Old Glory 10mm ACW Cavalry

This blog has been all Napoleonics, all month, it seems. Like most hobbyists, I go through phases in my painting, and June has been one long French party.

At least until this past weekend. I run a gaming club for my school. The kids play Warhammer Ancient Battles with 25mm Old Glory figures, and I order their figures for them. When I need to get past the $200 hurdle for free shipping, I'll sometimes add a few 10mm ACW figures. I have been slowly building a Union army for Fire and Fury, and I now have a good sized corps ready for the table.

I love the Old Glory 10mm figures. The infantry strips have the men pressing shoulder to shoulder, so that I can fit 10 men (2 strips) on a one inch square base. I use the same techniques on 10mm figures that I did on my 15mm armies. I don't do shading on ACW uniforms, but I do use two tones on the faces. A technique that looks good on 15mm figures looks even better on 10mm.

I was thinking about the similarities of technique between the two scales because these 10mm cavalry remind me of Old Glory's 15mm ACW line in a way that their 10mm infantry does not. Each horse consists of two castings, a horse and a rider. These cavalrymen are really more like undersized 15mm figures than oversized 6mm figures.

Union Cavalry

The troopers are in classic ACW poses, with some swinging sabers and some brandishing pistols. I've started painting two tones on my 15mm horses, and I might have to start doing that with 10mm as well, because these horses look a little flat to me. I mounted three figures per one inch square base, which isn't a big improvement on my 15mm look.

Infantry 3 15mm figures or 10 10mm figures
Cavalry 2 15mm figures or 3 10mm figures
Artillery 1 15mm gun or 1 10mm gun and 3 15mm crew or 4 10mm crew
Generals 1 15mm figure or 2 10mm figures

It seems that only infantry get a real mass effect in 10mm, and that's too bad.

Union Cavalry Command

My one complaint about the Old Glory 10mm line is that the flags are cast onto the figures. I've experimented with cutting the flags off and using brass rod with paper flags (I'll have some images soon of an infantry color party using this method), but the flags are sometimes wrapped around the figures and difficult to cut away.

Eureka Napoleonic French Line Infantry

After my disappointment with the Eureka SYW Russians, I thought I would give them another shot. Eureka has a good reputation, and I didn't want my whole opinion of their sculpts to rest on those ape-like Russians.

With that in mind, I ordered a battalion of Eureka's 100 Days French infantry. I was pleased with the raw lead. The figures were clean with well defined features, and this made them very easy to paint. I spent about four hours whipping these up.

Front View

Voltiguers

Rear View

In Column

These are nice figures that look good when painted, and I do recommend them. They're not quite as nice as ABs, so the $.63 apiece price tag seems a little steep. Still, I'm glad to see that Eureka's positive reputation is not just hype, but has some substance to back it.

Painting Totals for June

In this post, I forecast that I wouldn't be able to keep up my old painting pace once my son was born. I was right--there was a drop off--but I still managed to put brush to lead and paint a decent number of figures during the month. My AB French Legere took a very long time to paint, but I am happy with how they look.


Here are my painting totals for June.

15mm Napoleonic French, 120 light infantrymen
15mm Napoleonic French, 24 line infantrymen in 1812 uniform
28mm Napoleonic French, 30 skirmishers
10mm ACW Union, 39 mounted cavalrymen

So that's 39 10mm figures, 144 15mm figures, and 30 28mm figures. Still a good painting pace, I would say.

Look for the 1812 French and 10mm ACW cavalry on the blog in the next few days.

28mm Napoleonic French Skirmishers

I've finished the entire 30 figure bag of French skirmishers. They look great! Old Glory gets some pretty negative reviews of their Napoleonic range, but I think these figures show why I love them. They really suit my painting style.

All six skirmishing poses

Priming

Standing firing

Loading

Reaching for cartridge

Pulling hammer back

Kneeling firing

Painted as legere voltiguer

Painted as legere voltiguer

All 30 figures

The figures were a joy to paint. All told, I spent about 20 hours on these figures, including prep, priming, painting, basing, and flocking.

The priming was a real headache. We had a late winter and a very late spring this year, and the result has been a very windy June. I haven't been able to do any spray priming. Finally I took some advice from TMP and bought some black gesso.

It was awful. It dried with giant shiny holes where the metal peeked through, so that I had to do two coats of primer. It dried on very goopy in parts. Lastly, it didn't adhere well to the figures. I had to touch up the shakos on every single figure because the gesso had simply rubbed off during painting.


Fortunately, I had decent weather to do some spray priming today. I'll keep the gesso for an emergency, but I doubt I'll ever use it again.

AB 15mm Napoleonic Hungarian Grenadiers

In this post, I wrote about how much I disliked the Old Glory Austrian grenadiers. I bit the bullet and ordered enough German and Hungarian grenadiers for my Wagram OOB.

And here are the Hungarians. These AB figures are beautiful, and they were definitely worth buying for the elite of my Austrian army.

Hungarian Grenadiers, Group Shot
(Click on any picture for a larger image)

There were two brigades of Hungarian grenadiers at Wagram. In Age of Eagles, they get 16 stands.

Hungarian Grenadiers, Rear View

The bearskin top would have been red for all regiments by 1809, but it had been in each unit's facing color before that. I want to use these figures for the whole of the period, including the early battles, so I used their facing colors. Plus it just looks cooler.

Hungarian Grenadiers, 3/4 View

They really are pretty, aren't they? And unlike the Old Glory figures, I think these look the part of the army's elite shock troops.

AB 15mm Napoleonic French Legere

Although I don't think I've become a lead snob, it does seem like all my recent painting has involved AB figures. They're beautiful, of course, but I really bought these because Old Glory doesn't have Legere in a march attack pose; they're either charging with bayonets down or skirmishing.

This was another large painting project, as I worked on 112 figures at once. It took me about a week to finish. I wanted to show all the white trim on the predominantly blue uniform, which made these Legere are extremely slow to paint.

Group Shot: All 112 figures (28 AoE Stands)
Click on any picture for a larger image.

Chasseurs and Command

Voltiguers

Carabiniers

Command Stand

As always, all my paints were Delta Ceramcoats except for the metals, which are Testors enamels. Paper flags are from Warflag.com.

Old Glory French Elite Company, Skirmishing

Jon is eager to get our 28mm Napoleonics on the table for some Peninsular War gaming, but his rules require skirmishers. I bought a bag of Old Glory skirmishers to add to my Piquet French army. The first three figures are done--just another 36 to go!

Crusader Early Imperial Roman Legionaries

These figures are from Crusader's "Rank and File" line. The men here are from two packs: RFA031 "Early Imperial Roman with Pilum," and RFA032 "Early Imperial Roman Command."

The legionaries are all in one pose, so I mixed up the colors as much as I could and still keep the cohort looking like a cohesive unit. Gladius scabbards and helmets got some different shades. For the flesh on these guys, I used a lighter base shade than I usually do.

With no shield transfers suitable for these figures, I hand painted their shield designs. Click on any images for bigger pictures.

Legionary Cohort, Front View

Signifer, Centurion, and Cornicen

Legionary Cohort, Left View

Legionary Cohort, BackView

Legionary Cohort, Right View

Newest Miniature MacPhee Man

My first child, born June 4th. Mother and son are both healthy and happy.