Tenting Tonight

Tents and figures start to bring the scene to life.

The order I placed with Renedra Miniature in the UK arrived.  I ordered tents and figures from their camp scene in 1/56th scale. They offer three different types and sizes of tents so I ordered an assortment to evaluate. I also ordered two sets of their camping figures.

I did a quick paint job on the tents to see how they looked. I primed the injection molded plastic (styrene I think. It is definitely not the flexible plastic that you find in Airfix and Hat figures sets that is very hard to paint and prone to chipping) with a coat of grey and then a coat of flat white. I painted the tents with several off-white shades of including Ceramcoat Acrylic Sandstone, Mudstone, Anthracite and White. The overall color I was shooting for was a dirty off-white. These tents have been  in service for several months and should be starting to show dirt and wear.

Camp scene at Stonemans Switch

The Reneda Sibley and small pup tent work well in the background. The tents take paint nicely. Some tent ropes, laundry and other details will add a nice touch.

Soldiers relaxing in front of a Silbey Tent

The Renedra tents are sturdily molded. They should hold up well in gaming service. Some of the tents come with the flaps open and the opportunity to super detail them is there.  The tents include a camp fire and some cots too. Being designed for 28mm wargaming, they are small for 1/48th scale. The small pup tent and the conical Sibley tent in particular are small for use in O Scale scenes. A full scale Sibley tent would be 4.5 inches in diameter in O scale. They will have to be used in the background for forced perspective. The larger rectangular  tent is well proportioned for O Scale and came be used in the foreground. They sell a pack with just this tent type, which helps us O Scale ACW modelers.

SMR Trains  engine crew compared to other figures.  In the back are the large Renedra rectangular tents.

While I had the paints out, I touched up the paint jobs on two SMR engine crew figures. These are 1/48th scale figures designed to fit in SMR locomotives. The figures are well sculpted with only a few flaws such as a pit in the inside of the elbow of the engineer and some rough facial detail on the same figure. Both figures have well done faces and paint up well other than the facial flaw I just mentioned.  The pants folds don't seem to flow with the figures very well and they are not too deep. Thus it is  probably not worth spending too much time to shade them to a contest quality.  The vests are well done, as are the hats. The two figures are well proportioned and have that "lean" look that many ACW personnel displayed. They come pre-painted, but I added some additional shading and detail. In the photo above you can compare the stock and repainted figures.

I also picked up some Artista figures. These are well proportioned for O Scale. They just need to be back dated to the ACW era.