In 1781, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse saw Cornwallis leading the British forces from Hoskin's Farm, across ploughed fields and through thick woods towards Washington's Continental Army, which had been laid out in successive lines and headquartered below Guilford Courthouse.
During the summer of 2009, I began building a range of 40mm American War of Independence terrain pieces, which were then molded and cast in resin by Grand Manner. The initial range of eleven pieces, including buildings from Valley Forge and the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, can be seen and purchased here.
In addition, I was also producing various Workbench articles for unknown member at The Miniatures Page, and it made sense to enquire if I could produce a Workbench article based upon one of the Grand Manner castings. I asked Bill if this would be OK, and here is the result.
I chose the resin casting of Guilford Courthouse, a model that I believe to be a very good representation of this famous building and the centerpiece of this famous battle. The casting is nine inches long, seven inches tall, and five inches deep. It has a 'weather board' finish with a central door and porch, and a stone-built fireplace with a brick-built chimney (artistic licence on my part). The removable roof is tiled with grey tiles or wooden shingles. Internally, I have left the space open - one large area with a fireplace to one end - however, it would be a simple matter to add internal detail and split the area into a central corridor and two rooms. One further touch was to add a small notice board (with two paper notices) and illuminated by an oil lamp, as seen in an illustration of Guilford Courthouse found on the internet.
Shows the same bare casting, highlighting the stone- and brick-built chimney.
After washing the casting in warm water and washing-up liquid, I painted the whole casting with watered-down white acrylic paint. I used two light coats to get good, even coverage.
A light grey-and-ivory acrylic mix was then painted over the weather board areas, to portray 'weathered' white-painted wooden planks. I used a combination of brush painting and my Paasche H model airbrush.
A 'wash' of dirty black/brown was applied to all surfaces to further 'weather' the model and help to highlight the molded-on detail of the resin casting.