Grey v Blue – resurrection of my 6mm ACW

The American Civil War, generally has troops divided into three types.

Artillery

Cavalry

Infantry.

By far in away the biggest of these troop types was infantry. So I have decided that I needed far more infantry so I did a thing and purchased more infantry.

There is approximately 2400 individual figures to paint.

And the aim

To paint them up before 26th September ?

Since I last posted there has been a change in the rules, they have been renamed to Cannons and Rifles. This is to stop confusion with another rule set that existed.

The rules themselves have been in development and are at the time of writing ( 24 July 2024). Are due to go to layout shortly and publication soon there after.

I thought I would do a quick post on the uniforms of the ACW.

So is it All Blue and Grey ?  Yes but No

Union

Dark blue jackets lighter blue or blue grey trousers.

Confederates Mark 1

Grey jackets and similar shade trousers.

Confederates Mark 2

Butternut ( a yellowy brown colour) jackets and trousers.

For all armies shades varied depending on the mills used and dyes available. The confederates also used homemade clothes as the war went on and their supplies failed uniforms became old and worn out and less well uniform.

Facings

Both the union and confederates used a similar colour system to denote the different branch of the army.

Infantry – light blue

Cavalry – Yellow

Artillery – Red

Paints

So I generally have the following paints I use. All pretty much Vallejo

Union

Dark Prussian Blue

Oxford Blue

Sky Blue

Confederates

Dark Grey

Neutral Grey

Light Grey

Grey Blue

Other Colours

Flesh

Red

Gold Yellow

Light Blue

Beasties Brown

USA Olive Drab

Pale Sand

Oily Steel

Chocolate Brown

Light Brown

Brass.

So the first step in building up the Union forces was to add some Artillery.

In the rules I will be using each base represents 2 guns, and the union have upto 3 bases per battery.

I therefore started with working out how many guns I could fit on a base. Turns out I can get 2 guns per base with eight crew.  Happy days.

So far all my units have been based up on 60x30mm bases using bases made from plasticard.

However, recently I have been transitioning to MDF bases for my minis, for a  few reasons.

1. They are more precisely cut

2. They come pre prepared

3. They are easier to pick up.

So this lead me to thinking, the base sizes I have played with in the new ACW rules have been 30mm frontages. And 20mm depths for infantry.

So I took the decision to rebase everything.

So I ordered a load of bases from Laser Craft Art the supplier to many members of the MeG community. I even asked for some custom sizes which Geoff kindly added to his store.

So now on to the rebasing….

Back into this project, so it’s the beginning of 2024. I am now committed to taking a ACW game to Joy of Six show in Sheffield in July 2024. I don’t know exactly what scenario it will be yet, but it’s kicked everything up a gear planning wise

It will be be a participation game using the new CCC ruleset for ACW. It’s called Rebel Yell! ( Not to be confused with an old game called Rebel Yell).

Anyways it’s a target  so I need to get my Union army up to scratch. And a load of scenery painted.

Painting 6mm figures is easy and relatively quick to do. The process I use is as follows:

Base Colours 

1. Prime the figures in black
2. Choose your main base coat band dry brush the F*** out of the figures. In the case of the confederacy it was grey or butternut. In the case if the union it’s the dark blue colour of the blouse that I use
3. Pick your secondary colour usually the colour of the trousers.
4. Paint the skin in an appropriate skin colour mostly the face and the hands
5. Paint the wooden bits I usually use burnt umber for this
6. Then use a appropriate silver colour for the barrels and swords etc I normally use Vallejo steel

Washing

1. That is the main colours done so next up is the wash . Use either a nut brown ink or a dark tone like nuln oil for this and paint over the entire figure.

Highlights

1. After the wash is dry then it’s on to picking out the cuffs and belt buckles etc
2. For the cuffs use Light blue for infantry, Red for Artillerymen and yellow for the cavalry

Basing

1. I am using 60mmx30mm bases cut out of plasticard.
2. I glue the figures in two rows of three strips using UHU.
3. I then use a Vallejo texture to smooth over the strip bases.
4. I then paint the base using a sand colour.
5. Then add fine grained sand
6. This is then soaked using the Baccus base wash
7. Then dry brush using three colours of sand paint from Baccus.
8. Final stage is then to add some flock to taste.

That’s all the figures done a single base of figures can be painted and based in about an hour.

So the first job in this “Autumn Clean Challenge” is to finish the figures I have already started.

There were two strips of 24 figures that I had started before pausing the project. These had been got to the second stage if the painting process.

I then followed the Painting and basing process as described above.

The next step was to dry brush using the Baccus basing paints.

Tidying up the figures

What I have realised is that the existing figures whilst nice need to have a bit of work done to the edges of the bases. Although I have two options here.

1. Use a dark colour like black or grey this will be rather stark but could look neat.
2. Used a brown or sand colour to blend the edge of the bases into the main colours on the base.

Just as a side note on one of my first visits to a boot camp at BoW HQ at River House I gave Lloyd a base of Union and base of Confederates along with a 6mm building.  Glad to see after many years OTT are finally realising just how good 6mm ACW is ?

In the beginning

About a decade ago I started on my American Civil War project. This was  6mm and was a result of picking up some figures from Baccus 6mm at Salute. However I never really did find a set of rules I liked.

Anyway I had grand visions of doing Gettysburg in its entirety in 6mm. This project went well I managed to get a largish Confederate army painted. I then moved onto the union and after about 6 bases of union troops the project stalled.

Roll on at least a decade 

So after a good long while later, I have been playing other games including Mortem et Gloriam, which is based on the CCC mechanisms ( coloured dice and cards). I have got involved in play testing a new set of ACW rules based on the CCC system. I have rekindled my interest in ACW. And seeing the discussion on 6mm ACW on the XLBS I thought I would put a project together to follow this continued journey.

Caveats

• This project is in addition to other things I am doing so may be added to slowly.
• The Rules I am playing are not yet in the public domain so I will share what I can when I can.