Proof of Concept - 3mm ACW Regiments at 1:1 Scale

(Note: This is a cross-post from the Challenge blog.)

Alright everyone, this post exhibits a certain amount of nostalgic obsession and nerdy madness so please bear with me.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated by miniatures and their relative scale. I have great memories of packing my Airfix plastics out into the garden and placing them at distances relative to their size (or the best I could determine, as math has never been my strong suit). So when the British were deployed amongst the peas and potatoes, and the Germans settled in amongst the corn and cabbage, they all somehow related to one another and therefore seemed more real to me. 

Anyway, when I started getting into historical wargaming in my teens I understood the need to abstract scales in order to fit scenarios onto tabletops, but I still held a desire to see these historical formations in their true form, at distances that reflected how the men of the various periods gathered, moved and fought.

Don Troiani's work seems to capture what it must have been like to live within the chaos of black powder battles...

These 3mm (1:600 scale) ACW figures (yes, they are very, very tiny) are from Pico Armor. I picked these up a few years ago in a fit of madness knowing I could finally indulge my fascination with 1:1 scale formations. I started working on a few bases, but soon became distracted by other projects (I know, how typical). Nonetheless, I found them tucked away in a drawer the other week, so pulled them out, the spark took light once again and so here we are.

What you see here is two American Civil War Confederate regiments. The one regiment on the left is made up of close to 500 figures while the other is about 340. These numbers align roughly to the historical strengths of average, campaign-strength ACW formations.

Each regiment is made up of 10 bases, with each base being a complete infantry company at 1:1 scale.

Below is a great educational photo. You can clearly see the incredible length of a mid-sized regiment drawn up into line (with another regiment in the distance). When I see this I’m immediately struck by what must have been a huge challenge of command-and-control for officer to exert their will over such a strung-out formation. I look at this and understand that having a good cadre of experienced NCO’s and junior officers was an absolute necessity for having any kind of battlefield effectiveness. 

Both regiments drawn up in line.

When you see the same regiments drawn up in open and closed columns it illustrates why so many generals (certainly in the Napoleonic period) liked to keep their soldiers in more compact formations as it enabled them to be better controlled and also it had a morale effect as they typically gained confidence by the closeness of their comrades. 

Column of divisions, two companies wide at full intervals.

Close column, two companies wide. Highly inefficient for combat but much easier to control.

Column, one company wide and at full intervals for ease of maneuver.

The 3mm farmhouse is from Pico as well. I’ve placed it on a pill-shaped base and made a snake-rail fence out of cut card ('Nells' the workhorse is in the paddock). 

Painting in such a tiny scale required me to rethink how I approached the whole process. The sculpting detail is surprisingly clear so it would be easy to go down the rabbit hole and attempt to paint these figures as individual models. But that way madness lies. Instead you have to think of these strips of figures merely as components of a mass and not get drawn into details that nobody will ever see. So with this in mind I primed them black, drybrushed them light grey, thin coat of brown wash, popped in three blobs of flesh for their faces and hands, brown for the musket stocks, bright silver for the bayonets and then put in some varied colours for blanket-rolls and hats. That’s it. Done. 

My first base. I has the Regimental Colours as part of a company (which is incorrect).

To me, the trick to doing microscale figures often comes down to the basing. It has to be minimalist enough for the figures to be clearly identified, but not so stark as to leave them looking simply like little nubs on strips. These come in strips of eight figures, so I mounted them in two ranks, but situated them off center on the base so players have a better sense to place facing the same direction (more on this in a moment). Then I used a smooth gel medium to build-up the base roughly to the edge of their bases so they are better masked. Once the gel medium cures I then drybrushed them shades of light brown and then use a green semi-opaque emulsion to infer grass. The only basing material I’ve used with these is a few traces of clump foliage to mimic bush and brush.

When I first started basing these I quickly realized that players needed some sort of visual queue to which way the units were supposed to be facing. So with this in mind I decided to design a special base for the colour party. As you see here it’s shaped roughly like an arrow with a rectangular tab at the rear in order to place unit identification (thanks to Martin at Warbases for manufacturing these for me). As an experiment I’ve tarted up one of these bases with a small piece of L-shaped plasticard and rare earth magnets so nameplates can be easily ‘clicked’ into place but otherwise be stored separately.

The Colour Party with arrowhead front and rear tab.

Magnetized rear 'L' tab.

I’ll be up-front right now in saying that this project is largely just a silly aesthetic and intellectual proof-of-concept, but who knows, if I get enough stuff accumulated I may try using something like ‘Black Powder’ to do a clash of brigade-sized forces in 1:1. Otherwise I think I may use four of these bases along with a colour party base to serve as a regiment in ‘normal sized’ games like Longstreet’. 

I have an artillery battery that I’m currently working on but more on that later. I’m not really sure if I’ll expand on this collection that much as what I’m really keen to do is Napoleonics in this scale. I have a suspicion that massed cavalry formations would look amazing done at 1:1 scale…

Thanks very much for sticking with me through this overly long post!

From MarkG: 28mm Union Infantry Regiment, Gun with Crew & AWI South Carolina Militia (290 points)

From Mark:

So I managed to get 3 final entries done for the end of the challenge. I had hoped to get over the 1000 points mark, but I messed up the dates, thinking the deadline was tomorrow. Thankfully the countdown clock this evening dispelled that illusion, and I had to quickly finish some figures and base them up.

The first unit is of 32 figures from the Perry Miniatures American Civil War (ACW) range. This is for a new project. Anyway they were very nice, a bit smaller than the AWI range, but easy to paint up.

The next submission is one artillery piece and crew from the new Perry Plastics ACW artillery set; lovely figures, natural poses, and easy on the paint brushes, highly recommended if you’re getting into ACW.  These are painted up as Union Rifled Artillery.

The last entry is of South Carolina Militia for the American War of Independence. More Perry goodness again. A bit bulkier than the ACW figures, but very nice to paint, the wrinkled shirts lend themselves well to washing and highlighting.

Obviously these are my last entries into the challenge. It’s been a rollercoaster 3 months on the painting table. Highly enjoyable all round, and has in some small way, cleared some old and new unpainted lead out of the cupboard.”

Wonderful final effort Mark! I quite like that Union regiment along with the artillery crew - very fine work. 

These two regiments along with the gun and crew will give Mark 290 points.  Excellent burst to the finish Mark! Also, my deep thanks again for providing prize support for the Challenge - it is very, very much appreciated.

From MilesR: 28mm ACW & WWII British Honey (165 points)

From Miles:

One final ACW themed submission for this year’s challenge. It consists of three parts - a 24 figure Union Infantry regiment, a Union 10 lb Parrot gun, caisson and crew and, lastly, a special “character” themed figure. All of the mini’s are 28mm and are either Perry plastics or metals. Above is a shot of the gun and infantry regiment. A regiment that was submitted earlier can be seen in support. Sadly, I have run out of flags so this unit has no colors to bear - ohhh the shame….

Another shot from the regiments right flank. This unit brings my Union force to a total of 16 infantry regiments, which I think will be enough for the Historicon game. I hope so - because I’m a bit worn out painting ACW figures right now.

A shot from the left flank. You’ll notice that this regiment has two officers - I’m running out of figures to paint. One of the great benefits of the Challenge to the hobby industry is that we all deplete our lead pile stores over the course of three months hectic painting. Like squirrels storing nuts, we will all likely spend the next 9 months replenishing those lead supplies, which will undoubtably create a boom in hobby industry sales.

A close up of the gun and crew. Some of you may notice that I’ve modeled the gun shooting at a distant target since the barrel is at max elevation. As rifled guns had longer ranges they were often employed against distant targets so this type of pose is historically accurate. The fact that I lost the elevation screw part, as it fell under my work bench into the “zone of lost detail parts never to be seen again”, had no bearing on my modeling decisions….

One last shot of the regiment. Once I get another box set, I’ll replace the second officer with a drummer.

My last ACW figure is intend to be used as a hero marker, as per the Longstreet ruleset. I was inspired by a photo, which may or may not have significant historical relevance, that depicted a stalwart and well groomed son of Mississippi defending his beloved state from the depredations of the Yankee aggressors.

Yes this “Confederate Fabio” was an awe inspiring testament to the qualities of the confederate soldier and the benefit of modern hair care science. It took a bit of green stuff to get his tresses coifed but it was worth the effort. I present to you Corporal Curtis Beau Luke Campbell of the 3rd Mississippi regiment, CSA:

“Just a Good ol’boy
Never meanin’ no harm
Beat all you ever saw
Been in trouble with the North
Since the day he was born”

My apologies to Waylon Jennings for paraphrasing his theme song. :)

AND one last submission (I can’t stop!). I was cleaning off my workbench and noticed a lone 28mm British Honey tank from Blitzkrieg Miniatures sitting on the bench - all primed and nowhere to go. A few swipes of the paint brush and then some weathering and it’s done. I had intended for this model to be my first entry in this year’s challenge but never got around to painting it until today. I tired the Vallejo brush on primer for this model and really like the results. Sorry no decals - I’ve run out!

Curt: Thanks for running a fabulous Challenge this year - I have been dually inspired by the quality of submissions from every participant and your tireless efforts to keep the event rolling along. We all now face a bit of withdrawal over the next few weeks but it was a grand ride and I’m very grateful to have been allowed to participate. Well done everyone!

Miles

I'm sure if nothing else Corporal Campbell, like his decedent, will be a legend in his own mind... 

These Union troops, their Parrot rifle and crew and the Honey will give Miles 165 points. 

Fabulous work Miles! These serve as a great final effort to your Challenge and I thank you for joining us once again for the journey. Your unflagging energy and indefatigable sense of humour always serves as a great touchstone to all of us participating in the event. Thank you.

From MilesR: 28mm ACW (yes more) Union Artillery & Infantry (162 points)

Miles makes a liar out of me as he manages to submit even more ACW figures before the Challenge concludes - the madman!

Yes, yet more ACW to submit - a second Union artillery unit and a Limber. These are 28mm Perry plastics from the new artillery box set. I went with a four man crew that there then 6 you get with each gun in the set. I’m going to experiment on the extra two figures to see if I can make Union sailors out of them.

The gun barrel used for this battery is the 10 pdr Parrot Rifle. 

I also built and based the Limber / caisson that come with each gun. This one will be used as an ammo resupply marker for the ruleset Regimental Fire and Fury. The Perry’s recently announced that they will make available metal horses (and even some mules) plus riding crew so one can make fully mounted limbers.

A picture of the Union Parrot Battery to date, the gun with 6 crew figures was completed earlier.

Here is another 24 figure Union Infantry Regiment (18th Indiana). The figures are from the original 28mm Perry ACW plastic set. While the quality of the figures are acceptable when compared to the more recent Perry plastics you can see that both the Perry’s and their injection molder (Renedra) have come a long way in the level of quality. Sorry for the quality of pictures, but my son is home on Easter break and he borrowed it to record some tests for his engineering project this semester.

Painting this unit was a nice break from painting Confederate infantry. Most of my Union force is from a painting service (MMPS). They do a nice job but I do want to have some units painted by me. My gaming table is crowed with figures from the painting challenge - in the photo below you can see the Templar knights from an earlier submission. I need to schedule a game to force me to organize and put the unit up into their respective shelves.

I have a few more painting submissions to send in before the challenge is over - it’s been a very fun ride and thanks to Curt for putting it on!

You're most welcome! 

Excellent work Miles. Its refreshing to see some Union blue in amongst your sea of Confederate grey and butternut. I also really like how you've dressed the tabletop for these photos. Who makes the snake-rail fencing? Renedra?

The 18th Indiana plus the gun, caisson and crew will give Miles 162 points. 

From SebG: 15mm ACW Union Regiment from the Iron Brigade (63 points)

From Seb:

What you have here are 31 US regulars in 15mm from Old Glory. Obviously, the references are from the Iron brigade for a simple reason: Sykes was commanding the regulars at Bull Run, and afterwards, he ordered the men under his command to follow the regulars's regulations.

I have added a few wounded/ dead in action to represent the unit attacking the Rebs, as they did at Bull Run, before covering the rout. The flags have been downloaded and printed. The blue might be too light, but the varnish seems to have "whitened" it a bit.

Now on my way to the last bonus entry.

Another excellent regiment under your belt Seb.  Remind us again, how many units are you aiming for in this project? Your collection is bulking up nicely. Personally I think the flags look very good and accentuates the dynamism of the unit.

This regiment of Yanks will give Seb 63 points. Great job!