Weekend's Results

I've had a quite productive weekend painting-wise, and thought I'd pass on the results:

 

First up, the newly-sprayed ACW figures are now ready for painting, and a start has been made.  I've done the first four bases if infantry (or, to think more encouragingly of it, around 8,000 men) full to completed painting and Devlan Mud coated on.  I also tested out two shades of green for two of the bases, as I intend to grass them and wasn't sure what it was worth doing as a 'base' colour.

Also, I have completed one General figure, plus I have managed to paint all the gun carriages on the army's cannon.  Tedious stuff to paint a cannon, what with all the gaps between the wheel spokes and so on - so it's nice to know it's gone for good!

In addition to this, I also managed to do a bit of re-basing!

 Here is the old 6mm army of Baccus Wars of the Roses figures which I found idling in the loft, and have now rebased on 40mm x 20mm 'traditional' sized DBA bases, with much prising off of models and swearing.  Above is an English 100-Years' War army while below is a Medieval French army.  More to follow, hopefully - plus a bit of tabletop gaming!

Basing the ACW Armies

I thought I'd get a few pictures up to show off the results of the weekend's work, but sadly the camera dies on me!  Here are the pictures I was able to get from my blackberry - not great, but they do the job...  :-(

 Poorly lit, I'll grant you, but this shows the results of all the basing work - the Infantry and artillery for the ANV are now completed!  I followed advice from online forums and wshed all the plastic sprues in soapy water, to remove any residual coatings from manufacture.  That done, I started cutting them all free and glued them to the MDF bases (I tend to use PVA normally, but I was careful to use a knife to score the underside of the figures' bases and increase 'grip' between the two surfaces, which are otherwise a bit too smooth.)

 Here's what I didn't manage to show before - the Newline Designs 20mm lead figures!  I've followed my usual system of basing the corps commanders on a 2p coin (which the 20mm figures just about fit) while I used a spare 60mm x 60mm MDF base for the army HQ.

Interesting point - these two figures show a 20mm lead model and a 1/72 plastic model horseman (the plastic officer comes from the Italeri Union Artillery set.)  The heights are virtually identical, and they make a good match.  If anything, the lead figure tends to be slightly bulkier, so the online advice was right: 1/72 plastics should not be paired up with 25mm figures, as those are too big.  20mm seems to work just fine, and will pass all but the closest scrutiny.

Plastic ACW Arrivals

The boxes have arrived!  Well, they actually arrived about a week ago, but I was compelled to go on a short-notice business trip, so this is the first chance I've had to post anything on them.

The figures themselves filled a nice wee box as shown above, which arrived in good order.  They are all Italeri figures, and as a point of curiosity the Infantry & Artillery sets have 'Wargames Approved' on them in a sort of imitation stamp or brand - not the Cavalry though, which are apparently 'unapproved' by them for some baffling reason!

 The infantry seem a good mix, and generally have the varying hats and coats you'd expect of Southern troops.  They are good quality with lots of detail, but have the variety of poses to suggest a semi-official rabble when based up.

The artillery are also well-realised, except that if you want to put together the limber teams you have horses which are my pet hate: cast separately from the base!  A horse and rider is fiddly enough, let alone a team of baseless ones...

It seems that there is no Confederate cavalry set easily available, but these should do (blue plastic notwithstanding for the moment.)  They're all a bit smart and neat at present, but thankfully the Infantry box sets feature a mounted officer, so I should be able to convert a little bit on their bases.

 Speaking of bases, here's the rather nice 2mm MDF bases which have also arrived.  I've laid them out in the number needed for the NVA.  Each division should be 3, 4 or 5 bases/brigades, while each corps gets 2 Artillery bases to represent its' collective artillery, and the army also gets a half-dozen bases of Cavalry for scouting and raiding.

Next step is the preparation for painting.