Enhancing Your Entire Army In Three Fast Steps

STEP 1
Adding Some Color Variations Amongst The Ranks
This is especially important with your Confederate models because they had a wide variety of fabrics, uniforms and styles. Take some earth tone colors and paint some of the details of the models such as, hats, blanket rolls, trousers, jackets, and leathers. Don't worry about being perfect with your painting, the dipping step will help to blend in any imperfections. You don't need to add many colors to federal models because they typically were very uniform in appearance, unless you wanted to do a western theatre federal unit or a zouave unit.

STEP 2
Dipping the Miniatures
Using Army Painter Quick shade dip, brush over the miniatures with a solid coat. You will begin to see the results almost instantly. The dip darkens the miniatures, adding shading and it also blends all the colors together perfectly. The dip also helps to give the models a dirty ragged campaigner look. Allow the dipped models to dry for 24 hours before moving on to step 3.

STEP 3
Basing Your Models
Enhancing the look of your model's bases can greatly improve the look of your army. There are many types of static grasses and flocks available on the market to use. Typically we use a standard green field grass.

To apply the static grass to the bases, simply use a small brush and paint on some white glue in 2 or 3 areas on the base.
Then using your hands simply apply some static grass to the glue covered areas and gently press down on the grass with your finger. Allow to dry for a few hours and that's it!
You can also paint on some lighter browns to give the illusion of muddy areas and boot tracks.

Gordon & Hague