15mm ACW Infantry Regiments

I started basing the troops from the 250 man project today. Although they need another coat of flat lacquer, here's what I have done so far.

The five Rebel regiments contain 44 bases (132 figures). I have another two regiments' worth of bases already done, so I can field a couple of brigades.

I ran out of bases before I could finish the rest of the Union troops, but I have enough painted troops for over 60 bases.

250 man ACW project, day 6 DONE!

Day six is over, and . . . I'm done! I finished a day ahead of schedule: 241 figures painted in six days. Tomorrow I think I'll rest.

I was careful to pick out the flesh highlights today, but there isn't a lot of deep relief on these figures to make it easy. I like the overall look of Battle Honors' ACW figures, but Anthony Barton got better over time. The AB Napoleonics I've painted have excellent relief, which makes them much easier to paint.

I don't know if it's the sculpts of 19th Century Miniatures's casting process, but I got a lot of misshapen figures and bent rifles.

Here's our example figure, showing each day's progress.

And here are some samples of the finished figures. I included a lot more Confederate than Union images here because there's a lot more variety in the Confederate uniforms. Finished numbers are roughly equal.

And just in case any of you aren't sure how big a 15mm figure is, here's one next to my thumbnail.

250 man ACW project, day 5

Day five is over, and I'm nearing completion. Today I painted all the blankets, canteen straps, canteens, and brass work. I also took Austin's advice from the comments on the last post and painted the Confederate haversacks a linen color.

The only thing left to paint now is the flesh highlights. It might take me two days, but I think I can get it all done tomorrow.

I used Testor's enamel "gold" for the brass buttons, buckles, and cartridge box badge. I like enamels for my metalwork, even though they are a pain to work with, because no acrylic I've found looks as good.

Again, please remember that I'm going for speed here. These figures won't win any painting competitions. But they're cleanly painted, and they should look great on the table.

250 man ACW project, day 4

With day four closing, I have finished painting the coats and pants on all the figures.

Civil War soldiers' leatherwork was often black, and to save time, I've chosen to leave all the leather as black primer. This makes it tougher to pick out all the cloth on the jackets, but it saves a lot of time by not requiring me to paint all the straps, haversacks, cartridge boxes, bayonet scabbards, and percussion cap pouches.

The Confederates got a good mix of grey, brown, and butternut shades. For the Union soldiers' hats and coats, I used Delta Ceramcoat's "Blueberry." For their pants, I used Apple Barrel's "Denim Blue."

I often see ACW Union figures' pants painted in light sky blue, but the actual color was much darker. Compare this reproduction uniform with the colors I chose for my miniatures, and you'll see I'm pretty close. I made the jacket and pants a little brighter than they were in real life, but not much.

Now the miniatures are starting to look like soldiers! For day five I'll first touch up the black leather where needed, then paint the canteen straps a nice, bright white. I'll paint canteens and blanket rolls too, if I have enough time.

I'm in the home stretch now. All is on schedule, and I should have these figures finished by the one week mark.

250 man ACW project, day 3

Day three is complete. I finished painting all the hair, backpacks, and headgear on all the figures. Now I know which of the figures will be yanks and which will be rebs.

I wish I had some better light for photographing the whole job, but all the figures won't fit on my table at once.

The floppy hats got a drybrush right over the black primer. It looks pretty crude in a photo, but remember that this figure is very, very magnified. At gaming distance, the hats look pretty sharp. I used three different colors for the hats.

To finish 250 figures in a week of painting, I have to take some shortcuts. That's especially important because I only have 2-3 hours of painting time each day. At the very most, I'll have 21 hours of work time. It'll probably shake out to something like 15 hours, requiring a pace of 16 figures per hour.

I'm not going to attempt two-tone shading. I usually do use shading on my 15mm figures, but these are getting a simple block paint job. That's the way most of my 15mm ACW collection is painted anyway, so I'm not sacrificing the overall look of my armies just to make this project easier.

I will shade the flesh. Figures painted in a solid fleshtone never look quite right to me.

Here's our marching Union soldier again, showing the progression from day 1 to day 3. You can't see his hair in this shot, but it's painted a nice dark brown.

Tonight I'll start on the next phase, painting the coats, trousers, and blanket rolls on all the figures. This stage may take two days, but I'll make a post tomorrow showing my progress.

250 man ACW project, day 2

As planned, I painted the musket stocks and flesh basetone today. All of the figures are ready for the next phase, and the project is on schedule.

Here's the same figure yesterday and today. It may still look a little rough, but the paint bleed over will get covered by some of the next stages.

Tomorrow I'll be painting hair and hats. The hats will serve as a visual reminder of which figures get painted as federals and which get painted as Confederates. I'll be mixing some kepis and hats into units from both sides. Only the federals will get black hats, and the Confederates will get everything but black hats.