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.