Project Collection 2025

I suck at blogging these days. I've been painting a fair amount, just can't seem to post on a regular basis, so here's a photo dump from 2025 so far...

My projects are all over the place! I have more Confederate ACW, more This Quar's War: A Clash of Rhyfles, and four brand new battalion packs of Warfare Miniatures WSS French on my painting table (available as soon as I can paint up units for the shop). I want to add more units to my small Crimean project as well.

I need a clone...

The American Civil War

Despite living in Virginia where you can't throw a rock without hitting an American Civil War battlefield, I've never collected armies for the period in 28mm. Sometime back in the 90's I collected a fair number of pre-painted 15mm ACW models, but sold them when I decided to go all in on Napoleonics (Jeez, it's been a minute since I've painted anything for that period, too). Earlier this year I stumbled on a great eBay deal for a Perry Miniatures Battle in a Box - American Civil War. It was quite by accident, but I remembered the fun of buying those giant Warhammer boxed sets in days of yore - models, terrain, and rules in one package! I dropped the cash, but wondered if I'd even get around to working on the set with everything else on my painting desk.

When the set arrived, it was just much fun as I thought it would be to dump everything out of the box. My wife watched bemusedly as I sorted through all the toys. After a quick glance at the rule booklet that came with the set I happened to remark, "These are designed for children, but will make for a good introduction to the period." My darling bride replied, "That sounds like my speed... maybe I could play."

...

I started building stuff that evening.

Basically there are enough models included in the box to field four units of infantry, one unit of cavalry, and two guns per side. Not world conquering armies, but enough to get started. Of course I immediately discovered I didn't have quite enough models for the way I wanted my units arranged so I promptly order a few more kits.

Given how easy these are to paint, it took far longer than I liked, but I managed to finish my initial goal for the Union infantry!

My wife is originally from New Jersey, so she'll be the Yankees (I got the squint eyes when I told her this, but she hasn't made me sleep on the sofa yet). These are flagged as Pennsylvania troops, but my first expansion will be a New Jersey brigade. I've actually designed things to be pretty generic and could re-flag these units if desired. Stands can even be rearranged to make regiments of different sizes (one of the reasons I've kept the command stands separate).

The cannons are also finished, but not yet based, so I'll take pics of those after I finish the Union general. I'm skipping the cavalry for now. The rules for cavalry in the quickstart rules don't do a great job of representing them. I'll worry about

I can't start a project without considering long term goals. Obviously my first order of business will be to paint the Confederates. After that I want to add two more infantry units to each side and break them into brigades of three. Each side will then get their cavalry, complete with dismounted elements. Limbers for the guns, brigadiers, and a couple of vignettes will round out the armies. After that? We'll see...

More on this project soon!

Bases for the Lads

I've got enough models painted up to start playing around with the basing. These are destined for an as yet unnamed variant of March of Eagles by Barry Hilton (the quick play rules that come with Victrix Napoleonic models or available form their website here). These rules call for basing characters (officers, ensigns, musicians, and sergeants) separately, but the rank and file troops can be based any way desired. My preference these days is for multi-model stands to make mini dioramas. Now all I need to do is decide on the base sizes.

My initial inclination is to place models on the smallest base that will accommodate, in this case 45x50mm. The pros of this size base are that I think the models look really good packed tightly together and these will have the smallest footprint on the table, leaving room for more units. As a drawback, there isn't much room for embellishment on the base...

Creeping up to a 25mm/model frontage for a 50x50mm base gives a little more room to work with without substantially increasing the amount of table space the unit will take up. Additionally, at least for the Rebs, there is room to mix in the occasional five model stand. I've seen units based this way for Fire and Fury, four models per stand for Union and three to five models per stand for Confederate, and the effect the contrast created was really nice (the second pic below illustrates this on a very tiny scale).

Finally (at least for the moment) I could go six models per stand on a 60x60mm base. The extra depth again adds more room to add details on the base and will actually be better if I decide to use any charging models with bayonets lowered. These units would actually have the smallest width at 20mm frontage/model, but this stand is heavy. The rules also focus on Combat Groups of four models for shooting and melee so it is fractionally tougher to figure out how many groups you have at a glance.

Ok, I've got plenty of time before I need to worry about making a choice but if any of you have thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear them!

Rebel Yell

As I've mentioned, I am over Napoleonics for a while. I spent more than a year concentrating on building up my armies without a period shift, which is almost unheard of for me. I'm positive I'll be back to it before long (I have two boxes of Perry Dragoons sitting on my desk), but I wanted to try something completely different.

American Civil War in 40mm. I got a chance to see the great Sash & Saber models at Historicon, but I resisted buying any until Barry Hilton suggested we might put on an ACW for Historicon next year. Now, we haven't even decided for sure to attend, but all it took was the idea (thanks for that). I have piles of books on the ACW, but no figures... until now. I ordered enough models for one regiment of 30 or so. I have only a vague plan of exactly what I want to do so far other than collect a few regiments. I'll go into the details as they develop, but for now I thought I'd share my experiment with gray.

All paints are Foundry except the sparing use of metallics which were GW Shining Gold, primarily for buttons, and GW Bolt Gun Metal for the bayonet, musket bits, belt buckles, etc...). The models were first undercoated with black spray paint. The flesh tones are based with Terracotta 37A, then built up with Flesh 5A-C.

Rebel One
Kepi: Slate 32A-C
Jacket: Slate 32A-C
Trousers: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Blanket: Terracotta 37A-C
Haversack: Boneyard 9A-C
Musket: Bay Brown 42A and 42C (only one highlight)
Musket Sling: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Canteen: Night Sky 62A-C with Bay Brown 42A+42C strap
All black highlighted with Charcoal Black 34B

(Click the photo for a larger image)

Rebel Two
Kepi: Night Sky 62A-C
Jacket: Granite 31A-C
Trousers: Night Sky 62A-C
Blanket: Boneyard 9A-C
Haversack: Rawhide 11A-C
Musket: Bay Brown 42A and 42C (only one highlight)
Musket Sling: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Canteen: Night Sky 62A-C with Spearshaft Brown 13A-C strap
All black highlighted with Charcoal Black 34B

(Click the photo for a larger image)

Rebel Three
Hat: Charcoal Black 34B over undercoat
Jacket: Night Sky 62A-C
Trousers: Slate 32A-C
Backpack: Charcoal Black 34B over undercoat
Haversack: Boneyard 9A-C
Musket: Bay Brown 42A and 42C (only one highlight)
Musket Sling: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Canteen: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C with Black strap
All black highlighted with Charcoal Black 34B

(Click the photo for a larger image)

Rebel Four
Hat: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Jacket: Stone 57A-C
Trousers: Night Sky 62A-C
Blanket: Boneyard 9A-C
Haversack: Arctic White A+B (only one highlight)
Musket: Bay Brown 42A and 42C (only one highlight)
Musket Sling: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Canteen: GW Boltgun Metal with Bay Brown 42A+42C strap
All black highlighted with Charcoal Black 34B

(Click the photo for a larger image)

I don't think there are any 'wrong' choices here. There were four 'official' shades of gray issued from various CSA depots and about a zillion variations based on wear, replacement with local cloth, and captured enemy equipment. Most of the unit will be be painted using one of the schemes above (or a combination thereof), with about one in four sporting one of the alternate colors above. The result will be a very dynamic unit with lots of variety, but it should still look like a unit rather than rabble. Many Confederate units were far more uniform than often depicted on wargame tables.

More on this project as it unfolds. Hopefully this was helpful (I tried to search the net for ACW units painted with Foundry paints to get a head start and found NOTHING). This should serve as an example the type of thing I'm going to try to do in the future so the site is more than just pretty pictures!