15/18mm American Civil War, starting a new period.

So a new period and new project, American Civil War in 15/18mm based to use with the Brigade Fire & Fury (F&F) ruleset. The initial concept was to provide a Union Corps to supplement the existing collections within the club, specifically V Corps of the Army of the Potomac as it was at Gettysburg.

The plan.

With this in mind and armed with a shopping list I acquired some Blue Moon figures from Old Glory UK at The Other Partizan show last autumn, to make a start.

Partizan purchases.

Not long after this another club member, whose union figures I had previously partially re-based for the Antietam game, mentioned he would be happy to sell them on, so I also purchased these. These figures required some re-basing to bring them into line with the rules we use.

A note here, we still use the original F&F base sizes despite the plan to convert to the updated Brigade F&F this year.

I then I received an email from a fellow wargamer in Portugal who I had purchased books and figures from in the past. He sent me a list of other figures he was going to put up for sale and asked if I was interested in any? Low and behold some 15/18mm ACW were on the list so for a very reasonable price these joined the lead pile, which now contained figures by Blue Moon, Old Glory 15s and AB.

The lead pile.

First on my list was completing the re-basing and minor touch ups on the figures I had bought from the other club member. Where needed these were removed from their bases and re-based in groups of four on 1" square bases. I decided to use plywood bases, as these are available thinner (1.5mm) than MDF and after adding the magnetic strip to the underside still don't produce an overly thick look which I dislike.

These and the ones that didn't require new bases then had a uniform re-flock applied and that was them almost done. When it came to flags I initially thought of GMB Designs who I use for my 28mm flags but then decided to try printing my own sourced from War Flag and other sites, and I think at this scale they look acceptable.

The re-based figures plus the first of mine from below.
Command stands still to do.

This left me with a good almost usable force. It needed a couple of more command bases and a supply wagon ideally, so these were first out of the lead pile, my first 15mm figures to be painted from scratch in over twenty years. It also meant I had to try and match the colours with the existing figures which I think I managed OK.

First 15mm figures painted in over twenty years.

With a ACW game planned in at the club just before Christmas and with the club ACW guru unable to attend a few quick pieces were needed for the game. These were some objective markers and after a chat with my Confederate counterpart a few Division commanders for the secessionists.
For the objective markers I started with 40mm round bases added a rough square of high density foam to the centre, covered this with decorating filler then painted them brown and added some small rocks and flock. Some aluminium tube with the end crimped and filed was used for the flag poles and the flags printed out from images sourced online. The poles were then pushed into the foam centre of the bases and there you have it. The poles remain removable to allow transport.

Objective markers, with removable flag poles.

I also repainted three of my "spare" mounted officers to act as enemy division commanders.

Turncoats!

After this game it was back to the original plan. Next up the rest of the artillery and limbers, the AB mounted generals and the first of the infantry. The gun barrels are union 12 lb Napoleons with a flare at the barrel end, which the southern cannon didn't have. Two of these have had this flare removed and painted black will represent 3" ordnance rifled barrels.

Onto the men, given how many I am going to be painting I started to look for short-cuts. My first thought was to use a blue primer which hopefully would do for the jackets and fatigue caps leaving me just the trousers to then paint. I found that Vallejo do a blue surface primer (ultramarine) so tried this. Not a success, it didn't look right to me as a jacket colour. I tried a Nuln Oil wash but this still didn't look right. Next I tried a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade, also by Citadel, again to me this doesn't seem right. I think the shade of blue of the primer is just wrong. So it looks like I'm back to painting the jackets and trousers over a primer, whether this is the ultramarine or I revert to grey is yet to be seen.

The current work tray.

So that's pretty much where I'm currently at, best I crack on.

Tony.