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Sunday, 23 June 2013

6mm ACW confederates

After Arctic Strike in April, I decided I needed a rest from modern cammo colours.  I've been playing a lot of Black Powder games including Jacobites, Napoleonics and a lot of ACW.  When Rick approached me and asked if I was interested in collecting a side each in 6mm to play BP ACW, I was quite keen.  I wasn't too worried about which side I wanted to take up and Rick was keen to play the Union, so I agreed to create a Reb force while he built up a Federal force.  While the pro-slavery stance of the confederacy is not an attractive feature, it wasn't an issue in the early years of the war and didn't prevent Great Britain (with a long history of anti-slavery) from taking a pro-confederacy stance, so I'm not too phased playing the confederacy

We both sent off orders to Baccus in the first instance (I plan to add some Adler figures in the not too distant future).  My order included mounted and dismounted cavalry, packs of formed infantry (regular and zouaves) and skirmishers, artillery, command and casualties.  We agreed a basing convention with regular infantry mounted in two ranks on 40x20mm bases, with three bases per regiment.  Skirmishers (4 figs/base) and dismounted cavalry (4 figs or 2 figs plus horses and holder per base) are on 30x30mm bases with 4 bases per unit, while artillery pieces (one piece per base) are mounted on 40x30mm with one or two stands per battery.  Mounted cavalry are on 40x20mm bases (4 horses and riders/base) with 3 stands per unit.


An infantry regt in line.  I've tried to give them more of a rag-tag feel with various hat colours (mainly grey but with various browns and very dark grey), some variation in blanket rolls and the occasional red shirt.  I must say, the variation Baccus put into the individual figures is superb - you can differentiate the stature of youths and men, clean shaven, moustached and bearded, some have blanket rolls and some don't.  Altogether the variation in the line is excellent for 6mm figures.
 A regt in line but with a skirmish line thrown out to the front.
 An artillery battery comprising two smooth bore artillery pieces plus crews.
 A mounted cavalry regt in line.
 Mounted cavalry in column.
Dismounted cavalry forming a skirmish firing line, note the horse holder stands to left and right.

 A cavalry commander stand.
 As above, slightly more close-up.

So far, I've completed 5 infantry regts, 3 units of skirmishers, 2 artillery batteries and 4 cavalry regts (2 mounted, 2 dismounted).  I've also painted, but not yet based, a pack of commanders.  Still got several infantry regts and artillery batteries (I was tempted by a couple of expansion packs at Phalanx), zouaves and cavalry to paint up.  Also got a couple of flag sheets so will try and get them mounted and then take a picture of the entire force so far, as I'm keen to see what sort of visual experience they provide en mass.

Thanks for looking.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Andy,

    You have some very nice figures there, I've always found Baccus quite easy to paint. Admittedly I have struggled with Adler figures, I was fine with there WWII figures but failed miserably when I attempted some French Napoleonics.

    Cheers

    Richard

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  2. Thanks Richard. I agree the Baccus figures were easy to paint. I find the detail is really crisp but I'm amazed at the variety they get into the faces. I've only ever tried WW2 Adler figures and really like them, especially the paratroopers and 8th Army figs. I'll try and photograph more of the desert gear later as the weather looks to be a wash out again today. Never tried anything else in their range.

    Cheers

    Andy

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  3. I found the detail of the belts and shako cords to be very difficult to pick out on the Adler figures. It may just be that I need to change the way I paint them, I've tried two methods neither of which gave results I was happy with. I've developed a dry brush technique that I use on Baccus figures that gives results I'm happy with, the face and other uniform details are then picked out with a fine detail brush.

    Cheers

    Richard

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