engineers and finally,

gold for veterinary and farriers.

FLAGS.

My army has three types of operational flag. 

The national flag is carried by all battalions and regiments and is oblong, solid blue in colour with a single white star in the first hoist area of the flag. 

Each battalion/regiment also carries a battalion/regimental  flag which is triangular, with a blue field and  the battalion/regiment number in white on the field. The staff is coloured to the arm of service for that particular type of battalion/regiment. In the case of brigade command battalions the main part of the staff is coloured red for command but the top of the staff is coloured to the type of brigade, infantry or cavalry. 

 The third flag is the general's personal flag. These are also triangular with a blue field but the staff is gold and there are small stars across the field, either one, two. three, four or five to represent the general's rank.

This photo shows from right to left, a three star lieutenant general's flag, a two star major general's flag, the battalion flag of 7th army command battalion and lastly the national flag.

The only other flag is the red cross flag which is flown by all ambulance wagons. Other medical vehicles carry a small red cross sign on each side only.

My historic reference for many of the design ideas of my flags is  based to some degree or other on the US army of the Civil war period.

MODELLING PAINT.

PAINT.

I have always used Humbrol enamel modelling paints. I admit they are not quite as good as years ago but still I find them best for me. During the over fifteen years from the mid 80's to early 00's when my army resided in the loft, all my paints were also packed away. When recovered and set up in my , then new, modelling unit, I found that of 19 tins of paint only one had dried up. The others were perfectly usable.  Strangely however all the hairs on every single paint brush had fallen out leaving me with a pile of sticks and a birds nest of hairs !!!

 Today my main complaint is that some of the colours display odd characteristics. For example the gloss red number 19, tends to change into a jelly like consistency long before even half used. I have not found any way to stop this process despite remixing with both thinners and even acetone. I complained once to Humbrol who responded that the barcode on the tin could not be identified !!!!  Others like the matt black number 33, when newly opened,  tend to dry to a glossy finish.  I think it is the thinners they use. Despite trying endless mixing the only cure I have found is to leave new tins open, without mixing, for several hours to allow this agent to evaporate. That does tend to solve the problem and also makes the paint a little thicker and thus give better coverage too.

When painting screws I do not use any primer. I have found that the normal base colour together with the top satin varnish coat, number 135,  is fully serviceable. Indeed although virtually all screws have at least a slight rust covering to start with, that seems to aid paint coverage. To date I have never found any rust on my painted soldiers. I do use primer, number 01, on wheels (drawing pins) flags ( paper and pins) any exposed glue and all plastic components on vehicles and equipments. The top coat then covers so much better.

The only mixing I do is for the base colour of my soldiers (screws). The original colour used was HU17 in the Authentic colour range. Since that range has become unavailable the online colour comparison charts indicate 116 is the current equivalent. However I find it to be rather lighter so I add about 20% matt black to each new tin to get the shade I need. I usually make up two or three tins at a time as it is a messy job !!!

UPDATE.

 Some readers will recall in my last update I lamented the demise of my trusty tin of very old silver paint. Following that post my wife flippantly suggested I put some nail varnish cleaner into the paint. Well thought I, that's an idea. The active ingredient of nail varnish cleaner being acetone it might work and I have nothing to lose. I have some pure acetone in the workshop so I tipped away most of the "thinners" liquid in the top of the tin and replaced it with an equal amount of acetone. Hey presto, the paint mixed up perfectly. Now a week later, I have reopened the tin, mixed it easily and used it very successfully. The only slight issue is that it dries even quicker than before but that is not a problem as I only paint very small areas mainly rank insignia.

So my very old tin of paint has come back from the dead. Now another thought occurs to me. I use Humbrol paints and a long term issue with some of the gloss paints especially red, is that after a short time they turn to jelly. No amount of thinners seems to solve the problem so that tin gets thrown out and another is purchased. I have seen this problem raised by other modelers too. I now wonder if acetone would work. I will try it and report back just as soon as another tin goes to jelly. Pure acetone can be purchased in chemist shops although many do not carry it, if you want some just shop around.

On the modelling front, once again I have made only limited progress over the past couple of weeks due to social commitments and working on my new modelling unit. However the final upgrade batch of mounted troops now only requires the horses to be painted to be complete.  In addition upgrade number 38 has been finished this morning and I am working on upgrade 39 this afternoon.

On another matter I have been engaged  recently in a substantial correspondence with Ion of the Archduke Piccolo blog. Ion has decided to wargame a campaign based on scenarios in my Imagi-Nations Part 44 post. I am delighted he has decided to do this and have been providing background information and offering insights into the strategic thinking of the combatants. The first battle has been fought and I have seen the initial battle report. Ion plans to publish the reports on his excellent blog in the coming days and weeks. I strongly recommend reading his reports which are always very exciting.

The Remuda

Remuda is a Spanish word meaning a horse herd suitable for remounts. In the context of my armies I have a Remuda in each Quartermaster battalion to provide spare horses for the other battalions served by that Quartermaster battalion. The Remuda is part of the Veterinary company establishment.

The photo above shows a Remuda assembled and primed ready for final painting. Construction is based on 10 horses with a bar passing through each row of five horses and glued into a square section beam with a twisted cable and "towing" eye to enable attachment to a Veterinary company wagon. The construction is similar to that used for Cavalry horses.
I admit the arrangement may appear odd but it is the best way I have found, so far, to represent the availability of a herd of remounts which I consider essential to the overall importance I attach to the army having a full logistical capability.

This photo shows the six Remudas I recently made to equip the six Quartermaster battalions in the army I am currently constructing. The horses are of course my standard horse brown colour with the "frame" black. I did originally try olive drab, my usual vehicle/equipment colour, but it just did not look quite right. Which ever colour is used the painting of the "frame" is slow and complex as even the small bits between horses are painted.

Construction and Painting of Light GS Trailers

These trailers are based on my standard 15mm square trailer body but are distinguished by having a canvas tilt cover exactly like GS wagons. The construction is exactly the same as described in the article on building GS wagons. The only differences are clearly the use of a smaller screwed up piece of toilet tissue and a smaller square of brown paper. I would caution the reader here that with the smaller size of the body comes a greater risk of getting hot melt glue on the fingers. During the making of this batch I ended up with one vehicle actually stuck to my finger !!!!!!  It really hurts and I commend you to be more careful than this clumsy blogger !!!!!.
Having completed the tilt, the next step is to fashion and fit the trail. This has also been described previously in the article on utility trailer construction. The photo below shows a batch of 30 trailers at this stage of construction.

The next step is to apply sealer to the end grain, when dry, sand smooth and add wheels as seen below.

Having completed construction we can move to painting, the first such task is to prime the wheels. Don't forget to prime any areas of glue that are visible.

Painting of the body is next, I think this is the stage they start to look like real models. The reader may also notice that, just like GS wagons, the pattern of creases on the tilt is quite unique on each vehicle. This  can be seen clearly in the photo below and I think gives a very realistic look. The last task is of course the painting of the wheels and the vehicles are ready for issue to units.

Painting Cavalry

This article follows that on the construction of Cavalry. The starting point is, using the horse as a holding area, to paint the whole soldier uniform green. When dry apply I apply the arm of service and rank colours. Lastly for the soldier, I apply the coat of varnish. This stage is shown in the photo below. If you look closely, the uniform paint and varnish do spill over onto the horse. This is more or less unavoidable.

The next stage is to prime the horse using the soldier as a holding point.  This will require a steady hand as you run the paint around the soldier and also cover the spill over mentioned above. The results are shown below.

The final stage is to apply the brown horse colour. All my horses are brown, Humbrol Burnt Leather actually. Despite my wife's view that horses are many different colours , I long ago decided that in my army only brown horses would be acceptable !!!!!!!  The final result is a regiment of Cavalry as shown below set out on the display shelf. Also to be seen is the foot soldier contingent that provides medical, administrative, signals and quartermaster services. These men ride the various limbers and trailers with which the regiment is provided. The only item of equipment missing is a light GS supply trailer which will be constructed in the near future. This is the 17th of 18 cavalry regiments in my armies.

PAINT BRUSHES

I thought a few words on brushes might be useful.

As much as possible I  use sable brushes. Although they are expensive I find they last and give a much better finish. They also hold the paint very well. For basic painting of screw soldiers and vehicles I tend to use brushes with man made fibres as the threads of screws tend to be hard on sable brushes and other fibres tend to be too soft so it becomes difficult to get the basic olive drab paint into the nooks and cranies of vehicles. However be warned, I find that man made fibre brushes wear out maybe quicker than you might expect.

For screws I use a number 5 brush both for the basic green uniform colour and the overlaying varnish. Rank and arm of service colours are added with a OO sable brush. For vehicles I also use a number 5 brush but wheels and horses are painted, both primer and finished colour, with a number 3 sable brush. Flags are also done with a number 3 for the primer and basic colour with detail executed with a OOO sable brush.

I am a great believer in stirring paint thoroughly. I stir every time I open a pot, even if I used it only hours before. I use round modelling wood sticks for stirring, a specific stirrer for each and every colour which are wiped after use. I also make sure there is a little fresh paint around the rim of the tin to ensure a good seal when the lid is fitted.
As mentioned before I use Humbrol paints. I also use their thinners, a bit expensive but very effective.